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2025 plans up in the air for many during tumultuous dirt late model season | Daily 8-12-2024

Chris Madden and Ricky Thornton Jr. debuted this past weekend, but are their situations temporary? We'll talk about that along with a broader look at the late model silly season and much more. Let's go!

It's Monday, August 12th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

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This past weekend at Florence Speedway was the debut of the new look Koehler Motorsports team behind Ricky Thornton Jr. With Chris Madden the new crew chief, and crew guys Ricky Arnold and DJ Williams, RTJ bagged a Thursday night prelim win, finished second Friday, and ended up eighth in the big show on Saturday night. The team did end up in the hot pit at one point, and wasn't in contention for the win, but I'd say a solid first weekend out. In a story over at Dirt on Dirt with Kevin Kovac, Madden revealed they were hard at it leading into the North South 100 weekend getting everything ready, which included putting together a new Longhorn chassis, getting a backup car ready, and completely outfitting a new truck and trailer. There is still a significant amount of work to do this week, and the team is back at the shop in North Carolina to finish up before they had to Arkansas for the Topless 100. With RTJ's sizeable championship lead though, this team can afford to take some time to find their footing as this SSI to Koehler transition continues. We are down to the last few events before the chase cutoff, with just Batesville, Port Royal, Portsmouth, Tyler County, and the Late Model Knoxville Nationals left before the playoffs start. Brownstown towards the end of September is the first Lucas chase weekend, that this season is a multi-race affair, unlike last season's winner-take-all finale at Eldora. As we've documented all season, there has been quite a bit of turmoil and ride changing at the top of dirt late model racing this season, which started with Hudson O'Neal departing the Rocket house car post speedweeks, and Tim McCreadie taking over. O'Neal then ran his own team for a hot minute, before replacing Ricky Thornton Jr. at SSI. RTJ then finding this home at Koehler for the remaineder of 2024. Friends in the late model pit area though keep telling me that we aren't done yet with ride swapping, and that the next few months could be just as crazy as those we've already seen this season. Some top drivers and top crew members are in play, there could and likely will be more chassis shenanigans and swaps, and the game of musical chairs is being played in earnest as we speak. And you see a little bit of a view of that uncertainty near the bottom of Kovac's story about Madden. In that piece he wrote quote "Madden and Thornton were reluctant to discuss plans beyond 2024" unquote. We know that RTJ will be with the team through the end of the season as they try and win this championship. And that is the plan for Madden as well. What happens for both in 2025 though is still unclear. You'd have to think that if things go well through the end of the season, RTJ would seriously consider staying, and the way the quotes from RTJ to Kovac read to me, is that some of that uncertainty about the future might be a bit more directed towards Madden and his own plans. So RTJ could already be thinking that his future lies with Koehler. Looking around at the rest of the top of the sport, and this is mostly just speculation on my part, but you have to wonder what the future holds for the Rocket house car. McCreadie has been really solid in the 1, but TMac isn't getting any younger, they have yet to find victory lane, and this is a car and team that is used to taking down big scores and competing for championships. McCreadie is inside the Lucas chase right now, and could end up being the guy on a longer term basis if they can make a real run at the title and pick up some wins. His consistency remains his big strength, and it's nice to have that stability. But I have heard rumblings of Mark Richards having conversations with other drivers, and I've been sent some pretty wild rumors. I usually ignore one message, but when it's multiple from different places, it makes you sit up and pay attention a bit more. The initial announcement about McCreadie joining Rocket only really references this season, and as we've seen, these deals can change quickly. I'm not saying a change will happen for next season, but this is one of those situations where if the driver stayed I wouldn't be surprised, but it also wouldn't shock me if there was another change. Especially with the way this year has gone. From there, I've been told there are some other top 25 drivers and well known crew members that could be in play for changes for next season. It's been a fairly unprecedented year for driver changes, and when you have some of the seismic moves we've seen, it's going to create a domino effect that will mean changes for drivers and teams you didn't initially see coming. I think that's where we are right now. The Lucas season will be done by about mid-October, and then the Outlaws finish just a few weeks later. I would bet we won't have to wait that long for the 2025 picture to become a lot clearer.

One more note about Ricky Thornton Jr. He is making his pavement midget debut on Wednesday at IRP. He posted a cryptic photo to his Twitter account a few days ago, but then revealed in the replies that he'll be at IRP this week. This will be the third of four midget events at IRP this season, and other names expected to race that you might recognize include Kaylee Bryson, Bobby Santos, Kody Swanson, Sammy Swindell, and Jerry Coons Jr. RTJ has made a few dirt midget appearances in 2024, including at the Chili Bowl, and just a few weeks ago driving for Keith Kunz. He's also a regular micro sprint competitor as well. I don't know of any streaming options

In New York starting tonight, the Super DIRTcar Series was supposed to begin a three race week, which is their third annual SummerFast. Unfortunately though, tonight at Brewerton is rained out. They will try again at Land of Legends tomorrow, with Fulton scheduled for Wednesday. Each race coming up is $7500 to win, and there will be a SummerFast champion crowned at the end. Matt Sheppard the overall Super DIRTcar Series championship leader right now, with Mat Williamson 27 back. Jimmy Phelps, Tim Sears, and Anthony Perrego all remain within striking distance. Through nine events, Williamson leads all drivers with three victories. The other driver will multiple series wins this season is Stewart Friesen, and he will be in attendance this week, along with all the SDS regulars and a full compliment of local and regional guys, that is once they finally hit the track.

We'll call that good for today. Make sure to stop by dirtrackr.com to check out all the latest news and press from around dirt racing, and while you're there, sign up for our free email newsletter, The Slider, and checkout the free analytics section.

Hope you guys have a great Monday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!