Lets talk about the ill fated NDRL

[Cleetus Motorsports]

With no racing going on, I thought it would be fun to go back and revisit some of the more interesting events in the last 10 years. I remember the NDRL which was founded by John Kennedy burst onto the scene in 2013 with a handful of good paying shows. They had some great drivers following them too, Bloomer, Moyer, Mars, amongst others. I remember the NDRL sanctioned the Pittsburgher that year and the race was awesome. The stands were full, the pits were full and it seemed like a Pittsburgher from years past before it had gone downhill.I remember thinking at the time that even with WoO and Lucas, NDRL could carve out a place for itself in the late model world. Then to the surprise of many, for 2014 they decided to schedule I believe it was close to 30 races. They also scheduled against some big WoO and Lucas shows. I remember thinking to myself they are making a big mistake. They tried to go from a handful of shows in 2013 to a full blown touring schedule in 2014. If I remember correctly, in 2014 they only ran a few races before they started canceling events down the road. The writing was pretty much on the wall at that point. As a sidenote, does anyone know when the very last NDRL race was run? Did Kennedy run out of money and that basically lead to them going belly up? I remember at the time the word on the street was he had lost money at every event he held in 2013. Do you think they could have stayed around if they had just stuck to 5-6 good paying races a year?

[Josh Bayko]

Kennedy ran out of money, and the NDRL model proved to be unsustainable anyways.

[GEAR_HEAD]

Having a show at Roaring Knob wasn't a great idea. The capacity is limited, it's not in a great location, and Rick Jones had already tarnished its reputation by then. But it was the best field of cars RK will ever see.

Feger winning the preliminary night of the Pittsburgher was one of the biggest upsets ever. He was still running consistently well at that time, but PPMS was not the type of track that was in his wheelhouse. Very few drivers win their inaugural PPMS visit, but Feger manged to do it. Some very talented drivers have been there numerous times and they still can't run well there.

The website is still up. https://thendrl.com

[zyoung25]

It would be interesting to hear Johns story from him. Let's get him on the Rigsby report. I think he tried to go too big too quick.

[flagone]

2014 was the year of the schedule. It was 28 races not counting the AZ/TX January shows and none were against Lucas. The last race run was at Magnolia Speedway. Don O'Neal won. We went to Atomic but got rained out. I got a call while on Spring Break trip that he was shutting down. I was and still is heartbreaking to this day.

[Cleetus Motorsports]

2014 was the year of the schedule. It was 28 races not counting the AZ/TX January shows and none were against Lucas. The last race run was at Magnolia Speedway. Don O'Neal won. We went to Atomic but got rained out. I got a call while on Spring Break trip that he was shutting down. I was and still is heartbreaking to this day.

Sorry for the false information about scheduling against Lucas, I know they had some race scheduled against the Firecracker. Kelley do you think in your opinion that NDRL tried to go too big to fast? Seems like it would be hard to go from 6 races or whatever to a full blown touring series.

[thexfactor0210]

I would think the initial 6 races had to be successful for them to want to jump into a full tour the following year. I sure know the racers loved the beefed up purses and it seems they had strong fields. Its a shame it did not last. I truly believe that would have been an amazing tour if they stuck to the $20k one day shows.

[dirt junkie]

I went to the Paducah race in the spring of 2013. Josh Richards won against a stacked field. I remember the stands being packed and thinking with this many heavy hitters in the pits and this many fans in the stands this whole deal should turn out good.

[dirtcrazy4u]

He needed a strong title sponsor. I'd like to see what Forrest Lucas spends on the slm portion of racing.

[TerryM]

I went to the Paducah race in the spring of 2013. Josh Richards won against a stacked field. I remember the stands being packed and thinking with this many heavy hitters in the pits and this many fans in the stands this whole deal should turn out good.

I’m thinking that was the very first NDRL show. It was my second time ever going to Paducah, and the first time in about 20 years, anod I couldn’t wait to get there. I really liked the place, but back then the Western Kentucky Parkway was extremely rough and it made for a really long drive from Lexington. It was a 5-hour drive one way, that felt more
like 10.

[Taboo62]

We need an NDRL again, too much power concentrated in too few hands these days. Group think is killing everything.

[mskdorf]

Did you mean Forrest Lucas? Not sure.

[NeedforLMspeed]

Yea. Another series is needed (eye roll)

[Taboo62]

Yea. Another series is needed (eye roll)

{middle finger}

[hoosier race fan]

Another series really isn’t needed now. More tracks, more racers, and reduced costs (which will lead to the other two things) are needed.

I’ve watched several races from the late 90’s and early 2000’s lately. Those were some awesome times and that is the generation of rules that needs to be in place. Impossible to go back to that though.

[dirtcrazy4u]

Ha, what a dummy, yes Forrest Lucas.