DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Outlaw High Limit struggles, freebie use, is it for real this time with Terbo? | Daily 6-12-2024
High Limit, Kyle Larson, World of Outlaws, Ohio Speedweek, Briggs Danner, Brady Bacon, NARC, Summer Nationals, and more. Let's go!
It's Wednesday, June 12th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
Get ready, race fans, Pennsylvania Speedweek presented by Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and Brews is almost here, and it's bigger and better than ever. From June 28th to July 7th, the Keystone State transforms into a high-octane paradise as some of the best sprint car drivers in the nation battle it out on Pennsylvania's most iconic dirt tracks! This year each race pays a minimum of $10,000 to win with the Mitch Smith Memorial at Williams Grove on July 5 paying $20,000 to win and Lincoln Speedway's Kevin Gobrecht Memorial on June 29th paying a record $25,000 to win! In the heart of the PA Posse’s home, Central PA’s marquee event, Pennsylvania Sprint Speedweek, has a storied history of being the most anticipated week of racing. The coveted title has been won by some of the biggest names in sprint car racing including, Fred Rahmer, Greg Hodnett, Danny Dietrich and Lance Dewease. NASCAR champ Kyle Larson has also inked his name in the record books as a PA Speedweek Champion. In addition to his championship, Larson and fellow NASCAR star, Christopher Bell, have Speedweek wins on their resume. Bring the whole family and experience the thrill of live racing! Pennsylvania Speedweek – ten nights, ten tracks, one unforgettable experience! For more information go to pa speedweeks dot com or find them on Facebook and X!
Eagle Raceway last night, the Kubota High Limit sprint cars in action. Another huge crowd, and another Kyle Larson win. He's undefeated in his career at the Nebraska track, and it was back-to-back series wins this season. Larson didn't run at Butler or I-70, but did win in his last start at Lawrenceburg. I'd say he and Paul Silva have now officially settled in after some uncharacteristic performances earlier this season. Yung Money had a nice mid-race slider fest with Carson Macedo, but took over for good after that, holding off Brad Sweet late in the rubber. James McFadden also on the podium, with Macedo the highest finishing Outlaw driver in fourth. Gio Scelzi ended up ninth after starting 11th, and the two other Outlaw drivers in attendance might be wishing they hadn't burned the freebie. Logan Schuchart seemed to struggle all night, and ended up 13th in the B. And Buddy Kofoid's night was over before it even started. I don't believe we ever got a replay on Flo, but Kofoid crashed in hot laps and completely junked his Roth 83. He must have hit a ton, because the frame was in a banana shape as it slid down the track. He scratched for the remainder of the program. I have seen your questions about whether or not he will be charged a freebie from the Outlaws even though he didn't technically race. I have reached out for clarification, but have not heard back an answer yet. If I do, I will pass along the information. There didn't end up being any other Outlaws there, even though there were rumblings of other possibilities. I said yesterday that David Gravel will likely use his other remaining freebie outside of Eldora for Lernerville, I just confused the dates. Gravel would use it for the summer race at Lernerville after Eldora, and not in the fall. With so few opportunities left to actually use them with the schedule conflicts, it looks like there is a solid chance that several of the Outlaw teams won't even end up using all four. For all the talk about freedom and picking races, it certainly seems like some of these teams don't care much to race outside of the Outlaw schedule. Four drivers have yet to even use a freebie, they are Sheldon Haudenschild, Donny Schatz, Bill Balog, and Kraig Kinser. Gravel, Macedo, Gio, Brock Zearfoss and Bill Rose have used one each. And Logan Schuchart, Landon Crawley, and sort of Buddy Kofoid have burned two. Down through the field last night, a bunch of the other High Limit contenders had tough runs, including Brent Marks, Rico Abreu, and Corey Day. And Tyler Courtney did finish in sixth, but lost more ground to Sweet in the standings. This championship is playing out basically how we expected it to, with Sweet's consistency just too much to keep up with. He's got 23 top tens in 24 High Limit races, six wins, and average feature finish of 3.9. Insane numbers. The High Limit series goes quiet now until June 26th at Lake Ozark, but all of these teams will stay busy over the next few weeks between the Outlaw show at Knoxville, the High Bank Nationals at Huset's, and Dirt Cup at Skagit.
At Hilltop Speedway, night four of Ohio Sprint Speedweek went to Danny Sams. He battled out front with Greg Wilson and Brock Hallett, and was able to rip the top to his first 410 win of the season. Wilson and Cap Henry also on the podium. I heard yesterday that Cap and Cale Thomas are the only two drivers to make every speedweek feature so far, so it's no shock they lead the weeklong championship. Sams is up to third with the win, with Wilson and Zane DeVault fourth and fifth. We spotlighted Sams a few weeks ago in an issue of The Slider, our email newsletter, and he continues to show speed on the road this year away from his home of Florida. He's definitely another one to watch. Speedweek shifts tonight to Sharon Speedway, with the streaming coverage flipping over to DIRTVision after the last few nights were on FloRacing.
