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Staff changes at High Limit, an Ohio breakout, TMac rises with Rocket | Daily 6-16-2024
Big names struggle at Knoxville, Danny Sams shines in Ohio, the USAC sprint car fight is on like Donkey Kong, and High Limit makes changes to it's officiating staff. Let's go!
It's Sunday, June 16th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
First off, Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. Hope you have a chill day and get to relax a bit!
I want to start first today with the World of Outlaws sprint cars at Knoxville. Big fields as expected, 64 on Friday and 61 on Saturday. Those are the biggest car counts we've seen this season in big time sprint car racing. And it's no surprise, because High Limit was off and this is really one of the last times a bunch of these teams will get to run laps at Knoxville before the Nationals. David Gravel the winner on Friday after Kyle Larson appeared to break an engine late. Yung Money charged from 10th to the lead, but did not get the victory. Gravel got to the end with no left front shock on the Big Game 2 machine. A good run for Parker Price Miller in second, he led laps, and Rico Abreu third. And then last night it was Corey Day picking up career Outlaw win number two. He battled with Logan Schuchart, but the Shark 1S went out with a few to go after contact with the turn two wall. Johnny Gibson and Tony Bokhoven said they thought he blew a tire, but it looked to me on DIRTVision like Schuchart just got too high and hit the wall. Schuchart hadn't led laps in an Outlaw race since he won at Grays Harbor back in September of 2023, and he's now at 45 straight Outlaw appearances without a victory. I wonder if maybe he was pressing just a bit there late to hang with Day and made the mistake. Schuchart still without a podium finish this season. As for Day, he adds a Knoxville win to his resume to go along with that Gold Cup victory. He's already been a Nationals feature starter, and you have to wonder if he's now in the mix as a guy to watch for a Nationals victory coming up in August. Looking at the Outlaw championship chase, nobody really able to keep pace with Gravel this weekend. Donny Schatz was the only contender with two top tens. He was second to Day last night, and needed a heroic effort on Friday to finish 10th. He charged from a non-qualifier to that top ten, which included an 11th to sixth performance in his heat, and the B-Main win. Schatz actually back to second in the standings, with Carson Macedo outside the top 15 both nights. I certainly didn't expect that. Buddy Kofoid was 13th and 14th, and he needed a provisional on Saturday. Both Macedo and Kofoid had their massive top ten streaks finally busted. I was also surprised to see Brent Marks struggle, he only made one feature. Spencer Bayston was lacking serious speed, he never got close to a main event start. And Brad Sweet with finishes of 15th and ninth. So up next is the big money weekend at Huset's. Racing starts there on Wednesday. A lot of teams will head that direction, but some of the High Limit guys are going to Skagit. We know that Zeb Wise is one of them, as is Corey Day. The pre-entry list for Huset's as of Friday showed 51 cars incoming, including eight High Limit teams, plus Kyle Larson. My assumption would be that Larson will only run early in the week, with the Cup cars at New Hampshire next Sunday.
Before we move on, I do have some High Limit news. With this couple of week break in between races, competition director Mike Hess has made changes to that officiating staff. I've been told that both technical director Kevin Nouse, and official Logan Nouse, have been let go from the series. Kevin was previously the series director for the All Star Circuit of Champions, and was basically the only holdover from the All Stars to High Limit in that purchase over the offseason. That is unless you count the trailer and equipment. Nouse was at the center of that post-race scale controversy with Brad Sweet a few weeks ago at Outlaw Speedway that had social media buzzing, although I don't know if that played into this decision or not. No word yet on who could fill those officiating voids. High Limit is back in ten days at Lake Ozark Speedway on June 26th for a midweek championship series race.
