DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Donny Schatz, Tony Stewart Racing go high-tech at Volusia | Daily 2-7-2024
The World of Outlaws Sprint Car season opens tonight, and we'll talk some changes to the full timers group, plus some interesting things that happened with Donny Schatz last night during practice. We'll also get into Lucas at East Bay, the Short Track Super Series and more. Let's go!
It's Wednesday, February 7th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
Before we get rolling, today's show is supported by Jeremy Elliott's Sprintcarunlimited.com. If you're a sprint car fan, there is nobody in the dirt racing media space that covers the sport like he does. Sprintcarunlimited.com has breaking news, analysis, commentary, videos, the weekly podcast and more. A subscription to sprintcarunlimited.com is only $35 a year, that's less than $3 a month, and I myself have been a paying subscriber for a long time now. His deeper dives on stories, with all the extra leg work he does with research and interviews is unbeatable to understand the bigger picture. You hear me reference him all the time on this show. Beyond sprintcarunlimited.com, Jeremy has also made a big push into YouTube this year, and has launched his daily 90 at 9 shows, and his Deep Dive show on Thursdays. The 90 at 9 is a quick video segment he posts Monday through Friday exploring a sprint car topic, and the Deep Dive features long form interviews with the sports' biggest names. Deep Dive guests so far have included Brian Carter, Kyle Larson, Kevin Swindell, and Jason Reed. He's also got a new show concept coming on Tuesday nights in the future. So watch out for that. The Sprint Car Unlimited YouTube channel pairs nicely with the website content, and is free to subscribe to. I'll have links below in the video description to the site and the YouTube channel, so subscribe to both and tell Jeremy that DIRTRACKR sent you!
At Volusia on Tuesday, we had another round of UMP modified action, plus sprint car practice. The six pack of modified wins went to Kyle Strickler, Tom Berry Jr., Charlie Mefford, Tyler Nicely, Lucas Lee, and the legend Ken Schrader. Nicely is now two-for-two the week. The modified teams are back again tonight for another round, and they will be mixed in with the very first World of Outlaws sprint car program of 2024. The DIRTcar Nationals schedule is a bit different this year, with the All Stars no longer in existence. Previously we'd get the first two nights of sprint car action as All Star sanctioned, then the rest Outlaw nights. But now, they've added a fourth Outlaw night to the mix. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are all $12,000 to win and $1200 to start, and Saturday is $20,000 to win, and $1600 to start. So nice money available this week. Sprint car teams had three practice sessions last night with Brent Marks leading the first two, and Buddy Kofoid topping session three. Marks was overall quick time.
There was a news item that came out of yesterday, with Kraig Kinser and the Premier Motorsports team announcing they had signed on for the full Outlaw slate. Kraig has been an Outlaw regular plenty in the past, but went to a pick and choose schedule for 2023. He picked up a FAST win at Montpelier in June. The addition of Kinser should bring the Outlaws to 13 full timers, but it sounds like maybe it's only 12. There are questions about the status of Noah Gass. He had originally announced his return for season three, but he was not present at the Outlaw media day last week, and did not participate last night for practice. We'll see if they show up tonight, but I don't know that I'd put money on that.
Quick sidenote, I've had a few questions about somewhere to see paint schemes for the year. On the DIRTRACKR Twitter account, I retweeted a link yesterday where you can find a bunch. Steve Thornton over at mastergassers.com has done a nice compilation, and his site is becoming a nice place for info. He was actually one of the first contributers to The Slider. So check him out.
