BRANDON, S.D. — Huset's Speedway hosted its first Silver Dollar Nationals last season, but the event's 2024 version at the third-mile oval gave Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series director Rick Schwallie his first true look at how the three-day event can be improved.

While running the megashow at a well-known sprint car track a good three hours north of its original home at the now-closed I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Neb., presents inherent challenges with car count, surface preparation and selling the transplanted event to the Dirt Late Model world, a clean weekend provided Schwallie the type of data he needs to gauge the future.

“I think our experience improved each night as we went on,” Schwallie said. “Last year, you couldn’t take away anything. We had rainy weather — rain on that Thursday (opener), Friday got rained out so we had to run that in the daytime on Saturday, then we had rain before Saturday’s start of the race. So we really didn’t have any sort of baseline.

“The first year we were up here (for a single-day event in 2022) we had a really good race, a really good night, and everybody was really excited about racing here.”

Because 2023’s prelim nights were altered by rainy conditions, last Thursday and Friday were the first 40-lap Lucas Oil Series prelims of the Silver Dollar Nationals undertaken by the Huset’s track prep team without being hampered by outside factors. The weekend started Thursday with Bobby Pierce’s comments that “when (the track) is like that,” it’s a “top-five” most challenging racetrack in the country.

Though Jonathan Davenport lauded the facility, saying, ‘This place is beautiful,” he noted Thursday’s 40-lap feature was “kind of like rubber racing, but not,” because “we’re basically a train around the cushion.”

In hindsight reflecting upon the three-day event late Saturday night, Schwallie remarked that “the top (was) probably a little too fast” on Thursday where “small critiques from that night would be farming it a little bit off of the corners, down the straightaways, so the bottom could keep up and have traction off the corners.

“It wasn’t necessarily that the track had to be wider in the corners as much as corner exit and somewhat on corner entry,” Schwallie added.

Friday showed improvements from Thursday, as Devin Moran ran down Pierce, the eventual winner, and the way the racetrack evolved over 40 laps boded well for Saturday’s 80-lap main event.

“It wasn’t bad either, but it wasn’t as racy as we’d like to see it,” Schwallie said. “(Saturday), the racetrack and personnel here, they went around and talked to all the drivers. I introduced them to all the guys in the pits before the autograph session. They took that and applied it. Made it a little drier to begin with and I thought it raced really good tonight.”

Feedback from drivers had been to do something with the third-mile’s pointy berm that encircled the innermost part of the racetrack. Schwallie said the Huset’s Speedway team worked late Friday to shave off the berm’s edginess with the Bobcat, allowing for drivers to glide their front-ends across it through the corners rather than tip-toe around it to avoid losing control.

Pierce kept pace with Moran, the eventual $53,000 winner, most of the 80-lap feature by utilizing the inside berm.

“You could kind of get up there, but you’re rocked over, sometimes the motor doesn’t want to run crisp because you’re literally on your side with how you hit the ruts,” Pierce said. “How you hit the ruts and everything determines your corner exit. Sometimes the car bounces a certain direction. Sometimes it doesn’t and you hang there.

“Pretty tricky racetrack like it was all weekend. But they definitely nailed it there.”

Schwallie was also pleased to see the racetrack’s pace slow down by “a second-and-a-half” to allow for better racing.

“When you slow it down like that, that’s when you can maneuver and race,” Schwallie said.

Moran and Pierce, the night’s 1-2 finishers, supported Schwallie’s assessments.

“There was never really a dull moment there for the top-three cars,” Pierce said. “It was good to see a big crowd tonight. They needed that. With the three-year contract, maybe they throw in more cash to get some more cars up here.”

An ecstatic Moran added after the richest victory to date of his career: “This is a badass race to win. Huset’s is an amazing facility and I think they’re just going to keep working on this racetrack for us. It’s way better this year than it was last year and I’m sure it’s going to be even better next year.

