Dylan Cisney and his racing team were faced with a crossroads-type of a decision heading into this past offseason.
At the end of the 2018 campaign, Cisney met Wisconsin car-owner Scott Cowman. The two worked on an engine program, and the relationship morphed into the Port Royal, Pa., driver running races for Cowman in 2021.
It was a good deal, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t have drawbacks. Cisney had to operate two separate operations with trailers, mules, engines, and parts, which made preparation difficult at times.
Cowman noticed some of the pitfalls and gave Cisney options heading into 2022. The choices were part ways, keep things as is, or have Cowman take over the operation and hire the central Pennsylvania driver full time.
Cisney chose the latter. So, when this season kicks into high gear at Lincoln Speedway next weekend, the 29-year-old driver will park his family-owned deal and race for Cowman on a full-time basis with a familiar No. 5 on the wing.
“It’s tough when you have two different teams,” Cisney said. “Now, you are picking and choosing with what night you want to do this or that. Running two separate teams was a lot of work, but I think we handled it as well as anybody could.
“We had discussions last year with Scott about that and what some of the struggles were. He just pretty much presented us with the idea at the end of the season and what we want to do with this stuff, and me, my Dad, the crew, and our sponsors talked about it. Everybody was on the same page.
“Hopefully, it’s the right move for me moving forward in my Sprint Car career. I’m not getting any younger — my Dad is looking forward to retirement pretty soon — and family-owned teams are hard to run. Luckily, all of my sponsors were on board with it. As long as we run decent, he won’t fire me, so hopefully, we will keep going.”
This doesn’t mean that Cisney is hitting the road to run with the Interstate Racing Association Outlaw Sprint Series in the Midwest. Cowman isn’t putting the team on the road to run with FloRacing All Star Circuit of Champions to pick on both regions and be close to his Wisconsin home.
Instead, Cisney is keeping his schedule the same as he did a year ago. He will compete weekly a stone’s throw away from his shop at Port Royal and has every Williams Grove Speedway event on the slate. The 80-plus race schedule will be filled out by dates at Selinsgrove and other area tracks.
The pick-and-choose, performance-based approach outside of his races at Port Royal appeals to Cisney. More important, there is a sense of relief that the burden of ownership doesn’t fall on the driver.
“It seems like it’s a big relief, because at the end of the day, the ownership aspect is the toughest part of the Sprint Car deal,” said Cisney, who might make a trip or two to the Midwest if it fits into the schedule. “You can be as good as anyone out there, but if the funding and ownership issues are your day-to-day struggle, that’s always going to hinder you.
“It’s a little bit of a different deal. It’s not like I went out and found a ride … we just formed this partnership. It’s pretty special to find a guy who has been in the sport for over 30 years who likes you and has enough faith in you to put a deal together for you.”
Relief doesn’t mean that Cisney is going to take his situation for granted. It’s not like he will take any unnecessary chances behind the wheel that you wouldn’t have seen him make in year’s past.
Cisney’s driving style is set. He has enough laps and an approach that is engrained in his driving DNA, and a change in situation isn’t going to alter that.
“I’ve raced long enough that there is no changing the way I drive,” Cisney said. “Maybe it’s different because we got our family deal to the point the last few seasons where we were fairly financially stable. That just gave us the ability to make our program better.
“From Day 1 when we started to the days when you had the least amount of money and days when you had the most amount of money, I personally never changed my driving. It was something that never entered my head when I was out on the track. My driving style is pretty much the way I race and will always be the way I race.”
Cisney isn’t too aggressive or too conservative. He picks his holes to pass methodically and doesn’t push the issue to the point where he is going to wreck his, or someone else’s, racecar.
That philosophy worked a year ago when Cisney and Cowman got their first win together. And both hope that this partnership leads to more checkered flags when the 2022 season rolls around.
“Basically, we go race to race,” Cisney said. “Every day is its own night, and you go to the track trying to win. We don’t set goals or anything like that. We run our program the best we can, and we do the things we think are right for ourselves.
“Every time we roll into a racetrack, we are there to win a race. If we can’t win a race, we are there to be as good as we can be to be as consistent as we can every night. If you do that, the wins will come.”
Dylan Cisney wants to thank his sponsors: Valley Supply, Drydene, SCA, Inc., Gibbsville Cheese, Hawkeye Transportation, HP Engines, X-1 Race Cars, Rocky Rococo, CPRS Physical Therapy, and Rhine Auto.