What NHRA President Glen Cromwell Learned from the PRO Superstar Shootout Drag Racing Show

Unknown 0:08

Cromwell from the HRA,

Unknown 0:10

you're not from the nhrp. You're from Michigan. Who you kid. Not exactly, but we'll take you doing good, sir.

Unknown 0:20

Good. How are you?

Unknown 0:21

I'm doing great. Have a great

Unknown 0:24

life and you're still what outside of you, Jackson.

Unknown 0:29

I'm still in Jackson. I grew up in Kalamazoo, but I'm in Jackson now. So it's one of those great weeks where it's 70 degrees one day and 30 to the next. So it's it's been great. It's been a great time.

Unknown 0:41

All my buddies, high school buddies from hazard Michigan keep texting me bragging that it's 70 degrees and they're golfing while yeah, nice and cold and rainy out here. In Southern California.

Unknown 0:54

It's been saying for the last 10 days. I mean, we really we've had a couple of high 60s We had 70 I think on Sunday, but then you know, Monday it was 32 degrees and today it's like 40. And you know, drizzly so who knows, but I mean, I tell you what we found like hardly any snow here in the last month. It's been great.

Unknown 1:10

Great. Great I guess for the folks at Boeing Highland and Boyne mountain I'm not sure they're already happy,

Unknown 1:18

right? That's not That's not my neighborhood. I you know, I can't live with those people anyway, so maybe it's good to they come down to the down to me for a while. Hey, while I gotcha. I mean, you guys are coming off a great season. Archer. I mean

Unknown 1:31

Oh man. I mean a really strong season. You know from all levels from racing to you know, we had great crowds sellout crowds you know, all I mean, coming off a great season which leads into 2024 that I gotta I gotta be honest, my you probably my 26 years here. There's probably this is probably the most momentum and excitement around the start of a season that I've ever been part of. Truly 26 years they may just coming off in 2023 Going into 2020 for a new series sponsor, with Mission Foods. A whole bunch of I mean, we have more participation at all levels from the professional sportsman, Pro Mod factory stock mount motors, et racing, we got our new factory X category that's going to be doing exhibitions this year. But no, I the sport is is incredibly strong. And I think you know, we've got some great things happening in 2024 and beyond for sure. Well,

Unknown 2:46

you got some you had some distant

Unknown 2:47

incredible storylines that you put to bed last year with colletta winning finally, I mean, how much how much fun was that? You know, Tony Stewart's news and gels and pays news. I mean, there were a lot of just a lot of fun stories that you couldn't have predicted a year ago today, you know, and that's, that's probably part of the fun of your deal there. You just don't know what's gonna be you know what's gonna be next but it definitely worked out for you.

Unknown 3:12

Yeah, that's, that's any trade drag racing for sure. It's the right you know, the Dakota story. I mean, I think everybody in the in the nhp racing community was rootin for rootin for dog for sure. And you know, to see Tony and in the news come out at PRI with him, taking over the seat for his wife. So that they you know, they're gonna start a family, which I think is a great decision and I'm happy for Leah and Tony and, and then, and Jill. Watch. Oh, here she comes.

Unknown 3:48

Right. Yeah, you're talking about you're gonna bring a lot of eyeballs and a lot of popularity to that. I mean, it's gonna be a lot of fun there's no question about it glam. I'm excited for you because I know that you know, especially these first couple of events there's gonna be such a buzz and with with Tony out there. You know, Tony is interesting because we've talked about Tony for the last 18 months or so with the series, but this jump to tap fuel that he's making is huge. And I mean, it's amazing how somebody who's never won a raise at that level is now the face of the series probably. Well,

Unknown 4:19

I mean, I think we're excited and I mean, we're promoting Tony and and, you know, he brings a fan base with him, as you are well aware of from all levels of motorsports, and he's had a lot of success. And he's gonna He's going to give his best shot in in the, you know, Mission Foods in a tree drag racing series. And I think it's great to have him but listen, you can't forget about all of our other drivers or athletes and of course, you know, John force, you know, go John is coming out. You know, he's, he's gonna do some wonderful things in 2024. I know that for sure. No

