DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Okay, so hear me out on this Donny Schatz take... | Daily 6-17-2024
Today I've got a Donny Schatz take, we'll talk Sunday action, more on Brady Bacon, Trey Starks and Justin Sanders at odds, and much more. Let's go!
It's Monday, June 17th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
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I'm going to kick today's show off with something to think about with the World of Outlaws. In terms of sprint car championships, the only real possible drama this season on that front will be with the Outlaws. On the High Limit side, Brad Sweet will continue to do Brad Sweet things, he's the most prolific points racer of this generation, and it would take a historic effort from Tyler Courtney to even make this thing close. I think Sunshine is an incredible racer, but he's not on Sweet's level yet. The rest of the High Limit field continues to lose ground there. On the Outlaw side though, we've seen things be much tighter. Before Knoxville, it was five guys really close, but as we talked about yesterday, some contenders struggled there and it's opened back up. We are likely down to four headed into the summer, between David Gravel, Donny Schatz, Carson Macedo, and Gio Scelzi. Here lately it felt like the top contender to Gravel was Macedo, but those two nights at Knoxville were a gut punch, and it was surprising to see that team specifically go there and struggle. They went nowhere come feature time, and clearly they have work to do before the Nationals. What was just 10 points is now 76. Yet another hole to climb out of. I'm curious though about Donny Schatz. They also lost a bit of ground to Gravel, but not nearly as much and Schatz battled his ass off, especially on Friday. Going from a non-qualifier to tenth on a night like that could be a signature moment for that team this season. Donny hasn't lit the world on fire with double digit wins, but his consistency is back in a real way. An average finish we haven't seen this low since 2019, and 26 top tens in 29 races. His only three finishes outside the top ten were all 11th place runs. They just haven't had bad nights. I'm wondering now if maybe Schatz isn't the guy to watch here as Gravel's closest challenger. This level of consistency could keep him in striking distance of Gravel all season. The 2 car is going to win races, but they will also have some missteps, like we've already seen. And that will keep the TSR 15 in it. My two concerns though for Schatz are this weekend at Huset's, and the fall California swing. Gravel will be set on tilt at Huset's for obvious reasons, and Donny hasn't been good there the past two years. Also, California hasn't been kind to Schatz in recent seasons. If Donny can leave Huset's with more top tens, and do the same out west, we could have a real fight on our hands here. I still think Gravel is the guy to beat, but Schatz is very quietly hanging around here, and I think a guy with ten championships lurking is very dangerous.
In Sunday racing action, we had the end of three different speedweeks, including Eastern Storm with USAC, NARC's run to Dirt Cup, and the late model App Mountain speedweek. At Action Track USA, as expected, we got a really fun race with Logan Seavey just nipping Briggs Danner at the line for the victory. Win number seven on the season for Seavey, and he leaves Eastern Storm with a slight 21 point advantage over CJ Leary in the standings. Brady Bacon entered the night with the Eastern Storm points lead, and he needed to finish fifth or better to bag the speedweek title, but he was out early with engine issues. He had contact with Kyle Cummins, but that was not put him out of the event. Those issues for Bacon allowed Mitchel Moles to snag the week long championship with a third place finish. Moles hasn't won a national event in almost a year, but was consistent through Eastern Storm, picking up two seconds and two fifths. There won't be any rest for these teams though, as they are right back to racing this coming Saturday. Weekend stops at Wilmot at Angell Park are on tap.
Back to Brady Bacon here for a second. I know a lot of you have had fun with my hot take from a few weeks ago where I said he should go full time winged racing. In the time since, he's really come to life, winning three times and dragging his team right back into the championship battle with USAC. He did have stumbles last night and at Big Diamond, but he's very much back in the fight. What's interesting though, is I don't know that my opinion has really changed. His average per race win amounts between the two sides are almost identical for the season. $2308 with a wing on, and $2346 with the wing off. And to get to that number with the wing off, he's had to win three times and finish top ten in 65% of races. On the winged side, it's one win in 12 starts and just three top tens. Even with the recent resurgence, I still think there is a very strong case for a switch.
At BAPS, Gregg Satterlee closed out the Appalachian Mountain Speedweek with a victory plus the speedweek title. For the week he won three times, and never finished worse than seventh in seven races. Dylan Yoder and Matt Cosner rounded out the top three in the standings, with Kyle Hardy and Yoder on the podium last night. Some solid action through the events, and I definitely liked the color coded tires. Hopefully they bring that back again next year.
Out west at Grays Harbor, Dominic Scelzi closed out the NARC Fastest Five Days in Motorsports with a win. He had a challenge here or there from Justin Sanders, but was pretty much in control throughout. Sanders and Trey Starks rounded out the podium finishers. Those two had some beef late though, including some theatrics on track, and some jawing on the frontstretch afterwards. Neither driver really addressed it in their interviews, and I was a bit surprised that Jim Allen didn't ask them about it. I didn't see anything super egregious there late from either guy, but it's possible we didn't see something that happened when the Flo cameras were away from that battle. Could be a subplot to keep an eye on this coming week at Skagit, as Sanders is the defending winner there, and Starks is the local favorite. Cole Macedo ended up taking the speedweek points title, which ended up being really close between him and Sanders. The show-up points awarded for the Southern Oregon race definitely played a role there, but there were definitely mitigating circumstances. The NARC sanctioned Dirt Cup at Skagit starts on Thursday.
Summer Nationals action at Sycamore was rained out and postponed to Monday, July 8th. That makes Tyler Erb the week one champion. An interesting decision there with the reschedule, as that puts Sycamore up against the Flo series race at Lincoln Speedway. That Lincoln show was also rescheduled. Those two tracks not far apart. Those national level teams weren't running the Hell Tour anyway, but there will definitely be some teams with a decision to make that night. We'll see if it affects car counts and crowds for the two shows. The Summer Nationals continue tomorrow at Davenport for week two.
At Ultimate Motorsports Park, Hudson O'Neal drove Kevin Rumley's car to the $15,000 win, topping Daulton Wilson and Ross Bailes. Only 19 super late models in attendance, but some quality cars there with O'Neal, Wilson, Jonathan Davenport, Nick Hoffman, Brandon Overton, Garrett Alberson, Jimmy Owens, and Brandon Sheppard all racing. The national touring teams will split this coming week, with Lucas at Lernerville for the Firecracker, and the World of Outlaws beginning a busy stretch with races at Thunderhill, Ponderosa, and Brownstown.
At Huset's on Sunday, Ryan Timms won his first 410 sprint car race in over a year. Early leader Kerry Madsen went for a tumble late, and Timms took advantage. He beat Tim Kaeding and Scott Bogucki to the finish. Timms has won three times this season in 360 competition, and has midget wins, but the 410 has been a problem. In 23 starts against the Outlaws and High Limit, just four top ten finishes and a best result of sixth against the Outlaws at Kennedale. Timms had a breakout season in 2022, winning eight 410 races, but things fell off significantly last year. We've talked about him before, but you have to wonder if the sprint car tire change last season set him and his team back and they just haven't been able to get things right since. We'll see if they can parlay last night's win into more sprint car success.
And with the Short Track Super Series yesterday, Marc Johnson topped Matt Sheppard and Mat Williamson at Devil's Bowl in Vermont. Williamson leads the north region standings by six points over Stewart Friesen right now. Williamson also leads the south region, which is in action tomorrow at New Egypt.
That's it for the daily today. There isn't much on the streaming schedule today, but it's not empty, so if you're looking for a fix today, head over to dirtrackr.com/watchtonight to see your options.
Hope you guys have a great Monday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!