Scott Woodruff doesn’t have a title on the nascent Worldwide Sizzling Rod Affiliation but when it’s important to name him one thing, ‘Woody’ most likely wouldn’t balk at ‘director of enjoyable’ as a result of that’s usually what Darryl Cuttell has requested him to do.
For over 20 years, he was the model and media supervisor at JEGS Efficiency however he most popular the ‘make stuff occur man’ title.
However, Cuttell has made fairly the splash within the North American Motorsports scene over the previous 13 months in buying the IHRA model after which increasing it to almost each aspect of the trade with a dizzying variety of acquisitions.
He has bought almost a dozen drag strips and commenced selling an expanded nationwide tour with bigger payouts and elevated fanfare. IHRA has acquired a powerboat racing sequence and launched a Late Mannequin tour set to start in April.
Learn extra: Everything you need to know about IHRA Stock Cars
As a part of the latter, IHRA leased dormant Pulaski County Motorsports Park in Virgina and bought Memphis Worldwide Speedway in Tennessee. Most just lately, it acquired Rockingham Speedway in North Carolina, which brings it into NASCAR’s orbit as they are going to host a second-year Easter weekend occasion for the O’Reilly Auto Components and Craftsman Truck Sequence.
In brief, Woodruff says his job is ‘to make racing enjoyable once more’ throughout all of the divisions and properties Cuttell has began to build up like Infinity Stones.
“For lots of endeavors like this, funding is the massive challenge,” Woodruff advised Motorsport.com on Thursday. “Funding shouldn’t be our challenge. It’s acquired to be the proper folks in the proper place. Proper now, we’re in the midst of an enormous two-day planning session and the questions we get to ask ourselves is ‘what would we wish as followers,’ or ‘what would we wish as opponents,’ or as companions.”
Funding, by the way in which, shouldn’t be a difficulty as a result of Cuttell is the CEO and president of Darana Hybrid — the electro-mechanical firm most well-known for doing contract work with xAI, SpaceX and Tesla.
His Inventory Automotive Sequence race director, Tim Horton, mentioned the acquisition spree is about Cuttell’s private legacy.
“He’s bought seven or eight drag strips now, repurposed them, and made deep investments into the infrastructure of the game,” Horton mentioned. “That is his ardour. He views it as an opportunity to determine a legacy. He’s executed very well along with his enterprise and that is his concept of enjoyable. He owns a number of drag vehicles, energy boats. He loves motorsport.”
So, Cuttell completely has deep pockets however there is also a pure skepticism that somebody that has amassed such a fortune would wish to spend it in an trade that doesn’t traditionally have a excessive return on funding.
That’s very true of monitor possession and working regional touring divisions. Because the previous adage goes, to make a small fortune in motorsports, it’s important to start with a big one and Cuttell definitely has the latter.
At face worth, spending tens of millions of {dollars} on almost a dozen amenities and quite a few touring divisions appears to be like like a loss chief by definition.
“Yeah, it is not a loss chief,” Woodruff mentioned. “It is an funding. That is what it’s. If you happen to look again and also you say, ‘this is this man spending in areas that nobody actually desires to spend on,’ amenities and infrastructure and purses, no person desires to try this.
“We have got somebody that sees the ability in that, sees the variety of tracks with pedigree and historical past, and so they’re going away so let’s get again in and re-energize them.
“He says ‘let’s plug the battery again in and get it recharged.’ We’re constructing the infrastructure so we are able to go race. Let’s go exceed folks’s expectations, whether or not it is on the monitor or off the monitor, that is what our objective is.”
At first, Woodruff was a skeptic too.
Even upon his introduction to Cuttell, he needed to know what would occur if IHRA failed, simply to know what the plan can be as a matter of due diligence.
“One of many questions I requested him, one of many first, was what’s your exit technique or what’s your catastrophe plan,” Woodruff mentioned. “He mentioned, ‘I don’t have one,’ and I requested ‘what do you imply,’ and he mentioned he doesn’t fail.
“So, I mentioned, ‘alright, let’s do that,’ and right here we’re.”
Why purchase Rockingham?
“Our objective is to make use of every facility that we’ve in the very best curiosity of the followers,” Woodruff mentioned. “And clearly, Rockingham, we might love nothing greater than to begin this long-term partnership with NASCAR, beginning this 12 months.
“Our objective is to work collectively. That’s simply how we function.”
That additionally means working with Monitor Enterprises and Bob Sargent, occasion promoters of the NASCAR weekend, who had been additionally attempting to buy the monitor from earlier proprietor Dan Lovenheim on the identical time.
Doesn’t that make the connection type of awkward?
“Effectively, my final assembly was with Bob and he simply walked out of the door and appeared fairly completely satisfied,” Woodruff mentioned.
For his half, over textual content, Sargent agreed with the constructive sentiment.
Memphis Worldwide Speedway has a NASCAR nationwide touring historical past as nicely. It hosted what’s now the O’Reilly Sequence from 1999 to 2009 and the Truck Sequence from 1998 to 2009.
Woodruff conceded that NASCAR’s latest post-trial restructuring and the vacations has delayed their preliminary conversations however he’s wanting ahead to attending to work with them in a wide range of capacities.
“We most likely haven’t been excessive up on their precedence checklist this previous month,” Woodruff mentioned. “However I do know that we’ve acquired a gaggle that’s assembly with them within the subsequent week or two.
How has IHRA determined what to accumulate out of all of the choices on the market?
“Every scenario is totally different and has totally different pluses and minuses,” Woodruff mentioned. “We have a look at it as a gaggle after which we determine ‘okay, on a scale of 1-10, how a lot do we wish do that? Is that this facility good or is it obligatory? That’s one other dialog too. We’re attempting to be good stewards of the game and a few of these tracks, we might have walked away and never bought them, however plenty of them are crown jewels that simply want a little bit bit of affection.”
A skepticism of Cuttell from those that have interacted with him over his first 12 months as IHRA proprietor is that he’s only a free-spender with out a imaginative and prescient. Woodruff pushed again on that too.
“There may be completely a imaginative and prescient,” Woodruff mentioned. “When he first employed me, we had been in a side-by-side at Milan Drag Strip and we pulled up subsequent to this pond. Darryl says he desires to ‘do away with these bushes’ and ‘put down some parking spots.’ He says he desires to put in plug-ins for motorhomes and water/sewage.
“He instantly advised me how far he needed it to go and painted this detailed image. I let you know this as a result of he has a imaginative and prescient.
“Final 12 months was simply very reactionary. We’ve got these occasions, and so they got here up on us quick, however now we’ve much more time to have it deliberate out for 2026. I believe that’s going to be an enormous profit for every thing we’re doing.”
Full circle, working for Cuttell doesn’t imply assembly a backside line, both. So how is success outlined by the brand new IHRA?
“By smiles and completely satisfied folks,” Woodruff mentioned. “Everybody on employees at an IHRA occasion is sporting a blue shirt. Their job is to be there to assist and be sure that everyone seems to be having a superb time.
“If you happen to stroll as much as somebody in a blue shirt, they’re going to have the ability to reply your query and make it easier to out. They’re going to be taken care of the way in which they’d wish to be taken care of. I do know it sounds fairly easy, however it’s, it’s actually that straightforward.”
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