DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Too much like... GASP... NASCAR?! | Daily 7-15-2024
Ricky Thornton Jr. in a sprint car? Is dirt late model racing becoming NASCAR? We'll talk about both of those things today, plus Sunday results, Lucas at Eagle tonight, and much more. Let's go!
It's Monday, July 15th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
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At Eagle Raceway tonight, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series begins a stretch of five races in six days between Eagle, Shelby County, and Huset's. We are coming off two straight rainouts this past weekend, and Devin Moran is the most recent winner, from last Thursday at 34 Raceway. No change in the top four, with Ricky Thornton Jr. still leading Jonathan Davenport, Devin Moran, and Tim McCreadie. The top three are very solid right now, and the only spot really up for grabs is that fourth position that McCreadie has. Hudson O'Neal and Mike Marlar still in striking distance, while Daulton Wilson and Garrett Alberson have given up some ground. After what we saw last week at 34, I don't know that I harbor any doubts about RTJ keeping his sizeable lead even though he's not driving for SSI anymore. I think it could take some time for that team to really figure it all out, but they showed plenty of speed in their debut. But I do think that McCreadie could come under significant threat from O'Neal. Neither McCreadie or O'Neal have won since speedweeks way back at the start of 2024, but as of this moment, I feel like O'Neal is probably closer to a victory. Which isn't something I would have said a week ago. Anthony Burroughs and SSI's resources have vaulted O'Neal back into that conversation, and a second place finish out of the gate was a strong statement. Huddy is not driving as a car owner anymore, which is a different mindset, and he's suddenly got one of the top crew chiefs in the business. The pressure will continue to be on for O'Neal to perform, but some significant weight has been lifted. It's interesting too in the midst of all of this ride swapping drama, Moran has won three of his last four Lucas features, and Jonathan Davenport has quietly been piling on the top tens. 15 straight at the moment, and 21 of his last 22 races are top ten finishes. With the Outlaws off, you can expect some of those guys to race with Lucas this week as well. You should see Brandon Sheppard, Bobby Pierce, and others at various points through the next several days.
Going back to RTJ here for a minute. There are a lot of interesting things to think about and talk about around this guy at the moment. First, let's talk about his extracurricular activities. After weekend Lucas races were rained out, Thornton ran the USAC midget show on Saturday, driving for Keith Kunz. He had some issues, finished 17th. And then Sunday he ran the IMCA show at Beatrice. See RTJ run races elsewhere hasn't been a strange occurrence in the past. We've seen him run Chili Bowl, IMCA events, and micro sprint races. But in today's Fast Talk piece at Dirt on Dirt, Kyle McFadden mentioned that new late model car owner Bobby Koehler has given RTJ free rein to basically do whatever else he wants. So does that mean he didn't have free reign before? And if that's true, if SSI Motorsports RTJ didn't have free reign and was running 100 plus races a year, what does free reign RTJ actually look like? Todd Burns was also quoted by Kevin Kovac as saying that Thornton has aspirations of going sprint car racing. So is that something we should be looking forward to? We've given Kyle Larson all of this praise for jumping car types, and Logan Seavey has gotten attention for it recently as well, but maybe we need to start paying more attention here to RTJ. I also had a few of you point out comments about Thornton from Kenny Wallace, and there are some noteworthy things there as well. In one of the videos, Herm mentioned that super late model racing is getting closer to NASCAR with all of the money that's flowing around now, and million dollar haulers, etc. And this idea that late model racing is becoming big time is turning some fans off, who always viewed late model racing as smaller and their thing. But let's be clear here about a big part of this whole story. It's the smaller and grassroots nature of dirt late model racing that allowed this entire SSI/RTJ split to happen in the first place. I'm not privvy to RTJ's deal with Todd Burns, but we know that lots of other top drivers in the sport don't have contracts to speak of. These are all very unstable, hand shake situations. And it's this lack of structure that allows for these moves to even be possible in the first place. Barring something unprecedented, Chase Elliott losing his ride with Hendrick Motorsports in July, while leading the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings would be almost unthinkable. And yet in dirt late model racing, it's not only possible and thinkable, it's happened twice this season. So yes, the top levels of dirt racing are big money arenas, but we are very far from the board rooms of NASCAR teams where contracts are ironed out by agents and lawyers and Fortune 500 companies are looking for measurable return on their sponsorship dollars.
In Summer Nationals action on Sunday, Tyler Erb closed out the season long championship with the win at Wayne County. It was his 11th Hell Tour score of 2024, and he was able to take advantage of flat tires for early leaders Dillon McCowan and Nick Hoffman. Trey Mills was impressive finishing second and Corey Conley was third after starting 12th. There is still one more Summer Nationals late model event left, on Thursday at Sycamore Speedway. On the modified side, Mike McKinney was the winner last night, and he has taken over the points lead, although I don't know what the difference is down to Trevor Neville, as the standings on the website have not been updated. McKinney has won three of the last four races to take control, with just the Prairie Dirt Classic at Fairbury left to race. The PDC is just under two weeks away.
At Volunteer Speedway, Dale McDowell went flag to flag to for the $7500 Southern Nationals victory. He topped Chris Madden and Ricky Weiss. With the first three of 12 races complete, Donald McIntosh leads Cory Hedgecock in the standings. The Southern Nationals go again tomorrow, Tuesday, July 16th at I-75 Raceway.
With the Super DIRTcar Series at Weedsport, Stewart Friesen picked up season win number two in the Hall of Fame 100. He took over from Jimmy Phelps before half way in lap traffic, and topped Phelps and Perrego at the end. Friesen was already locked into Super DIRT Week, so the guaranteed spot for the night went to Phelps. We've had a mixup in the SDS standings though, as points leader Mat Williamson DNF'd last night after showing smoke and bowing out during the second half of the event. Even though he's still winless, Matt Sheppard is now at the top, with Perrego just two points back in second, and Phelps three back in third. Williamson is now fourth, 10 points behind. Peter Britten and Tim Sears are still in striking distance as well. The big blocks are back next week for three races over the border at Autodrome Drummond and Brockville.
In Sunday sprint car action, Mark Smith was a winner at Tri-City, and Scott Bogucki picked up his first career victory at Huset's. Bogucki kind of on a roll here lately. He's got three wins in five starts, including in weekly action at Knoxville, an MSTS win at Jackson, and now this Huset's score. He's also got an Outlaw top five this season, and was a Knoxville Nationals main event starter a year ago. He could be a darkhorse type guy this summer, at some of the big money midwest races. He's one where you wonder what he could do in a more top level ride. Definitely finding some speed though in that Liebig car.
Alright, that's it for the show today. You have quite a few options on the streaming services today, so make sure to hit up dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Hope you guys have a great Monday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!