DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Sprint car teams using gray areas, or cheating? | Daily 6-30-2024
Today on the show, we'll get into the USAC sprint car drama at Macon Speedway, including one driver calling for others to be DQ'd over added bolt on weights. Weights have actually been under scrutiny lately elsewhere in dirt racing, and I'll give you those details as well. Plus weekend winners, championship changes and more. Let's go!
It's Sunday, June 30th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
Apologies for the later upload today, but I've been spending the morning talking to a bunch of folks and gathering info for this first part of the show.
We'll start your Sunday off with that little bit of controversy from USAC over the weekend. The national sprint car series was at Macon Speedway for two nights, Friday and Saturday. Mitchel Moles the winner on Friday after leading all 40 laps, and Logan Seavey came out on top last night in a feature that saw five different drivers lead laps. Robert Ballou was on the podium last night, and he took the opportunity in his post race interview to call out the situation from Friday night. Ballou said quote "We're just glad that the top three are legal, there's no weights bolted on the front of their cars past the front axle. Hopefully on Monday the world does what is to be determined right which is disqualify them for being illegal" unquote. So as it's been communicated to me, here is what I know about what Ballou was referring to. Friday night at Macon, there were rumblings that two cars had added weights to the front of their chassis to help with track conditions and USAC officials were alerted to them. Nothing was supposedly done through the course of the program, but afterwards, the race results were questioned. You can see on the FloRacing broadcast during victory lane celebrations that USAC officials are looking underneath the 19AZ of winner Mitchel Moles with flashlights. The USAC rulebook does say that any additional bolted on weight must be between the frame rails and between the front and rear axles, and word is that the weights in question were outside of that specified area. And the two cars mentioned were the 19AZ and the 69. I've been told this was a topic of conversation during the drivers meeting before yesterday's race, and that there could be some sort of resolution on Monday, which is what Ballou was referring to. I did find this photo from Friday, and the area in question I believe is right here where I have the arrow pointing. Now, here's where this gets a little weird. As I understand it, some sprint car builders actually put tabs in this location for bolt on weight. And they do that, because it's not technically illegal everywhere. For example, the World of Outlaws rulebook says that at the discretion of series officials, quote "additional bolt-on weight may be mounted and/or fastened forward of the front axle, but not past the front torsion bar" unquote. Where this added weight can be seen on the 19AZ wouldn't violate that rule. And it appears as though this added weight is fastened securely there, and not with hose clamps or some other makeshift situation. How USAC will end up ruling here, I don't know, but I'm not sure this is necessarily an open and shut case. We'll have to see what happens tomorrow. Just to be transparent, I did shoot a text looking for comment from USAC about the situation, but have not heard back as I record this.
To take this conversation a bit further though, bolt on weight has been an area of focus for sprint car racing as a whole for the past few weeks. It was brought up during the Knoxville weekly driver's meeting yesterday, which the Always Race Day guys reported. And supposedly World of Outlaws officials have been checking out some cars lately as well. I was told that a recent sprint car crash resulted in some added weight being thrown off the car, and that happening has caused series officials to make the rounds seeing who has weight added where and making sure things are legal and safe. You can easily imagine why this would be an area of concern, as chunks of tungsten or lead being flung through the air is not great for keeping people safe at race tracks. Race cars going fast is very much about weight and where it is, so this can be a place to find lap time, and potentially open up teams looking for gray areas of where to put it. The people I spoke to today said there are all sorts of, call it creative, ways to handle extra add on weight. Which shouldn't be surprising, racers are always looking for advantages. Logan Seavey continues to lead the USAC sprint car points. They are back later this week at Red Hill Raceway in Illinois.
One other USAC note for you, Jake Swanson and the Scott Benic owned 2B team parted ways before the Macon races. Wesley Smith was in the 2B, while Swanson was in the 5T under the Daming/Swanson banner. Swanson currently 10th in USAC points with four top fives, and 12 top tens in 24 races.
Around the country, we had a lot of racing rained out, including with both World of Outlaws series and High Limit. Tyler Courtney won the Friday night High Limit show at Lucas Oil Speedway. He topped Brad Sweet and James McFadden. Hat tip to Sye Lynch on leading some laps and picking up his first career High Limit top five. The Saturday show was postponed, with officials looking for a makeup date. The Kubota High Limit sprint cars are back July 13th at Portsmouth.
The World of Outlaws sprint cars had their weekend opposite of High Limit, with Friday rained out at Cedar Lake, but racing did happen yesterday. Logan Schuchart finally broke through for his first win of 2024. He led all 30 laps for his first win since Grays Harbor last September. It was his first podium finish as well since World Finals. Sheldon Haudenschild and David Gravel the rest of the podium. Not much change in the standings, Gravel still out front, with Donny Schatz second 58 back, then Carson Macedo and Gio Scelzi. The Outlaws are off this coming weekend as well, with Beaver Dam and Wilmot next.
Nick Hoffman won again with the World of Outlaws late models in a wild one at Norman County. Races at River Cities and I-94 were rained out. The three leaders up to about half way all ended up having problems, with Kyle Bronson suffering a flat right rear after leading 23 circuits. Bobby Pierce blew an engine after three laps out front, and Ryan Gustin DNF'd as well after leading. Devin Moran led 14 laps, but settled for second behind Hoffman, with Brandon Sheppard third. The DNF for Pierce puts him back behind Cade Dillard, down to fourth and 152 points behind BShepp. Hoffman still only 14 back. The late models are racing today at River Cities with Deer Creek up next.
In Tennessee at Volunteer Speedway, it was all Dale McDowell for the $50,000 win during their 50th anniversary celebration. Mike Marlar, Brandon Overton joined him on the podium. 42 cars there with things a bit scattered in late model racing this week. A solid sixth for Chris Madden in his return to the seat, Ricky Thornton Jr. seventh, and Scott Bloomquist did race. He ended up 21st.
Other weekend late model winners included Garrett Alberson, who actually won twice. He bagged the Summer Nationals win Friday at Farmer City, then went to Florence on Saturday and won James Essex's North All Stars race. The other weekend Summer Nationals wins went to Jason Feger. He took the Herald and Review 100 at Macon, and won Saturday at Highland. The Summer Nationals are at Red Hill today. Gregg Satterlee was an $8000 winner at Thunder Mountain, and Hudson O'Neal bagged $6600 at Thunderbird.
In weekend sprint car action, Danny Dietrich won the PA Speedweek opener on Friday at Williams Grove. The Saturday race at Lincoln was rained out. PA Speedweek is at BAPS Motor Speedway today. Brian Brown won at Knoxville, Justin Sanders was a NARC winner at Chico. I have not seen updated standings, but I would assume that Sanders took the championship lead over Cole Macedo with the win. Sam Hafertepe was an ASCS winner, Dale Blaney won at Lernerville, and Max Guilford was an IRA winner at Beaver Dam.
And finally today, we had tragedy at Jacksonville Speedway in Illinois on Friday night. During action for the MOWA 410 series, a sprint car lost control and ended up striking a few people in the track's infield. One was only injured, but 65 year old Ralph Wilhite was killed in the incident. We are certainly thinking about all of those affected by the tragedy today.
That's it for the daily show today.
Hope you guys have a great rest of your Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!