DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
Dirt racing news, results, discussion, analytics. Sprint cars, late models, modifieds, you name it. From national series, to top local shows. Brought to you five days a week. Email the show at info@dirtrackr.com.
RTJ wins everything, Bacon flexes on my hot take, Port Royal offers rare opportunity | Daily 5-23-2024
Big money on the line all weekend, Outlaw drivers streaking, obviously Brady Bacon was going to win, a late model driver move and more today. Let's go!
It's Thursday, May 23rd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
As is becoming the norm around here, I talk about a driver and then they go win. And yesterday, it was Brady Bacon going to victory lane at Circle City. On the Wednesday daily show I talked about Brady being a candidate to flip from non-wing to winged this season on a more regular basis, and I don't honestly think last night's win changes that. I'll get back to that in a second. The Macho Man went fifth to the win, breaking a 15 race winless streak with USAC, going back to Haubstadt in September last year. Bacon led laps at Ocala and Volusia back in February, and had four podium finishes this season, but just hadn't broken through yet. He got around Kevin Thomas Jr. late to pick up the win, leading the final six laps. KTJ settled for second, and Daison Pursley charged from 14th to third. With CJ Leary down in 19th and Logan Seavey outside the top ten in 11th after winning Tuesday at Terre Haute, Bacon did gain some ground in the standings. He's passed Justin Grant, who's now had three straight finishes of 15th or worse, but even up to fifth, he's still 182 back. And one of the main points I made yesterday was about prize money, and even with last night's $5000 score, winged racing has still brought in more winnings for Bacon this season. Regardless of what he does though, we'll still see the Macho Man plenty in a winged car this season. The USAC sprint cars are right back at Circle City tonight for $10,000 to win, and then a trip to Knoxville is coming up next week.
At Millbridge, Zach Daum closed out the midweek Xtreme midget shows with the victory. He had a nice mid-race high/low battle with Kale Drake, but eventually the bottom won out and Daum was able to get control. He heads to Atomic on Saturday with a win and a second this week. Cannon McIntosh finished ahead of Ryan Timms and Chase McDermand for the second straight night, so his points lead was extended yet again. This weekend's Xtreme shows at Atomic are in conjunction with the World of Outlaws.
The Outlaws are in Ohio for the second straight week with two nights at Atomic Friday and Saturday, then a Monday show at Fremont. We've still got a pretty tight battle atop the standings with a four way fight ongoing between David Gravel, Donny Schatz, Carson Macedo, and Gio Scelzi. Macedo has battled his way back towards the top thanks to 17 straight top tens and four podiums finishes in a row. Macedo had that rough stretch at Volusia during DIRTcar Nationals, but that JJR 41 team made some significant changes after that week and has been a completely different team since. Those changes included alterations to the crew and some of their equipment. You knew Philip Dietz wouldn't take long to get that situation turned around, and I'm still of the mind that Dietz just does not get enough credit for what he's done in his career. Just a single victory so far for Macedo in 2024, but they've been close a lot lately, and he is the most recent winner at Atomic, going back to this event one year ago. THe other Outlaw driver streaking right now is Buddy Kofoid. 16 straight top tens, including the Friday win at Attica last weekend. A few more weeks like this, and Kofoid and the Roth 83 could be into this title mix as well.
One state away in Pennsylvania, the Kubota High Limit sprint cars will be at Port Royal on Saturday and Sunday for the Weikert Memorial. Saturday is $10,000 to win and Sunday is $75,000 to win. This will be the biggest sprint car payday so far this season. Brad Sweet enters the weekend with 34 points on Tyler Courtney in the standings, with everyone else from Brent Marks in third on down triple digits back. Zeb Wise and Tyler Courtney won the Outlaw shows at Port late in 2023, while Brian Brown was the winner of the Tuscarora 50. Brownie does have the Pennsylvania weekend on his schedule, and I think if there is a big payday to be taken down by a driver not on a series, it could be this event. We know Brownie has won big cash at Port, and Anthony Macri has taken truckloads of cash out of that place. If a series regular does win it, I like Sunshine and Zeb's chances. This could be a good weekend as well for some of these guys to take some points out of Brad Sweet. He has just a single career win at Port, back in 2015. His last Outlaw top five there was in 2018. I had wondered if we would see any Outlaw teams try and supertruck back and forth between Ohio and Port Royal for the Sunday money, but in asking around a bit, I don't know how likely it will be. I do still think the chance exists, but we'll see if the weather cooperates. We'll talk more Weikert on the Sunday show.
