DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Potential big rookie class, team flips could benefit Outlaws | Daily 7-29-2024
Sprint car silly season might be about to kick off, and the World of Outlaws look to benefit. We'll talk about that, plus more winning from David Gravel, Danny Dietrich's late model debut, racing tonight at Wilmot, and Corey Day's first ARCA race. Let's go!
It's Monday, July 29th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
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At Weedsport last night, David Gravel's hot streak continued with the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series. He got by Carson Macedo before half way and drove on to Outlaw win number 13 on the season. That was back-to-back to go along with the Summer Nationals win at Williams Grove on Saturday, the Big Game two has now win four of the last seven, and it's seven straight top two finishes going back to the Brad Doty Classic win at Attica. Behind Gravel, Sheldon Haudenschild went fourth to second, and Carson Macedo slipped to third after leading the first 13 laps. Plenty of good runs as well last night for some of the local and regional drivers. Jordan Poirier had never previously raced against the Outlaws, and he was very strong in seventh. Poirier a regular with the Empire Super Sprints, having won that title in 2022, and he's leading it again this season. And Larry Wight was hard charger going 19th to 10th. Not bad for a modified driver. Stewart Friesen hadn't raced against the Outlaws since 2016, and grabbed a top five finish driving for Glenn Styres. A few more laps and Friesen may have had second. Weedsport seems a bit like a northeast version of Haubstadt, in that locals can go there and really have a shot against the full time teams. It seems to be a bit of an equalizer, and I know that has at least something to do with the slick surface that usually shows itself there. Outlaws have dominated the win column at Weedsport, but it has not been uncommon to see some of the regional guys run well. That was certainly true last night again. Gravel's continued hot streak has been a gut punch for his championship rivals, as the lead just keeps growing. It's 110 right now over Schatz, 142 over Macedo, and then everyone else from Gio Scelzi in fourth on back is 200 points or more behind. Remember that at about two points per position, 110 points is 55 feature spots. That is a significant lead. The last time a World of Outlaws champion won by triple digits, was Donny Schatz in 2018 when he topped Brad Sweet by 286. We are sitting at five straight years of close title fights, but that might be coming to an end. This week will be the final points paying events until the Knoxville Nationals, with teams headed for Pevely and two nights of the Ironman 55.
And since we are talking about the World of Outlaws, it seems as though the sprint car silly season might be picking up a bit. Johnny Gibson tweeted back on Friday that there could be as many as five rookie contenders running with the Outlaws in 2025. It's only July at this point, so a lot could still change, but the rumblings are definitely starting to get louder. It's been a pretty quiet year so far for sprint car driver and team changes, we even did a daily show about it not long ago. But you figured it would likely only be a matter of time. Some names that are floating around out there as possible candidates include Logan McCandless and Danny Sams. McCandless has already run more than 40 races this season, winning twice with the OVSCA. And Sams was impressive during Ohio Speedweek, winning three times. I've also seen Garet Williamson mentioned, but it sounds like they would need some more sponsorship help to make something happen. There are also rumors of an Outlaw rookie campaign being announced during the Knoxville Nationals that involves a west coast driver and a midwest team. From there, other options and names are being talked about, including potentially a team or two and maybe some drivers flipping from High Limit to the Outlaws. Outside of the announcement likely coming at the Nationals, I don't know that I'd expect any public acknowledgement of some of these deals coming in the near future, but wheels are turning. As we work through this second half of the season, I do think we will be again talking about High Limit vs. Outlaws for teams making tour decisions, it will just be on a much smaller scale from this past offseason. High Limit has held on to 16 teams up to this point, which is not easy to do. With a full year of racing though, the full financial effect of a High Limit season will become much clearer, and teams and drivers will have better info to make decisions going forward. Stay tuned on this front for sure.
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Elsewhere last night, Indiana Sprint Week at Lawrenceburg was rained out and rescheduled for Tuesday. There was no racing originally scheduled for today, so that make up show at the Burg is the next event.
At Hagerstown, Kyle Hardy and Dylan Yoder split the super late model features on Sunday, each taking home $3500. And if you were curious, Danny Dietrich's late model debut was a bit rough. He was involved in a few incidents, and DNF'd, finishing down in 21st in the first main event. His team did not make the call for the second.
In other winged sprint car action, Garet Williamson won Sunday at Huset's and picked up the Border Battle title through the three nights. Williamson topped Chase Randall and Kerry Madsen in that Huset's show. And Brandon Spithaler bounced back from a nasty High Limit crash at Lernerville earlier in the week to win with FAST at Tri-City.
Looking ahead to tonight, the World of Outlaws late models are in action with a $10,000 to win stop at Wilmot Raceway in Wisconsin. Teams are obviously coming off the Prairie Dirt Classic weekend, and headed into the USA Nationals at Cedar Lake. This will be the series debut at Wilmot, which has been a regular stop for the World of Outlaws sprint cars. Bobby Pierce has won five straight Outlaw shows entering tonight and is trying to claw his way back into this championship fight with Brandon Sheppard and Nick Hoffman. The gap he's trying to erase is still 104 points following that tire alteration penalty earlier this season. After the appeal, Pierce lost 144 points for that penalty, so without it, he'd be the leader currently. Tonight's field will include all the full time Outlaw teams, but from there, I'll be curious to see who decides to race. Sometimes it can be a tough sell for guys to participate in races like this in between big events. There are quite a few local and regional teams up there though, and with some of the heavy hitters on the sidelines, nights like this are a good chance for strong finishes.
Finally today, if you missed it, Corey Day's ARCA debut at Salem started strong and was going pretty damn well. He qualified fifth of 25 cars, and ran up front for a lot of the main event. On lap 132 though, he tried to clear himself on Lavar Scott down the backstretch, and got right reared. He ended piled into the turn three wall, ending his night. To be fair though, Scott had done just about the same thing the lap before, so I'm not sure if Day was maybe trying to repay the favor. Plenty of speed though, and it didn't take him long to get acclimated to the ARCA car. Day will be back with the series at Bristol on September 19th, and again at Kansas on September 27th.
Alright, that's it for the Daily today.
Hope you guys have a great Monday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!