🎙️ The Bullring — A New Era for Short Track Racing and a Five-Time Champion

This week on The Bullring, Jim Tretow sits down with Kevin Harvick, Marty Melo, and Casey Johnson for a look at major changes coming to short track racing and a championship season that came down to the final race.

🏁 Kevin Harvick and Marty Melo join the show together to discuss the newly announced alignment bringing seven regional racing series under the CARS Tour umbrella beginning in 2027. They explain the push toward more consistent rules, shared technical standards and better coordination between regions, while still preserving the differences that make each part of the country unique. Harvick also talks about what he has learned traveling the country racing with his son Keelan and why structure, organization and communication have become such a major focus of the effort.

The conversation also turns to the future of Track TV, with Melo outlining plans for substantially more short track content in 2027, a lower subscription price, a new platform and upcoming schedule announcements as the newly aligned series begin operating under one broader system.

🏆 Casey Johnson joins the show after securing his fifth ASA Midwest Tour championship with a fifth-place finish in the Oktoberfest 200. Johnson talks about managing a tight points battle with Penn Sauter and Paul Shafer Jr., using multiple cars throughout Oktoberfest weekend to prepare for the finale, and why this season was one of the more difficult championship runs of his career. He also looks ahead to more racing in Wisconsin before returning to Five Flags Speedway for another shot at the Snowball Derby.

It’s an episode about where short track racing is headed next — and one of the drivers who continues to set the standard in the Midwest.