BARBERVILLE, Fla. — Danny Dietrich is set to leave his snow-covered sprint car homeland of Pennsylvania for the warm weather of Florida to compete with the American Sprint Car Series National Tour at Volusia Speedway Park.
Dietrich, 36, of Gettysburg, Pa., will enter his Weikert’s Livestock Inc, Maxim Chassis No. 48 with a Travis Racing Engine, owned by Chris and Mindy Hiser, for his first ASCS appearance outside of the 360 Knoxville Nationals.
He and the Gary Kauffman Racing team will compete in the opening nights of the 54th annual Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia, Jan. 30–Feb. 1.
The “PA Posse” standout has been a DIRTcar Nationals entrant every year since 2017 with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series and has plenty of laps around Volusia’s fast, half-mile confines in his regular 410 sprint car.
He raced Volusia for the first time with a 360 engine in the car on the final two nights of the 2024 Germfree Southern Sprint Car Shootout, garnering back-to-back fifth-place finishes.
So, what brings the veteran winged racer back for more 360 sprint car competition at Volusia this year?
“It just makes it better for us to go down there and get some laps in before 410s start up the week,” Dietrich said. “We don’t have the race in Georgia like we’ve had in years past, or the race at Ocala like we have in years past, so it’s always good to get some laps [at Volusia].
“And it’s probably even better for us, being that we’re not having to leave one track and go to another. We can just go to Volusia and camp out for a week or so.”
While Dietrich is eager to get the local 410 sprint car season started back home, the action around Pennsylvania does not begin until March. Racing two weekends at Volusia also gives he and his team the additional benefit of getting ahead of their competition at home by turning laps and wrenches at the track before most others.
“I just enjoy going to Volusia and starting the season off, having the crew back around the track and in the trailer, and just getting back into the swing of things,” Dietrich said. “Volusia hospitality is very good, and honestly the fan base has grown so much over the years, just more and more. Every year, it seems like there gets to be more and more fans walking through the pit area.
“It’s good for the racers and good for the teams to get down there and get gelling before things really get kicked off back here in Pennsylvania.”
Dietrich is well-versed in the high-speed nature of tracks like Volusia. But does he view his weekly experience on the big tracks as an advantage over the touring stars of ASCS?
“Not at all… not at all,” Dietrich said. “We just don’t have anything here in Pennsylvania like Volusia. Volusia is probably about as close to Eldora as it is anything, if I had to give an opinion. It kinda races somewhat similar as far as the shape of it — not saying we get up on the fence like we do at Eldora or anything like that — but it definitely has some similarities as far as how round it is, and you don’t really drive very straight around the track.”
DIRTcar Nationals kicks off a new era in ASCS National Tour history with the first, full-length schedule constructed under the new ownership of World Racing Group, which purchased the series last March.
“I think having ASCS down there is definitely going to help the situation with the 360s, and in Florida as well,” Dietrich said. “To have ASCS involved and taking over Volusia will be really, really good for 360s as a whole — maybe even across the whole country. Kinda gets them another good track and another good forefront where they get the publicity they should be getting.”
