DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Bloomer returns to this crown jewel for the first time in 2 years | Daily 6-3-2024
James McFadden breaks through, Anthony Macri wins in the midwest, we'll talk Dream at Eldora, including some notable entries and an update on Scott Bloomquist. Plus, why were there so few cars at Selinsgrove yesterday. Let's go!
It's Monday, June 3rd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
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Kubota High Limit sprint cars at Butler Motor Speedway last night. This was a makeup from the Saturday show that got rained out. Looking at the box score, you'd see James McFadden led all 30 laps from the pole, but this was a pretty good one. McFadden was under pressure from a cast of characters, including Tyler Courtney, Justin Peck, and Brad Sweet. At the line, 63 thousandths of a second between McFadden and Sweet for the victory. It was High Limit win number one for JMac and the Roth 83 squad, and I think an important one for their season. This win came after three straight finishes outside the top ten, which included a flip back on Friday at Lawrenceburg. As we keep an eye on the charter teams with High Limit this season, Rico Abreu has the final spot at the moment, but five teams are within 100 points of that fifth spot, and McFadden and Roth are right in the mix. Justin Peck also back in the top five last night after this own three race stretch of double digit finishes. Sweet extended just a tad, with the gap back to Sunshine now 16 points. High Limit teams are off today, with the midweek series continuing tomorrow night at Davenport for another $20,000 to win.
One other note, Tony LaPorta spent some time in the tree house slash tree stand at Butler off the backstretch last night. It reminded me of the booth overlooking turn three at Volusia. What other crazy seating or vantage points are there at race tracks around the country? Drop me a comment if there is something fun like that at your track.
Other Sunday winners included Anthony Macri at Huset's. He inherited the lead when there was heartbreak for early leader Emerson Axsom. Brooke Tatnell's machine ended up disabled in turn three, and Axsom hit him, ending his night and what could have been a strong chance at a win. Macri led the rest of the way. Macri and the 39M team are currently on a midwest trip that will last most of the month of June. They'll hit High LImit races over the next few weeks, before going to Knoxville and Huset's with the Outlaws for the big money.
At Selinsgrove, Danny Dietrich picked up win number six on the season, topping Lucas Wolfe and TJ Stutts. A bit of shock to only see 14 cars there on a Sunday with very little competition. 14 410 sprint cars was the smallest car count I could find for a show at Selinsgrove going back like ten seasons. Their average in 2023 was 23.8 cars per night. I was told there was weather around, so that may have been a factor, but not sure what's up there for those who sent me messages about it. Selinsgrove has a busy next several weeks with the Super DIRTcar Series there later this week, and upcoming events for the Appalachian late model speedweek and PA speedweek in early July.
Also from Sunday, Brandon Overton a Southern All Stars winner at Cochran Motor Speedway in Georgia. He topped Dalton Cook and Sam Seawright for $7500.
Later this week, the attention for the dirt late model community shifts to Eldora Speedway with the 30th Dirt Late Model Dream on tap. $100,000 to win on Saturday, plus $25,000 to win prelims Thursday and Friday, along with $20,000 to win on Wednesday with the FloRacing Night in America series. The Dream main event on Saturday also pays $6000 just to start. Things are a little different this time around with the format of prelim nights, as instead of each featuring dual, split programs for the whole field, now everyone only runs a single prelim night. So half run Thursday, and half run Friday. Those lists are out as of yesterday. They can be found on the Eldora social channels, and eldoraspeedway.com. Thursday features Ricky Thornton Jr., Bobby Pierce, Brandon Overton, Tim McCreadie, Hudson O'Neal, Chris Madden, Chris Ferguson, and a lot more. Friday's group includes Brandon Sheppard, Jimmy Owens, Billy Moyer Sr., Devin Moran, Dale McDowell, Mike Marlar, Nick Hoffman, and Jonathan Davenport among others. Saturday's heats will be lined up via points earned on Thursday and Friday, with things pretty standard for Eldora from there.
A couple of interesting notes from the Eldora entry list. First, as expected, Hudson O'Neal is driving for Kevin Rumley this week. We talked yesterday about O'Neal winning the Iron-Man show at Atomic on Saturday night, not in his own car, but instead a Longhorn out of Rumley's shop. Atomic clearly a shakedown before this pairing goes to Eldora, and it went about as well as it could have. Late last week on the Thursday Daily, I spotlighted Kyle Larson's comments about his dirt late model future, and with him stepping back a bit, it's not stopping Rumley from staying busy. Don't forget that Rumley's car won the Dirt Track World Championship at Eldora last season with Brandon Sheppard. O'Neal still adjusted to Longhorn life after leaving Rocket chassis, but he could be a factor this week. We will also see the return of Scott Bloomquist to Eldora. He hasn't raced a late model since that big Hunt the Front crash at Ultimate Motorsports Park, and his last trip to Eldora was for the World 100 in 2022. He's got a new car put together, and the entry list shows Terry Wolfensburger as the owner, not Florida car owner Devin Jones who Bloomquist had been racing with. Bloomer was at Mississippi Thunder this past weekend driving a modified for the XR Big Deal, but was a non-factor all weekend. There are photos and videos floating around of him shaking down this new late model at Mississippi Thunder after modified action was complete. The car does have a different wrap then the one he had been running. Bobby Pierce also got some laps in at MTS over the weekend. We'll see what Bloomer can do this week in his return to Eldora. That last World 100 resulted in a 23rd place finish, and he's an eight time winner of the Dream, with the last coming in 2018. I also saw that Cory Hedgecock is listed in the 36V for Viper Motorsports. Viper has been fielding cars for Tyler Clem, but Clem is not entered for the Dream this week. Cars will be on track on Wednesday at Eldora.
That's it for the daily show today. I do have a new issue of the Slider to send this week, so if you want some free content delivered right to your email inbox, head over to dirtrackr.com/theslider and sign up. You can also view all the past issues there as well, plenty of great reading from all sorts of dirt racing writers.
Hope you guys have a great Monday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!