Ryan Gustin?

[Nasty55]

Does anyone know by chance what's going on with Ryan's latemodel plans for this yr? He has been in his modified the past 3 nights at shady oaks speedway in Texas running with the usmts series which he won the feature there tonight!

[ksmitty79]

Saw an interview where he was asked about his late model plans and his comments were somewhere along the lines of "I couldn't make a living off of driving a late models. Those guys are so good and when your off just a litte bit you end up getting lapped." I think he is committed to the USMTS and running for points again this year. Just a guess after his comments.. I believe I saw it on USMTS facebook page

[huskerdirt]

I saw the same interview..... At end he said, "To make a living, I'm probably gonna have to do this a little more."

I don't see him running usmts points. That schedule is brutal enough if you wanna run all the races. There are a lot of races close to the shop in Wichita. So some weekends instead of hauling the LM somewhere, they'll probably race the mod closer to home.

[dirt33]

The schedule on his website shows plans to run the late model at ArkLaTex for the Pelican 100 in two weeks. (USMTS races in El Paso that weekend).

As good as he is in a modified, I can certainly understand his comments about it being more difficult to make money in the late model. Sure, the payouts for LM races are higher, but when you are a top 2-3 car night in and night out on the USMTS trail, you could certainly rack up the paychecks. Interesting dilemma for Ryan and his team.... Run USMTS and be at the front of the pack every night, or run late models and continue to build/learn, working towards being a consistent front runner where of course the prize monies would be substantially more.

He is certainly good enough to rise to the top of the late model ranks if that is what he chooses to focus on.

[Bigracer93]

Gustin has made over 350k in a year in a mod before granted that all doesn't go to him but still it's extremelt hard to make that much doing anything so if he knows he can make that kind of money in a mod then why not do it.. Not to mention he has a kid at home that he has to support..

[dirt33]

Gustin has made over 350k in a year in a mod before

He's real good, but that figure seems a little hard to believe. Let's say he ran 100 times that year, which I don't imagine he did... That would average out to $3,500 a night, which is more than most USMTS features pay to win. Even with winning the Jamboree, Modified Dirt Track Championship, etc, seems like it would be hard to average $3,500 (or more, assuming fewer than 100 nights) for a full season to clear $350K in winnings.

Edit, perhaps I am underestimating the number of nights that he has run in past seasons. It just seems like it would be hard to run 100 nights, I'm thinking the USMTS schedule has been more like 60-70 races most seasons... I could be wrong about that.

[Bigracer93]

It was in that ball park may have said 250k and he won every crown jewel! I remember reading that number somewhere so I'll see if I can find the article!

[huskerdirt]

2011 was the year he won like 20 races. The regional champs got 2500. The national champ got 20000 that year

[Scott Boesel]

I wish he would have won the I80 silver dollar natls in 2013 he was gone and got in to a lap car and that was that if he would have won that race it would have been huge

[retired racer]

Go's to show everyone that he wasn't as good or ready as everyone thought, it certainly wasn't because of a lack of dollars, so it must have been a lack of talent.

[george w]

Talents there ask anyone whos seen him in person ......

[retired racer]

Then why step back to the mods? he stated that late models is where he wanted to be,he was there but couldn't get the results that were expected.

[dirt33]

I think maybe people could easily misinterpret his comments, and think that "he's going back to modifieds". Fact is, he is the best UMSTS modified driver when he shows up to those events, and to top it off, USMTS pays pretty darn well. Most drivers don't have the equipment/ability to switch between late models and modifieds at their discretion. Sounds to me like the team is contemplating hitting some more modified shows, to take advantage of the "upper hand" that they have in that division. I imagine he will still run the late model primarily. Being so good in the modified could seem to work against his ascent in the late model somewhat, as it certainly has to be tempting to run some of the biggest paying USMTS shows on weekends where there are well-paying late model races as well.

As far for comments above about him not being as good or as talented, I disagree completely. He has done very well for himself in his brief career in a late model, and will certainly continue to build consistency the more time he spends in one.

Here is what he accomplished last year in a late model; see how many guys in their first full year in a late model can match these stats:

Winter Extreme in Tucson - final three nights 2nd, 4th, 1st ($10,000 win to finish off the event)
NDRL at El Paso - best finish of 4th
SUPR at Texas Motor Speedway - 3rd
Pelican 100 at Ark La Tex - 3rd
MARS at Springfield - 2nd
Lucas Oil at ArkLaTex - 3rd
MARS at 34 Raceway - 6th
MARS at Dodge City - 1st
MARS at 81 Speedway - 1st
MLRA at Davenport - 4th
MLRA at Maquoketa - 6th
MLRA at Muskogee - 5th and 7th
Show Me 100 - 10th
Made the feature at the Dream
MLRA at Oskaloosa - 6th
MLRA at Donnellson - 2nd
MLRA at Moberly - 1st
MLRA at Humboldt - 1st
MLRA at Mayetta - 5th
MLRA at Salina - 6th
Lucas Oil at Tri City - 7th
Lucas Oil at Lakeside - 8th
MLRA at McCool Junction - 1st
MARS at Monnet - 5th
UMP at Tri City - 2nd
SLMR at Lakeside - 3rd and 1st
MLRA at Wheatland - 1st
Spooker at Tri State - 2nd and 1st

Now.... There were certainly some other finishes throughout the year that weren't as good as the ones listed above (1st full year in a late model). However, how could you compile a list of the finishes above without being pretty darn good? I guess anyone who had expectations that Gustin would come out and immediately be at the top level of late models would indeed see those expectations fall short. However, I think most fans would be pretty impressed to see what he did last year, and it's not hard to see that he will continue to get better the more he is in a late model. The beginning of his modified career was the same way. He picked off a win here and there, and displayed a ton of speed most of the time, enough to make people think, "Boy, this kid is probably going to be pretty good." Yep, within a few years he was the man to beat at USMTS shows, going from a guy who won some features to a guy who won multiple features in a row, often.

[dirt33]

http://www.tricityspeedway.net/2014/...ber-12th-2014/ any more lies

His website listed him as finishing 2nd that night at Tri City. Looks like his website is wrong. The error is that they appear to have Tri City and I-55 swapped, as he did finish 2nd the following night at I-55 (finishing order behind him was Pierce, Moyer, Korte, Landers, Erb, Sheppard, Moyer JR JR, Birkhofer). So, the only "lie" above is the track name. Change it to I-55 and the point stands.

[slydejob18]

Gotta be about the cabbage

The guy's got the talent. No way to deny that. Interesting that he would make the comment about being off just a little and getting lapped. Gotta say that sounds like an excuse IMO.

Most likely, this is about money. Plain and simple. And I agree with some others who posted---The Reaper's not done in a LM, hopefully just re-evaluating his plan. I wish him luck---the dude can put on a show.

Go 18!!