DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Sprint car fires, and why dirt racing needs more guys like Dominic Scelzi | Daily 6-13-2024
A big field of sprint cars is expected at Knoxville, Brady Bacon continues to make me look stupid, we need more guys like Dominic Scelzi, and... I'm Ron Burgundy? Let's go.
It's Thursday, June 13th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
There were lots of dominant wins around the country last night. At Sharon Speedway, Danny Dietrich went the distance to score his first victory of Ohio Sprint Speedweek, topping Dale Blaney and Brandon Spithaler. Big field of cars at Sharon, 55, and things seem to be going pretty okay without a big sanction being involved. We've definitely had some winners this week that we wouldn't have had otherwise, and I don't think that's a bad thing. Five different winners in five races so far, and still three races to go. Wins to this point have gone to Cap Henry, Cale Thomas, Jordan Ryan, Danny Sams, and now Dietrich. Henry still the points leader headed into tonight at Muskingum County. Friday action shifts to Millstream, and then Atomic on Saturday for the finale.
At Bridgeport, it was all Brady Bacon with the USAC sprint cars for Eastern Storm night two. He led flag to flag, and won over Kevin Thomas Jr. and Justin Grant. Logan Seavey continues to look a little more human as of late, and was 15th last night. Bacon's recent charge has him just 52 points back of Seavey, up to third behind CJ Leary. That's seven straight top three finishes for the Macho Man, and the streak continues after my hot take. Big Diamond is up next tonight, with Williams Grove Friday, Port Royal Saturday, and Action Track USA on Sunday.
The Summer Nationals got rolling as well, with 29 late models at Peoria on Wednesday. Tyler Erb went the distance in that one, topping Dennis Erb Jr. and Dillon McCowan. I said yesterday that this will likely be the weekend where Tyler Erb falls off the Lucas tour, but had a commenter point out that he's actually already off the deal. He didn't race with Lucas at the Show-Me 100 a few weeks ago, and I completely missed it. He's off to a good start here though with the Summer Nationals. As expected, a bunch of Outlaw teams were in attendance, including Dennis Erb Jr., Bobby Pierce, Max McLaughlin, Cody Overton, and Daniel Hilsabeck. The Outlaws and DIRTVision are supporting the weekend racing at Ultimate Motorsports Park, but it's not an official Outlaw race. We'll see if any of these guys go that direction, or if they stay out with the Hell Tour. Pierce posted to social media to keep an eye on his page for schedule updates. He does have the Sunday show at Ultimate on his schedule as tentative. The Summer Nationals show for tonight at Kankakee is rained out. They will try again tomorrow at Tri-City, with Fairbury coming up on Saturday.
And out west with sprint cars after dark, not a great night at Southern Oregon Speedway. Happy to see Tanner Holmes get his first career NARC win. He led every lap after starting second, and topped Justyn Cox and Justin Sanders. But the main event was halted after just 13 laps because of a crash and fire involving Angelique Bell. Bell was taken to the hospital in an ambulance and is being treated for burns. Obviously everyone is hoping for a full recovery. I'm not going to harp on safety, yet again, but clearly there were some issues last night, and things need to be addressed from multiple angles. I know there is an ongoing discussion on social media about fuel tanks after recent fires, including Chase Randall's at Knoxville. And there are deficiencies in fire fighting capability at a lot of race tracks. Bell's crash wasn't even particularly bad or violent, but the tank itself looked to have been ruptured by her riding the turn three wall and getting into the fencing. It seemed like it took a very long time for her to finally get out, and then they couldn't get the fire under control. The feature effectively had to be called off because they had exhausted all of their fire fighting equipment of extinguishing materials. Talking to a fire fighter today with lots of experience in this area, it seems as though they did not have the correct extinguishers for a methanol fire. NARC's Jim Allen and the track's promoter addressed the drivers in a meeting after the incident and all agreed it was the best course of action. I do want to spotlight Dominic Scelzi as well, because he was vocal in that meeting about saying that he didn't feel comfortable continuing. He said it wasn't for lack of effort on the safety crew's part, but clearly they didn't have the right stuff to handle the fire. And if the sport is going to have any real change in the area of safety, the drivers absolutely must be vocal and involved. They are the ones most at risk. Cali Dirt Video on YouTube caught the entire driver's meeting on camera, and I would recommend watching it but he has since taken it down. The fire stuff with Bell was difficult to watch, but the meeting stuff was very interesting. Good stuff from Dom and not being afraid to raise his hand. We need more of that. Going forward, these series have got to be checking with tracks ahead of time. I was told that Purple K extinguishers are the best option, and if that's true, that's what tracks need on hand if they are hosting sprint cars. That has to be non-negotiable. Some car specific training also needs to happen, and responders need protection like fire suits. You can't get drivers out of burning cars wearing a t-shirt and blue jeans. NARC's trip north continues tonight at Douglas County, with Cottage Grove Friday, Willamette Saturday, and Grays Harbor on Sunday.
At Knoxville this weekend, we could very likely have the biggest sprint car field so far this season when the World of Outlaws come through. Johnny Gibson tweeted yesterday that a car count in the 70s is possible, but more likely we'll be mid 60s. A quick glance through both the Outlaw and High Limit schedules, and it looks like 56 was the highest for High Limit, that was at East Bay. And the Outlaws had 56 at Jacksonville. This will be a bit of a Knoxville Nationals preview, and plenty of teams are headed in to get laps. This will be a big weekend as well, because NASCAR is in town at Iowa Speedway. So another Outlaw/High Limit showdown weekend, and the championship battle remains tight.
In Tennessee, Lucas is at Smoky Mountain on Friday and Saturday after a few weeks off. Ricky Thornton Jr. still atop the standings, leading Jonathan Davenport and Devin Moran. Those three are pretty solidly in the Lucas chase right now, with the fourth and final spot up for grabs. Hudson O'Neal has it, but Mike Marlar, Tim McCreadie, Garrett Alberson, and Daulton Wilson all still in play.
Plenty of other racing happening this weekend as well. Drop me a comment with your weekend plans and your win picks.
Finally today, a quick funny story for you. If you watched yesterday's show, you know that I did a promo read off the top for Pennsylvania Speedweek coming up. In that read I said that it was ten races in days at ten tracks. Obviously that was a typo, as it's not ten tracks. It's seven tracks. Williams Grove, Lincoln, and Port Royal all have two races that week. I've discovered though that I am basically Ron Burgundy at this point and will just read whatever is on the teleprompter. Thanks to everyone that called me out for the mistake, I will try and do better with the next one. Big thanks as well to the PA Speedweek organizers for supporting the show.
That's it for the Daily today and this week. Hit the subscribe button where you tune in, and check out the streaming schedule at dirtrackr.com.
Hope you guys have a great Thursday out there, we'll see you back here on Sunday!