DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Tire doping penalties changed on appeal for Bobby Pierce, Devin Moran, Kyle Bronson | Daily 3-28-2024

The World of Outlaws and DIRTcar penalized and suspended three big time super late model racers for doped tires at Volusia. But as of yesterday, the case is closed and the penalties have been changed. We'll talk through what the appeals panel decided and what it all means. Let's go!

It's Thursday, March 28th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

Over in the merch store today, new DIRTRACKR shirts are in stock. It had been a while since we did a merch drop, I think the last time new shirts hit the store was last summer. These new ones are 100% cotton, and the color is called heavy metal. I've got sizes from large to 3X ready to ship. I had some 4X as well, but they are already gone. You can get a shirt and one of the new DIRTRACKR stickers right now over at shop.dirtrackr.com. If you order today, I will ship today. If you've already ordered, your new shirts are in the mail to you, so hopefully you'll have them soon. New hats are in the works as well, but they are probably a few weeks away still, so you can look forward to that. I do still have a single size small of the under the lights logo blue shirt. You can snag it for $10. Browse the merch any time at shop.dirtrackr.com.

Also, one quick show note for you. We are changing up the schedule a bit this week. There won't be a Sunday Daily show because of the holiday, but to make up for it, there will be a Friday daily. So even though today is Thursday, this is not the final show of the week. We'll be back tomorrow with a fresh daily. Tell your friends, spread the word.

Alright, on to the big news from Wednesday. It was just a little more than two weeks ago that we learned of tire penalties for three super late model drivers following DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia. Bobby Pierce was fined, lost points, and was suspended for 30 days from World of Outlaws competition, and Devin Moran and Kyle Bronson were fined and suspended from DIRTcar sanctioned events. The suspensions for Pierce and Bronson were likely going to lead to those two drivers falling off the series, while Moran is a Lucas regular, and his status with that series was not affected. I want to clarify that the World of Outlaws and Lucas were aligned on the tires in swimming pools situation and rules bulletin, but not on tire testing. That's why the suspensions didn't apply to Lucas competition. Also, for all of those saying that Pierce would go run Lucas full time, that isn't happening. Pierce would have had to submit a loyalty deposit before the season opener in January and maintain attendance, but to date he's only raced three of the 15 events. So he wouldn't get any of the perks, and he's 1300 points out of Ricky Thornton Jr's championship lead. Anyways, back to the news. Following an appeal in front of the independent commission of industry personnel, the penalties for all three drivers were amended. The commission upheld the findings from the lab testing, that all three failed the tire tests, and all drivers are still subject to loss of purse money and fines. For Pierce specifically, because his infraction happened during an Outlaw show, he also lost points for the race. Where this was significantly amended though, was the amount of points for Pierce, and the suspensions. Instead of losing the 144 points for the race, and an additional 150, the commission reduced the points lost to just the 144 for the race. So instead of Pierce being well outside the top 20, he's now 16th, and 138 back of leader Brandon Sheppard. Also, the 30 day suspensions for all three drivers were lifted, so once fines are paid, all three are eligible to continue racing in both DIRTcar and World of Outlaws events. Since the Thunderhill weekend was rained out, Pierce and Bronson could decide to stay on as full time Outlaw members and remain very much in the championship fight. A couple of other important points here. The fine for Pierce was actually increased as well, from $1000 to $2000. The purse money that all three have to return will be redistributed down through the competitors from those individual race nights. And all three drivers and teams are on probabtion for the remainder of the season.

Love him or hate him, I still think Brian Carter deserves a ton of credit for dealing with these issues head on publicly. This is not something we've seen from him in the past, and just like the day the penalties were announced originally, Carter made the rounds yesterday. He was again on a DIRTVision video, and jumped on for nearly 30 minutes with Kenny Wallace. And again, Herm didn't hold back on the questions he asked. Carter did share that the appeals were done separately, and remotely for all three sides. And if you are curious about who the independent commission members are, as I've said before, you can see all the details in the DIRTcar and World of Outlaws rulebooks available online.

As for what's next, I don't think anyone knows at this point. I haven't seen public comments from any of the drivers about the outcome of the appeals process, Dirt on Dirt said they reached out to Pierce for comment on his Outlaw status and didn't hear back. I also shot Bobby a message as well, I'll keep you posted on a response. Bronson remains eighth in the Outlaw standings, and like I said before, Pierce is 16th. A 138 point deficit for Pierce is absolutely possible to make up, especially with as fast as he's been. He raced with Lucas this past weekend at Atomic and Brownstown, and left with two top fives, and laps led at Brownstown. Neither national tour is racing this weekend, and a number of drivers are headed for regional events, including Pierce who will race the Nippy 50 at Maquoketa. Bronson has the crate shows at Needmore on his schedule, and Moran's website shows he'll be taking the weekend off. The Illini 100 is the next World of Outlaws event, which is still two weeks away. And at this moment it's still on Pierce's schedule.

Moving on, the final episode of the 410 sprint car build series with Zach Hampton premiered today on the DIRTRACKR YouTube channel. In this 10th and final video, Zach adds shocks, body panels, tires, and the top wing. Check it out today when you have some time. Even though the build is basically done though, we still have some more content coming. I do have a shop tour video to share and there might be a bonus episode or two coming in the future. If you liked the series, let Zach know, because I think we could talk him into more content in the future, especially as he focuses on Knoxville this season, both in his own car and working for Dennis Gainey's Team DGRD. You can catch up any time on the entire 10 episode series at youtube.com/dirtrackr.

Before we close out today, some schedule news for you from USAC. The dates for the BC39 at the dirt track at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway are set. USAC national midgets will be on the dirt at Indy September 26th through the 28th. This one has become a favorite on the schedule, for both fans and competitors. They were right around 70 cars last season. We are still about a month away from the start of the USAC midget season, which begins April 26th at Kokomo.

That's it for the show today. Don't forget, as I mentioned earlier, there will be a daily on Friday. So stay tuned for that.

Hope you guys have a great Thursday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!