At Smoky Mountain in Tennessee, Ricky Thornton Jr. and Brandon Overton were weekend Lucas winners. Both led every lap from the pole, with RTJ's win worth $10 grand and Overton's $50 grand. Overton hadn't won a Lucas race since August of 2023. RTJ now with nine Lucas wins on the season. In the championship though, it was a very good weekend for Tim McCreadie. Back-to-back second place finishes, plus a seventh last night now sees him jump up and be solidly in that final chase spot. He's got a 55 point cushion back to Mike Marlar, and that gap down to Daulon Wilson in eighth is starting to widen just a bit. Fifth through eighth is still tight, but with McCreadie looking like he's starting to find his footing in the Rocket 1, the rest of those guys could be in trouble. Hudson O'Neal is still very much looking for speed since leaving that car. In 11 Lucas races since departing, he has just three top tens, and was outside the top ten both nights this weekend. He'll be back in Kevin Rumley's car today at Ultimate Motorsports Park here in North Carolina. That race looking like it will draw quite a few big names. Up next for Lucas is the Firecracker 100 at Lernerville.
In Ohio, Cap Henry officially the Ohio Sprint Speedweek champion. Two wins, six podiums, and seven top fives in eight races was a very strong week from him. I think the breakout star of the week though was definitely Danny Sams. After the Tuesday win at Hilltop, he also won Thursday at Muskingum County, and topped it off with the $10,000 win last night at Atomic. He ended up third in the overall championship, and showed a lot of speed all week. These wins I think will go a long way towards helping him and that team with confidence, and knowing they can play on the bigger stage. I would not be surprised to see more wins from him this season, and more strong runs with the national tours. Overall, I thought it was a good speedweek, and the missing All Star sanction I don't think hurt it a bit. It allowed some other names to shine, and they had strong car counts all week. Let's hope the cooperation among the Ohio promoters continues, because it's what that area needs to succeed.
Up in the northeast, this 2024 USAC sprint car season has been blown wide open because of Eastern Storm. What was a three horse race with Logan Seavey very much in control over CJ Leary and Kevin Thomas Jr., is now a five way fight. Seavey, Leary, Brady Bacon, KTJ, and Daison Pursley are all now only 77 points apart. Seavey won Thursday at Big Diamond, but was outside the top ten at Bridgeport and the Grove. And outside of an 18th at Big Diamond, Bacon has stayed hot, including winning last night at Port Royal. KTJ the winner on Friday at Williams Grove. The Macho Man enters tonight's Eastern Storm finale at Action Track USA as the speedweek championship leader. I do want to give a hat tip to Briggs Danner. He could easily have multiple wins this week, but has had some bad luck. He ran out of fuel on Friday at the Grove leading on the final lap, and led laps last night before catching the wall. I'm still buying plenty of Danner stock at the moment. Action Track USA shoud be a fun one tonight, so don't miss that. Daison Pursley as well deserves a mention here with his first career Silver Crown win last night at Port Royal. He won on the final lap topping Justin Grant and Bacon.
Elsewhere, Tyler Erb's decision to go pick and choose seems to be paying off. He's spent the last several days beating up on the Summer Nationals, taking three wins in three races. It's the first time a driver has won the first three Hell Tour races to start a season since Billy Moyer in 2010. Erb will go to Sycamore today to wrap up the week one championship.
Other weekend late model winners included a Spencer Hughes sweep of the Comp Cams series at Magnolia. Zack Dohm and Josh Rice were Iron Man winners, Rick Eckert and Dylan Yoder picked up App speedweek victories, and Thugg Nasty Logan Roberson was a $10,000 crate winner at Natural Bridge.
Weekend NARC wins went to Cole Macedo on Thursday at Roseburg, Justyn Cox won Friday at Cottage Grove, and Robbie Price picked up his first career series win last night at Willamette. The Fastest Five Days in Motorsports wraps up today at Grays Harbor. ASCS wins went to Sam Hafertepe, and two to Seth Bergman. Bergman clinched the speedweek championship, and has taken a commanding lead in the season long points headed to Heart O' Texas next weekend. TJ Stutts won at Williams Grove, Cameron Smith at Lincoln, Justin Whittall was back in victory lane with a score at Port Royal, and Mike Reinke was an IRA winner at Wilmot.
We'll call that good for today. There is still a ton of racing going on, so make sure to stop by dirtrackr.com/watchtonight to see your options.
Hope you guys have a great rest of your Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!