DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Big cash, wild crashes spotlight dirt racing weekend | Daily 6-9-2024
Scott Bloomquist goes for a wild ride, Chase Randall has a scary crash, updates on the World of Outlaws and High Limit, and plenty more on this Sunday show. Let's go!
It's Sunday, June 9th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
We'll start first today with the 30th Dirt Late Model Dream at Eldora. Jonathan Davenport your winner in dominating fashion. He led all 100 laps from the pole to score Dream win number three in his career. The biggest challenge on the night for JD was the heat race, it took him four laps to go from fourth to the lead, and that heat win put him on the pole for the big show where he was never really challenged out front. He was gone at the checkered by almost six seconds. Some solid racing behind him, with Bobby Pierce going ninth to second, Dale McDowell 19th to sixth, and top fives for Brandon Overton, Hudson O'Neal and Chris Madden. Nice charges as well for Max Blair and Devin Gilpin. There weren't really any big surprises on the day, and it definitely felt like Davenport was the guy to beat coming into the weekend. The two prelim winners in Ricky Thornton Jr. and Devin Moran didn't really contend, with RTJ down in eighth, and Moran 12th after starting fifth. It was a solid bounceback though for Bobby Pierce who had his engine go south on Thursday after leading laps. Moran's Friday win broke the winless streak for the Moran family at Eldora since Donnie's million win. Can we call the curse broken, or does it not count until Devin wins a crown jewel there? I'll leave that one up to you guys. It was definitely a bit of a ho-hum feature, but you have to give Davenport his props for how good they are at Eldora. Fifth crown jewel win there since 2021. Differing rules, different crew chiefs, but still incredible. Also of note was Scott Bloomquist's wild heat race crash yesterday. He started out the day in a solid spot to make the night's main event, starting heat two from the pole. But his Dream was over after just four laps. He was falling down through the order and racing with Shannon Babb when he got turned head on into the backstretch wall. The zero was destroyed after spinning and flipping wildly towards turn three, and Bloomer emerged after a few minutes and gave the crowd a salute. Later, he was seen with a wrap on his left wrist. His season was already in a precarious position because of destroyed equipment, and this incident will likely further slow his chances for more racing. It's a shame because he had shown some speed. I have no idea how this crash even happens, with two veterans involved. Babb had thrown a slider at him, and Bloomer was crossing back under. I have a hard time believing Babb did it on purpose, but a very weird deal to get right reared like that in a heat race. I also wanted to point out as well that DIRTcar and Eldora officials cracked down on the noses on cars through the tech process all weekend. They are allowed a maximum of 90 inches across the front, and the fenders can't extend beyond the front tires by more than 1 inch. But officials found cars well beyond the max, including one that was 100 inches wide. It seems like every year at Eldora there is a rules focus for officials, and this season it was noses. I have heard that bodies will continue to be under scrutiny at Eldora, as there is belief by boss people that the wild aero stuff has hurt racing there. Feel free to use the comment section below to leave your thoughts on the weekend's proceedings at Eldora.
Even though the focus was on Eldora, there were other late model shows this weekend. Tyler Emory and Gregg Satterlee won the first two Appalachian Mountain Speedweek shows. A bit surprised to see Satterlee not go to Eldora. He's a guy we've seen win prelim shows there during crown jewel events. The App speedweek has been utilizing the painted tires if you were curious. Dillon McCowan was an MLRA winner, and Chad Becker and Dustin Sorensen also picked up $5000 scores.
At I-70 Motorsports Park, the Kubota High Limit sprint cars were in town for two nights and the Rayce Rudeen Foundation event. Corey Day won the Friday night show, and it was Rico Abreu taking down $26,000 last night for his second straight win in the event. Rico and the 24 team definitely finding a bit more pace as of late, and they have moved around Corey Day for fourth in the standings. I was a bit surprised the car counts weren't better both nights, but looking back at some past races at I-70, these two shows were right in line with what we'd previously seen there with the Outlaws and All Stars. The other big note for the championship is the hit that Tyler Courtney took on Friday. Something locked up in that frontend during the feature, and the team was not able to make it back out of the work area. So a 23rd place finish for Sunshine. They bounced back to seventh on Saturday, but with Brad Sweet finishing second and fifth, the gap has ballooned to 65 points headed to Eagle on Tuesday. Those are nights the 7BC cannot afford if they are going to keep the pressure on Sweet and the KKR 49. Have you guys noticed as well the charity donations that are happening with these High Limit races in victory lane? An anonymous donor is allowing drivers to give away $1000 for each win, and the drivers get to choose a charity. Corey Day picked Driven to Save Lives, and Rico matched the $1000 for a total $2000 check for Jack's Super Hero Foundation. Last week at Butler it was James McFadden picking Team Jack, and Mark Burch matched it. Pretty cool to see these guys giving back, and hopefully it will be a boost to help other get involved. High Limit back Tuesday at Eagle with over $50,000 on the line, and some Outlaw teams definitely coming in.
And since I mentioned the Outlaws, let's talk about their weekend as well. Two nights, one at River Cities and one at Ogilvie. Things are starting to get serious here as we enter the summer, and this championship is wide open. Five drivers separated by less than 100 points, and David Gravel very much at risk of losing the lead. He got caught up in a crash on Friday at River Cities, but thanks to some wild work area thrashing, he was able to get back out and salvage a top ten. He hustled his ass off through the rest of that race to stay on the lead lap. He was sixth last night at Ogilvie, but with his four closest challengers finishing ahead of him both nights, things are tighter than ever. Gio Scelzi won on Friday, holding off Sheldon Haudenschild, and scoring his first win since Cotton Bowl in March. And last night we had a barn burner late, with Sheldon nipping both Macedo and Buddy Kofoid at the line. Sheldon has now won three of the last five Outlaw races. Still probably the most exciting driver in the sport. Macedo though, 23 straight top tens and 17 straight top fives, he's just 10 back of Gravel. Buddy Kofoid has 22 straight top tens, and Donny Schatz 11. These teams are all finding their stride, and any off night is going to sting. This fight heads to Knoxville next weekend for two nights.
Did you guys see the crazy footage of Chase Randall's crash at Knoxville on Saturday? Dusty Zomer ended up spun in turn three, and Randall had nowhere to go. He nailed Zomer, went for a wild ride, and then the 2KS burst into flames because the full tank was ruptured. Randall was quickly out the top, and the Knoxville safety team on the scene fast. He was okay, but a very wild moment, and glad to see no injuries in the aftermath. Take your fire safety serious kids. Carson McCarl the night's winner over brother Austin.
Weekend Indiana Midget Week victories went to Emerson Axsom at Lincoln Park. Hat tip to those of you out there who took advantage of +7000 odds for Axsom to win that one. I saw there were some nice paydays off that miss by the oddsmakers. Daison Pursley won Friday at Bloomington, and last night it was Logan Seavey at Haubstadt. Midget week wraps up tonight at Kokomo with Pursley on top of the week long standings. He's also leading the season championship as well over Cannon McIntosh and Ryan Timms.
Ohio Sprint Speedweek is also off and running. Cap Henry scored the win in round number one on Friday at Attica, topping Greg Wilson and Emerson Axsom. Saturday's round at Fremont got started, but did not finish because of rain. They will try again tonight at Waynesfield with racing starting at six. The race can be watched live on Flo.
We'll call that good for today's Daily show. Make sure to hit up the streaming schedule at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight to see your Sunday options. There is still a ton of racing yet to happen this weekend, so don't miss out.
Hope you guys have a great rest of your Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!