DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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3 drivers under the radar, and this generation's ultimate "win it or wear it" guy | Daily 5-21-2024

I've got three sprint car drivers who don't get a lot of attention that have impressed me this season, plus when it comes to win it or wear it, I think I've got the top guy, and we'll talk what to watch tonight. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, May 21st, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

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Off the top today, I've got three sprint car drivers to talk about and spotlight just a bit. These are three names you're not going to hear about in the national conversation, but for various reasons, they have impressed me so far this season. The first is Emerson Axsom. Axsom had really focused on non-wing stuff in recent seasons, between midgets and non-wing sprint cars. But he's gone all in with the wing on for 2024, and I think he's done a nice job so far. His team has not been afraid to throw Axsom in the deep end, and that included starting the season in Central PA, racing against both the Outlaws and High Limit already, and a recent midwest swing that's included races at Knoxville. Top fives with the AFCS and FAST, solid runs in PA, an Outlaw top ten at Haubstadt, and a lot of made features. It's not easy to transition to winged from non-wing, but Axsom has been holding his own. The next one is someone the Posse fans know well, and that's Troy Wagaman. He's come up on this show here and there over the last year or so, but he and that Heffner team are rolling right now. 12 top tens in 16 races, he won the opener at Lincoln, and at the Grove a few weeks ago. Wagaman is on a current streak of eight straight top eight finishes, including that Grove win, and a strong top ten against the Outlaws at Lincoln. As we talked about not long ago, the Posse is not deep right now outside of Anthony Macri, Danny Dietrich, and Freddie Rahmer, but Wagaman has definitely jumped up into the conversation. The last one one my list for today is Kalib Henry. California driver trying really hard to make it out east, and very impressive so far this season. He's been to victory lane a lot in 360 competition at places like Placerville, but has less than 100 winged 410 starts on his resume. 15 a year ago, seven in 2022, 13 in 2021, and one or less the three years before that. Henry took over the Running Boxer Farm 101 last season for a few starts after Cody Maroske departed, and came to Ohio in April to start racing. Top tens with the AFCS, including a second at Fremont on May 11th. And four World of Outlaws appearances between Eldora, Attica, and Sharon. He made both features at Eldora, ran fifth at Attica after making the dash and starting on the front row, and was a respectable 11th at Sharon. Not bad for a driver with no previous experience in Ohio. He's got Kevin Osmolski on the wrenches, and I would not be surprised to see this car win in Ohio this season. Opening up the comments to you, drop me a name or a few names of drivers who've impressed you this season.

I know it's only Tuesday, but we are getting into that time of the year where we've got dirt racing happening almost every night of the week. And today you've got a bunch of different options. At Terre Haute, the USAC National Sprint Cars are coming in for $10,000 to win tonight. This is the 54th Tony Hulman Classic, and a great chance to see some sprint cars if you are in the area for the Indy 500. Logan Seavey the championship leader through 11 races, he tops CJ Leary, Kevin Thomas Jr, Daison Pursley, and Justin Grant and Kyle Cummins are tied for fifth. The last four series titles have been won by just two drivers, Grant and Brady Bacon, and those two are pretty close in the standings, but in the middle of very different seasons. Bacon is right behind Grant, and has just six top tens in those 11 starts, no wins, and has only led laps in one race. He hasn't won going back to Haubstadt in September 2023. Just ahead, JG isn't having any problems winning. He's got four already, and leads the series. The problem for him is if he's not winning, he's often not finishing well. Four wins, but also four finishes of 20th or worse, including several crashes. He even crashed after one of those wins, see Eldora during Let's Race Two. Grant is currently the true definition of win or bring back the steering wheel. It certainly makes him exciting to watch, which is why he's part of the NOS program. What other drivers do you remember watching that were similar, where they were either going home with the trophy, or a trailer full of parts, drop me a comment. JG's lack of consistency, and Bacon's missing speed have both pretty far behind Seavey in the standings. It's really a three-horse race right now between Seavey, Leary, and KTJ. The Terre Haute wins in 2023 were split between JG and Bacon so maybe those two can make some ground up tonight in the standings. Grant leads all active drivers in recent average finish there as well.

In Pennsylvania, the Short Track Super Series modifieds are headed for Action Track USA. That little race track always provides good action, so I wouldn't sleep on this one tonight. This is a bit of a special event, only 16 cars will start the feature, it's $5000 to win, and show up points only. But the elbows will likely be out. 600 micros also on the card. Both USAC and the Short Track Super Series will be live on Flo.

Not far from where I'm sitting right now, the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets are back to racing tonight, up at Millbridge. They'll run tonight and tomorrow before heading to Atomic Friday and Saturday to join the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars. Eight races in, Cannon McIntosh leads the championship with two victories, and top tens in all eight starts. Ryan Timms and Chase McDermand are in the fight as well. Cannon Mac swept this event a year ago, he's been lights out at Millbridge in a micro competition, and he could really strengthen his advantage in this title fight over the next two nights. This one will be live on DIRTVision.

And in Iowa, the Clay County Fair Speedway is racing through Wednesday with IMCA stock cars, sport mods, hobby stocks, and modifieds. The sport mods and stock cars pay $25,000 to win. That's nuts. Some heavy hitters in the pits as well, including Ricky Thornton Jr. Hopefully the weather plays nice, this one is live on imca.tv.

That's it for today's Daily show. If you want to see a full rundown on your streaming service options for today, make sure to hit up dirtrackr.com/watchtonight. All the main dirt racing streaming services are included there, and the schedule includes who's racing, what track, and links to watch. It's actually one of the most viewed single pages over at dirtrackr.com and has been since we started the site back in 2019. Alright...

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