DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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A sprint car driver DQ'd, Danny Dietrich doesn't hesitate | Daily 4-20-2025
Danny Dietrich moves quick for a big guy, a sprint car driver DQ'd for a tall wicker bill, plus we'll talk Outlaws at Knoxville, and the first weekend on the new Hoosier late model tires. Let's go!
It's Sunday, April 20th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
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There are a bunch of things to talk about from the past few days of dirt racing, and we'll get rolling here with the World of Outlaws at Knoxville. Friday show lost to weather, but we did get 64 cars signed in last night. There had been chatter of potentially 70 or maybe even 80 showing up, but those bigger numbers didn't materialize. It was still one of the biggest non-Nationals sprint car shows at Knoxville ever. Rico Abreu ended up going to victory lane for his first ever World of Outlaws score at the track. He'd previously won Nationals prelim nights, with the All Stars, weekly shows, and the Cappy, but never an Outlaw-sanctioned race. This is a race track that he and crew chief Ricky Warner have put a big focus on, and getting up front at the Nationals is something they want bad. They'll be back to Knoxville a bunch more this season, including next weekend. They've got the Friday Outlaw show at Jacksonville on their schedule, and the Knoxville weekly opener on Saturday. Behind Rico, Kyle Larson went ninth to second, and almost got the 24 on the last lap. Logan Schuchart was third after starting on the pole, and Outlaw championship leader David Gravel went 10th to sixth. Tyler Courtney also looked fast last night with a top five, and Aaron Reutzel again quick. I think that 87 car is going to continue being a problem all season. On the flip side, it was a disaster night for several other big names, including Carson Macedo, who got caught up in an incident on a restart and got trapped in the work area. He was credited with 27th. And Donny Schatz needed a provisional to start the main event. He qualified 25th in his group and was forced to run the non-qualifier, which he didn't transfer out of. Schatz hadn't been a non qualifier since... Knoxville in June last year. He needed a seven to two charge in the C to tag the rear of the B, but any driver is going to be hard pressed to get to a transfer spot in a 12 lap B from 20th. The TSR 15 also trapped in the work area after getting hit by Parker Price Miller, but the Macedo incident saved them, and Schatz able to salvage a 17th place result. I said last week that qualifying will be a big key for this team going forward, and Saturday night showed they have more work to do. I'll have more on Schatz and some more interesting things going on with that team later this week. Gravel's lead is now 68 points over Schuchart, with Macedo now triple digits back. Buddy Kofoid also lost ground, as he needed a provisional as well. A couple other notes, it was good to see Tasker Phillips walk away from a nasty heat race crash after tangling with Brad Sweet. Gio Scelzi had his 2024 Nationals car out this weekend. And I'm told there were a few cars at Knoxville running a new header pipe design on their engines, with Rico Abreu's 24 car one of them. Certainly not uncommon to see some trick stuff come out for Knoxville. The Outlaws hit Jacksonville and Haubstadt next weekend.
In Central PA, it was a good few days to be Anthony Macri. He won both features Friday at Williams Grove, then went to Lincoln on Saturday and bagged $10 grand in the Weldon Sterner Memorial. That takes Macri's win count up to five races on the season. That Williams Grove show also featured a wild moment for Cale Thomas in the Shark Racing 1A and Danny Dietrich. Thomas caught the opening down the backstretch racing with Lance Dewease and went for a ride with that car on fire. Dietrich stopped his car just feet away and was unbuckling as he rolled to a stop. The big man was on the move quick, and he was the first one to Thomas, helping him get out of that crashed machine. Double D drawing praise from a bunch of folks for that one. He was fifth, third and second between the Grove and Lincoln. Thomas' tough weekend in the 1A continued with a late race crash at Lincoln on Saturday also.
At Port Royal, we had some late race fireworks between Justin Whittall and Logan Wagner. Those two throwing sliders for the lead, but they came together into turn one with seven to go. Wagner tried an inside move, but it looked like Whittall was also going low into one to maybe try and block that slider line. Whittall not happy with Wagner afterwards. That opened the door for Michael Walter to score his first career win at Port.
In Ohio, we had a race winner DQ'd post race at Attica on Friday. Scotty Thiel took the checkered on the track, but Devon Borden was awarded the victory when Thiel's car was found to have a wicker bill on the top wing that was too tall. Thiel's car with a two inch wicker, but this season Attica is only allowing inch and a half. If you might remember, Attica was one of the tracks last year that went against the trend of shrinking the wickers like we saw with the Outlaws and High Limit. Attica and Fremont actually allowing three inch top wing wickers. But new for this season, they adopted the All Star rulebook, which is just the High Limit rules, which only allow inch and a half. It's obviously on Thiel and his guys to understand the rules at every track they race at, but with all the swapping that's gone on, it's not hard to see why teams might get confused. It was Borden's first win since a Port Royal victory in the Stehman car over a year ago.
Other weekend open wheel winners included AJ Flick in the sprint car at Tri-City, Dominic Scelzi was a Sprint Car Challenge Tour winner at Merced, and young Levi Hillier won the 410 weekly opener at Skagit.
Moving on to late model stuff, this was the first weekend for teams to race on the new Hoosier right rear tires, but it didn't seem to slow down several of the top guys. Brandon Sheppard stayed hot Thursday, winning with MARS at Cedar County back in the family B5 after winning the Illini 100 the week before. And Bobby Pierce, after being concerned about the tires, went to 34 Raceway and swept the Slocum 50 weekend. It's still very early on, and there definitely seems to be some differences, but it didn't seem to cause drastic changes to those of us watching the races. Both national tours return to racing next weekend, and we'll see how the new rubber affects guys there.
At Paragon, Jason Jameson used a third to first move on a lap 35 restart to beat Hudson O'Neal in the Northern Allstar show on Friday night. Ricky Weiss led all 53 laps to take the Spring Nationals show at I-75. And Tyler Erb went 11th to the win in a messy show at Tazewell that saw a bunch of flat tires. It was Erb's first win since the National 100 in 2024. Joseph Joiner was a Southern Thunder Super Dirt Series winner at Southern Raceway on Saturday night over Dalton Cook.
And in the northeast, LJ Lombardo won his second career Super DIRTcar Series race on Friday at Albany Saratoga. He got by Alex Yankowski on lap 32 and drove on to the win. Yankowski's second place finish sees him take over the championship lead with Mat Williamson second and Erick Rudolph third. The big blocks back to action May 13th at Georgetown.
We will shut it down right there for the day. Hope you guys have a great Sunday out there and a great Easter if you celebrate, and we'll see you back here tomorrow!