DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Sprint car teams get sneaky in search of speed | Daily 7-17-2024
David Gravel takes the Doty, the big week at Eldora starts tonight, we had more RTJ vs. Hudson O'Neal, and sprint car teams hiding weight in nerf bars and bumpers? We'll talk about it. Let's go!
It's Wednesday, July 17th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
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Brad Doty Classic last night at Attica for the World of Outlaws sprint cars. As expected, solid field of 46 on hand. I was a bit surprised there weren't more High Limit teams in attendance. We had basically just Corey Day and Zeb Wise, plus Kyle Larson. I know we are about to have four straight days at Eldora, but of the 16 full time teams, I thought we'd have more than two. Especially with it being the Doty, and a solid $15k to win, $1200 to start payday. The feature turned into a fun battle between Carson Macedo, David Gravel, and Kyle Larson, with Gravel eventually coming out on top for his first Attica win since 2021. He also became the first driver to double digit Outlaw victories on the season. Behind him, Donny Schatz somehow charged through the field to second with the nose wing about knocked off the TSR 15. It was pretty wild to watch him drive by Larson that way. Larson finished third after leading a single lap, and just missing out on his third straight Doty win. And Macedo ended up fourth after leading early. This was the last time the Outlaw standings will change this week, as the Kings Royal will be show up points only with the differing format. The next two days at Eldora are High Limit shows, and it looks like all 11 full time Outlaw teams will participate and burn two freebies. Kelby Watt is racing, but the Bill Rose six is not on the entry list for the next two nights, they are the only exception. Hat tip to Daison Pursley on his first career Outlaw top ten finish driving for Brandon Ikenberry, and Cale Thomas was the highest finishing Ohio regular, going 23rd to 11th.
Looking ahead to tonight, 64 cars I believe on the pre-entry list, and a split field program coming up. We'll have two 25 lap features, and action tonight will set heat race lineups for Thursday. Everything you've come to know about Eldora formats is in play, including inverts and the wheel of misfortune. I don't know off hand how High Limit will handle championship points for these two nights, but my guess would be these are show up points for them as well. So I wouldn't expect any changes in the standings. FloRacing will have livestreams for the two High Limit nights at Eldora, and then things will flip to DIRTVision for Friday and Saturday.
Before we move on, there was an interesting World of Outlaws rules bulletin that came out this week, and it ties back into something we talked about not long ago. This bulletin covers two areas, including an amendment about engine heat. Teams are not allowed to push cars for the purpose of starting the engine without approval and supervision of Outlaw officials. This is a safety rule, and clearly in response to something that likely happened recently. I don't know what the specific event was, but a rule like this isn't added just off hand. The other area that was addressed, was bolt-on weight. If you remember back to a few weeks ago around the bolt-on weight situation with the USAC sprint cars at Macon, I told you guys that this was an area under scrutiny in winged sprint car racing as well. There were comments made at a Knoxville weekly drivers meeting, and I was told that Outlaw officials had been making the rounds looking at some cars. Adding additional weight was previously allowed by the Outlaw rulebook, in a bit of a "judgement by officials" sort of way. But now that rule has been clarified. Now there is a provision about the type of mounting bolts necessary for weight pieces. The number and type of bolts is specific now. Also added was language about the weight pieces being painted white, and that pieces and how they are mounted must be approved by officials. If bolt-on weight falls off during on track action, that team will be disqualified. This is an important note, because I've been told this did happen in a recent crash with a national tour. The rules bulletin wasn't done there though. And it's this other part about bolt-on weight that gives us a clear picture about how some teams were adding additional weight and attempting to maybe keep it quiet. Bumpers and nerf bars must be made of magnetic steel tubing and securely bolted to the chassis. Also, the tubing has to be between 65 thousands and 95 thousands thick, and not filled for the purpose of adding weight. So clearly teams were filling those bumpers and nerf bars with material to add weight to specific parts of the car. Adding weight is no magic bullet for car setups, but it is definitely an area where handling can be helped. This is the right move though from Outlaw officials, as we don't need chunks of weight flying off of cars and potentially hurting anyone. You can see the full rules bulletin for yourself at dirtcar.com/rules.
In other sprint car action last night, Colby Copeland was a Sprint Car Challenge Tour winner over Corbin Rueschenberg and Andy Forsberg at Coos Bay. Their speedweek continues tonight with a stop at Douglas County Speedway in Roseburg, Oregon.
At Shelby County in Iowa, the busy stretch continued on Tuesday for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. And again, things came down to Hudson O'Neal and Ricky Thornton Jr. It was a similar ending, with O'Neal coming out on top and RTJ finishing second after leading laps. If these two teams are just going to continue throwing haymakers at each other for the rest of the season, count me in. I know we've been talking a lot about these two drivers and teams, but I just don't know how you ignore all of this. It's been great theater and great racing. O'Neal did get booed again in victory lane, so that bad guy stuff not going away any time soon. I also want to address something I've seen a bunch of fans say, especially in recent days, and that's that O'Neal stole RTJ's ride. To be clear and fair here, it wasn't RTJ's ride, it's Todd Burns' ride. Whether you agree or not with Thornton losing the seat is one thing, but nothing was stolen. Todd Burns is the car owner, and he can make whatever decisions he wants. So however this all went down, the ride was not stolen. Behind the top two, Garrett Alberson rounded out the podium. I really want to see that 58 car in victory lane here soon. He's been close so many times, it just finally needs to happen. In the standings, we have had a change in that top four. RTJ, Jonathan Davenport, Devin Moran still one through three, but back-to-back wins now has Huddy up to fourth around Tim McCreadie. McCreadie was in the hot pit at one point last night, and ended up 12th. It was his first finish outside the top ten since Wheatland in May. If O'Neal keeps up this pace, I think it could be incredibly difficult for McCreadie and Rocket, or anyone else for that matter, to find their way into this championship fight. The Lucas teams are off today, with the Silver Dollar Nationals at Huset's beginning on Thursday.
In other late model action last night, Dale McDowell won again with the Southern Nationals, leading flag to flag at I075. He topped Donald McIntosh and Cory Hedgecock. McIntosh nearly had the lead at one point, but the move was negated by a caution, and he couldn't make a move on McDowell after that. The Southern Nationals continue on Thursday at Senoia.
Looking around the other dirt racing podcasts this week, Winged Nation has Rico Abreu and Donny Schatz, Passing Points has Clinton Boyles, Hoogie's Garage has Kaleb Johnson, Caution Free has Carl Bowser, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters, Dirt Track Confessions, the Dirt Nerds, Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks, Racing Roundup, Getting up to Speed, and the Driver's Project. To see all of the shows and episodes, stop by dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
Alright, that's your daily for this Wednesday.
Hope you guys have a great day out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!