DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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This sprint car legend is back tonight after two years away | Daily 4-23-2024

On the show today, Sammy Swindell is back in a 410 sprint car, High Limit is headed for the Ditch, Selinsgrove allows dished sprint car wings, and much more. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, April 23rd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

If you want even more dirt racing content, check out our free email newsletter called The Slider. In the last two weeks, we've had a piece in there about lawn mower racing, plus interviews with sprint car driver Kyle Reinhardt and High Limit announcer Chase Raudman. You can read past issues and sign up to get them delivered right to your inbox over at dirtrackr.com/theslider.

The Kubota High Limit Sprint Cars are headed for Riverside International tonight for the second of 10 midweek championship series races. This Riverside date was postponed from a few weeks ago. There shouldn't be any weather issues today though, knock on wood. I had a question in the comments this week about High Limit points when it comes to these midweek championship races. Every event on the schedule is part of the season long championship, but these midweek races also count towards that title. So a race like tonight counts for both championships. And the midweek deal has it's own separate point fund, so this is two championships in one effectively. At the moment, Tyler Courtney leads the season long points over Brad Sweet, Brent Marks, Corey Day, and Jacob Allen. Those teams occupy the five guaranteed charter spots at the moment. While the midweek deal is being led by Corey Day after his win at Red Dirt last week over Courtney and Marks. Riverside hasn't had big time 410 racing since the World of Outlaws came through in 2018. That race was won by Daryn Pittman. Brad Sweet and Rico Abreu were top five runners that night, so they could be drivers to watch today. Rico is still looking for his first High Limit win of 2024, as is Brent Marks. The field tonight should be around 40, and here is the list that was released last night. Definitely plenty of local guys in on this one, and you'll have father and son in the field with both Landon and Tim Crawley entered. I think this will be the first time an Outlaw driver is using a freebie this season with Landon coming to race. Besides the High Limit regulars, there are plenty of local and regional guys including Howard Moore, Derek Hagar, and Joe B. Miller. Haubstadt Outlaw winner Brady Bacon is back with the wing on, and there is a name here we haven't seen in a 410 show in a while. 68 year old Sammy Swindell is listed in Dale Howard's 47X, and I think this will be Sammy's first 410 appearance since 2022. He's been running mostly 360 stuff in the last year or two, and that includes a third place last Friday night at the Talladega Short Track with the USCS. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won that one. Swindell has never appeared with High Limit, although is car owner Dale Howard was a feature starter with High Limit at East Bay back in February. Swindell's last touring 410 appearances included races with the Outlaws and All Stars in 2022, with his last coming at the Knoxville Nationals that season. Sammy's last Outlaw top ten finish was at Eldora in September of 2021, and his last touring top five was with the All Stars in 2018. He did win five times in 2023, including in ASCS regional competition, with the USCS, and POWRi regional. The hall of famer was also at the Chili Bowl back in January for the 34th time in his career. We'll see if he can get into tonight's feature against a tough field. After tonight, we won't see High Limit again until next Wednesday at 81 Speedway. They are off this weekend, although I think you could see several teams venture to Knoxville for the Outlaw weekend. That is, if the weather plays nice. If you aren't headed for Riverside tonight, you can watch it live on FloRacing. If you need a Flo subscription, click the link below in the video description, or the links at dirtrackr.com. That helps me out at no extra cost to you.

Two sprint car schedule updates for you. First, the NARC 410 sprint cars were supposed to be at the Stockton Dirt Track this weekend, but that event has been pushed back to May 19th. If you might remember back to a couple of weeks ago, the reconfigured Stockton caused a bunch of problems at the last NARC show, and track operator Tony Nocetti is working on fixes. Postponing this weekend's action gives him more time to make those changes. We'll see NARC again on May 4th at Tulare.

Also, the ASCS has made a couple of schedule changes for the summer, including shifting a trip to Montana. Now, the 360 tour will go to Dodge City August 16th, then Lincoln County in Nebraska on the 17th. Following that will be Big Sky in Montana on August 23rd and 24th, and then Electric City Speedway on August 30th and 31st. You can find the full ASCS schedule over at ascsracing.com.

Did you guys see this deal at Selinsgrove from Sunday? They hosted a 410 sprint car show that was won by Austin Bishop. Through the course of that program, it was revealed that Selinsgrove is allowing dished wings on sprint cars, and two drivers took the opportunity to use them. They were TJ Stutts and Devon Borden. But instead of this being a last minute change, Jeremy Elliott reported that this has apparently been in the rules at Selinsgrove for over a year, but nobody noticed. No other area 410 tracks allow dished wings, and the national series don't allow them either. They are allowed to be used down in Australia, but not everyone chooses to run them. At first, I thought this was in response to the wicker bill stuff that's been going on, but if it's been in the rules as long as they say it has, then clearly it's not that. It wasn't a magic bullet, as Stutts ran second, and Borden 12th. Jeremy made the point today on his 90 at 9 that the racers should have more options like this in terms of car setup, but wings are nearly $1000 each. So are we not concerned about budgets and costs now? At some point, I'm going to need a racer to explain to me why they are okay spending a couple grand on extra wings to be able to have dished as an option, or spend more money on tires if we open up the rule to include brands outside of Hoosier, but $600 for a fire bottle is too much. I've never seen anyone complain about the cost of titanium bolt kits and carbon fiber body pieces. But everyone certainly has those. And let me be clear, I'm not advocating against any of this. But don't complain about the cost to go racing, and then be okay with all of this other stuff. Those two sides don't jive.

One other thing to come out of Selinsgrove on Sunday was Callum Williamson's first American top ten. The Australian driver debuted in John Trone's 39 on Saturday at Lincoln, ending his day in the B-Main. But the team made a last minute decision to run Sunday at Selinsgrove, and it paid off with a sixth place finish. Williamson will continue racing in PA over the next few weeks, with his first Outlaw appearance scheduled for May 8th at Lincoln.

That's it for the daily show today. High Limit is the only action on today's dirt racing schedule. Make sure to stop by dirtrackr.com/watchtonight to see all your streaming options. That does include weekly racing at Beaver Dam, and outlaw karts at Millbridge.

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