The other big money on the line this weekend is with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at Wheatland. It's Show-Me 100 time, and racing starts tonight. Thursday and Friday are both $10,000 to win and Saturday is $50,000 to win. Devin Moran the defending Show-Me winner, even though he didn't actually lead a single lap in that race. If you might remember, Ricky Thornton Jr. crossed the finish line as the winner, but was later docked to fifth after failing the droop check. If you're looking for someone else to put some money on, you'd be hard pressed to look past Jonathan Davenport. He won both prelim nights at this event a year ago, led half the Show-Me 100 feature, and already has two Wheatland victories this season, sweeping the Spring Nationals with the MLRA. In the Lucas standings, this battle for that fourth and final chase spot is going to continue being crazy. Fourth to tenth right now is separated by just 150 points. That means Mike Marlar, Hudson O'Neal, Tim McCreadie, Garrett Alberson, Jimmy Owens, Brandon Sheppard, and Daulton Wilson all still very much in the mix. And yes, because we haven't had a conflict yet, BShepp is still in play here, although I doubt we see him at Wheatland with the Outlaws at Ultimate Motorsports Park this weekend. This battle for fourth I think will be a nice secondary fight to keep an eye on. One cool addition to the Show-Me 100 weekend is this pit crew challenge on Saturday. 18 teams will battle for $2000 in a challenge to see who can change right side tires the fastest. The cash and a new Hellraizer jack are being put up by my guy Tim Sheets. Sheets, known to us as Pop Tart, is a long time NASCAR tire changer and he owns Hellraizer jacks. I've worked with both Pop Tart and his brother Jason, and both have been fixtures in the NASCAR garage for a long time. Cool to see Pop Tart put this on for the late model teams.
As for the Outlaws, like I just mentioned, they've got two nights coming up at Ultimate Motorsports Park. Big cash on Saturday here as well, with $35,000 to the winner. Nick Hoffman leads the championship, but just four points separate he and BShepp. Hoffman has been the hottest driver as of late, with three wins in his last ten races, and average finish of 5.4. That includes a seventh place run last time out at Path Valley with the left front hub assembly basically knocked off his car. The Outlaws haven't been to the track in Elkin, North Carolina since 2015, with Chris Ferguson winning that night. We'll see what happens between Hoffman and BShepp, and if Bobby Pierce can continue his climb up the order.
One late model driver announcement for you, ASD Motorsports announced yesterday that they have hired Ethan Dotson to drive their Barry Wright machines starting this weekend at Wheatland. Dotson replaces Wil Herrington, who departed that team a few weeks ago. Dotson was previously with Coltman Farms Racing this season. Quick side note here, I appreciated ASD tagging DIRTRACKR in their Facebook post so I saw the news. If you see something break, feel free to tag or mention DIRTRACKR on Facebook or Twitter, because as much as I try and be everywhere, it is difficult to see all of the news.
With the USMTS last night, Jim Chisholm nipped Gary Christian on the final lap to grab the $3000 win at Hamilton County. Win number three for Chisholm on the year, and he's up to third in the standings. The USMTS has Fayette County tonight, Mississippi Thunder on Friday, Deer Creek Saturday, and Mason City on Sunday.
And before he tries to pick up some big cash at the Show-Me 100, Ricky Thornton Jr. has already done some winning this week. He won the stock car portion of the IMCA quarter million dollar challenge at the Clay County Fair Speedway. He picked up $16 grand driving for Jordan Grabouski. The other big $16,000 check went to Matthew Looft who won the night's sportmod feature. Good to see them get those races in after battling weather all week long in Iowa.
Alright, that's it for the Daily show this week. Drop in your weekend win predictions and what your racing plans are, whether you're headed to the track or watching from home.
Hope you guys have a great Thursday out there, we'll see you back here on Sunday!