Unknown 5:06

quiet ready to go. You know me Glen. I'm not overlooking the guys you've had but this these other guys I hate to say it these other guys have been their storyline for the last two decades. Just listen as close as you've got to a hot rookie, you know that you've had this is great. I mean,

Unknown 5:22

it is it is crazy. I'm Tony but here here so really amazing thing, Mike that gets me excited. Because I think it's a it's a gauge of the health of the sport, is we have more racers coming in. More athletes coming in this year than I've seen. In past years. You know, you've gotten Of course, Tony, you've got Shawn Reed you got EDA, you've got Billy torrents coming out with a full schedule. You got Travis Shoemake. You got Jasmine Salinas. Dave Richards is picking up a full ride, Daniel Wilkerson, you know taking over for his dad, body Hall. I mean, coffins coming out, Junior, the postdoc ranks. So in there, there are more that I'm not even bringing up here. But if that doesn't tell you that the excitement in the momentum around this series is at its height. It tells you the story right there. This is great. It's great to see these. These. These racers come in and go for a championship for sure. Well,

Unknown 6:32

I guess Can I cut right to like a controversial topic? Because I'm monitoring the progress that

Unknown 6:39

they had here a couple of weeks ago. I don't know how much you took notice of that cared about that or what? What was your stance on that? Because it did. I want it kicked off the season and really kind of started the ball rolling, which was nothing. Well, absolutely,

Unknown 6:55

no, it was a great event and PRL did a really good job and some of the other people that were involved did a great job and you know, we were working with pro and I don't really, I think people made some controversial statements around it or we we're not taking that position. And we were excited in pro wanted to try some new things and they, they did some new things and those those are things that they shared with us and we're going to take some of those key learnings and put those to use at at the Mission Foods in a true drag racing series. So no, I think they did a great job and it was a great way to kick off the season with with a show and some testing down there. bradington Yeah, I

Unknown 7:44

totally get it. I just didn't know what your take was on it. Because there were some rumblings of, hey, we're going to show the HRA how it can be done. We're going to we're going to pay some real money. We're going to we're going to change up the way we do our the eliminations just to kind of jazz that up for the fans and stuff. And I don't know how you took some of that stuff.

Unknown 8:04

Listen, I think I'm excited that our racers are athletes are professionals. You know, we all want the sport to grow and they want to do some new things and in I think it's great. They went out and they did some new things and they had some success and happy for them. And we have been talking with br RO, before, during and after the event. And we're going to take some of those great learnings and put them to use for sure.

Unknown 8:37

Can you maybe address one or two things you might try to carry over from that or put into your future playbook, I guess?

Unknown 8:45

Well, I can tell you, you know, some of the things that they did some great communication. They had a nice platform that they did to commute. Communicate with the teams better. They did great with some signage, I think, I think they dressed up the facility. Very professional looking. You know, and there's, you know, they did three qualifying runs on one day, which, you know, we've we've had some talk about whether or not we would do something like that in the near future. Great.

Unknown 9:19

Great. I

Unknown 9:20

just thought it was a cool way to get people talking about any charity as early in the season as they did. And it was kind of neat, and in fact that colletta wins again. I mean, that kind of shows. Hey, 2023 wasn't a fluke. This is this is kind of the new, a new sheriff in town. I guess you could say and that's kind of I thought that was kind of cool that you can build off of that, you know, in the least the first part of the season. A lot of good stuff. I agree came out of that. And I'm curious where it goes. I mean, if they're going to commit to doing this every year more than once during the year. I don't know what they're looking at right now. I'm kind of trying to I'm gonna go get somebody that Monday morning quarterback and from that and but you know, but I thought it was cool i their relationship with with flow racing was it is what it is when you start getting into the into the some of the streaming stuff as you know. You know on some on some level for as big as they made that out. I was disappointed maybe for them that that wasn't an over the air TV somewhere. Especially the week it was I mean, it was before the Superbowl there was nothing on TV that day. I mean, it seems like some some partner somebody would have grabbed that and hey, let's put that file on Saturday, or Sunday afternoon. You know, there's nothing going on. As opposed to flow raising, which makes fans kind of work for it. Maybe dig into the water a little bit. That's too scary proposition. They're asking somebody a look for and be you know, find out that they I gotta you know get my card out for that one. So, anyway, that's my two cents I guess.

