CONCORD, N.C. ALT Sports Data Inc., the San Diego-based leader in trading and consumer data for action, motor, alternative, and emerging sports, and World Racing Group announced a landmark partnership on Wednesday.

This collaboration will enable regulated sports betting on premier dirt track racing properties, including the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series, the World of Outlaws Late Model Series, the American Sprint Car Series, and the Super DIRTcar Series.

Through this partnership, ALT Sports Data will leverage official data feeds to deliver pre-race and live betting products to sportsbooks worldwide. ALT Sports Data will utilize the World of Outlaws official data to offer up-to-the-minute odds and an array of traditional wagers and prop bets, designed to enhance fan engagement and expand the global reach of dirt track racing.

READ: Is It Time To Bet On The Outlaws?

This partnership represents a significant step forward in our mission to redefine fan engagement in some of the worlds most iconic and exciting sports, said Todd Ballard, Co-Founder and CMO of ALT Sports Data. World Racing Groups dirt track properties are iconic within the motorsports community, and we are excited to bring innovative betting markets to their passionate fan base. By integrating sports betting, we aim to create deeper connections, attract new audiences, and drive the continued growth of these series.

World Racing Group (WRG) is the preeminent sanctioning body in dirt track racing, overseeing some of the most iconic events in the sport. The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series and the World of Outlaws Late Model Series represent the pinnacle of grassroots racing, showcasing elite drivers and thrilling action at tracks across North America. The Super DIRTcar Series further solidifies WRGs commitment to dirt track excellence, bringing together the top drivers in Big Block Modified racing. Together, these properties attract millions of fans annually, creating an electrifying motorsports experience.

Our goal is to continue to move the needle by providing our fans more ways to be part of our events, World Racing Group Chief Media & Marketing Officer Charlie Mellilo said. Working with ALT Sports Data, we are providing fans another way to be involved. The excitement at the track is incredible, and this provides a way for fans at the track and at home to be even more engaged. It is all about expanding our relationship with the race fan, and the team at ALT Sports Data have proven they can help us do exactly that.

This partnership underscores the growing intersection between motorsports and sports betting, as dirt track racing continues to captivate new audiences. By integrating betting into the fan experience, ALT Sports Data and World Racing Group aim to elevate the profile of these series and foster deeper connections between fans and the sport.

Betting will be available in jurisdictions where approved starting with the first night of World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car action at Volusia Speedway Parks Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals on Wednesday, Feb. 5.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. As his second NASCAR Cup Series season kicks off this weekend at Bowman Gray Stadium, Josh Berry finds himself in a new situation.

The former NASCAR Weekly Series national champion, who drove for Stewart-Haas Racing last season, moves to Wood Brothers Racing after SHR closed at the end of last year.

Berry is thankful to be where he is, driving for a team celebrating its 75th anniversary in NASCAR racing. The Wood Brothers operation also has an alliance with Team Penske, which fields cars for Cup Series champions Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney, along with a third effort for Austin Cindric.

Im obviously extremely thankful for that. Last year was a challenge, I think, from start to finish with everything going on, Berry said. A lot of emotions over the course of the year and different stages of that, but, all in all, Im proud that I did a good enough job to find myself in this opportunity and to go race for the Wood Brothers with the history theyve had and the tradition, and obviously the alliance with Team Penske. I feel like this is a great opportunity for me.

Theyre a family run organization, Berry continued. I think its a great fit for me and just the path that Ive taken here through the grassroots level and the things that have had to happen to get me here, I feel like Im in a great place and Ive really enjoyed working with them and getting to know everybody there, and fitting into the structure of everything that is the Wood Brothers and Team Penske and being able to rely on a couple Cup champions as teammates is going to be a big help for me as well.

Berry, who spent many years driving for Dale Earnhardt Jr.s late model team, understands the history of the Wood Brothers.

I drove for a lot of great people and to add the Wood Brothers to the list is really special, Berry said. When you look at my career path at Junior Motorsports and then Stewart-Haas, but Ive spent some time filling roles here and there at Hendrick and its really cool the list of guys and teams that Ive gotten to drive for.

Its just a really big honor to get to do this and embark on their 75th season all with Ford Motor Co., and the success theyve had. We want to add to that tradition. Thats the goal. Thats why Im here. We want to come out and we want to run well and hopefully add to the list of 100 wins.

Berry said hes already seen the benefits of the alliance with Team Penske and believes his No. 21 Ford team led by Miles Stanley will benefit from that relationship.

