DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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They are checking droop? | Daily 7-4-2024
Bobby Pierce is hot again, do you guys remember the droop rule, the PA Speedweek title heats up, Brent Marks makes me look like an idiot, and much more today. Let's go!
It's Thursday, July 4th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
Happy Fourth of July out there, please be safe celebrating, as I know a lot of us are going to be blowing stuff up. I saw Chris Wilke tweeted this morning quote "please keep your kids and dogs quiet these next few mornings. Some of us have been up all night setting off fireworks." I liked that.
One show note for you, we are going to shuffle the schedule for this week. There will not be a Sunday show coming up, but I will do a Friday Daily instead. So, this is not the last Daily of the week, we'll be back tomorrow with a fresh one, and then no show on Sunday. Back to regularly scheduled programming on Monday.
Bobby Pierce had been having a bit of a rough go of it lately, as he tries to climb back into the World of Outlaws title fight. DNFs in the past two Outlaw shows at Norman County and River Cities after winning two straight, have seen him fall back to fifth in the Outlaw standings. But this week with XR should make him feel better, and that wallet is a little fatter. He won Monday at Proctor and bagged $15 grand. Then finished second to Nick Hoffman Tuesday at Gondik Law. And last night it was a dominating win at Ogilvie, where he beat Devin Moran by more than three seconds at the checkered for another $50,000 pay day. That should give him a fair amount of momentum headed to Deer Creek with a 182 point hole to climb out of. Behind Pierce, Moran was second, Ricky Thornton Jr. third, Ryan Gustin fourth and Tyler Erb fifth. Devin Moran maintains that championship lead with the XR Super Series through six events. Moran and RTJ are the only two drivers to have competed in every race so far this season. And I'll be curious to see if that perfect attendance continues coming up. The World of Outlaws start a three race weekend at Deer Creek tonight, with Saturday paying $50,000 to win. And the next XR show is Sunday at Fairmont Raceway, also in Minnesota. Those two race tracks not far apart. But Lucas has two races this weekend in Ohio, Portsmouth on Friday and Muskingum County on Saturday. And it's 836 miles from Muskingum County to Fairmont. And let's not forget that the Flo series is at Lincoln on Monday in Illinois. So that would be another 465 miles back to Lincoln. It's certainly not impossible to make those tows, but it would be a very tough couple of days. We'll see if anyone tries to make it happen, and if the weather cooperates. I do think some Outlaw teams are more likely for that Fairmont date than Lucas regulars. I do want to note something else that happened last night, and that was Kyle Bronson getting docked in his heat race for failing the droop check. I didn't even know that XR was checking droop again. They very publicly announced in 2022 that they were done with those checks for the remainder of that season, but apparently brought them back at some point, putting them back in line with the World of Outlaws and Lucas. Drama over the droop rule has almost completely gone away since the height in 2022, but every once in a while it still shows itself. Penalties for failed droop checks have been altered as well in more recent rule books. It used to be a complete DQ, but is now usually a few position drop in final results. That's what happened with RTJ at the Show-Me last year, and Bronson was docked from the win to third. Bronson's Facebook page shared that they missed it by an eighth of an inch.
Looking ahead to tonight at Deer Creek with the Outlaws, they've got prelim nights with points on the line for Thursday and Friday, which will setup Saturday's action. The top 16 in points from the first two nights will be guaranteed into Saturday's main event. Tonight and tomorrow are $7 grand to win, and then like I said before, $50k to win on Saturday night. The Gopher 50 was Lucas sanctioned last year, but was flipped back Outlaws for 2024. If you might remember, the 2023 Gopher 50 was when Pierce won that controversial race over Hudson O'Neal, where a bunch of folks thought the replay showed O'Neal winning, but the scoring loop said Pierce by 2 one thousandths of a second. Pierce also won at Deer Creek in the fall with the Outlaws, and with his recent run of success, could be the guy to beat this weekend. At the moment, it's a two horse race for the title, with Brandon Sheppard leading Nick Hoffman by 30 points, and everyone else 140 points back or more.
With Pennsylvania Speedweek, four races remain to settle the championship that suddenly looks like it might go down to the wire. After Anthony Macri opened speedweek with a 21st and an incident at Williams Grove, and Danny Dietrich winning the first two, I thought Dietrich was likely well on his way. And to his credit, Dietrich has continued to run strong. Those two opening wins, plus a seventh at Lincoln, and back to back fourths at Grandivew and Port last night. The problem though, is Macri hasn't finished worse than second since that first night. Seconds at BAPS and Grandview, and wins at Lincoln and last night at Port Royal. Dietrich is still in control, but the lead is down to 33 headed to Hagerstown tonight. In a turn of events that should have been obvious to you Daily show regulars, Brent Marks was indeed in attendance last night. We had talked previously about him racing starting at Grandview, but then he didn't show. So then chatter was pointing to him not racing at all this week, which we talked about yesterday, so of course they showed up. Again, if you hear me predict something, you might want to bet against me. Marks started third, led some laps, and ultimately finished second behind Macri. It was just his second top five result in his past ten sprint car appearances. If Marks runs tonight at Hagerstown, which I'm not going to bother trying to predict at this point, he'll likely be a favorite for the win. He's won the last two Speedweek shows at Hagerstown.
In other late model action on Wednesday, Ross Bailes was a $10,000 winner with the Mid-East Super Late Models at Cherokee Speedway. Even with fading brakes at the end, he was able to hold on for the victory over Jeff Smith and Gray Parton. Benji Hicks currently leading that championship. The southeast based teams have a few different options coming up this weekend, including the Hunt the Front series at Senoia on Saturday for $20 grand, Carolina Clash at Halifax County, and $6000 to win on Sunday at Duck River.
At Fonda Speedway last night, Matt Sheppard outdueled Mat Williamson late to take the $10,000 Short Track Super Series win. Stewart Friesen actually led the most laps, but he pulled up lame before half way with what looked to be a flat tire. After giving up the lead there, he did race back to finish sixth. So Sheppard, Williamson, Anthony Perrego your podium. The win was Sheppard's first in Short Track Super Series competition since winning the Port Royal race back in March. He has yet to win with the Super DIRTcar Series in 2024 in a points paying event. The Short Track Super Series is back in action on Sunday at Bridgeport.
But if you want more modified racing, a lot of these guys will knock the sail panels off and take on Land of Legends tonight with the Super DIRTcar Series. Tonight's 76 lap main event will pay $7600 to win. Williamson has won two of the last three series races, and has taken over the championship lead with Perrego second an Sheppard third. DIRTVision will have live streaming coverage.
If you were hoping to see some USAC Silver Crown racing tonight at Terre Haute, you'll have to find another activity. Tonight's Sumar Classic has been rained out and postponed until October 6th. The Silver Crown series is back racing July 19th and 20th at Salt CIty Speedway in Kansas. Kody Swanson continues to lead the Silver Crown standings over Justin Grant and CJ Leary. Up next for USAC is two nights at Lincoln Park for the national sprint cars starting tomorrow.
There was no Summer Nationals racing last night, as action at Benton was rained out. They will try again tonight at Riverside International. The Hell Tour has never appeared at Riverside, and I think late models at the ditch could get wild. This might be a good one to check out tonight.
That's it for the Daily today. There is plenty of dirt racing on the streaming services on this July 4th, so hit up dirtrackr.com/watchtonight to see your options.
Hope you guys have a great Thursday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!