DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Fuel tank rumblings, will fire affect the Gold Cup, what are your chances in Knoxville heats? | Daily 8-7-2024
The Knoxville Nationals start today, and we'll talk everything you need to know, including the Wednesday prelim field, plus a deep dive on those all important heat races. I've also got some rumblings on a sprint car meeting about an hot topic, details on whether the Gold Cup will happen or not out in California, and more. Let's go!
It's Wednesday, August 7th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
Today's episode of the Daily is being supported by Jeremy Elliott's Sprintcarunlimited.com. If you are a sprint car fan and are looking for in-depth coverage, breaking news, driver interviews and videos, and more, hit up sprintcarunlimited.com. I'm going on year four or five I think, as a paid member of Jeremy's site, and I'm there multiple times a week reading his stories and commentary. Jeremy is on-site in Knoxville all week as we speak covering everything Knoxville Nationals, and has already been pumping out content. A membership to sprintcarunlimited.com is usually $35 for the year, which is already not much. That's less than $3 a month. But through the Nationals he's running a 20% off special, where you can get a full year for just $28. Use code SCUMOM2024 at checkout to take advantage. That's SCUMOM2024 for 20% off. Don't forget as well to go subscribe to his Sprint Car Unlimited YouTube channel. He does a daily sprint car show, plus weekly longform interviews, and just today he revealed two more Nationals win favorites. You can watch all of that for free. Thanks to Jeremy for his support of the Daily and his contributions to sprint car racing.
Today is the opening day for the 63rd Knoxville Nationals, and tonight we'll have cars on track for the first of two prelim nights. We'll get half the cars tonight, half on Thursday, and then the Friday Hard Knox night is everyone's final chance. The top 16 in event points from Wednesday and Thursday lock into the Saturday night main event, teams 17th through 26th get the first ten spots in the Saturday B, and then everyone else reracks for Friday. The top four in Friday's feature get the final four Nationals feature spots. Everyone else fills in mains, likely down to E. Main events tonight and tomorrow are $12,000 to win, Friday is $4000 to win, and the Nationals winner will take home $190,000. The Saturday main event pays $15,000 just to start. The total four day purse is north of $1.1 million. With so many cars, and so many good cars, there is no where to hide on these prelim nights. Today's 55 car entry list includes names like Donny Schatz, David Gravel, Gio Scelzi, Sheldon Haudenschild, Brent Marks, Corey Day, Anthony Macri, and a lot more. So if you are going to position yourself into that top 16 in points, you're going to have to be very good. I've said a few times lately that we don't often see surprise Knoxville Nationals winners, and this is a big reason why. You can't skate your way into things here. Guys must be fast every time they hit the track. Remember that after qualifying, heat races have a top eight invert, and only the top four make the night's main event. So can the guys starting toward the front take advantage of the invert, or can the faster guys come through the field quickly? These heat races are likely the most stressful and dramatic you will see all season. I dove into the database at dirtrackr.com/analytics this morning to give you an idea on heat race transfer odds by starting position. These probabilities are based on heat races from 2017 through 2023 at the Knoxville Nationals. These numbers don't include 2020, as that wasn't technically the Nationals. So what each probability represents is your chances of finishing in the top four based on where you start. A couple of interesting things to note... First, over this span, no driver starting ninth or tenth has transferred into the night's main event. Also, it's pretty clear that the outside line has an advantage. I'll post this graphic to social media later on, so you can refer back to it if you like while you're watching the next two nights. A couple of guys to keep an eye on tonight who have done well in heat races lately at the Nationals include David Gravel, Justin Peck, Cole Macedo, Brandon Wimmer, and Jamie Ball. So the next question is, does winning your prelim night equate to Nationals wins? Well, more recently, no. The last time a prelim night winner also won the Nationals was 2019 when David Gravel did it. Over the last six events, only twice has a prelim night winner gone on to win the big show. Once tonight's action is complete, take a look at those event points. Drivers need to be right around 450 to get themselves in. 448, 449 is going to put guys right near the bubble. Drop me a comment, let me know who you are picking from tonight's field. If you are playing pools this week and need some extra research help, don't forget about all the race results over at dirtrackr.com. Full Nationals results, including prelim nights, back to 2017 are available in the database.
