Pulling Through the States
Is this Heaven? No, it’s Pulling.
Who is your favorite puller from your home state? This was a question posed by one of our content creators on the Beer Money Pulling Team social media outlets. I stewed on this for a while thinking to myself just how hard it would be to answer that question. I felt my home state was flooded with excellent pullers, at all levels, and across all classes. My final answer was that I simply couldn’t pick just one. Heck, I couldn’t even make a list of my top ten active favorites.
This led my mind to a spiral. I could, off hand, with minimal effort think of fifteen to twenty national level pullers in my home territory that could at any given day win a pull, and even make a run for the national points championship. As a matter of fact, I could think of several 2024 national points champions from right here in the Show-Me State. Now that is a fun what-if. Which state produced the most national points champions in the 2024 season? Lightbulb. Folks, we have an article topic, and some data to gather.
Let’s reiterate the mission: Discern which state produced the largest number of points champions in 2024. I decided only to look at the three national level divisions. Regional and state organizations, by nature, will be full of competitors from a singular geography. We needed to go national. NTPA, Outlaw, and PPL combined to crown forty total national champions this year. Thirteen NTPA Grand National classes, Seventeen Outlaw Thunder in the Dirt National Series classes, and Ten PPL Champions Tour classes if you are curious. The task was simple and enjoyable: chart the champs by home-state, and keep a tally. Let’s examine the results.
Fifteen total states were able to produce national points winners in 2024. I’ll be counting them down in reverse order.Finishing orders of 15-10 are all shared by states producing a single national victor. The states of Kentucky, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Texas all hopped on the winner wagon with a solo champ apiece. Spots 9-5 were also a multi-way tie with 5 states checking in two national winners each. The great states of Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Wisconsin gave the world of pulling two gold positions.
Things start heating up in the top four positions. Tipping the scale with three national champions was none other than the Buckeye state. Ohio comes in number four on our list, in what, honestly, was a bit of a surprise to me, as I would have hypothesized they would fall in the number one sport. We head out west for a bit of a dark horse on our list. Coming in the bronze position, the state of Nebraska was able to produce six national champions this past season. Evidently west of the Mississippi was the place to be this year, as each of our top two states border directly with Nebraska. At no real surprise Iowa was a heavy hitter. Coming in second place, with seven national champions hailing from the Hawkeye state.
Our number one spot was a surprise to me, though. And yet, I suppose the writing was on the wall. If we think back to my struggles to pick a single favorite puller from my home state of Missouri, we can see why more clearly now. Coming in at the number one spot, the Show-Me State actually produced 8 national points champions in 2024, more than any other state in the country.
And yet, the data felt off. Was this truly an apples to apples examination? After all, PPL has only one modified class where NTPA has three. Outlaws have 17 classes, several of which run the regional circuit for the other two associations. NTPA and Outlaw have Diesel Super Stocks, PPL doesn’t. NTPA and Outlaws have Super Stock Diesel Trucks and Mini-Rods. Outlaw doesn’t. What if we only examined the classes that are unanimous in all three leagues.
Surprisingly enough this gave me some eyebrow raising results as well. Only five classes are entirely transcendent among the three associations: Modified Four Wheel Drive Trucks; Super Modified Two Wheel Drive Trucks; Light Weight Super Stocks; Super Farms, and Modifieds. So what are the results now? Well, similar, actually.
If we examine the data with this alteration, the states of Texas, Kentucky, and Minnesota find themselves a little higher on the board, claiming one national champion each, but taking the spots of 8-6. Tennessee and Illinois are big movers now sharing the 5-3 spots with Nebraska, all tying with two national champions. And, our top two don’t change. The only exception is they share the title now. Iowa and Missouri produced three national champions apiece, and cement themselves as title weights of the 2024 season.
An interesting, and somewhat unaffiliated bit of data to come out of this- one pulling team entirely by itself claimed 8% off all national points titles this season. Brothers R.J. and Brandon Simon of Farley, IA combined to bring home three championships of the available 40, boosting their home state.
What do we learn from all of this? Honestly, nothing to take to the bank. The entire country is littered with amazing pullers. It can be anyone’s day at any time, and anyone’s year any given season. Numbers are fun to crunch and data is intriguing to analyze, but it’s the memories at the track and the bonds made nationwide through this great sport that are the true value.
Green Flags and Tight Chains
Pullin’ is Fun.
Mike Eitel
Beer Money Pulling Team
Engagement Specialist
michael.eitel.beveir@gmail.com
660.342.0206
