DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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A career defining week, sprint car stars struggle, big trouble in Central PA | Daily 7-21-2024

On the show today, we'll dive deep on the Eldora weekend, including David Gravel's dominance and a tough week for some big names. Plus we'll talk Lucas at Huset's, weekend winners, and a scary situation for a Central PA sprint car team. Let's go!

It's Sunday, July 21st, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

The story of the weekend coming out of Eldora is unquestionably David Gravel. Kings Royal winner for the first time in his career. Won the big High Limit money on Thursday night, never finished worse than fourth over the four days, added a crown jewel to his hall of fame resume, and takes a commanding lead in the earnings column for the season. A nearly $300,000 weekend pushes him well across half a million and there is still plenty more big money opportunities this year. If you are interested in the Outlaws vs. High Limit storyline, it was a strong weekend for the Outlaws. Logan Schuchart and Gio Scelzi won the two prelims last Wednesday before Gravel's score on Thursday. Outlaw drivers also top two last night, and three of the top four. Rico had the lone win for the High Limit side, winning the $25k Knight Before on Friday. High Limit championship leader Brad Sweet was solid during the two High Limit nights, finishing third in each, but he couldn't keep the pace up during the Outlaw portion. He was on the outside looking in last night, missing a feature transfer spot in a B by one position. Strangely, Sweet has missed the Kings Royal feature now in back-to-back seasons. Not what you would have expected from a driver who's won the crown twice in his career. His High Limit co-owner in Kyle Larson also a non-factor after finishing second in his prelim feature last Wednesday. 20th Thursday, 12th Friday, and also outside the main event last night. And another driver who surprised me with their struggles was Carson Macedo. He could just never get anything going, and eventually crashed out of the C-Main last night. This season has been full of fits and starts for Macedo and the JJR 41, and just when you think they've got it figured out, they stumble again. Macedo had become an absolute beast on half mile race tracks, but that hasn't been the case in 2024. Early season struggles at Volusia, a very subpar Knoxville weekend in June, and now a tough week at Eldora. There will be some questions for this group headed to the Nationals next month. It is the nature though of these crown jewel events that some drivers who you wouldn't expect will struggle or suffer bad luck, and get left out. There are no provisionals to save anyone, and the pressure is on in qualifying and heat races to deliver. Besides Gravel, the other two drivers I think who stood out this weekend as superlatives were Donny Schatz and Logan Schuchart. Schatz was strong during the High Limit nights, but had two massive holes to dig himself out of Thursday and Friday. He turned a provisional Friday into a top five result, and then fell back on his qualifying lap to make the Kings Royal feature after not getting a heat race transfer. He drove all the way from 20th to the lead, but ultimately got beat late by Gravel. Vintage Schatz though, and nearly another heroic performance. And Schuchart had the Wednesday win, and never finished worse than seventh, including leading laps in the Kings Royal. Hat tip as well to Justin Peck, Jacob Allen, and Emerson Axsom who all had strong runs last night. Back to Gravel though. I've been wondering when he would really assert himself and take control of this season, especially in the Outlaw championship, and this just might be the week where he did that. He's let Donny Schatz and Carson Macedo hang around in the standings, but the Doty win, and then this Eldora stretch should be a massive boost for that team going forward. Headed to Central PA next, Gravel's lead on Schatz is still only 66, but Macedo is back to nearly 100 out. This could be the time for Gravel to really seize this opportunity at his first Outlaw title. There is still a lot of racing to come, but we may look back at this five day stretch as a very important moment for Gravel in this season. I also know that Gravel does care about the High Limit vs. Outlaws stuff, and him leaping ahead in the earnings over Sweet and Sunshine and Corey Day will be important to him. Drop me a comment with your thoughts on the Kings Royal, Jokers Jackpot weekend. Who did you think stood out, and who were you disappointed by. The Outlaw season continues Wednesday at BAPS, while High Limit is in action Tuesday at Lernerville for another midweek championship race.

In weekend late model racing, the Silver Dollar Nationals at Huset's was the main focus. Bobby Pierce dominated the two prelim nights, leading every lap and scoring the victories. Last night though in the $53,000 to win finale, it was all Devin Moran. He led all 80 laps from the second starting position, but it was tight out front. He was never really able to put any distance between himself and Bobby Pierce and Brandon Sheppard. Those two though never able to mount a serious charge on the 99. Lucas victory number six for Moran, and three strong nights now sees him move into second in the Lucas standings, past Jonathan Davenport. JD's top ten streak was busted on Friday night, and he was 10th last night. He's down to third, 25 points behind Moran. O'Neal still fourth, with a 20 point cushion back to McCreadie in fifth. O'Neal with three more top tens after those back-to-back wins at Eagle and Shelby County. Ricky Thornton Jr. was solid Thursday and Friday with finishes of ninth and fifth, but backed up last night to 13th after starting sixth. It was Thornton's first Lucas finish outside the top ten since Golden Isles in February. Outside of the on-track action, I think a big question for the future will be what happens to this event. It's been at Huset's the past few seasons after moving on from the now defunct I-80 Speedway in Nebraska. 26 cars for a late model show that paid $53 grand to win and $2500 to start is pretty disappointing, and the crowd looked pretty light all three days. I know that Huset's is sprint car country, but man you would have hoped for better there. Tod Quiring is trying to build Huset's into a big show venue, but he and the Kosiski's can't continue to take a beating on this event. Rick Schwallie was just out talking to Kyle McFadden about this stretch of schedule and how we don't see the Lucas slate change much from year to year. I'll be curious to see where things fall for these events in 2025. Lucas goes quiet now until the North South 100 at Florence in a few weeks.

Other weekend late model winners included an Iron-Man sweep for Nick Hoffman, Jason Feger won the Summer Nationals finale, Brian Shirley and Feger split MARS wins at Farmer City and Pevely, Kyle Hardy and Alex Feree were ULMS winners, and Camaron Marlar bagged $7500 at Richmond. Looking ahead to today, the XR Super Series is back with $15 grand to win at Clay County, the Southern Nationals will give it a go at Screven, and MARS is headed for Adams County.

Other weekend open wheel winners included Kevin Thomas Jr. with the Silver Crown Series at Salt City. Cool to see the Silver Crown cars at a track that's been racing for 114 years. Kody Swanson continues to lead the Silver Crown championship. Ryan Timms and Cannon McIntosh were Xtreme Midget winners at Spoon River, Mark Dobmeier won a trio of IRA and NOSA races, Sam Hafertepe swept the ASCS weekend, Aaron Reutzel won again at Knoxville, Logan Wagner took Port Royal, and Aaron Bollinger won at Lincoln. A quick side note about Port Royal, no Chase Dietz and the Zemco car yesterday. The Zemco hauler blew a tire on the way to the race track and tipped over. It sounds like no serious injuries, but plenty of damage. Hopefully they are able to get back to racing soon. No updates at the moment from either the team or Dietz. The 1 team had been right in the thick of the track championship battle.

We'll call it good right there for today. Plenty of dirt racing happening around the country, so stop by dirtrackr.com/watchtonight to see your options on the streaming services.

Hope you guys have a great rest of your Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!