DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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A quick hook, a wild photo, and a small but important chassis builder | Daily 4-21-2025

A sprint car deal over before it started, the small Tennessee fabrication shop behind several dirt late model chassis brands, and I've got a wild sprint car photo to share. Let's go!

It's Monday, April 21st, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

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Over the weekend, it was a tough couple of nights for Cale Thomas in his new spot in the Shark Racing 1A machine. Friday night at the Grove he hit the water barrels at the backstretch opening and went for a ride while battling Lance Dewease inside the top five. We talked about that one on the Sunday show because Danny Dietrich was there quickly to pull Thomas from the car as flames could be seen from the rear. And then Saturday night, Thomas had a solid run going at Lincoln Speedway, but ended up crashed there very late as well. The FloRacing cameras did not catch that incident in turn four, so maybe someone watching or listening has a better idea what transpired and can comment below about it. Word starting going around on Sunday that following the two crash weekend, Shark had made the decision to very quickly move on from Thomas, and Jeremy Elliott was the first to report it with his 90 at 9 video this morning. Thomas is out after three races, two crashes, and a top ten at BAPS. And the 1A is again hitting the transfer portal for a new driver to fill the seat left vacant by the retiring Jacob Allen. This might be one of the quickest hooks for a driver and team combo we've seen in a while. Going back a few weeks ago to when Thomas was hired, we knew initially that Shark had conversations with both Thomas and Zeb Wise, before deciding on Thomas. We also found out in the aftermath that Bobby Allen had made a call to Tanner Holmes, but Holmes couldn't commit to a full season because of his existing deal with Tarlton. Holmes put out a video on the situation to talk about what happened and explain his decision making. He said he could potentially run some races here and there to help out, but that he wasn't going to give up on his commitments. Of that group, Zeb was really the only free agent of the bunch, as Thomas also had an existing deal. He gave up the Demyan Rudzik 49X and a full All Star run to take the Shark deal. And in all of this, that's what really sucks I think. You get a driver to leave an existing deal to drive your car, just to fire him three races later. And make no mistake, I get that there are zero guarantees. I personally know what it feels like to get fired in racing. It's obvious that guys can't be crashing cars, and that this is just the nature of the beast, but even so, that's a tough pill to swallow. And it's a shame, because it's not like Thomas was slow. A solid charge on a BAPS track he'd never raced on before. Running towards the front at the Grove, and the same at Lincoln, outpacing guys with a ton more experience on those race tracks. But two unfortunate mistakes, and now it's all gone sideways. In a video posted today to social media, Thomas said getting his own 91 car back out is a possibility if nothing else materializes. As for Shark, I'm not sure which direction they go now. They could still maybe get Holmes to fill in, although his schedule is pretty busy for the next month in the Tarlton 21. Zeb is obviously still out there, and I've seen a lot of Central PA fans pushing for Dylan Cisney. But there aren't a lot of options, at least free agent ones, at the moment.

Before we move on, I did want to share this image of Daison Pursley's car from Saturday night at Knoxville. This incredible shot shared by The Driver's Project and taken by Daryl Turford, shows Pursley's left rear tire exploding into turn one. Pursley has had a tough start to the season, and shreadding a left rear so early in a heat race like this was crazy. He and that Buch team have just two top tens in 13 starts this season. Fantastic image though, great work by Turford. You can see the image over at facebook.com/driversproject.

In the dirt late model chassis game, we've had some movement in recent days with Category 5. Remember that was the deal started by Stormy Scott and Jason Durham, that had since quit building new cars. They debuted back at the Wild West Shootout in 2024, and did have a few customers. Stormy though decided to go back modified racing full time, and Durham has taken over as crew chief for Hudson O'Neal at SSI. Initially Durham was going to continue providing support to existing Category 5 customers, but as of last week, Category 5 officially no longer exists. We talked last week on the show about Arkansas driver Tyler Stevens swapping to a Longhorn he'd bought from Mike Marlar, and I don't know how many other Category 5 teams were or are left out there. Category 5 though no longer exists because the Seawrights purchased what was left of it, and have rebranded it to Mach X Chassis. They plan to continue offering help for any cars still floating around out there, and new chassis will start rolling out soon. Category 5s were being built by Bruce Nunnally's Brucebilt Performance in Tennessee, and that will continue under Mach X. Sam Seawright debuted the Mach X house car this past weekend at I-75 against the Spring Nationals, and brother JT Seawright will run the chassis deal. In a release, JT said their plan is to get the house car operation quote "dialed in" and then start taking customer orders after that. Sam is a Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series full timer this season, and currently sits fifth in the standings after four races. He was a series winner at the Talladega Short Track a few weeks ago, and has four total wins in 2025. All of that success came in a Longhorn on Penske shocks. At I-75, the Mach X debuted with a 16th place finish behind Ricky Weiss' win. The real winner in so many of these chassis brands might just be Nunnally and his Brucebilt shop, that sits on the outskirts of Knoxville. Besides continuing to build these cars for the Seawrights, Nunnally also builds the BMF chassis for Cory Hedgecock, and the Sniper for Ricky Weiss. His shop also sells parts, turns out other race cars, and is a repair center certified by Rocket chassis. Nunnally is a disciple of hall of famer CJ Rayburn, having built cars in his shop in the 1980s. He also spent many years working for Scott Bloomquist and Team Zero before eventually starting his own deal. It seems as though he's the guy you call if you want to venture into this space.

We'll call it good right there for today. Hope you guys have a great Monday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!