Today as we relaunch RACE22 we’d like to introduce you to a new version of the brand that you’ve come to know and love over the years.

As you can see, today’s version is stripped down. Gone are the aesthetics that previously made RACE22 an eye-catching product. We wanted to relaunch in this manner as we continue to rebuild in the background. Gone are the advertisements, though many of them will be coming back and we’re open to anyone who wants to advertise on any of our new features that I’ll list below.

We know that today’s website relaunch won’t blow people away and it’s not meant to. It’s not aesthetically pleasing at all but give us time to get the full version of what we want built and I promise it’ll be the right look and feel that you come to expect from us.

So what can you expect of the new RACE22?

Easy, you can expect the best coverage of short track racing in our region (Virginia, North & South Carolina and Tennessee) of Late Model Stock Car racing, Open Wheel Modified racing as well as Super Late Models and Pro Late Models. You might even see the occasional diversion into dirt racing (we’ll keep that to a minimum since we know that’s not what our core audience is into).

Before I give you a list of features that we’re adding, I’d like to tell you what you won’t be seeing on RACE22. NASCAR Cup Series, Xfinity, or Truck Series racing. There are a million websites for that and I know that Racing America (formerly Speed51) has got off track recently and began covering NASCAR’s upper series like it’s the holy grail but we’re just not into that and we don’t think you are either. You, like us, might watch Cup races but that’s not what you come to a short track website for and that’s something we never intend for you to see coverage of here.

Included in our plans going forward are the following features (there will be many more), which will be posted on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly format depending on the feature:

  • Fast5 – A collection of five mini-stories on things happening in racing weekly.
  • Where are they now? – A look at some of the names from this region’s racing that you might know where they went after their name stopped appearing in results columns.
  • Podcast expansion – We look to bring a wider array of voices to our podcast platform. We will start by adding Chris Carter’s Talking Circles this Thursday and we expect to have more added over the coming weeks/months. We plan to add an RSS feed of podcasts, not just ours to the website so you can keep up with everything out there on short track racing in our region.
  • A Look Ahead – A collection of races and reasons you should be watching them weekly.
  • Driver Intros – We’ll pick a driver (likely weekly) to introduce you to. It’ll be a short but informative look at a driver you may or may not be familiar with.
  • Power Rankings – That’s right, the always popular and ever-controversial Power Rankings are back! We’ll rank the best Late Model Stock Car drivers in the region once a month and you never know with Modified racing on the rise here in the South again, we might just add a monthly feature of Power Rankings for those guys as well.
  • Driver and/or Crew Diaries – we’re looking for drivers/teams to add to our lineup that wants to document their travels and experiences at race tracks. Whether that’s in writing or blog style.
  • Blogs/Vlogs – If you’re blogging or vlogging on short track racing in our region, we want to help promote your platform. We’re planning to help push content like Kick’n Asphalt by Boo Carlisle and Air Doug by Doug Barnes, Jr. These guys are putting in the work to go behind the scenes of short track racing and RACE22 is here for it. Look for us to promote their content and others. If you’re blogging or vlogging hit us up at [email protected] to have your content promoted to our huge viewership.
  • Opinions – yes, they’re like as******…. well you know what they’re like but we’re going to give you plenty of them. Our staff is made up of people who have valued opinions because of the work they put into this sport. From race promoters to race car drivers to industry professionals and newbies who do this just for the love of racing we’ve got opinions from all angles coming your way. Are you ready for our Hot Takes?
  • Feature Articles – this one is a given right? But, we’re going all out by digging deep into this short track landscape. We’re not just going to write about the drivers or obvious people. We’re going to write about people in this sport that matter and you may not even know some of their names or what they do, but you’ve seen the fruits of their labor. Be prepared to learn more about short track racing in this region.
  • Photos Galore – We’ve always had the best photos and the best photographers in short track racing working for and with us. This time we’re going to make sure to showcase them in ways we haven’t before. We’re planning to feature more of their content on Facebook and more of it through the website as well. If you’re a photographer who wants to shine your product spotlight to our viewers email [email protected]
  • RACE22 Reports – This is where we get to the nitty-gritty of everything. This is that deep content that is a little long to read but worth every second of your time. We’ve done these in the past with the most recent look at Martinsville’s Late Model Stock Car history and a deep dive into the personal and professional life of Myrtle Beach Speedway legend Robert Powell. We intend to push more of this content and really take a look at everything this sport has to offer.
  • Hot Topics – This will be where we take a quick look into the hot topics of the moment and give you the most information on these subjects. We’ll have our first one this week on one of the hottest subjects in racing.

Of course, we will still bring you the headlines from any race weekend. We’re not so much planning to write race recaps but if something transpires that we think needs a closer look, we’ll look at it and give you the details.

Before I stop typing, I want to answer the most often asked question since we decided to relaunch RACE22 …. why? Why are you changing RACE22, why are you bringing it back?

It’s greatly needed. With several short-track websites having gone away and with no formed leadership specifically in Late Model Stock Car racing, RACE22 was that leadership somewhat. When things got off track before we put in the time to research it and get answers. We can’t make changes ourselves but we can force the powers that be to make changes that are needed. Remember the $1,000 spindles in 2019? RACE22 forced NASCAR to make a decision on them by bringing the subject to the forefront. That’s an example of one of 100 or more I can think of over our history of covering this region.

The landscape of both media and social media has changed significantly since the beginning of RACE22 in 2005. We helped mold a lot of the changes in media and we hope this is a first step to begin molding the way short track racing is covered again. We plan to use our platform to shape and mold racing in this region much the way we did over the first 17 years of the existence of this website.

This is the new RACE22 and we hope that you’ll check us every day to see the latest on short track racing from a different perspective than we’ve offered before.