DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Changing plans, missed features, weekend favorites | Daily 6-20-2024
On this final Daily of the week, we'll talk Huset's struggles for big names, teams changing plans to race with Maverick and the IRA, Super Dirt Cup, Firecracker 100, Summer Nationals, and much more. Let's go!
It's Thursday, June 20th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
The big Huset's Speedway weekend off and running last night. Officially 55 cars in the pit area. I did see some scattered comments about the car count, and it is pretty wild that a two day show at Knoxville with standard Outlaw purses got more cars a week ago than a four day show at Huset's, with one feature paying $100k to win, and another pay $250k, and the two races in between paying $20k to win and $1500 to start. At minimum, if a driver makes the feature all four nights, they'd go home with $10,000. I understand the purses are top heavy, but that doesn't explain why East Bay, Jacksonville, and Knoxville drew more. We definitely had some surprises last night in terms of performances, with many big names relegated to the B-Main. Drivers like Brian Brown, Logan Schuchart, Kyle Larson, and James McFadden were all on the outside looking in come feature time. All four drivers backed up in their heat races, which hurt them in the event points, and ultimately led to those B-Main appearances. They all will have holes to dig out of today. McFadden and Larson were guys that I expected to be competing for the big money. In the main event, four lead changes among four drivers with Tyler Courtney coming out on top. I think we were heading for a NOS battle between Sunshine and Sheldon Haudenschild, but the 17 blew a tire inside ten to go which took him out of contention after he led 12 laps. So Sunshine gets the $20,000 win, Ryan Timms finished second after leading the most laps, and Aaron Reutzel third after initially getting docked for jumping the start. I'll be curious to see how Timms does the rest of the weekend, and if they can keep up the pace they showed last night. He won the local race at Huset's last weekend, which was his first 410 victory in over a year. And the last time he ran top five in an Outlaw race was at the Gold Cup in 2022. In 10 previous Outlaw starts in 2024, Timms has made just five features, and had two top tens. And just one week ago at Knoxville it was a B main and a C main exit. So did they figure something out, or is Huset's an anomaly here. We'll see. Looking a little further down, big charges from Buddy Kofoid and David Gravel to get into the top ten, and a nice run for Tim Kaeding going ninth to fifth. Hat tip as well to Landon Crawley. I liked the fire after the heat race following the run-in with Carson Macedo. Looking at tonight, no time trials, with heats set straight up by event points. Heat winners will do a King of the Hill, with second and third also locked into the main event. After tonight's $100k show, things reset for Friday with another prelim night, and then $250k on the line Saturday. Curious what you guys think about the rest of the weekend after what you saw last night. Drop me a comment.
Back to last night's entries, there were a few notable drivers not in attendance. That included Jacob Allen, Brady Bacon, and Bill Rose. Rose discovered he had broken his sternum in that nasty crash at Fremont, and he is back on the sidelines again. The team is looking at potential options to put in the six car until Rose is healed. As for Allen and Bacon, they are set to race with the Maverick/IRA Speedweek coming up. It looks like Bacon will run the Kevin Newton 16TH tonight at Lincoln Park before going to the USAC races in Wisconsin Saturday and Sunday. Bacon was on all the pre-entry lists for this weekend's Huset's races, so it looks like a late audible here from him. And the same thing with Jacob Allen. He ran local shows at Huset's the previous two weeks in preparation for the High Bank Nationals, with social media posts also pointing towards this event. But suddenly this week he's not at Huset's, instead choosing to run all four nights of the Maverick speedweek. The last time he raced with Maverick, he won at Terre Haute. You have to wonder if the weather played a part here, at least for Jacob. Logan has to be at Huset's for the Outlaw title, but Jacob obviously doesn't. Avoid the weather, and race where you have a chance to win. The Maverick/IRA speedweek has Lincoln Park tonight, Bloomington tomorrow, Haubstadt Saturday, and Terre Haute Sunday. Should be solid fields at those events between the Maverick teams, IRA full timers, and other invaders coming in.
