DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Two sides of danger illustrated by cars crashing out of race tracks | Daily 4-24-2024

Corey Day is that guy, Tanner Thorson bounces back, several big name High Limit guys struggle, and yes, we'll talk about that fencing. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, April 24th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

So, wild night last night at Riverside, wouldn't you say? It's a shame that the track's safety equipment, or lack thereof, overshadowed everything, because even with the surface issues and the track having water coming up, I thought the feature was pretty good. We'll get to the racing here in a minute. I've ranted plenty of times in that past on this show about safety, and the need for things to get better, so I'm probably not going to go full soapbox today. But clearly the fencing at Riverside is not effective at much of anything. You don't need to do any sort of major investigation to see that it's inadequate at best. A major sprint car series hadn't been to the Ditch since the Outlaws were there in 2018, and maybe there was a reason for that. And I don't think it's car support or a lack of fans buying tickets. Looking back at that old DIRTVision video, the wall around the track is better then it was then, but clearly more needs to be done here if they are going to continue hosting big time sprint car racing. Tim Crawley's early crash in the feature was our first warning sign, as even his hit took out part of the turn one fencing. And then we got lucky that Brian Bell wasn't injured when he went through the fence in turn three. He did hit the light pole, which is really bad, and I would not characterize his crash as a hard one. He rode the wall in three and under no circumstances should that car have left the track area. It wasn't a big flip, or a high speed collision. The World of Outlaws have Riverside on their schedule for two nights in October. Maybe we'll see something done before that happens.

The Outlaws vs. High Limit stuff is obviously an undercurrent to all of this as well that can't be ingnored. High Limit is trying to create their own footprint and expand into some places maybe the Outlaws don't go to often, and we know there have been some lines in the sand drawn. But as I've said plenty of times before, we need better from the tracks and series. And I think a key distinction needs to be made when it comes to safety and danger at these races. We need to keep drivers from harm, there is no question about that. I want the illusion of danger, not actual danger. But to some extent, the drivers know what they are signing up for, and they are somewhat equipped to handle it. Roll cages, seat belts, helmets, fire suits, etc. As someone who used to do a dangerous job, I understand it. You accept what can happen when you put the helmet on, and honestly that's part of the appeal. I'm not going to sit here and say I didn't enjoy having my head in the lions mouth for nearly 16 years. But where you lose me on the danger stuff is all of the people who didn't sign up for it. People like fans and track workers. And when you have cars leaving the ball park like we had last night, the week before at Salina, the street stock deal in New Zealand, or nearly the sprint car at Big Diamond last year, suddenly other people are now at risk. The guy who got off work last night in the Memphis area, raced home and grabbed his wife and kids, and headed to the track for some sprint car racing, to see Kyle Larson, and have dirt in his cold adult beverage did not sign up to have a sprint car end up in his lap. That potential is what is unacceptable to me. I'm not going to hold my breath and expect anything to change, because that's not really how any of this works. But I'd feel negligent if we didn't at least bring it up and talk about it. I don't want to see anyone get hurt, whether it's drivers, crew guys, fans, track workers, whoever. To drive one more point home here, this isn't a shot at High Limit and their leadership and their decisions. Remember that WRG has this same track on their schedule. This safety problem is industry wide. High Limit, Outlaws, Lucas, IMCA, USRA, POWRi, race tracks from coast-to-coast, whoever. Everyone needs to do better.

As for the racing last night, like I said, it was pretty good. I want Riverside to figure out this fence deal, because I do want to see more sprint car races there. We had a great battle out front between Corey Day and Tanner Thorson and Tyler Courtney. Day ended up leading 27 laps and winning midweek race number two. Day has now won three of the last five High Limit shows and is clearly the driver we thought he was. While Sunshine continues to lead the overall championship, Day has seized control of the midweek title fight. A second place run for Thorson was a massive bounce back after he missed the feature completely at Salina. Through the first nine races, Thorson had just one top five and two top tens. He said he thinks they found something after Salina though, so we'll see if this speed continues. It was not a good night for several other drivers, including Zeb Wise, Rico Abreu, Parker Price Miller, and Justin Peck who all needed provisionals to start the feature. None of them finished higher than Peck in 17th. And since winning the opener at East Bay, Kyle Larson has been a non-factor. No laps led since then in six races, and three finishes of 14th or worse, including last night's 23rd place finish after crashing out of that lead battle late. This midweek deal is his chance to win championships in sprint car racing, but he's 15th at the moment, 66 points behind Day. We talked yesterday as well about Sammy Swindell running last night, and his event was over before it really even started. They had issues with the car, and the B-Main was really the only laps he got. He ended up 15th in it. And no surprise here, your highest finishing local was Derek Hagar. High Limit goes quiet now for about a week, with their next race scheduled for Wednesday, May 1st, at 81 Speedway.

One quick note, I had a very nice YouTube SuperThanks comment from Kevin on yesterday's daily show. He said he and his 11 year old son Miles were at Riverside last night for the High Limit show and got to meet all the drivers. It was Miles' first time at a sprint car race. Happy to hear it Kevin, hope you guys get more chances to hit up some dirt races and I appreciate you tuning into the show.

If you want to hear some more dirt racing audio this week, Winged Nation has Anthony Macri and Austin McCarl, Dirt Track Confessions has USAC's Kirk Spridgeon, Hoogie's Garage has Sean Quinn and Chase Johnson, Dunewich on Dirt has Brent Robinson, Plum Wild has Eddie Farness, Getting up to Speed has Kellen Chadwick, and there are new episodes of The Dirt Reporters, the Dirt Nerds, Quicktime, Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks, Turn 2 Terribles, Racing Roundup, and the Driver's Project. To see all of these shows and their recent episodes, head over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.

That's it for the Daily show today. Besides new podcast episodes, dirtrackr.com also has the streaming schedule and all the latest dirt racing news.

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