In USAC sprint car action, Eastern Storm opened last night at Grandview, and the inevitable finally happened. You knew it was only a matter of time until Briggs Danner won one of these USAC races, and last night was the night. He started fourth, took over the lead on lap 15, and never looked back. Brady Bacon went sixth to second, and CJ Leary was third. Championshp leader Logan Seavey went 13th to fifth. We've seen Danner lead laps in USAC competition, including back in May at Eldora, and he had multiple second place finishes, including at Grandview in 2022. He's a kid who will just about race anything, and is definitely overlooked on the national scene, but cool to see him finally get one. As for Brady Bacon, I made the case back on the May 22nd daily show that he should swap over to full time winged racing for the rest of 2024, and since then he's turned the wick up without the wing. He won that night at Circle City, and has four straight second place runs since. They have definitely figured something out, and he's clawed his way closer to the top in the standings. My stance hasn't changed though, I still think Bacon could do well swapping over. Eastern Storm continues tonight at Bridgeport.
Other racing tonight to check out includes the NARC sprint cars kicking off their fastest five days in motorsports. They are at Southern Oregon tonight, Douglas County tomorrow, Cottage Grove on Friday, Willamette on Saturday, and then Grays Harbor Sunday. This trip up the west coast will then lead into the Dirt Cup at Skagit the following week. The championship is tight right now with Cole Macedo leading Justin Sanders by just two points, and a lot will change over the next several days. Never sleep on sprint cars after dark out west.
Also tonight, Summer Nationals gets going at Peoria. Five weeks of racing, and points checks awarded for each week. With the World of Outlaws off, I think you could see a few of those guys race this first week, and Dennis Erb Jr. is one the series pointed to. You'll also see Jason Feger, Tanner English, some southern guys like Trey Mills and Hunt the Front's Joseph Joiner and more. This looks like it will also finally be the week where Tyler Erb falls off the Lucas tour. Lucas is at Smoky Mountain this weekend, but Erb is scheduled to compete with the Summer Nationals throughout the first stretch. If you want to watch, DIRTVision is your place.
Jumping back to some racing from last night...
At Path Valley, Rick Eckert won his first late model feature of the season, topping Mason Zeigler and Gregg Satterlee with the Appalachian Mountain Speedweek. If you missed yesterday's daily show, I'd definitely recommend jumping back and listening to it or watching. There was some interesting tire drama over the weekend that flew under the radar here. The App speedweek is off today, with racing continuing Thursday at Selinsgrove. Satterlee still leading the championship over Matt Cosner.
With the ASCS on Tuesday, they opened their own speedweek at Texarkana 67 Speedway, and it was Sam Hafertepe Jr. picking up win number two on the season, and his second in a row. He topped championship leader Seth Bergman and Matt Covington. Bergman still with a healthy margin in the standings through five races, but plenty of other contenders in the mix and lots of racing still to come. Since World Racing Group took over ownership of the ASCS, it definitely feels like things are a bit healthier and there is some more buzz around it. They did a full timers class picture a few weeks ago with 18 drivers included. That's a strong field of drivers to start a season. Not everyone will stick it out, but a good sign. The ASCS is off today, with speedweek continuing Thursday at Creek County.
If you are looking for even more dirt racing content, might I suggest one or several of the other dirt racing podcasts out there this week. Winged Nation has Sheldon Haudenschild, Carson McCarl, and Cam Waters. Dirt Track Confessions has Johnny Gibson, Passing Points has Randy Ward, Hoogie's Garage has Randall Rusher and Lucas Wolfe, Dunewich on Dirt has Dillan Baldwin, Turn 2 Terribles has Joey Amantea, Getting up to Speed has a bunch of new stuff, and there are new episodes of The Dirt Reporters, the Dirt Nerds, Quicktime, Racing Roundup, Ohio Dirt, and the Driver's Project. To see a full list of the dirt racing shows and their newest episodes, head over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
That's it for the show today. A quick note for you about the Daily... If you or someone you know is hard of hearing and still wants to check out the show each day, I post full transcripts over at dirtrackr.com/daily. So you can watch on YouTube and Facebook, listen to the podcast on all the big platforms, or read the show each day at dirtrackr.com. I started posting the transcripts in 2021 just to add that third option, and I know a bunch of folks consume it that way. Just trying to make things as easy as possible.
Hope you guys have a great rest of your Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!