Elsewhere around Knoxville this week, this is a chance for the industry as a whole to come together, and that includes meetings. Social media likes to bring up the sprint car safety council often, which I don't think has really been a thing for a while. But I have been told there will be a sprint car meeting of the minds this week to discuss the state of the sport, and one particular hot topic will supposedly be addressed. And it's one we've been talking about a bit here lately on the show, and that's fuel tanks. We've seen several nasty sprint car fires this season, and several fuel tanks separate from cars completely. We had one this last Sunday in USAC action at Bloomington, one during the main event at the 360 Knoxville Nationals, and of course Bill Balog's nasty incident at Eldora where the entire rear of the chassis came apart. Is this a tank construction problem, is it a mounting problem, does the whole setup need to be reworked? Hopefully these are all questions that will be answered. I don't know if this meeting will lead to any immediate changes, but the boss people should be taking a serious look at this. Having heavy, methanol bombs flying through the air in a crash doesn't seem like the best idea. I'll keep you posted if I hear any updates.
Looking past the Knoxville Nationals, a bunch of sprint car teams will head west, as High Limit begins their west coast swing on August 15th at the Tulare Thunderbowl. On that swing, later this month, is the $100,000 to win Gold Cup at Chico, and I have gotten several questions about the likelihood that this event happens. The Gold Cup is held at the Silver Dollar Speedway, but at the moment the fairgrounds there are housing fire fighters battling the nearby Park wildfire. In the past we've seen racing events cancelled because of the need for these fairgrounds to be used for fire fighting efforts, but in this instance, supposedly that won't be necessary. Silver Dollar Speedway, which is promoted by Brad Sweet, Kyle Larson, and Colby Copeland, tweeted late last night that the event is on as planned and that the fairgrounds have assured them that the show will go on. That's good news, and hopefully that bit of information will remain true going forward. The Gold Cup runs August 21st through the 24th.
In action last night, Matt Sheppard was a Short Track Super Series winner at Mohawk International Raceway. Great racing down the stretch between Sheppard, Stewart Friesen, and David Hebert. Check out those highlights today if you didn't watch. The modified competitors are back to it tonight, with a stop at Cornwall. This one will be live on FloRacing.
Also tonight, we were supposed to get the beginning of Appalachian Midget Week for the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets, but the entire four-race swing has been sacked because of weather. Bits of tropical storm Debby are affecting the entire eastern seaboard this week, and midget week was a victim. The Xtreme midgets are back September 13th at Southern Illinois.
In Nebraska today, the USMTS modifieds begin a three race week, which includes races at Beatrice and Lakeside. Jake Timm holds a very small two point lead on Jim Chisholm right now for the championship. Chisholm is coming off a weekend sweep at Lucas Oil Speedway this past Friday and Saturday. If you want to tune in via streaming, this USMTS show is one of the races on today's streaming schedule at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight. Hit that up for all of your options. We are starting to add start times where available as well, so hopefully that makes your life a little easier.
Around the other dirt racing podcasts this week, Winged Nation has Tyler Courtney and TJ Stutts, Todd Turner joins the Dirt Reporters, Dirt Track Confessions has Lakia Moran, Passing Points has John Rittenoure, Quicktime has Ray Lipsey, Hoogie's Garage has Tony Bokhoven and more, Turn 2 Terribles has TJ Stutts and Brock Hammaker, Getting up to Speed has multiple new guests, and there are new episodes of Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks, Racing Roundup, and the Driver's Project. To see the full rundown of shows and new episodes, visit dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
That's it for the Daily show today. If you haven't picked one up yet, sprint car t-shirts are in stock over at shop.dirtrackr.com. They are $25 and I ship them just as quickly as orders come in. Stock is getting low on some sizes, but still plenty of XLs and 2Xs left. Grab a DIRTRACKR sticker while you're there. That's shop.dirtrackr.com.
Hope you guys have a great Wednesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!