The expectation is to run like their other three race cars and thats the fact of the matter, he said. Im ready to take on that and I think we all are Miles is and everybody on the 21 team is ready to get back up there and run up front and compete for wins and thats what were here to do.

Despite his history as a short-track racer, Berry has never raced at the quarter-mile Bowman Gray Stadium. He expects Sundays Clash to be a chaotic race.

Its gonna be tight quarters racing. The track is narrow. Its shorter than a lot of the race tracks that we go to with the Cup cars, Berry explained. The biggest thing, like anywhere, is youve got to be fast. Thats the biggest thing. You need to have good track position. You need to qualify well and have a good heat race, that way you can get up front.

The race is gonna be chaotic in the middle of the field without a doubt, Berry noted. The best way to avoid that is to be fast enough to stay out of it, and I feel like this is gonna remind me a lot of the Valleystar 300 at Martinsville. There was a lot of those races where we would go and there would be eight-some-odd cars and heat races and thats one of the toughest short track races to win.

I think this kind of format reminds me a little bit of that. I guess with it being closer to home and a more traditional short track, it kind of reminds me of that and the biggest thing that we can do is just go out there and be fast and try to stay in front of the trouble and execute the best race we can. Although it might look different, thats what a lot of these races are and a lot of short track races are across the country.

Editors Note: In a nod to our 90 years of history, each week SPEED SPORT will look back at the top stories from 15, 30 and 60 years ago as told in the pages of National Speed Sport News.

15 Years Ago 2010

News: NASCAR teams will find a little bit less at the pay window this season.

In a move to help out race tracks that have rolled back ticket prices and endured empty seats during the current economic downturn, NASCAR is cutting purses for its NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck series by 10 percent.

The move will benefit the tracks, many of which are owned by NASCARs sister company, International Speedway Corp., in that the speedways are responsible for paying the purses and the sanctioning fees for each event.

Last year we launched an industry-wide effort to help the sport manage budgets in this economy, said NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston in a statement. NASCAR did the right thing to work with the tracks to reduce their costs in order to manage the economic realities.

In return, the tracks have done a great job reducing ticket prices and enhancing the fan experience. Likewise, we worked with the teams to contain costs, such as elimination of testing and other steps.

This is consistent with how virtually every sport and business has adjusted to the economy over the past year.

Team officials have been calm in reacting to the move, with most offering no comment at all.

We cannot and do not expect that purses will increase when the tracks have less revenue to work with, Roush Fenway Racing President Geoff Smith told the Charlotte Observer. Prize money is shared at RFR among the team, drivers and employees, so we will all have to tighten our belts a little more again this year and hope we can still keep our pants up.

We look forward with optimism that we will be able to share fully in the upside of the industrys revenue growth as the economy recovers.

However, the purse drop will not be as dramatic as it may have been thanks to an overall increase in television revenues for this season.

Ninety percent of television money for each race goes to the tracks, with NASCAR keeping 10 percent from that, tracks must put 25 percent back into the purses.

ISC officials reported Thursday they expect the overall TV money to increase by 2.5 percent and that will offset some of the overall 10 percent reduction in purses.

Winners: The 48th annual Rolex 24 At Daytona will go down in the books as a race won by what amounted to a mechanical version of a nobody fielded by a nobody underdog team that had been given little chance of success by the experts.

Yet the triumph posted Sunday at Daytona Intl Speedway by the Action Express Racing Porsche Riley should not have been a surprise.

While the teams name may have been new, as was its owner; former Brumos Racing affiliate Bob Johnson, both Johnson and the team have their roots firmly planted in the soil of the Brumos Porsche camp, the winners here in 2009.

Drivers Joao Barbosa, Terry Borcheller, Mike Rockenfeller and Ryan Dalziel celebrated victory in the 48th annual endurance classic with other former members of the Brumos team now working on the No. 9 Porsche Riley.

This is amazing. I cant even begin to describe it. Twenty-four hours is a long time, but the last 15 minutes couldnt be longer. We have a great team and they work through problems with expertise, said Johnson with less than a quarter-hour remaining in the 24-hour grind.

It was the first time a Porsche-powered machine won in back-to-back seasons since 1986 and 1987. Brumos Racing claimed the Daytona victory in 2009.

The Action Express Racing entry was not just any Porsche Riley, but one carrying the latest edition of the Lozano brothers-developed Porsche Cayenne V-8, mated last fall for the first time to the well-proven Riley chassis.

