DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Does this mean he's back? | Daily 8-4-2024
The Outlaw late model championship has been blown wide open, Sunshine wins big at Knoxville, and Kyle Larson is so back. Let's go!
It's Sunday, August 4th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
This World of Outlaws late model series championship battle got a major kick in the butt over the weekend at the USA Nationals at Cedar Lake Speedway. I've been saying that if Pierce was really going to get back into this thing, he'd need some help from Brandon Sheppard and Nick Hoffman, and he got it. Hoffman was solid in the Thursday feature finishing fourth, but was then 15th and 12th in the other two. And BShepp was good in the two prelim features, even leading laps in the Friday show. But things went big sideways last night in the 100 lapper. He was into the pits very early with a mechanical issue, the team later shared it was a busted fuel line, and he limped it home to a 27th place result. So what was a 122 point lead over Pierce after Friday for Shepp is now just 76. Hoffman maintains second, he's 26 back, but only 50 in front of Pierce. Bobby won two of three races, including last night's $50,000 finale. The show was halted on the 57th lap because of rain. Pierce led all but the first two, he's up to 12 Outlaw wins on the season, and has won seven of the last eight series events. He took a swim in the Cedar Lake infield pond afterwards to celebrate. With as lights out as that 32 has been, Shepp losing 46 points in one race is a massive blow. 14 race nights remain for the Outlaws in 2024, and 76 points is about 38 feature spots. Pierce still with plenty of work to do, but he's suddenly much closer. The other driver that has been impressive lately is Ryan Gustin. 10 top tens in his last 11 races, he won he Friday prelim feature, was fourth last night, and things might look even a little bit better had he not hit that infield tire during the PDC. He's sixth right now in the standings, but fourth is not out of the question. The Outlaws go quiet now until August 14th, and if you want big time super late model racing this week, Lucas hits up Florence for the North South 100.
In other weekend late model action, Sam Seawright and Tanner English were Hunt the Front winners at Duck River. English was the beneficiary of a wild crash between front runners Ashton Winger and Dale McDowell that occured after half way. Winger got squeezed into the backstretch wall and his car went airborne, while McDowell spun to a stop with damage. Not sure of McDowell didn't know Winger was there, or what. But English drove on to the $20,000 win. Hunt the Front is back in a few weeks at Senoia, Brandon Overton still leading the championship after a pair of weekend podiums.
Payton Freeman and Michael Page closed out the Southern Nationals with wins Friday and Saturday. I thought this championship was still going on, but they had already crowned Donald McIntosh before the weekend. It's confusing that they are still running series races, but not counting them for points, so that's my fault. Devin Gilpin won $10 grand with the Northern All Stars at Brownstown, and Frank Heckenast Jr. cashed in at Merritt, taking down the $36,000 Woodtic. He topped Ryan Unzicker, and Rusty Schlenk also led laps there. Heckenast hadn't won a super late model show in over a year, going back to Farmer City last July.
At Pevely on Friday and Saturday, Kyle Larson absolutely went off. He swept the Ironman 55 weekend with the World of Outlaws sprint cars, but did it in spectacular fashion. Friday night, he came from the third starting spot in the B-Main to get a feature transfer, then went 21st to the win. He nipped James McFadden right at the line after JMac got held up by Noah Gass on the white flag lap. Both cars were effectively doing wheelstands down the frontstretch to the checkered. In victory lane, Larson was almost hoarse talking to Connor Wade, as he said he was yelling in the car all the way back to the frontstretch. And later on social media, he shared that his heartrate peaked at 198 beats per minute. That is nuts. And then last night, it was a charge from 12th to the win, taking the lead from Gio Scelzi on lap 44. Back-to-back Ironman 55 wins, and actually three straight for Larson, because he didn't compete in 2022 or 2021, but did win in 2020 as well. The Third Turn tweeted that this was their first recorded instance of a driver winning with the Outlaws on back-to-back nights starting both races from outside the top ten. They did note that many races prior to 2001 are missing start position information. Either way, that's one hell of a stat. The Saturday portion was missing a few cars, including James McFadden, who had a nasty crash in qualifying where it looked like something broke. He sat out the rest of the show. And no Brad Sweet, Skyler Gee, or Danny Sams after they all raced Friday. Hat tip as well to Buddy Kofoid and Roth for ending up seventh on Saturday after getting involved in a crash and needing a trip to the work area. Back to Kyle Larson though, a few months back he wasn't sure he was going to race the Knoxville Nationals, but he is on the entry list, with Thursday his prelim night. With the way his season has gone to this point, I would have had a hard time putting him towards the top of the win favorites for the week. Keep in mind he hadn't won a sprint car race since Eagle in June, was 20th in the big money High Limit race at Eldora, and missed the Kings Royal main event completely. Pevely isn't Knoxville by any stretch of the imagination, but a weekend sweep here has to be a boost for him. With the Capitani Classic on track tonight at Knoxville, how are you feeling about Larson's chances to repeat? I don't know that I'd call him the favorite still, but he's moved up in the betting odds for sure. By Kyle Larson standards, 2024 has definitely been down a bit in the sprint car, but after what we witnessed Friday and Saturday, it feels like maybe he's back. We'll see. For the Outlaw teams, it was a five hour overnight drive from Pevely to Knoxville. Not everyone will race tonight, but plenty will take advantage of the final tune up before the Nationals start Wednesday.
While the Outlaws were at Pevely, Knoxville was hosting the 360 Nationals over the weekend. Kaleb Johnson and Sam Hafertepe were prelim winners, but last night's main event came down to a battle between front row starters Emerson Axsom and Tyler Courtney. Axsom was impressive, taking the lead from Sunshine on lap two, and controlling the pace early. But before half way he got blocked in behind the lap car of Carson McCarl, and that was Sunshine's opportunity. The 7BC took over on lap 12, and drove on to the win, his first ever winged sprint car victory at Knoxville. He bagged $20,000 for the win, and another $10,000 in laps led money. Axsom settled for second, with Austin McCarl third. The race was pretty clean, with just the early crash for Chase Randall, who hit the turn three wall and flipped. Again, we saw a tail tank separate from a car in a crash, and I'm wondering if we are making those things and their mounts out of tin foil lately. We were lucky there wasn't yet another fire. Nice runs down through the field for Tasker Phillips, Jamie Ball, and Kaleb Johnson. It was wild to see guys like Justin Peck and Aaron Reutzel get lapped.
Elsewhere in open wheel action this weekend, Brady Bacon and Justin Grant were Indiana Sprint Week winners at Terre Haute and Haubstadt. The Friday show at Bloomington was rained out and rescheduled for today. Logan Seavey in the driver's seat for the sprint week title. The Xtreme Midget shows at Pevely were swept by Karter Sarff, TJ Stutts won at Williams Grove, Conner Morrell at Lernerville, Kalib Henry was an AFCS winner at Fremont, Dominic Gorden stayed hot in 360 action out west, and Lincoln and Port Royal were rained out.
Alright, we will call it there for today. If you want to see what your streaming options are for this Sunday, stop by dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Hope you guys have a great rest of your day out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!