Wisconsinite Bill Balog is putting up his best fight as a rookie with the World of Outlaws

WILMOT – Two words summed up Bill Balog’s first full season with the World of Outlaws:

“I’m tired.”

And it’s not even half over.

What should have been a comparatively easy stretch in an 84-race season – a four-week span with just six events, all in his adopted home state – instead provided Balog’s two-man operation the opportunity to move into a new shop. That’s been a thrash too.

Still, the 44-year-old transplanted Alaskan who settled in Hartland is living his dream, on the road with the most long-running, barnstorming winged sprint car series. That makes the workload for a two-man operation with the constraints of racing on a tight budget worthwhile, even if Balog needs to remind himself once in a while.  

After years of contemplating, the 10-time champion in the regional IRA series finally pulled the trigger in the offseason.

“Well, last year we raced around and at the end I didn’t make any money,” Balog said Friday night before the first race of a doubleheader weekend at Wilmot Raceway on the Kenosha County Fairgrounds.

“You can look at the benefits and the stuff you get with the Outlaws and it was like, if you’re professional, you’ve got to choose a series here. Do something. If you’ve got a lot of someone else’s money, it’s probably not that big a deal. We had to do something, and this one made the most sense for our team.”

With the evolution of the former All Star Circuit of Champions into the High Limit series under the leadership of NASCAR superstar Kyle Larson and five-time Outlaws champion Brad Sweet, the Outlaws were pressured to raise some purses for 2024 and bump up the money paid to full-time teams to compete in every race.

“I would have done it years ago if we’d have had engines that we could do with it and a way to do it,” said Balog, who had dabbled on the Outlaws tour and with the All Stars in the past without running fulltime.

“But I could never … honestly I couldn’t just leave without sponsorship and try to go and race with the World of Outlaws. We had the sponsorship, enough to at least to be able to take a shot. It’s probably a little late, but the earliest I could do it.”

On Saturday night, Balog finished seventh behind winner Donny Schatz, his best result since May. He also had a strong run going Friday night before a flat tire sent him to the back of the field. Balog finished 18th in the race won by Carson Macedo.

He ranks eighth in the standings with six top-five finishes and 18 top-10s in 34 races and has made every feature.

Honestly, Balog said, the overall performance has been better than he expected.

“Running pretty good, trying to stay out of trouble,” he said. “It’s been a lot of fun. We’ve been doing a little better than I thought we’d do honestly. Had a few good finishes. Still looking for a win though.”

Balog won an Outlaws feature at Beaver Dam Raceway in 2016, becoming one of just a handful of drivers not racing the series fulltime to do so that year.

So winning is possible.

But in a season in which two drivers account for almost half the feature victories – David Gravel with nine and Sheldon Haudenschild with seven – doing so remains a long shot for someone such as Balog.

“I feel like we’re not quite there,” he said. “You never know what might happen, but we haven’t been qualifying that good lately. That’s the first thing that needs to turn around.

“I’ve probably got another better motor sitting at home, but it’s not fully paid for. I don’t want to get totally upside down and go about this the wrong way. We’re doing whatever we can do within our budget. Sometimes it might hurt your finishes a little bit.”

Compared to Haudenschild’s team, co-owned by NASCAR driver Ricky Stenhouse, and Gravel’s polished Big Game Motorsports team, owned and sponsored by Hustet’s Speedway owner Tod Quiring, Balog’s team is a bare-bones operation.

B2 Motorsports is Balog and one fulltime crewman, Dennis Gregg, plus some friends who help as they can, whether that’s hauling his merchandise trailer to the track or going to pick up a part. Anderson’s Maple Syrup, headquartered in northwestern Wisconsin, is the primary sponsor with additional help coming from the small companies of friends and others.

Balog wouldn’t hazard a guess as to how his budget compares.

“I think people would be surprised,” he said. “And I don’t like to play the ‘who’s the brokest race team’ thing. I don’t do that anymore.

“But yeah, we’re definitely making up for it with just work, and all the teams work hard. But it’s pretty much me and Dennis and we’ve got a couple of friends that help out just here and there. It’s been a busy year.”

Preparation and racing already make for a daunting challenge. Add the move to a new shop – much done in the series’ supposed down time over the last week or so – and the climb gets even steeper.  

“I thought we’d eventually kind of get caught up. But it doesn’t seem to be happening,” Balog said. “Definitely got to do something different next year probably. Maybe get another guy … we’ve got to do something different. I won’t make it if we don’t.

“But I’d like to do it again … for a couple of years anyway.”