The conversion of the V-8 from an SUV to a race-track winner was begun several years as a private venture much to the distress of the Porsche factory, which disassociated itself from the project.

In the end, things went perfectly for the winners, the car emerging from the grind dirty and stone dinged, but otherwise unscratched. The team. With Barbosa taking the checkered flag, completed the most laps (755) during the Daytona Prototype era.

Winning overall is a great compliment to the whole crew. They did an amazing job. They never quit. We didnt have the fastest car when we arrived here. but they turned it around and it was very consistent, said Barbosa, who had previously posted a class victory at Daytona.

With 53 lead changes and a multitude of yellow flags in a race that started in a downpour. the journey for the Action Express camp was anything but easy.

30 Years Ago 1995

News: Dick Simon was not a happy camper when he read claims furnished the press by former driver Raul Boesel in the Feb. 1 issue of National Speed Sport News concerning a lawsuit against Simon for prize money Boesel claims the team owner allegedly owes him.

Simon would not comment on the specifics of the claims made by Boesel and manager Tony Pirrone, but did confirm his own suit against Boesel, Pirrone and sponsor Duracell.

Dick Simon Racing, Inc. regrets that it was necessary to bring a lawsuit against Duracell, Raul Boesel, Anthony Pirrone and AJP Marketing, Inc., a statement from Simon read. Simon Racing would have preferred a negotiated resolution of any dispute, and tried for months to reach a compromise. Dick Simon Racing has seen the press release issued by Raul Boesel about the litigation, but will make no comment on it. Dick Simon Racing believes that it is inappropriate to argue the facts and legal issues in the media, but will pursue its claims vigorously through the courts.

Simon is suing the aforementioned parties for breach of contract after Boesel and Duracell left his team in the off-season for Rabal-Hogan Racing. Calls to Duracell President Charlie Keirnan have not been returned. 

Winners: As predicted, the 1995 Rolex-backed Daytona 24-Hour IMSA Exxon season opener turned out to be a battle between the tortoises and the hares. In the end, as they did in the fairy tale, the tortoises won this countrys longest race.

Heading the field at the 3 p.m. checkered flag was the Le Mans category World Sports Car Porsche 962-based Kremer K-8 spyder of Jurgen Lassig, Giovanni Lavaggi, young Christophe Bouchut and Marco Werner.

They were the tortoises. The hares, better known as the Ferrari 333SP contingent, were for the most part, back in their garages at the finish, their high-revving engines having gone on an early vacation just after dawn Sunday.

Indeed, only one of the original four Ferraris, the Euromotorsports Racing entry of Massimo Sigala, Fabrizio Barbazza and Francois Migault was running at the finish, mired down in eighth place after numerous mechanical problems. (The trio did salvage something in that they were credited with second place in the Exxon-backed IMSA WSC division.)

Surprisingly, second place did go to one of the supposedly delicate homegrown IMSA open top prototypes, but only after a struggle with another, even more surprising entry. Claiming the runner-up spot was the Brix teams Motorola Oldsmobile-powered Spice of Jeremy Dale, Jay Cochran, Federick Ekblom and Bob Schader, which finished five laps, 2 minutes and 55.540 seconds in arrears. 

60 Years Ago 1965

News: ltalian automaker Enzo Ferrari announced last week through his competitions manager that his cars and those or his dealers would boycott the Sebring, Fla., endurance race on March 27.

Eugenio Dragoni, competitions manager for Ferrari, said in Milan that factory cars would not be entered in the race, nor would those belonging to the North American Racing Team of New York and Maranello Concessionaires of London.

Dragoni cited as their reason, the changing of the racing rules to allow sports cars in the event rather than keeping it a race for Grand Touring and Prototypes as it has been in recent years.

The bright red cars of Fenari have won the 12-hour Sebring grind seven times since the race started in 1950, more than any other make.

Fred Kingsbury, Sebring publicist, announced Friday that there would be Ferrari representation in the race, but by private owners. He cited the 330P four-liter prototype entered by Pittsburghs Bill McKelvy for Bob Grossman to drive and the 275LM proto of John Mecom, which Walt Hansgen is expected to handle.

Alec Ulmann, promoter of the Sebring race. said, when apprised of the boycott, obviously threatened by serious American participation, which now includes not only Ford but some specials using General Motors engines and possibly the powerful Chrysler hemi-head powerplant, the great Commendatore, after his seven fat years, is now reluctant to meet some of this equipment, contending that the regulations do not permit the mixing of sports-racing cars with FIA Appendix GT prototype and production cars in prototype championship events in which Sebring is the highest rated in this country with a coefficient of 1.6.