Unknown 10:54

I thought it was good. You know what I thought Jack, Jack Beckman and Ross Shaheen did a really nice job. So

Unknown 11:01

good. Well, good. I'll offer water on any of the controversy that people want to build on this thing and this was a win win.

Unknown 11:09

Seriously,

Unknown 11:10

you know what? You know, that's that's always controversy is. There's nothing wrong with that, right? No, it was good. It was good. I think some people just made a bigger deal out of it than what it really was. people jumped on it. But I think from the NH ri side, I you know, I always look at things if we can do anything to grow the sport we're on board with and, you know, to get into all that, I think is just, you know, it's ridiculous. No,

Unknown 11:40

great. That's awesome. I appreciate your openness on that. Because that's, that's really that's really cool. You know, you've been talking for the last couple years now, the TV deal. You mentioned last year that you thought you might be able to pull this thing off as early as this summer. Is that still possible?

Unknown 11:57

Well, our TV deal with Fox goes to 2026 Yeah. And, you know, obviously we have agreements with them and we'll start having discussions with them. But you know, as of today, Fox is you know, it's been a great partner. You know, Fox Fs one and what they have done for the sport with network shows and you know, in of course the, the adjacent NFL event that we have in the fall has been has been spectacular. So, you know, we're extremely happy with Fox. But when that time comes, we'll be prepared to have those discussions with them. Or others. Yeah, that if that opportunity comes,

Unknown 12:51

Well, you are you are the politically correct master. I like that.

Unknown 12:59

You know, like, I love you, but you know, you gotta be careful. I mean, and I'll say this, and I think I know you well enough. i Yeah, off off the record. I mean, off the record. I mean, of course, we're going to be working towards a great opportunity, a great deal, but, you know, you got to be very careful. I mean, Fox has, you know, been with us for many years in in, they've done a great job, but, you know, obviously we'll, we'll take it the market and I just you can't write that. No, I mean, I again, I of course agreement with them and I have to give you that statement, but I can reassure you you know, we will be pushing hard to get a elevate our TV deal, you know, which, which will help the race teams in the racetracks.

Unknown 13:52

Yeah, well, I'm gonna keep calling you every time I see another sport cut a new TV deal because I gotta believe you get more excited. You get more excited every time you see another deal because, you know,

Unknown 14:02

humans to get in all the race teams right? up because they they are they're extremely interested in TV more than they ever have been. Down here. It's

Unknown 14:11

here. No doubt.

Unknown 14:13

I understand. I understand why Listen, look at any sport, Mike right meeting for and whether it's the NFL on down, I mean TV drives to share, right? I mean, that's that's what brings in the money and, you know, our sport in I wouldn't write this right this but our sport is doing it's checking all the boxes. We're checking all the boxes. I mean, I can take you through an hour of bullet points of what is happening this year in our sport, and you'd be like, Wow, Glen, you guys as a as a sport, have checked it all off, you know the only thing you need and deserve is a strong TV deal for many years to come.

Unknown 15:06

You know, I think we talked about this briefly last summer, but I mean, obviously when you see the Amazons and the apples and all these others that are getting involved in pro sports now. I mean, there's just so many more options than there were five years ago for marketing partners and TV partners. So I

Unknown 15:21

I mean, your sports is in a good place, but you know, we've got, we got we got 2020 for 2025 and 2026. So, probably