DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Shocking news, not shocking news, and sprint car racing's first head-to-head weekend | Daily 4-11-2024
A late model guy shocks us with sprint car news, a team and driver pairing finally ends officially, the Outlaws and High Limit go head-to-head for the first time and more today, let's go!
It's Thursday, April 11th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
Over in the DIRTRACKR merch store, stock is starting to get low on the new t-shirts. At last check I'm down to the last seven larges and just two XLs remain. There are plenty of the stickers still in stock, and I should hopefully have a new batch of stickers arrive tomorrow. I got the new Daily show logo featuring Kubota in sticker form, so you can look forward to those, along with the new hats. If you'd like to grab something, head over to shop.dirtrackr.com.
We had quite the news day on Wednesday around the sport, with one completely unexpected move, and another that's been coming for at least a few weeks now.
First, late model driver Brandon Sheppard announced that he will make his World of Outlaws Sprint Car debut coming up on May 1st at Jacksonville Speedway. Sheppard has partnered up with sprint car and midget driver Jake Neuman and his team to make this happen. Shepp's B5 sprint car will feature Valvoline prominently as the main sponsor on a very cool design from Dylan Braddy and Nightowl Design. At the moment, Sheppard is the World of Outlaws Late Model Series championship leader heading into the Illini 100 weekend at Farmer City. In 27 starts already in 2024, he has two wins, 12 top fives, and 24 top tens. This move was so unexpected that I had industry friends reaching out to me to ask if it was actually real. We are obviously not that far down the road from April Fools, and I think some maybe figured it was a late joke. But I can assure you it is not. Jake Neuman, who Sheppard will drive for, is a regular at Jacksonville, and I think this will be a good track for the late model star to make this happen at. It's not Volusia, or Knoxville, or Eldora, it's a short track where BShepp should be able to get comfortable. And you can be sure that he will get some testing laps in ahead of time. Knowing how these guys operate, he will not be jumping into a 410 sprint car cold. This won't be the first time Sheppard has run open wheel cars anyway, and not his first 410 sprint car race. He made a MOWA appearance in 2011 when he was just 18 years old, he had three POWRi midget starts in 2010, and raced at the Chili Bowl in 2011. I personally love this crossover, and honestly wish we saw more of these types of deals. We've seen plenty of drivers go the other way, from open wheel to late models, but not many this other direction. Kyle Larson, Tyler Courtney, and coming up Logan Seavey are a few examples. The only recent examples of late model drivers going sprint car racing including Devin Moran racing John Shewbrooks' A79 sprint car in Ohio, and Brandon Overton dipped his toe in with Jason Sides at World Finals back in 2021. That stretch of nine days around his World of Outlaws Sprint Car debut for Shepp will be a busy one. He's got late model races at Arrowhead and 81 on April 26th and 27th, Jacksonville on May 1st, then three nights at Mississippi Thunder May 2nd through the 4th.
The other move that I alluded to in the open was the parting of driver Tanner English and the Viper Motorsports team. English had been with Viper since late in 2022, but there has been plenty of chatter in recent weeks about this deal going sideways. It's something I've been asked about and messaged about a bunch. This all started when English showed up at Brownstown with a car on an open trailer that was not with Viper, but at the time we were told they were still together, and that they would be full time with the Hunt the Front series. English would run HTF with Viper, and elsewhere on his own. But the chatter then got even louder late in March when Tyler Clem went down to Southern Raceway with the Southern All Stars in the Viper 63V in partnership with Big Frog Motorsports. And in recent weeks, English has been driving a Longhorn for Hatcher Motorsports, finishing on the podium at Clarksville during the Toilet Bowl, and with the Northern All Stars at Brownstown last weekend. Last night's announcement seemed to confirm what was very clearly already a done deal. According to the announcement, English plans on racing this weekend at Farmer City with the World of Outlaws, while the Viper team is headed for All-Tech with the Hunt the Front series with Clem driving. So that seems to make it clear that Clem and Viper will stick with their commitment to the series, while English is off the tour. Remember we talked yesterday about Hunt the Front gaining Chris Ferguson, while also likely losing Dalton Cook.
Looking at racing coming up this weekend, we do have more cancellations. The Kubota High Limit race at Texarkana 67 scheduled for Friday night has been lost because of flooding at the facility. Racing is still a go for Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway. And I saw just a few minutes ago that the Maverick Winged Sprint Series has cancelled their Friday show at Bloomington because of rain. So make sure to check before you head out to the track this weekend with plenty of spring weather out there.
Saturday will be the first time we'll have the two national sprint car series directly head-to-head, with High Limit at TMS and the World of Outlaws at Pevely. This will be our first chance to see how things go with car counts, and if it will bring other teams out to the track because of the added opportunity to make features. I would expect at least a full field of cars for High Limit, as they are bringing 18 full timers, plus Tanner Holmes, Anthony Macri, Blake Hahn, I'm assuming Sam Hafertepe, and probably several others who raced with POWRi last weekend. Brian Brown is a question mark at the moment, as he has both the High Limit weekend and the Outlaw weekend on his schedule. So we'll see what direction he goes. As for the Outlaws, besides their 12 teams, they'll be joined by Garet Williamson, Chase Randall, Derek Hagar, and Joe B Miller. This Outlaw weekend drew 34 cars a year ago, but we know for sure that 12 of those are going High Limit instead.
Elsewhere in open wheel racing, you've got Xtreme Outlaw midgets at Farmer City, weekly action in Ohio and Central Pennsylvania, Sprint Invaders at 34 Raceway, NARC at Hanford, and USAC sprint cars at Lawrenceburg.
Dirt late model racers have several big choices this weekend, including the Illini 100 at Farmer City with the World of Outlaws. Saturday is $20,000 to win. The MLRA season starts at Lucas Oil Speedway, with that Saturday show also $20,000 to win. The Hunt the Front series is at All-Tech like I mentioned, two nights with $15k on the line Saturday. And there's $5000 to win and $10,000 to win with the Southern All Stars between Moulton and North Georgia. I think you'll see most of the big teams split between Farmer City, Wheatland, and All-Tech.
Drop me a comment, let me know what you're looking forward to this weekend and if you're headed out anywhere.
That's it for the daily show this week. Make sure to stop by dirtrackr.com/watchtonight to see all of the dirt racing streaming options.
Hope you guys have a great Thursday and a great weekend out there, we'll see you back here on Sunday!