One interesting thing that came out of last night's sprint car practice at Volusia was the setup on Donny Schatz's TSR 15 sprint car. I was sent a photo of it from early in the day, and then sprint car driver and past road racer Sean Rayhall tweeted about it later in the evening. The first photo was from Peter Turford's Southern Ontario Sprints Facebook page. You can see a small device on the back of the frame, next to the Advance Auto Parts logo. There also seems to be some added stuff around the left front shock area. And in Rayhall's tweet, he referenced a photo from the Outlaw Twitter account where you can see Schatz's car in the lanes, and some stuff just inside that left side body panel, behind the seat. What we are looking at here is a fairly complex data acquisition system. These types of systems are not allowed to be used during racing nights, but since last night was just open practice, it was legal to run. These types of systems are used pretty regularly by some of the top dirt late model teams, but you don't see them as much with sprint cars. When I had a chance to go see Brandon Sheppard test at Millbridge, they were using one, and you can see some bits and pieces of it in this photo. They had the system mounted behind the seat as well if I remember correctly, and a display mounted in the cockpit, which they were looking at after each run. Thanks to the info from Rayhall, and my guy Bozi on Twitter, we know this was a Motec setup on Schatz's car. These Motec systems can cost anywhere from $3000 to up over $20,000 depending on how they are configured. Based on what was seen, the estimate for the setup on the 15 is probably towards the higher end of that cost. And they can collect data on driver inputs like steering, throttle, and brake usage, plus suspension and engine information. According to a friend at the track, Schatz's team was gathering info on suspension bits like the torsion arms, shock position, tire temps, ride height, and more. We know the last few seasons have been a struggle for Schatz and the 15 to try and regain some of their past form, and it can't hurt to gather some more information on how that car is working. It's not a simple task though to digest what these systems output, and it sounds like maybe the team is getting some extra support in that area. We'll see if they are able to translate the data into meaningful performance gains on the track.
It looks like we should be pretty close to 40 sprint cars tonight, including all the Outlaw regulars, a bunch of High Limit teams and more. We should have cars on track around 5:30PM ET, and if you aren't headed for Volusia, watch it live on DIRTVision.
At East Bay last night, the Lucas show was again handled by Rocket Chassis. They took the top three starting positions for the main event, and it was Hudson O'Neal and the house car taking the victory. Tyler Erb led seven laps early, but it was mostly O'Neal out front. It wasn't a points paying event, but still O'Neal's third series win of the season. Daulton Wilson ended up second, yet again, with Jonathan Davenport third. A big field of cars is on hand this week for the final WinterNationals ever, and 75 participated last night. We've got a similar setup for tonight, with the race bumping to $7000 to win. If you can't get there, watch live on FloRacing.
Last night's Flo broadcast at East Bay included Dale McDowell in the booth with James Essex and Dustin Jarrett, and I really enjoyed his commentary. He was a natural on the mic, and hopefully we get to hear from him more often. A lot of good context there, and the driver stuff really elevates the broadcast I think.
Elsewhere tonight, the Short Track Super Series 2024 season begins at All-Tech Raceway in Florida. They had practice last night and more than 60 northeast modifieds on the property. Alex Payne went quick time on the evening. They'll race each of the next four nights, with $5000, $6000, $8000, and $10,000 to win shows coming up. A bunch of big names have made the trip, including Matt Sheppard, Stewart Friesen, Erick Rudolph, Peter Britten, Larry Wight, and more. This has turned into a nice few weeks for these mod guys, with both the Short Track Super Series and Super DIRTcar Series in action early. After this weekend, these teams will shift over to Volusia starting next Wednesday. If you want to watch All-Tech tonight, it will be live on Flo as well.
Looking around at the other dirt racing podcasts this week, Winged Nation was back yesterday, and their first two guests were Brad Doty, and of course me. I talked a bunch of High Limit and World of Outlaws topics with Steve Post and Erin Evernham. Thanks to them and producer Craig Moore for having me on. Elsewhere, Quicktime has Brent Marks, Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks has Cody Bova, Hoogie's Garage has Mick Sallers and Wes Irwin, Turn 2 Terribles has Austin Reed, Ohio Dirt has Creed Kemenah, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters, Dirt Track Confessions, and Racing Roundup. To check out all these shows and more, head over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
That's it for the Daily show today. The streaming schedule is starting to ramp up for the year, so make sure to keep an eye on dirtrackr.com/watchtonight if you are curious what your viewing options are.
Hope you guys have a great Wednesdasy out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!