Winners: Les Scott and Bobby Grim were the big guns in the final indoor USAC midget races at the Allen County Coliseum,

Scott, veteran midget chauffeur from Livonia, Mich., took the lead of the -100-lap feature on the ninth lap and was never headed as he captured the big money over a 10-car field.

Driving the Logan Spl., Scott started alongside Ray Elliott, 1964 UARA midget Champion, in the front row and during the close battle that followed Scott staved off several threats including a last 10-lap duel with Bob Mclean in the Rahn Offy. 

Lap-after-lap Mclean tried the leader but Scott pinched his car to the inside and that ended the only chance for Mclean as passing outside wasnt the answer.

Mclean was second and EIliott, after having led with his Cooper Falcon at the start and running second until lap 90, finished a very creditable third.

Grim, who led the 27-car field in the three laps against the clocks in qualifications with a terrific 8.86-second lap, placed fourth from last starting spot in the field. Chuck Rodee placed fifth after losing a right-rear tread as did Grim who managed to pass Rodee on the 92nd lap.

CONCORD, N.C. Theres one thing on Carson Macedos mind entering 2025 a World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car championship.

The Lemoore, Calif. native is officially set for his seventh full-time campaign with The Greatest Show on Dirt and fifth since joining forces with Jason Johnson Racing. Macedo and JJR finished third in points each season from 2021 to 2023. They rose to second in 2024. Now, theres only one more spot to climb.

I think its very important to all of our sponsors and partners. Its very important to myself, JJR, Philip (Dietz), Macedo said. I think we all share that same common goal of trying to win a World of Outlaws championship. When youre a kid and youre growing up running Micros and stuff like that, you just never think that its even possible to be out on the World of Outlaws tour let alone battling for a championship. I pinch myself every day to be in the position Im in to be with such a great team with sponsors and partners and people inside the team that really care about you.

The 2024 season produced the best year of Macedos career. The 28-year-old tallied career highs in wins (12), podiums (34), top fives (47), and average finish (5.06). He shined under the bright lights more than once, banking his second National Open for $75,000 at Williams Grove Speedway along with an $83,000 Dennis Roth Classic score in his home state at Thunderbowl Raceway.

Im confident with the way we ended 2024, Macedo said. The second half of the year was by far better than our first half. It gives me a little bit of hope going into 2025 that we can continue that form.

The last several years racing for the Ragin Cajuns team has allowed Macedo to climb up the World of Outlaws record books. Macedos 47 victories rank 18th all-time as he approaches the 50-win club. For a kid that grew up hardly thinking one was possible, its a dream come true to be competing at such a high level and establishing his name among the greats.

Seeing that my name is getting closer and closer to the top is pretty cool, Macedo said. I remember my first win that I got there at Chico (Silver Dollar Speedway) that I got on a prelim night to Gold Cup. I won that race and looking at the World of Outlaws win list one of my heroes out in California at the time was Tim Kaeding. I think he had like 20-something wins, and I remember thinking that would never be possible to win that many races. To look back now and be close to 50 is awesome, and hopefully with the help of JJR and being in such a good position, I can continue to add to it here in the future.

The focus for Macedo and the No. 41 crew is now entirely fixed on a World of Outlaws title. Its what Macedo dreamed of growing up. Its the main goal Jason Johnson had in mind when he established his organization.

The team will have chemistry on their side entering 2025. Two key contributors departed at the end of 2023, leading to Adam Zimmerman and Robby McQuinn filling the vacancies last year. Those two return alongside team leader and crew chief Philip Dietz ready to chase a championship.

But they know it wont be easy. Last year David Gravel finally made his way to the mountaintop after finishing second three times and is in no hurry to relinquish the top spot. Macedo and his crew are gearing up for what promises to be a thrilling battle all season long.

I think its just gotten to a completely different level, Macedo said of the competition to win a title. Theres a part of me in my head that thought if I could run in the top five more than anyone else and have no DNFs, it would be pretty tough to beat somebody like that with those kind of statistics for the championship. But we did that and still didnt win it. Youve got to be in the top five, and if youre not in the top five, you better be in the top 10 and knocking down wins as well.

You cant have DNFs which is tough to do. Push it but not push too hard is a fine balance.