Chili
Nitro Member
At this point we don’t really know the whole story of what’s going on or why he is pulling the plug. Daryl has money but he is also a businessman. I don’t know him but I don’t think he is an idiot. There is a million questions that we don’t know the answer.
Is it just the drag racing series that is going away or is it all of the IHRA brand?
Is Maple Grove still happening? The reports are the Outlaw Series races but no mention of Triple Crown
Rumors of racers not getting paid. Is it just a handful or a bunch? PM racer Todd Fullone is the only one I have seen said he hasn’t gotten paid. Could just be a minor glitch.
Is he just pissed that the big name NHRA stars didn’t come race with him and his big payouts?
To me, the IHRA was always the USFL to the NHRA’s NFL. Daryl comes in waving big money around trying lure the stars or NHRA over. A certain owner of the New Jersey Generals tried to do that in the USFL which is why they went bankrupt in year three. I loved the USFL. More affordable, smaller crowds, and decent product with decent players just like IHRA had.
I was never a fan of Daryl. I always got the impression that he was trying to destroy the other racing organizations. He put a lot of pressure on the PDRA and Tommy Franklin. Tommy sold him VMP under the agreement that IHRA would not have Pro Nitrous as a class. It was in 2025 but gone in 2026 because of that reason. PDRA can’t pay what IHRA was paying. Same rules, 1/8 mile running in the same geographical region. His next target was NHRA. Dropping the bomb at the end of SEMA that he was purchasing MG leaving NHRA scrambling. Easy to put out an offer that they can rent the track and make NHRA look bad when they declined. Like that was ever going to happen. Then he announces the Triple Crown. Then they schedule each race real close to the NHRA race in the area trying to lure the names over to his organization. I’m sorry but you can’t claim you’re doing it all for the racers when you’re trying to destroy the other organizations.
This has almost created a divide between the fans of the sport on the internet. The NHRA fans hate the IHRA because they are stealing the low buck racers away from NHRA giving them short fields. People were IHRA backers just because they hate the NHRA. All we heard was they had free ice, free meal, $40 tickets and all the money they paid out to the racers.
I enjoyed watching the IHRA because it gave us more racing. Instead of only 20 national events this year we would be getting 33! The IHRA supporters had rose colored glasses on. They have a zillion dollars, there was tons of people there even though they weren’t in the stands. They liked 1/8th mile racing. They could not look at the business model and see a negative. I could look at every single IHRA event and tell you they lost over a million dollars at each event and that is a drastic understatement. With all of the IHRA racing leagues and payroll they were probably losing hundreds of thousands a day. There was no income to support the payroll let alone the prize money. It was compared to the IHRA Evan Knoll era and while it was on the up and up it ended the same.
It’s sad to see IHRA go down like this. Sad for the employees, the racers and the tracks.
Is it just the drag racing series that is going away or is it all of the IHRA brand?
Is Maple Grove still happening? The reports are the Outlaw Series races but no mention of Triple Crown
Rumors of racers not getting paid. Is it just a handful or a bunch? PM racer Todd Fullone is the only one I have seen said he hasn’t gotten paid. Could just be a minor glitch.
Is he just pissed that the big name NHRA stars didn’t come race with him and his big payouts?
To me, the IHRA was always the USFL to the NHRA’s NFL. Daryl comes in waving big money around trying lure the stars or NHRA over. A certain owner of the New Jersey Generals tried to do that in the USFL which is why they went bankrupt in year three. I loved the USFL. More affordable, smaller crowds, and decent product with decent players just like IHRA had.
I was never a fan of Daryl. I always got the impression that he was trying to destroy the other racing organizations. He put a lot of pressure on the PDRA and Tommy Franklin. Tommy sold him VMP under the agreement that IHRA would not have Pro Nitrous as a class. It was in 2025 but gone in 2026 because of that reason. PDRA can’t pay what IHRA was paying. Same rules, 1/8 mile running in the same geographical region. His next target was NHRA. Dropping the bomb at the end of SEMA that he was purchasing MG leaving NHRA scrambling. Easy to put out an offer that they can rent the track and make NHRA look bad when they declined. Like that was ever going to happen. Then he announces the Triple Crown. Then they schedule each race real close to the NHRA race in the area trying to lure the names over to his organization. I’m sorry but you can’t claim you’re doing it all for the racers when you’re trying to destroy the other organizations.
This has almost created a divide between the fans of the sport on the internet. The NHRA fans hate the IHRA because they are stealing the low buck racers away from NHRA giving them short fields. People were IHRA backers just because they hate the NHRA. All we heard was they had free ice, free meal, $40 tickets and all the money they paid out to the racers.
I enjoyed watching the IHRA because it gave us more racing. Instead of only 20 national events this year we would be getting 33! The IHRA supporters had rose colored glasses on. They have a zillion dollars, there was tons of people there even though they weren’t in the stands. They liked 1/8th mile racing. They could not look at the business model and see a negative. I could look at every single IHRA event and tell you they lost over a million dollars at each event and that is a drastic understatement. With all of the IHRA racing leagues and payroll they were probably losing hundreds of thousands a day. There was no income to support the payroll let alone the prize money. It was compared to the IHRA Evan Knoll era and while it was on the up and up it ended the same.
It’s sad to see IHRA go down like this. Sad for the employees, the racers and the tracks.
