DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Where there's Smoke, there isn't fire? | Daily 6-6-2024
Rumors were flying about Eldora on Wednesday. We'll dive in today, talk about the situation, and clear things up. Let's go!
It's Thursday, June 6th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
Starting tonight, the Dirt Late Model Dream gets rolling at Eldora Speedway, and another big Eldora event means another opportunity to visit our friends at The Whistle Stop Bar and Grill located just 7 miles South of the track. Besides the Whistle Stop, 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, and wines. 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 the first of these bus trips is this week. The trip includes a buffet, $15 pour card, swag bag and more! Visit sureshottaphouse.com/events for more information on this great trip. Big thanks to Sure Shot, Whistle Stop, and Andrew for their support of the daily show and dirt racing.
It was an interesting day yesterday around Eldora and the kickoff to Dream week. Unfortunately the FloRacing Night in America show was postponed because of rain, and track and series officials are working on a potential reschedule. Off the track though, the rumors about Eldora's future were hot all day. I have no idea where the rumors came from, but by the afternoon everyone seemed to have heard that Tony Stewart was selling Eldora Speedway to FloRacing, and that an announcement was expected as early as Friday, or maybe right after the Dream, on Sunday or Monday. I had DMs and text messages from industry friends, spent time on a few phone calls about it, but by about 2PM eastern, it was pretty clear that all of the rumors were bogus. Some sources that I trust were telling me that the rumors were in fact not true. I hit back a few of those DMs and texts that I had been sent, and then not long after I posted the Wednesday Daily show, there were a couple of comments there about it, and I hopped in there to address a few of them. It was clear as well that folks at both Eldora and FloRacing had been getting the questions, and by the time that cars hit the track for hot laps before the rain came, the Flo broadcast crew of Dustin Jarrett and Ben Shelton actually ended up addressing it on the stream. They said they had spoken with both Tony Stewart and FloRacing's Mark Floreani to confirm that no sale had happened. They even mentioned that Stewart himself was not happy about the rumors being spread. It was pretty wild how fast everything spread through the community, especially with so little actual information or evidence to back any of it up. Looking around, there were a few things that contributed to the situation. There was a Facebook post early yesterday from an apparel manfacturer featuring the Eldora logo and just the word "sold" with a question mark. That feels fairly irresponsible from a company in the community, and a poor attempt at some attention. I'm in the attention business, and if I did something like that, I'd be roasted on a spit. By both my audience and by people in the community that I respect. And deservedly so. There was also a tweet from FloRacing's Michael Rigsby right in the middle of the afternoon featuring just eyeball emojis, and I think everyone took that to be some sort of confirmation that the rumors were true. We still don't know what Rigsby's tweet was in reference too, but it is clearly not about this. This whole situation as well goes back to Tony Stewart and Gene Haas shuttering Stewart Haas Racing, and to Stewart's sale of the All Stars last season. I said on the Wednesday Daily last week that there wasn't any credible information out there about Stewart getting rid of Eldora or the sprint car team, and that's still true today. There are a myriad of reasons why SHR is being closed, and we have discussed at length the reasons behind the end of the All Stars. Go check out all of our All Star High Limit videos from late in 2023. But for the rest of Stewart's motorsports interests, I think some dots are being connected that aren't really there to be connected. Just because the All Stars and SHR are gone, doesn't mean he's completely liquidating everything. Especially if his other interests are making money, or are not burdens on his bank account and time. No pun intended here, but I know that in a lot of cases, where there is smoke there is fire. I'm just not feeling any heat here though when it comes to Eldora and TSR.
At Eldora today, the Dream starts for real with the first of two split field prelim nights. Half the cars will race tonight, the other half on Friday. Both features are $25,000 to win, and combined points from the first two nights will set heat race lineups for Saturday's program that will end with a driver getting a check for $100,000. A few thinks I'll be keeping an eye on include this budding Ricky Thornton Jr. vs Jonathan Davenport rivalry, and the RTJ/Bobby Pierce situation. We've seen fireworks between these three for much less to win that $100,000. I'll also be curious if we'll see Brandon Overton return to winning contention at Eldora, what Hudson O'Neal can do with Kevin Rumley, and what kind of surprises we might get. Drop me a comment with your Dream win picks and what you'll be keeping an eye on this weekend.
Elsewhere this weekend, the Kubota High Limit sprint cars have two nights at I-70 Speedway in Missouri coming up. It's the Rayce Rudeen Foundation event and $26,000 to the winner on Saturday night. We've got a tight championship battle between Brad Sweet and Tyler Courtney right now, and we should see a good car count this weekend. We know Anthony Macri is coming, I saw Kyle Reinhardt is going to be driving the Indy Race Parts 71, and there will be a lot more. After I-70, High Limit has $50 grand to win next Tuesday at Eagle in Nebraska, and that one will definitely draw some of the Outlaw teams to use one of their freebies.
And speaking of the World of Outlaws, they are at River Cities in North Dakota on Friday, and then Ogilvie in Minnesota on Saturday. Both $12,000 to win, and plenty of stories here as well. The top five in the standings are separated by 108 points, and Carson Macedo and Buddy Kofoid have been streaking. Macedo trails David Gravel right now by just 30. Following this weekend, two days at Knoxville is up next.
At Lawrenceburg last night, big hat tip to Kirk Spridgeon and his USAC staff for getting in that first Indiana Midget Week show before the rains came. They were in hurry up mode, and were able to get everything done. Ryan Timms came out on top in a feature that had six lead changes among four drivers in just 30 laps. Timms charged from 12th, and didn't take the lead until there were just three laps to go. Daison Pursley and Emerson Axsom also led laps and finished on the podium. As for Logan Seavey, his incredible top ten streak was busted last night. It ends at 25 straight USAC midget shows. He led laps and was definitely in contention for the win, but he bowed out early with some sort of mechanical issue and finished down in 17th. Seavey's last finish outside the top ten coincidentally, was on June 5th of 2023. So exactly 365 days between. He led laps at Circle City before a mechanical issue ended his night there after leading laps. Midget week continues tonight at Lincoln Park, with Bloomington, Haubstadt, and Kokomo still to come.
Finally today, Ohio Sprint Speedweek gets rolling on Friday with the first race at Attica. Nine races in nine days, with Fremont, Waynesfield, Wayne County, Hilltop, Sharon, Muskingum County, Millstream, and Atomic all also on tap. The speedweek champion gets $5000, and there are good payouts all week. Six races are $5000 to win, one is $6000 to win, and two are $10,000 to win, including the finale at Atomic. With no All Star sanction, speedweek will look different this year, but there will be a lot of opportunity for other drivers to grab some wins and this championship. If you'd like to get involved and help some of the teams out this week, go find Stephanie Linder on social media. She's @stephlinder312 on Twitter. She's got an Amazon wishlist going, and places to donate for pit passes, car washes, and other supplies for the teams. Friday at Attica and Saturday at Fremont will be live on DIRTVision.
Alright, that's it for the daily show this week. Streaming schedule and a lot more at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight. Merch at shop.dirtrackr.com. DIRTRACKR Plus for advanced stats. Appreciate all the support.
Hope you guys have a great Thursday out there, we'll see you back here on Sunday!