CONCORD, N.C.: It’s not a stretch to say that James McFadden has put together the best season in his Sprint Car career. The irony is that it might also be his most difficult.
The wins are there. McFadden has racked up six World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series victories behind the wheel of the Roth Motorsports entry. The Australian driver also polished off a $21,000 score at the August Front Row Challenge.
That doesn’t mean there haven’t been setbacks. Roth Motorsports was penalized four races for a tire infraction in May, and the consistency has been lacking, at times. But there is a deeper issue that has affected performance between the season highs.
McFadden and Co. have been competing against the best Sprint Car drivers in the world at different tracks and on different surfaces. It’s a difficult task in itself, but this group had to do it while dealing with the obstacles associated with developing and giving feedback on a new motor program.
Fans and those in the industry often overlook the trials … just ask Donny Schatz. And while the Toyota development is different from Ford’s plight, McFadden has faced his own set of challenges throughout the 2023 season.
“I think it’s extremely underestimated,” McFadden said after Thursday’s World Finals main event. “Except for probably the 12 teams up and down the road who travel, I don’t think anyone outside of it really understands the depth and how you second guess things because it’s not conventional.
“The average thing that you do to an engine that works because 20 teams are doing it up and down pit road doesn’t necessarily work the same way. So, yeah, I definitely think it’s a lot harder than people think. You don’t just bolt it in and go.”
Continued McFadden, “I think we’ve got a great qualifying package, and I think three quarters of the night we’ve nailed. I think it’s the last quarter that we’re working really hard on, and that last quarter against these guys may as well be another mile. You are trying to develop something, and you might not be off, but you start second guessing your set up and things. So, yeah, I really think people underestimate it.”
“It’s not as simple as throwing money at the situation. Fans, and even other teams around the country, see the Toyota logo and assume … big company, a bag of cash, no problem.
That’s not reality, and it goes deeper than just dollars and cents. The motors are being put together by two engine builders — Rider and Speedway Motors — and they aren’t the same. It’s led to a longer learning curve as far as finding out what works based on which motor is under the hood.
It’s led to a smaller window depending on the track and the conditions. And when you are competing against well-funded teams with the World of Outlaws, every second on the track and in the pit area matters.
“I think that a lot of people think, ‘Wow, it’s Toyota, they’re just going to keep throwing money at it,’” McFadden said. “But, you know, you don’t out spend anyone in Sprint Car racing. You can’t roll up with a $300,000 motor, and it’s going to be better than the guy that’s got the $100,000 motor.
“I don’t think people realize how much we actually detune engines and make them follow your feet and make them drivable. We use the engine as much as we can for two laps [qualifying], then the rest of the night is spent going the other way.
“So, I feel like we are building a great package with Toyota, and they’ve supported us along the way during the really low lows and the higher highs. I think they understand how hard it is doing it with the World of Outlaws. It’s been a fun process, but at times, it’s also been quite frustrating.”
Wednesday and Thursday night at The Dirt Track at Charlotte ran the gamut of emotions. The good, the bad, and the ugly all wrapped into roughly 24 hours of work.
McFadden timed 17th in his group for the Thursday night session. That put him ninth in the heat race and buried him in the C-Main. He got through but couldn’t advance through the Last Chance Showdown and was forced to take a provisional.
That was the bad and the ugly. The good came in a non-stop 25-Lap main event that saw McFadden rip through the field and charge from 26th to sixth in the final rundown to earn Hard Charger honors.
“Grip,” McFadden said when asked what he found. “We have struggled all weekend just trying to understand what my car was doing and what it needed. I felt like I was always too tight, but I think it was the opposite. The wheels were spinning so much that it made me tight. We sort of got it to the point where the engine made about 50 horsepower and got our car snug enough to be able to still rotate but feel the right rear.
“Everyone just kept giving me the bottom, and I never arched my corner out like a traditional racetrack. I ran the grip the whole time and kept my tires really cold. The longer the race went, I felt like the faster we got, because we had really good tires.
“We’ve sort of struggled on dirty racetracks like that and trying to get a feel. To do that without cautions and legitimately pass all those cars where you don’t jump the start, it was really, really good and a relief. Hopefully, we found something.”
It’s encouraging that McFadden has wins on different tracks. He sat in Victory Lane at Volusia Speedway Park, Devil’s Bowl, and the Jackson Motorplex. There were also successes at smaller facilities like Huset’s and Lawrenceburg.
In 76 starts this season, this team has 25 top-five finishes and 50 top 10s. Those are respectable numbers on the road, but with the motor development that has been done this season, McFadden believes he has the team in place to surpass past accomplishments.
“I think results wise, we have been really good,” McFadden said. “Consistency has sort of been down, and you can put some of that on me, some of that on my car, and some of that on developing an engine at the same time. So, outside of that — I would say 10 races — I’ve been really happy with the year.
“I think the biggest thing that I’m proud of, and proud of my team, is how we bounced back from the tire deal and won races. We’ve had some engine issues, developed the engine, and the product is great.
“It’s hard, because it’s not a traditional engine deal in that you don’t know what you are going to do to tune it. If it doesn’t work, you second guess whether it’s the engine, the car, or something we’re doing. So, to bounce back and continually keep working like we have, I’ve been really proud of that. Hopefully, we can keep building on it.”