DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Something that dirt racing struggles with | Daily 6-24-2024

Can Bobby Pierce and Nick Hoffman do anything about Brandon Sheppard? We'll dive into that today, plus news from the Flo series and Daniel Hilsabeck, Summer Nationals results, and some questions for you about good racing that doesn't involve big names. Let's go!

It's Monday, June 24th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

The Maverick IRA speedweek ended last night at Terre Haute, and it was another Tyler Courtney win. He battled out front with Chris Windom and Noah Gass, eventually making a wild third to first move in turns three and four. He railed the top, and then just cut through everyone in traffic to take the lead. Sunshine didn't get a chance to race for big money at Huset's, but ends the week with three wins, including that prelim show at Huset's, plus two with Maverick and the IRA. Gass finished second, with Scotty Thiel going sixth to third. Emerson Axsom bagged an extra $1250 bucks for winning the four night championshp. He had a win, two seconds, and a ninth. Great racing all week, and an interesting course of events that led to big car counts and likely way more eyeballs than usual. We had a wide array of cars and drivers compete through the four nights, and I'm curious if you guys tuned into these races. With no Outlaws or High Limit, did you just check out of sprint car racing for the weekend, or did your attention then go to these races and Skagit? I think similar to what we saw with Ohio Speedweek, this set of races gave some other drivers the chance to shine and get some attention, and that included Axsom, Ayrton Gennetten, Jacob Allen, and Chris Windom among others. It's clear that with the national teams mostly out of the picture, and more opportunities to make features and run well, these other teams definitely showed up in force. But are big fields and good racing enough to draw fans, when those familiar cars and names aren't on the event posters and entry lists. I'm not so sure. I've had this note down for a few weeks about dirt racing generally, and I want to bring it up here. I wrote down a while back, just the phrase good racing isn't enough. It seems to be a relevant idea for a lot of the series and shows we get each week. I'll let you ruminate on that. Hat tip as well to Loren Kelly. He's the IRA announcer, and I think is on his way to being one of the good voices in the sport.

At Lincoln Speedway on Sunday, Jason Feger broke through for his first Summer Nationals win of the year. Kye Blight on the pole, he was fast early on, but this one again came down to Feger and Tyler Erb, with Ryan Unzicker also in the mix. Feger has now won three straight Summer Nationals races at Lincoln. His consistency through the week earned him the week two championship, even though Erb won three times. The attention has really been on Erb and Feger, with Unzicker and Max McLaughlin also winning, but Blight has been fast like we've talked about, and we've seen Daryn Klein run well. He's a name you don't hear often. Billy Moyer also some strong runs this past week. On the modified side, Cole Falloway won again, he's got two now, that matches him with Trevor Neville and Michael Long for the most on the year. Neville leads the modified championship through eight races. The Summer Nationals are off today, with week three starting tomorrow at Springfield.

Looking ahead to tonight, the World of Outlaws late models are right back to racing with a stop at Independence Motor Speedway in Iowa. We are coming off a three race weekend where Brandon Sheppard finally got into the win column, going back-to-back at Thunderhill and Ponderosa. And Nick Hoffman capped it off Saturday with his series-leading fourth win, scoring the victory at Brownstown. BShepp leading the championship battle right now by 12 points over Nick Hoffman, with Cade Dillard third, Bobby Pierce fourth, and Kyle Bronson fifth. We've got a clear delineation right now between the top two and everyone else, but I do still think Pierce is in the fight. He's 124 points back, which is about 62 feature positions, based on two points per spot. You do get a few more points for a win, so it could be a bit less than that if he gets hot. We aren't quite to half way yet in the season, so there is still time for Pierce to close. The issue though, is Sheppard's consistency. 15 top tens in 16 races so far, an average finish of 2.6 over his last five races, and that team looking like they are starting to figure it out. Pierce needs to be taking decent chunks out of Sheppard's lead to get back into this, but the B5 likely needs to open the door for him, at least a bit. Pierce has two wins, and four podiums in his last five races, which is what he needs to do, but Sheppard has been just a bit better. I don't want Hoffman to get lost in this conversation though, and I think he's another that doesn't get enough respect on the national stage. He's made significant improvements in year two full time in a late model, including a 3.5 position jump in average start, and a two and half position jump in average finish on tour with the Outlaws. He trails BShepp a bit in that consistency area, but if he can keep winning races at a high clip, he can get away with a bit less consistency and still keep himself in striking distance. The last time the Outlaws were at Independence was 2019, that turned into a Brandon Sheppard win over Chris Simpson and Chase Junghans. We'll see as well if any of these other winless guys can jump up and grab a score, including Cade Dillard, Kyle Bronson, and Dennis Erb Jr. I'm curious as well about Dustin Sorensen after that Brownstown performance. Might be a darkhorse to pay attention to as well. Hot laps are scheduled tonight for 7PM central time.

The FloRacing Night in America show that was originally supposed to happen in the leadup to the Dirt Late Model Dream at Eldora has found a new date this season. Now this race will kickoff action during World 100 week at Eldora in September, with the Flo series now occupying Wednesday, September 4th. That will be a busy week of dirt late model racing, with both Lucas and XR in action the Saturday before, on August 31st. Lucas also races Sunday at Tyler County, September 1st. XR is back Monday at Kokomo, then Flo series Wednesday at Eldora, before three days for the World 100 through September 7th. There will be no lack of opportunity to make money that week, but some teams will definitely have some decisions to make, especially those not running full time with Lucas. With just one race complete, a Ricky Thornton Jr. win at Macon, RTJ leads the Flo series championship, with the next scheduled event coming up on July 8th at Lincoln Speedway.

Another late model note for you, World of Outlaws Late Model Series rookie Daniel Hilsabeck will be out of the seat for a while after suffering a broken arm during a heat race crash on Saturday at Brownstown. Hilsabeck's arm got stuck in the steering wheel during that incident, and he was eventually airlifted to a local Indianapolis hospital. The Iowa driver was 15th in the standings, with a best finish of 8th, that came during those split field features at Ultimate Motorsports Park back in May. There is no word on a timeline for his recovery, but hopefully it happens quickly.

Alright, that's it for the show today. If you want even more dirt racing content, stop by dirtrackr.com to see the latest news from around the sport, plus peruse new podcast episodes, the analytics section and more. It's a one stop shop for all things dirt racing.

Hope you guys have a great Monday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!