MOORESVILLE, N.C. :: Even though CARS Tour founder and president, Jack McNelly, wasn’t able to attend Media Day on Wednesday night, the event ran smoothly and efficiently thanks to his director and right hand man Chris Ragle.
A young but long-time short track personality, Ragle manages a variety of roles in the modern CARS Tour — including race director and operations manager. In many ways, Ragle is the most important figure in the series.
Once Media Day had concluded, Ragle slowed down for a couple of minutes to chat with Short Track SCENE about his series, the importance of fans and social media and what the future may hold for the CARS Tour.
How does the CARS Tour avoid a sophomore slump this season?
The biggest thing that I fear and we talk about it every day, is that we set the bar so high, and some people said we were the best series in the country. And I fear that because I feel like it’s easier to get to the top than to stay there.
So we have to try to maintain. We’re doing everything we can to continue doing that with different programs to entice people to stay with us. Where we’re at in the country is different because there are so many people in the industry here with differing agendas. Everyone is racing with a different agenda. Some are racing as a career and others are racing as a hobby. So, I guess the biggest thing we have to do is try to stay knowledgeable and cater to everyone’s agenda while providing equal value to everyone that competes.
You’ve said plenty of times that not a lot has changed from last year. That’s the sign of a healthy series, but what was the one thing that you felt needed to be improved from last year?
I didn’t feel like there was one big thing. I thought there were a handful of little things. One thing I thought we could do better was technical inspection. This year, we’re going to have more time to inspect these cars and we’re going to have a slighter larger staff.
I think the competitors wanted that because things were a little rushed last season. That was one thing. The second thing is that I’m a big show person and I wanted to create more value for the fans. That’s the biggest thing we can improve on — fan interaction, marketing and branding.
In your opinion, why was the CARS Tour a success last season?
The biggest thing is that me and Jack tried to do was make a huge impact on the industry. I think we were successful. In some ways, we changed the industry. If you look at the Late Model Stock scene from over the past year, everyone would probably agree that we restored some of the value to these cars and those tracks. We made a lasting impact on Late Model Stock racing in a way we hadn’t seen since the UARA.
Is the CARS Tour content being a 10 race, Carolinas and Virginia series?
I think there are two ways of looking at this. The Southern Super Series and the CRA have their markets on the Super Late Model side, so we either could stay a Mid-Atlantic series or maybe look to become the modern ASA National Tour, with big money and big events over the course of the year. I’m not saying that we’re looking at doing that or plan to but there’s two long-term ideas — making the most of our region right here and being a piece of the pie or rise to the next level and try to become that big national tour.
Do your Late Model Stock teams have any interest in expanding out of the Carolinas and Virginias and racing on tracks are typically Super Late hotbeds? Places like Gresham and Nashville always come to mind, because you could take the stocks there without infringing on the Southern Super Series or CRA.
I’ll tell you what, if Gresham were to open up tomorrow, there would be a CARS Tour Late Model Stock race there as soon as possible. I promise you that. That place would be just a slight expansion and wouldn’t be asking too much of the Late Model Stock teams because many of them race at Greenville.
We’d also like to take the Supers up to a place like New Dominion because they don’t really have Supers in Virginia — the culture just isn’t there yet. Langley was an option we looked at but there was a lot of uncertainty there. But yeah, I love Nashville too. What we would love to do by 2017 is pick one event that’s kind of out there. We did that with Pro Cup. Let’s go to Memphis or let’s go to Nashville or New Dominion. But you’re right, that idea excites people and we think about those things all the time.
What is the future of CARS Tour broadcasts beyond the current internet streaming package?
Because it’s our background, I like to think we could become like the Hooters Pro Cup, which had a great TV deal. You could go to Ohio and those people knew what the Hooters Tour was. We have big dreams in that we want people all over the country to know about the CARS Tour too. Television is tough. We have a Roku deal coming down the pipelines, but the whole deal about television is finding the value — cost versus what you get back.
The CARS Tour has a very competitive purse compared to the rest of the country. What is your opinion about where purses need to be to help teams the most?
I would love to have big money to give out and I think every promoter would. But what it comes down to is getting people in the grandstands. For example, we’re not going back to Motor Mile because it was our worst crowd by double. It was the best facility we went to, but I can’t pay big money if fans are showing up. So we have to get fans in the grandstands and have fans of the drivers. because that’s how we’re going to grow purses and that’s why we’re placing such a high focus on fan engagement.
The CARS Tour has really embraced social media and digital interaction like no one else. Why?
I think the idea was not to have races in the CARS Tour, but have events and community happenings. At the end of the day, people don’t know racing at this level so we can’t always sell racing but we can sell a good time. The social media will help us attract the race fans, but also help make news ones. We want to give fans an experience because I believe that’s what brings them back. We all know those people who went to a race and never came back because they didn’t have a good experience, so we want to get them back out by using a variety of tools.
What do you want the CARS Tour to look like a decade from now?
I would like it to be the true premiere national short track series, like what the ASA National Tour was back in the day. I’d like to have 10 or 12 big national events with big money that show who are the best. I would love to have 10 to 12 big races like the Snowball Derby or the Winter Showdown that go to everyone’s back yard, that will allow us to see who the best are. That’s a big feat, but you said a deade from now, so I’m going to dream big. At the end of the day, I want this to be under the NASCAR Truck Series where we can go anywhere across the country — a national series.
