DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Sprint car owner calls driver "selfish, immature, and unprofessional" | Daily 4-7-2024
A midwest sprint car deal goes sideways between owner and driver, sprint cars after dark gets spicy in California, and plenty more from the dirt racing weekend. Let's go!
It's Sunday, April 7th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
We'll kick this show off with news that just popped up here a little bit ago. The Kubota High Limit sprint cars will not be at Riverside on Tuesday this week as originally scheduled. The race has been pushed to Tuesday, April 23rd because of thunderstorms and possible flooding in the area. The series will now restart it's season on April 12th at Texarkana 67 Speedway, that's this coming Friday. After that it's the Texas Motor Speedway dirt track, RPM, Red Dirt, Southern Oklahoma, Salina Highbanks, then back to the ditch on April 23rd. I think after that, you'll see a number of the High Limit teams go to Knoxville that following weekend to race with the World of Outlaws.
Before we get into some of the racing, there are a few other news items to cover off on. First, we had a bit of a strange situation pop up late Thursday into Friday in the sprint car world. Australian driver Lachlan McHugh just finished up his season down under and was set to travel to the US to begin another summer driving Brandon Ikenberry's 25 car. A year ago, McHugh had 39 winged starts in the US, picking up a win at Shelby County, and had six total top fives and 10 top tens competing around the midwest and with the major traveling series. But McHugh shared to social media that he would not be making the trip, and that he needed a break from racing. He apologized to his sponsors and supporters and wished the Deuce 5 Motorsports team success. Ikenberry though, was not pleased with the late decision, and he shared to Facebook quote "What this kid did was very selfish, immature, and unprofessional. With zero time to decide an alternative route we are left scrambling to figure things out" unquote. He went on to say this is a lesson for younger kids out there, that talent can only get you so far, and that commitment and sacrifice were necessary to be the best. I'd say we can probably assume we won't see McHugh back in the Ikenberry 25 at any point in the future. I have a hard time finding fault here on either side, really. If McHugh isn't fully committed, it's not a good idea to make the trip and be miserable all summer. But I also don't blame Ikenberry for being upset about finding out very late he suddenly didn't have a driver. The 25 though did make two Outlaw appearances over the weekend, with a late call to Kerry Madsen to fill the seat. The team had some issues on Friday at US36 and were done early in the night, but bounced back to finish 13th on Saturday at Arrowhead Speedway.
Two other sprint car notes. First, California driver Kalib Henry will head east to pilot the Running Boxer Farm 101 car this season. The team will race this coming week at Attica Raceway Park, and I'm sure a heavy slate of Ohio action is coming up. Along with that, the team has hired crew chief Kevin Osmolski, who was with Parker Price Miller for a while previously. And High Limit's Chase Raudman mentioned in a Friday YouTube video on his channel that Chase Briscoe will be making his season debut in his 410 sprint car this coming weekend with High Limit at Texarkana 67 and the TMS dirt track. Texas is next for the NASCAR Cup Series teams after Martinsville today, so he'll be in the area.
And one dirt late model news bit, Earl Pearson Jr. has decided to chase the MLRA championship in 2024 after falling off the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. The MLRA opener was rained out this weekend at Tri City, and they will now start the year at Lucas Oil Speedway April 11th and 12th.
With the World of Outlaws this weekend, David Gravel extended his championship lead with now 11 races complete. A win Friday at US36 and a second last night at Arrowhead pushed his points lead to now 40 over Donny Schatz. Gravel now has four straight finishes of 2nd or better. It may have been a weekend sweep for Sheldon Haudenschild, who won the Jason Johnson Classic last night, and who was leading past half way on Friday before he tangled with the lapper of Chris Windom and finished 12th. Gio Scelzi bounced back from a tough night at 81 Speedway the week before to grab two top tens, even though he needed a provisional Friday after blowing a tire in the night's LCS. He did charge from 25th to ninth, and led laps last night before finishing third. The Outlaws are back next weekend at Pevely for two nights.
At Texas Motor Speedway, Brent Marks picked up the Friday night POWRi sprint car win. The Saturday show was cancelled because of high winds. Marks had an early battle with Brenham Crouch, who ended up spinning out of that fight, but the 19M was unchallenged late in the going. Marks, Blake Hahn, and Noah Gass were the night's podium finishers. The TMS dirt track doesn't get used often, and I was told POWRi worked on it for a few weeks to start getting it into shape. Remember that High Limit is going there this coming Saturday, and again in October. There were some issues on Friday though, I was sent a few photos of tires that were not ideal. But apparently High Limit's competition director Mike Hess was in attendance, and hopefully with a week now to get it worked in, the track crew can get things sorted. We talked last week about Marks and Crouch heading to TMS to get that early look at the track before the High Limit show, as they are series full timers. POWRi had also advertised Chris Windom going there, but they ended up racing with the Outlaws all weekend. That extra track time could pay dividends for these two cars, especially for Marks who is at the moment and likely will be in the mix for the championship battle all season.
In weekend late model action, Mike Marlar bagged $30,000 last night in the season opener for the XR Super Series. He got the lead when early front runner Dale McDowell slowed on lap 14 with a mechanical issue. Devin Moran made a late charge, but had to settle for second. There was a wild moment on that lap 14 restart that ended up collecting Brandon Overton, Jimmy Owens, and Ricky Thornton Jr. had some damage as well. Guys were three wide down the backstretch, and things closed up quickly. You don't often see drivers of that caliber get caught up together like that. XR is back today, running the $12,000 to win show that was originally schedule for Friday.
Ashton Winger and Kyle Bronson were Spring Nationals winners at Buckshot and East Alabama. Bronson nipped Zach Mitchell on the final lap for that EAMS win. Tyler Stevens and Morgan Bagley were Comp Cams winners, and Dennis Erb Jr. bagged $5000 at Brownstown with James Essex's Northern All Stars.
Darron Fuqua and Jake Timm grabbed USMTS wins at Humboldt Speedway, but Saturday's finale was postponed. Karter Sarff and Kale Drake were Xtreme Outlaw midget winners at US36 and Sweet Springs. Kevin Thomas Jr. was a USAC CRA winner at Mohave Valley, Eric Riggins won the USCS show at Cherokee, and Danny Dietrich won yesterday at Port Royal.
Finally today, sprint cars after dark got a little spicy last night. Both the NARC 410 series and the Sprint Car Challenge Tour were in action at the Stockton Dirt Track. Stockton looking very different after being reprofiled and now resembling sort of a smaller dirt version of Martinsville. Much flatter and very paperclip shaped. It sounds like the jury is out on the new setup. Justin Sanders won the SCCT portion of the night and Cole Macedo took NARC win number two. We had fireworks though between Tim Kaeding, DJ Netto, and what I'm guessing was a track safety official. Before half way, Netto and TK were battling for second, and Netto muscled his way by the 0 machine, driving up over the berm in turn four. Contact between the two then led Kaeding to get turned into the frontstretch wall and he was none too pleased about it. He was quickly out of the car and he ran all the way down to turn one to confront Netto. It appeared initially it was just a heated conversation, but it looked like maybe there was a late punch thrown. The safety official then pulled TK out, and there was a brief altercation there as well. The feature was eventually stopped with two laps remaining and Macedo declared the winner. I feel like sprint cars after dark rarely fails to disappoint. NARC is back this weekend at Hanford.
That's it for the daily show today. You do have some streaming options on this Sunday, so make sure to visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Hope you guys have a great Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!