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Hoosier late model test tires sniffed out in Pennsylvania | Daily 6-11-2024

Drama and hands thrown at Monday night races, which Outlaw teams are or aren't going to Eagle tonight, plus Hoosier's tire testing tactics spur controversy in Pennsylvania. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, June 11th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

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So, the way the racing went on Monday in a few different places, you would have thought it was a damn full moon. We'll start first with the XR Super Series at Kokomo for $15,000 to win. I was pretty surprised this one only drew 18 cars, especially with so many dirt late models competing over the weekend at Eldora not that far away. This Monday Kokomo race for XR drew 42 last season, with the big difference being that it was $100k to win. Even with the reduction though in prize money, I still expected at least a full field. The guys that were there though were quality teams, and they put on a wild show. Devin Moran nipped Ryan Gustin and Bobby Pierce at the line for the victory, and there was plenty of drama along the way. Bobby Pierce was sent to the tail at the start for showing up late to staging. He said afterwards that he couldn't hear the horn where he was in the pits, and called the whole thing quote "kind of bullshit" and said that series promoter Barry Braun had to make it interesting somehow. There was also contact late between Moran and Hudson O'Neal when Moran threw a slider in one and two at the 71 that never cleared. Moran somehow didn't spin out with the 71 in his fuel tank, but O'Neal was none too pleased. He made contact with the 99 after the race near the scales and was DQ'd. The Dirt on Dirt race report said that O'Neal's car also struck an official. The quote from Moran was "he'll get over it and we won, he didn't." We'll see if this bad blood between O'Neal and Moran bleeds into the Lucas weekend coming up. I feel like we've got a bunch of guys right now who have problems with each other, and lots of these incidents keep happening. There is definitely not much give and take out there at the moment.

In Ohio at Wayne County, heat races got feisty, and we saw hands get thrown in the aftermath of one crash. Skylar Gee was heated after a crash in heat two, and he took a swipe at Kasey Jedrzejek, with a crew guy also involved in there as well. Gee was parked for the remainder of the night, and I am not aware of any further penalties for the crew guy coming onto the track to also push and shove. Jordan Ryan took the victory topping Zane DeVault and Travis Philo were win number two on the season. We'll see how the points shake out, but Cap Henry had a tough night, getting caught up in one of those heat race incidents, and then finishing down in 17th. Ohio Sprint Speedweek continues tonight at Hilltop Speedway.

Also happening tonight is the $55,000 to win Kubota High Limit show at Eagle in Nebraska. Another midweek championship race, big money on the line, and several World of Outlaws teams inbound to try and steal some cash. This one was a favorite a year ago, and we'll see if it can live up to the hype yet again. 40 cars on the pre-entry list, with four Outlaw drivers confirmed. They are Gio Scelzi, Carson Macedo, Buddy Kofoid, and Logan Schuchart. Earlier this week, High Limit announcer Chase Raudman also had Sheldon Haudenschild and David Gravel as possible entries, but they aren't on this list. And Jeremy Elliott reported this morning that Gravel is a no-go. They apparently have some hurt equipment to tend to. Gravel already used one Outlaw freebie for the Weikert, so the assumption is that they will use two more for the Eldora nights during Kings Royal weekend, and then likely Lernerville in September. We'll see if there end up being any other surprise entries. The rest of the entry list includes the High Limit full timers, plus Kyle Larson, Brian Brown, Anthony Macri, Aaron Reutzel, and several midwest based teams. Brad Sweet currently leads Tyler Courtney by 65 in the year long championship, and Sunshine is up on Sweet by 39 for the midweek title. Should be a good one to check out tonight.

Elsewhere you've got Eastern Storm getting started for the USAC sprint cars. They open at Grandview tonight. Logan Seavey still in front of that battle, with Kevin Thomas Jr. and CJ Leary in tow. And the ASCS sprint cars are headed to Texarkana 67 Speedway. Seth Bergman leads Jason Martin and Andrew Deal there through four races. Bergman has two wins, Sam Hafertepe has a win, as does Terry Easum. Speedweek for the ASCS continues Thursday at Creek County, plus weekend stops at Arrowhead and Tri-State.

Finally today, Appalachian Mountain Speedweek continues tonight at Path Valley. Gregg Satterlee in control so far with two wins in three races. Including tonight though, still five races to for the super late model speedweek. A lot can still happen. This speedweek though has not been without controversy through the first three events. We've spotlighted this series on the daily show because of their experiment painting tires so that fans can recognize tire compounds between the Hoosiers and American Racers. Color coding tires is similar to what we see in modern day Formula 1. And this topic of fans knowing tire compounds is something that's also come up with the streamers. Both Flo and DIRTVision have taken the opportunity this year to share this information for Lucas and World of Outlaws events through onscreen graphics and announcer commentary. But tires with Appalachian Mountain Speedweek have come under scrutiny for another reason. In this week's issue of Area Auto Racing News, Len Sammons has a story about Hoosier quietly inserting some test tires into the proceedings this week. Sammons said his sources indicated that Satterlee, Drake Troutman, and Matt Cosner were all given right rear tires that were the right compound allowed by the speedweek, but a different construction. At the driver's meeting at Port Royal, series director Jim Bernheisel announced that the tires would be allowed for the night's action at Port, but for Hagerstown on Sunday, the tires would be outlawed. Because these test tires were not available for all competitors, Bernheisel didn't want anyone using them. It's hard to blame him for that sentiment. Satterlee won that Hagerstown show on Sunday on the correct Hoosiers. Bernheisel made it clear to Sammons that he was not happy with Hoosier's tactics, and wasn't sure if the testing was happening because the tire maker thought nobody would notice, or if they wanted the side-by-side comparison with American Racers that are also allowed. It certainly feels like maybe it was a little bit of both. While not specifically outlawed in the speedweek rules, testing tire construction like this is not a good look for Hoosier in my own opinion. There were definitely better ways to go about this, especially for a brand that pretty regularly takes a beating from the fans and competitors. This just adds fuel to the fire. You hear rumblings from time to time about certain teams getting tires to test, but I don't know that I remember seeing it confirmed in a public way like this before. You can read Sammons' piece and the entire issue of this week's Area Auto over at aarn.com.

Alright, we'll call it good there for the day. Streaming schedule, analytics, and more can be found at dirtrackr.com.

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