The High Limit Racing Series, co-owned by Kyle Larson and Brad Sweet, reached new heights in 2024. It hosted over 60 races nationwide with 17 traveling teams. It also became a strong rival to the long-running World of Outlaws with more than $5.8 million in prize money.
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The future only looks stronger for the 410 winged sprint car series, but how and why did it all begin in the first place?
High Limit is jointly owned by the Hendrick Motorsports star and his brother-in-law, Brad Sweet. It was created back in 2022 from the ruins of what used to be the All-Star Circuit of Champions owned by Tony Stewart. Speaking in a live webinar during the Race Industry Week, Larson detailed how the series came into existence and what the idea behind it was.
He said, “A couple years ago we just did some midweek racing. I think that we got 11 races in and I think that really opened our eyes to how we could grow the sport a lot. Tony Stewart had reached out to us about wanting to kind of move on from the ownership side. So, we saw a good opportunity to try to elevate the national scene even more than what it already was.”
The driver added that the purpose was to allow teams, drivers, and tracks to make more money while also giving fans more racing. The financial model that he started with Sweet to create with higher purses for the participants serves as an example to take lessons from even for giants like NASCAR. Going forward, he looks forward to going all out with higher rewards in 2025.
The importance of increasing payouts in the High Limit Series
It is not a secret that teams in the NASCAR Cup Series are facing huge issues due to low revenue. Larson doesn’t want a similar scenario to play out on his platform.
He said, “We still want to get way better. It’s not, it’s a lot better than what the All-Stars were but still, you know, probably got room to grow. It’s just tough.”
Increasing the payouts means bringing in more revenue through TV deals and sponsorship. He understands that sprint racing is still not at the level of the Cup Series in regards to that. But he believes in the goal to put up events that are entertaining for the crowds and that this will translate to dollars in the bank.
He added about a charter system in sprint car racing, “It’s quite a bit different than NASCAR obviously with the massive TV contracts and stuff like that that comes in there. So, trying to kind of figure out the right way to shape that to make it beneficial for everybody involved and much better than what it is.” Larson and Sweet are revolutionizing the scene with every tick of the clock.
