DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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This sprint car phenom might be headed for NASCAR soon | Daily 4-28-2024
Corey Day's NASCAR path begins, an update on Hudson O'Neal's new deal, weekend results, and more. Let's go!
It's Sunday, April 28th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
Coming up next weekend is the first big event of the year at Eldora Speedway, and that means another opportunity to visit our friends at The Whistle Stop Bar and Grill located just 7 miles South of the track. Did you know they also have a sister business located in Downtown Greenville, Ohio called Sure Shot Tap House? Sure Shot Tap House is a 46 tap self pour facility featuring domestic and craft beer, ciders, seltzers, bourbons, wines and cocktails. They also have a self-serve cocktail machine that compliments their amazing food menu. Venture upstairs to the Bullseye Game Lounge which boasts Duckpin Bowling as well as 24 arcade games, making Sure Shot the ultimate destination to Eat, Drink, and Play all under one roof. New this year, they will be running buses from Eldora to Sure Shot on the Fridays of all major events. The trip includes a buffet, $15 pour card, swag bag and more! Visit www.sureshottaphouse.com/events for more information on this great day trip. Thanks to the Whistle Stop and Sure Shot Tap House for their support of the daily show.
So last night, around 8:30PM eastern time, Dale Earnhardt Jr. tweeted that Corey Day was at Hickory Motor Speedway driving a JR Motorsports late model stock. And less than an hour later, came the tweet from FloRacing that Day had won in that late model stock. It was his first time racing a late model on pavement, and I'd say winning your first time out is pretty impressive. It was just five days ago that the young driver from California was winning his third High Limit sprint car show in five races, and on an off weekend for High Limit, he was out getting pavement experience. There were already people out last night trying to diminish and discredit the victory, and there is context to understand. It was a twin feature night at Hickory, with 12 late models racing. Day started 10th in the first feature and finished seventh, and then they did an eight car invert for feature two, putting Day outside front row. He hung tough on the outside at the green flag, and eventually cleared the polesitter for the top spot. He was never challenged again out front. Was this a CARS tour race or the Snowball Derby? No, obviously not. But winning your first night out is still impressive, especially when this was clearly just the first chance to start getting Day comfortable on pavement. Day's team was led by veteran NASCAR crew chief Paul Andrews, and I think there are a few things to take notice of here. First, I told you guys way back in January after Day won his prelim night at the Chili Bowl that he was already on the radar for some top level teams and some big time players in American motorsports. And this debut happening with JR Motorsports is obviously noteworthy. JR Motorsports is owned in part by Rick Hendrick, and I would not be surprised if there wasn't already a development deal signed between Day and Hendrick. Day was wearing a JR Motorsports firesuit with his name on it, so it's clear this wasn't some random, one off deal. With Jeff Gordon playing a significant role in the operation of HMS these days, and Kyle Larson a cornerstone of that organization, the ties aren't hard to find. JRM has the infrastructure to bring Day up through late model racing, and then between JRM and Spire, jumps to the truck series and Xfinity would be right in line. I know a bunch you are going to bemoan this pipeline to NASCAR, and on some level, I'm with you. I'd love to see Day spend the next several decades becoming one of the greatest sprint car drivers ever. But when you are this talented, you are going to get noticed, and it's hard to turn it down. Day will be back in the sprint car on Wednesday at 81 Speedway, but I'm sure we'll see plenty more late model appearances, and there will likely be practice and test days we never hear about publicly. I would say let's enjoy watching the kid wheel a sprint car while we can, because I'm sure the days are limited.
Before we move on, back on Friday I did a DIRTRACKR live on YouTube where I spent about an hour chatting with former All Star announcer Blake Anderson. Blake is now working for Kevin Rudeen and a part of the staff at Skagit Speedway, and we talked about a bunch of sprint car stuff, plus happenings and Skagit, and more. The full interview is in the DIRTRACKR podcast feed and can be found at youtube.com/dirtrackr.
As expected, we did have a bunch of racing rained out this weekend, including both World of Outlaws nights at Knoxville, plus the full USAC midget weekend at Kokomo, and more. It's unfortunately just the nature of the beast in the spring time. There were some nasty storms in the midwest all weekend, which included tornadoes, so we are definitely thinking about our friends in places like Oklahoma and Nebraska.
With the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, their Saturday show at Hagerstown got rained out, but they did race Friday night at Georgetown. Ricky Thornton Jr. hadn't won a Lucas show since All-Tech on February 2nd, but he broke that nine race winless streak with a flag-to-flag win from the pole. Devin Moran was second, and Garrett Alberson went 10th to second. The nine race winless drought for RTJ was his longest since 2022. NASCAR driver Ross Chastain raced, but was out early in a B-Main. And Kyle Larson was in attendance back in the Rumley six. They had a flat during the feature and ended up DNF'ing. As expected, Hudson O'Neal did debut with his own car, a black and white Longhorn with 71 on the door and some familiar sponsors. The new Hudson O'Neal Racing team did a shakedown before Georgetown at Paragon, and ended up quick time in qualifying on Friday. They ended up 14th after starting fifth. Headed to Port Royal today, RTJ still leads Jonathan Davenport in the standings, with Moran and O'Neal the rest of the top four.
The big late model show from yesterday was the Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series at Smoky Mountain. Nice field, 44 cars, and all Ryan Gustin out front. He topped Dale McDowell and Brandon Overton for the $15,000. Overton still leads the championship over Chris Ferguson, with Joseph Joiner now third, Ashton Winger fourth, and Cory Hedgecock fifth. Gustin had never previously made a start with Hunt the Front, and it was his second win of the season, to go along with the Ice Bowl at Talladega. Things have been quiet with the Outlaws so far, just one top ten. We'll see if Gustin can parlay this into more success. Hunt the Front is back next weekend with a two-fer in the Carolinas. Ultimate on Friday and Lancaster on Saturday.
Other weekend late model winners included Zack Mitchell with the Carolina Clash, Ryan Unzicker won the MARS show at Peoria, Ben Watkins won at Cherokee, and Josh Rice at Atomic.
Weekend sprint car wins went to Troy Wagaman Jr. Friday at Williams Grove, Max Stambaugh swept the USCS at I-75, Nate Dussel was a FAST winner at Muskingum County, Karter Sarff won the MOWA show driving for Chase Briscoe, and AJ Bender took the USAC CRA win at Perris. At Port Royal last night, there was a huge pileup right at the start of the feature that wiped out a bunch of guys. Somehow, Jeff Halligan ended up backwards into turn one, and the guys behind had no where to go. The incident also took out Callum Williamson, Steve Buckwalter, Lance Dewease, AJ Flick, Austin Bishop, and Gerard McIntyre. Nasty incident for sure, and not the first big crash we've seen at the start of a Port feature this year. Some guys, like Dewease, are now not racing today at BAPS because of the crash. Chase Dietz led a bunch of laps before losing a left rear tire, and that promoted Anthony Macri to the lead. Macri battled with TJ Stutts down the stretch, and eventually picked up the $15,000 win.
Alright, that's it for the Daily show today. Make sure to hit up the streaming schedule at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight to see your Sunday viewing options. Quite a few choices today if you want a dirt racing fix.
Hope you guys have a great Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!