Out at Skagit, Super Dirt Cup gets rolling tonight with the first of two prelim shows leading into Saturday's $62,000 to win main event. This one should draw a bunch of cars as well, which will include the Skagit regulars like Trey Starks, the NARC teams, Tanner Holmes, plenty of California travelers, and even those previously mentioned national teams like Zeb Wise and Corey Day. Devon Borden has also returned home to race, and I saw that Hunter Schuerenberg will be in attendance, although I'm not sure with which team. If I had to venture a guess, I'd say maybe the Josh Ford 73 team. We could potentially be towards 50 cars at Skagit, with the most complete list I've seen available over at mastergassers.com. Justin Sanders the defending winner of this race, and I think we could see some great racing here through Saturday. The weather looks good too.
In big time dirt late model racing, the Lucas teams are headed for Lernerville and the Firecracker 100. Thursday and Friday will have split fields, with dual $5000 to win features each night. And then Saturday pays $50,000 to win the 100 lapper. Ricky Thornton Jr. and Tim McCreadie the previous two Firecracker winners under Lucas sanction. RTJ atop the standings right now with Jonathan Davenport, Devin Moran, and McCreadie holding down the four chase spots. RTJ has been on fire as of late, winning six of the last nine Lucas features, and he's gotta be the favorite for Lernerville. I'd also put McCreadie and Davenport high on those win chances as well. As for the locals, Gregg Satterlee is coming in hot after the App speedweek title, and he was top five in the Firecracker a year ago.
One driver they won't have to worry about, is the most recent Lucas winner in Brandon Overton. The Wells 76 team will be at Lancaster and Cherokee this weekend with the Hunt the Front series, where they currently lead the championship. HTF has $12k to win at Lancaster Friday, and $20k to win at Cherokee Saturday. They are expecting 30 plus cars at each show, including the return to the south of drivers like Trey Mills and Joseph Joiner who had been racing with the Summer Nationals after the Dirt Late Model Dream.
Speaking of the Summer Nationals, Tyler Erb's win streak came to an end last night at Adams County. Max McLaughlin ripped the top to the lead, and then held off Jason Feger late in the rubber to score his first career Hell Tour victory. McLaughlin is in the midst of his first full time late model season after running modifieds in the northeast. He and the GR Smith owned 22 car will high tail it to Tennessee today to get back with the World of Outlaws who are at Thunderhill. Michael Long was last night's Modified Nationals winner. Week two of the Summer Nationals continues through the weekend with stops at Spoon River, Brownstown Illinois, Pevely, and Lincoln.
Those World of Outlaws late model teams will be busy as well, with Thunderhill tonight, Ponderosa Friday, and Brownstown Indiana on Saturday. Don't confuse the two Brownstowns I just mentioned. We haven't seen the Outlaws since the rained out Saturday at Ultimate Motorsports Park at the end of May. As a quick reset, Nick Hoffman the championship leader by a scant four points over Brandon Sheppard. Cade Dillard, Chris Madden, Kyle Bronson the rest of the top five. Bobby Pierce still down in seventh trying to dig out of that tire penalty hole. Hoffman leads all drivers with three wins this season, and BShepp still looking for that first Outlaw win of 2024.
Elsewhere, we've got the USAC sprint cars and Silver Crown series in Wisconsin. Silver Crown is on the pavement tomorrow night at Madison, with the sprint cars headed for Wilmot and Angell Park Saturday and Sunday. It seems like a good weekend for Kody Swanson to extend that Silver Crown championship lead. And like I mentioned earlier this week, we've suddenly got a five way battle for the sprint car title, with Logan Seavey, CJ Leary, Brady Bacon, Kevin Thomas Jr., and Daison Pursley all just 77 points apart.
We've also got the ASCS National Tour at Batesville on Saturday, and the USMTS modifieds at 81 for two nights, Friday and Saturday. Let me know what your weekend dirt racing plans are coming up, as you have no lack of good options.
Alright, that's it for the daily show this week. Keep up with the streaming schedule at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight and enjoy all the action out there over the next few days.
Hope you guys have a great Thursday out there, we'll see you back here on Sunday!