Like many Midwestern racers, the idea of escaping the harsh winter weather for a week of racing in Arizona in January has always been a tempting proposition for Rusty Schlenk. But the expense of a cross-country haul hasn't feasible for the 34-year-old budget racer to join the annual Dirt Late Model migration to the desert for the Keyser Manufacturing Wild West Shootout.

Watch the 2021 Keyser Mfg. Wild West Shootout from Arizona Speedway LIVE on FloRacing

But finally in 2021, Schlenk sees enough potential benefit in the trip to commit to making the more than 1,800-mile journey from his shop in McClure, Ohio, to FK Rod Ends Arizona Speedway in Queen Creek, Ariz., to compete in the 15th edition of the popular unsanctioned miniseries that features six races over nine days Jan. 9-17.

Part of Schlenk’s motivation to finally make the trip for the first time this year is the event’s record payout. The first five races will again pay $5,000 to the winner, but the payout for the Jan. 17 finale has been raised this season to a miniseries-high $25,000-to-win with at least $1,000 to every starter. The event will also feature the Keyser Quarter-Million Challenge again this year, offering competitors a shot at a $250,000 bonus for sweeping all six Wild West Shootout features or $100,000 for five victories, $25,000 for four victories or $10,000 for three victories.

The increased payout and lucrative bonuses are of course a big draw for Schlenk, who makes his living racing and working on race cars, but it’s not the primary reason he’s finally heading west in 2021. After a successful first year for his chassis business, Domination Race Cars, Schlenk hopes his trip will help his fledgling brand expand to new markets.

“That’s kind of my whole goal in going,” said Schlenk, who plans to allow for nearly three days for his team to make the long haul to the 3/8-mile track near Phoenix. “I’ve been wanting to go to that deal for a while, but just haven’t really had the funds for it to make sense.

“That’s a long trip and it takes a lot to get out there. It’s kind of hard to put yourself behind that early in the season if you go and have a bad week. But now with this (chassis business) I’m trying to race all over to get these cars out there and show people that they’re good in any area. Hopefully we can go out there and make a good name for them and maybe sell a few cars out in that area.”

The trip to Arizona will come a little more than a year after Schlenk debuted his self-built Domination design in November 2019 with a victory in Crate Late Model action at Duck River Raceway Park in Wheel, Tenn. After tweaking his design over the offseason, Schlenk sold his first car in February 2020 and is on track to sell 20 cars by his one-year mark this February.

With a number of drivers in his home region finding success in his cars in 2020, including Cody Bauer, Ryan VanderVeen, Dave Bowen and others, Schlenk is pleased with on-track results and the growth of his business. Even with the added responsibility of building cars for others, Schlenk had a solid season himself in 2020 with 12 victories overall at five tracks.

But as he looks to grow his client base Schlenk knows he’ll have to reach beyond Michigan and northern Ohio. To accomplish that, Schlenk believes that having his cars being competitive and winning races at tracks outside of his home region will be key. With that in mind, Schlenk sees it as his job to not only travel more often, but to also be successful when doing so.

“We’ve pretty much got our area covered,” said Schlenk, who for years before launching his new chassis sold parts, repaired cars and offered setup support through his business Rusty Schlenk Racing along with his full-time racing career. “We’ve got a lot of good customers, loyal customers in our area that either have one of our cars or have something used of ours. But I’m really the only one in our cars right now that travels and has the backing to go and kind of showcase our stuff.

“I think that’s the No. 1 key of making our chassis brand more than just a local name. Everyone knows my stuff’s good in our area, but in order to sell race cars at the national level, you’ve got to be able to have a package that can go anywhere. You’ve gotta have a package that can go down and run dusty red clay, you gotta have something that can go down to Mississippi and run in the slick stuff. You’ve gotta be able to run these Midwest bull rings with the big cushions and the tacky black dirt. You’ve gotta have something versatile that can go anywhere.”

Expansion of his brand is not the only hurdle Schlenk has faced in the early stages of chassis business. He’s also facing the uphill climb of gaining traction in an industry that has seen significant technology growth and engineering involvement over the past decade or more.

“That’s the hardest part for me now is trying to catch up to the technology that these guys have been working on for the past 10 or 15 years,” said Schlenk, who went to college for computer aided drafting and mechanical engineering but left early to pursue racing and has raced and worked on race cars for his primary income ever since. “I tell people all the time that I wish I had been doing this in the late '90s. I think what I do with my engineering and fabrication skills, I think we could’ve had success like Rocket and Rayburn.

“But at this point, it’s just so hard to jump in at this level in the game. Back when I started racing, there wasn’t the technology and a bunch of engineers working on the things. It was a bunch of rednecks running around and doing trial and error. There was no data acquisition where you pull in and look at a computer and the computer fixes your race car for you.”

Schlenk will look to continue the growth of his business with a strong performance in Arizona. While he’ll have to adjust to a new track, he’s confident he can adapt quickly and log some strong runs by the end of the trip.

“If we can go out there and put it in all the shows and run decent, I’ll be happy,” Schlenk said. “Obviously I’m going out there to try to win races, and if we can win one or two or get on a hot streak, that’d be great. But I’ve never been out there and most the guys that are going have gone before. I don’t look to go out there and kick everybody’s butt by any means, but if we can make the shows in the beginning, then by the end of the trip we’re running top-fives, I’ll be happy with it.”