DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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This track made the right call to cancel | Daily 5-12-2024
On this Sunday show, we're talking some of the sport's best looking like, well, some of the sport's best. Plus the details behind one New York track making a difficult decision, and much more. Let's go!
It's Sunday, May 12th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
First off, happy mother's day to all the moms out there. Hope you all have a great day, and if you aren't a mom, make sure you call your mom today.
Around the country this weekend, we saw dirt racing's top guys continue to show why they are the top guys. With the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, I said before the east coast trip a few weeks ago, that Ricky Thornton Jr. had looked a little more human this season after a dominating, record breaking 2023. But in the four races since, that team is back in stride. Three straight Lucas victories between Georgetown, Port Royal, and then Farmer City on Friday, plus a second at Fairbury on Saturday. I definitely think we are seeing the 20RT return to the perch as the top team in dirt late model racing. Especially during an Illinois trip where we saw Bobby Pierce missed the show completely on Friday, and finish 16th on Saturday. I was asked when was the last time Pierce just flat missed a feature, and looking around, I think it was at Farmer City in 2023 with Lucas. Definitely not something we've seen from the Smooth Operator lately. Devin Moran the winner Saturday at Fairbury, his second of the season, and he continues to cement his spot in that Lucas top four behind RTJ and Jonathan Davenport. As for Hudson O'Neal, he's fallen out of that top four, replaced by Mike Marlar. Huddy charged to seventh on Friday after needing a provisional to start the main event, and he was 21st last night at Fairbury. It definitely looks like this transition to Longhorn and his own team is going to take some time for him to figure out and get back to race winning pace. And in the back-and-forth about Tyler Erb's future, he talked to Derek Kessinger in a video for FloRacing, and despite his comments to XR about not being off the Lucas tour, it still sounds like that's what will happen. His schedule going forward is pretty wide open, and a full Summer Nationals run could be in the cards. He had weekend finishes of 11th and 14th, and needed provisionals both nights. Lucas is off now for two weeks, with the Show-Me 100 weekend at Wheatland next on the schedule, May 23rd to the 25th.
In the theme of top guys being top guys, we saw a similar situation with High Limit. Brad Sweet nipped James McFadden at the line for the Friday win at 34 Raceway, and then went 11th to second last night at Tri-City. The win at 34 was three in a row, and five of the last six, plus Sweet has 15 straight High Limit top tens. His only career High Limit finish outside the top ten was a 12th place run at Lakeside in 2023. Sweet is now 45 points clear of Tyler Courtney for the High Limit championship. The Saturday night win went to Brent Marks, who's also riding a streak of 15 straight top tens. It was Marks' first High Limit win, and you knew it was only a matter of time. Sweet and Marks are the only two drivers to finish top ten in every race this season. 14 races deep at this point, I feel like we are seeing things settle out with who is where in the High Limit running order, and it's no surprise that the top five are Sweet, Courtney, Marks, Corey Day, and Rico Abreu. I do think that James McFadden and the Roth 83 will stay in the mix for a charter as well. Remember with Dominic Scelzi starting the season in that car, they are still very much in the fight. High Limit is off today, but they are back Monday with a stop at Kokomo.
Speaking of High Limit, their run through New York next weekend will look a bit different with the Saturday race at Fonda Speedway now cancelled. The language in the release read quote "Safety concerns, coupled with a wet forecast leaving the track unable to make the proper adjustments in time, have led to series and track officials agreeing to cancel the event for this year" unquote. If you aren't aware, Fonda has been dealing with track surface issues all season, and this move to cancel was no doubt the right call. Their May 4th weekly program ended with just five modifieds left on track during the feature, and all of this stems from an offseason project to resurface the track. Promoter Brett Deyo supposedly spent $50,000 to bring in new clay, and that combined with a wet spring has caused rough track conditions and rocks to be an issue. After the problems from the May 4th race, Deyo expressed uncertainty about the May 11th program in an interview last week with Area Auto, and he also called into question the status of the High Limit show. It wasn't long after that the High Limit race was officially axed. With the added context of the recent conversation around safety, especially with High Limit after Riverside, I think some were quick to jump to some conclusions about this cancellation. But clearly Deyo knew he had a problem, and was a significant part of this process to call it off. Fonda hadn't hosted a big time 410 series since the All Stars were there in 2013, and this was not going to be a successful night as they scramble to rectify the surface. I've seen others point out some of the additional potential safety issues at Fonda, and maybe some of those things were discussed as well between Deyo and the High Limit brass, and this will be a good opportunity for some work to get done in those areas. The release does mention the event is cancelled for this year, so with fixes, Fonda could clearly return in the future. Regardless of how it went done, I'm glad to see somebody raised their hand here and said "hey, this isn't going to work." We need more of that in the sport.
Elsewhere this weekend, Logan Seavey and Kevin Thomas Jr. split USAC sprint car wins between Bloomington and Haubstadt. CJ Leary continues to run strong, and he's second in the championship to Seavey. Seavey, Leary, and KTJ have separated themselves a bit from the rest of the pack. Justin Grant was involved in another incident, crashing at Haubstadt, and Brady Bacon is winless since Haubstadt in September of 2023. He last led laps at Volusia in February. The USAC sprint cars are off this coming weekend.
Out west, Justin Sanders picked up NARC win number one of the season, dominating Saturday night at Antioch. Shane Golobic and Dylan Bloomfield were also on the podium. Cole Macedo still the championship leader, he finished fifth.
With the Xtreme Outlaw midgets, Ashton Torgerson picked up his second win in a row Friday at Humboldt, and then it was Cannon McIntosh being in the right place at the right time to capitalize on a late flat tire from race long leader Ryan Timms Saturday at 81 Speedway. McIntosh has pulled ahead in the title fight with Millbridge next in a few weeks.
Other weekend sprint car winners included Terry Easum in ASCS action, Dusty Zomer won his first 410 sprint car show at Knoxville since 2015, Briggs Danner was a USAC East Coast sprint car winner, and Shane Golobic was a 360 winner Friday at Silver Dollar.
Other weekend late model winners included Tyler Stevens and Stormy Scott with the Comp Cams series, and Brandon Overton won the $10k to win show at East Alabama.
If you are looking for racing today, there is some regional stuff going on, including the FAST Series at Tri City Raceway Park, and the weekly 410 season starts tonight at Huset's. To see your streaming options, head over to dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Hope you guys have a great Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!