“I have to give Huset’s Speedway a huge shoutout for bringing us up and risking bringing Late Models in here (to sprint car country). It’s a really good show.”

Another topic from the weekend had been the low car count of 26 drivers. Renner, S.D.’s Blair Nothdurft, who lives 10 miles from the state-of-the-art Huset’s facility, knows the greater Sioux Falls area better than any competitor from the Silver Dollar Nationals weekend.

“I was just hoping for a full field. We’re just not in Late Model world,” Nothdurft said. “We’re six or seven hours from the next weekly Late Model track in Davenport. Maybe the Illinois border? You do have your Nebraska series, but that’s a touring series. Your closest weekly area would be the Illinois border. We’re just not in Late Model world up here. It’s sprint car world.”

But “besides the car count, it’s a good pretty good event” at the third-mile oval, Nothdurft added.

“Late Models aren’t as big as you think around here. But more people are getting to know (Late Models), getting adjusted to it,” Nothdurft said. “Last year to this year, there’s way more campers on the grounds. That’s a plus. There are more people in the grandstands this year.”

Schwallie also took note of the increased fan support and camper attendance, saying, “Huset’s is happy with the camper turnout” and “happy with the crowd.” 

“Obviously we’d like to see the car counts improve a little bit, but we’ll work on that,” Schwallie said. “This isn’t any different than the challenges the early Silver Dollar Nationals had at (now-closed) I-80. It ain’t any different than the challenges Cedar Lake had over the years" for the lucrative USA Nationals at the New Richmond, Wis., track.

The Huset's car counts of 33 last season and 26 this year mark are the two lowest in Silver Dollar Nationals history with I-80 Speedway's low car count of 44 cars in 2021, the season the track offered Dirt Late Model racing's highest-ever start money at $5,300 for last place in the feature. I-80 drew 45 cars the first time Lucas Oil sanctioned the event in 2012 and drew an event-high 60 cars in 2015.

Cedar Lake car counts (and sanctions) have varied since the USA Nationals was founded in 1988 but has twice drawn an event-low 41 cars (2001 and '17).

Schwallie said he and the Huset’s promotional team are already discussing how they could collectively improve the car count for next year’s Silver Dollar Nationals, which will be on the third year of the initial three-year contract at Huset’s.

Among those changes could be implementing a fundraiser inspired by Cedar Lake’s Fans Fund for the annual USA Nationals in New Richmond, Wis., this year scheduled for Aug. 1-3 under World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series sanction. The Fans Fund selects non-WoO drivers via fan vote to earn a financial bonus to offset with travel costs. Essentially, it’s an incentive to lure more drivers to Cedar Lake’s marquee Late Model event.

“Look at what Cedar Lake does with their Fans Fund. That’s always been a way to increase car counts and attract more guys,” Schwallie said. “It justifies the long-tow expense. These guys are willing to do some of that stuff and get it to where we want it to get to. This race will be here next year just the same.”

Schwallie also added: “I don’t know that we would, but we could make an adjustment with the class.”

Late Models — many without the open-competition engines used by Lucas Oil competitors — from the Repairable Vehicles.com Tri-State Series and Malvern Bank West Series ran on the undercard with Lucas Oil Series during the three-day weekend.

“There’s several cars that were racing with the Tri-State Late Models that have World of Outlaws tech stickers,” he said. “A lot of those guys obviously competed with them when they were in the area. … But I don’t know that’s the best route. They had a good show. They had a good weekend, too. The cars we did have here were really good, quality cars. We’ll figure it out.”

Overall, Schwallie thinks of Huset’s as “a top-five racetrack in the country as far as facility goes,” and he’s going to do whatever it takes to improve the 15th annual Silver Dollar Nationals all the more.

“I think there’s a ton of potential with the size of this venue. … These guys have the know-how to make it bigger and better,” Schwallie said. “We’ll be right there with them and trying to help them do that. It will get better.”