DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Paul Silva's fall project, Corey Day NASCAR debut, Bobby Pierce v. Brandon Sheppard, sprint car news | Daily 8-14-2024
Bobby Pierce bringing the fight to Brandon Sheppard, a midwest sprint car split, Paul Silva's new fall project, Corey Day's NASCAR debut coming, and much more today. Let's go!
It's Wednesday, August 14th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
Starting tonight the Case Construction World of Outlaws Late Model Series begins a busy stretch of racing, and when they head to Spoon River Speedway on Thursday, I want to help you save some money on your race tickets. I've partnered up with the Outlaws this week to get you $5 off each ticket you buy to Thursday's action. Buy two tickets, get $10 off, buy four get $20 off. And this discount is good for both general admission and reserved seats. Use code "DIRTRACKR" to get the $5 off deal when you purchase, that's D I R T R A C K R. Head over to dirtrackr.com/spoonriver, or click the links below in the video description and enter the code before you select your seats. Spoon River has hosted series like MARS and the Summer Nationals plenty of times before, but this will be the first time the Outlaws have ever raced at the Illinois track. Don't miss out on your chance to see Brandon Sheppard, Nick Hoffman, Bobby Pierce and many more battle it out. Especially with a tight championship fight going on. So hit up dirtrackr.com/spoonriver, or the links below in the video description, and use code "DIRTRACKR" for $5 off your tickets.
Before the series heads to Spoon River on Thursday though, the Outlaws will be at Highland tonight for $10,000 to win. That championship battle I mentioned is being led at the moment by Brandon Sheppard. His 26 top tens in 30 races are vintage BShepp, and he's got a 26 point cushion back to Nick Hoffman. Neither driver though may be able to do anything about the surging Bobby Pierce. As I said back on the Sunday show, he's won 13 of his last 20 late model starts, and that includes seven of the last eight Outlaw races. He's head and shoulders above anyone else in the sport at the moment, and I don't see any reason why that wouldn't continue. I was talking to a friend on the late model side of the sport yesterday, and he brought up the added motivation that Pierce likely has for this championship because of the tire penalties following Volusia. I'm sure Pierce would feel quite satisfied to bounce back from the lost points and still win the title anyway. And over the last few weeks, Sheppard has left the door ajar, with a 15th place finish at Fairbury, and the fuel line issues at Cedar Lake that relegated him to 27th. That B5 squad cannot afford any more missteps if they are going to maintain this advantage. Tonight's Highland race will be the debut for the series at the track, and you can be sure a lot of the Illinois regulars will be in attendance, including guys like Jason Feger, Shannon Babb, Ryan Unzicker, and Frank Heckenast Jr. Feger already has wins at Highland this season, including in May with MARS, and the Summer Nationals show in June. After tonight, it's Spoon River on Thursday, and then two nights at Maquoketa for the Hawkeye 100.
With the Super DIRTcar Series on Tuesday, Mat Williamson took the opening SummerFAST win at Land of Legends. Mike Mahaney and Alex Yankowski led laps early, but Money Mat charged from the sixth starting position to the lead before half way. He then went unchallenged down the stretch, with his margin of victory I think around three seconds. Yankowksi ended up second, and Stewart Friesen had a great last lap battle, coming out on top of Alex Payne for third. Headed to Fulton tonight, Matt Sheppard's championship lead is down to 16, and if Williamson can have another good run, he could easily chop it down again, or take the lead out right. It seems like these modified championships are likely to come down to these two guys yet again. Tonight's racing will again be live on DIRTVision if you aren't in the area.
With the racing stuff mostly out of the way, let's talk some news, shall we? First, it's not lost on me that we talked sprint car silly season yesterday, and then later on on Tuesday, Chase Randall made a move. Coming off of a Knoxville Nationals feature appearance this past weekend, Randall announced that he was leaving the Troy and Tammy Renfro-owned 2KS sprint car. Randall has made 38 410 appearances in 2024, with 18 top tens and three victories. Two of those wins were in weekly competition at Knoxville, and the most recent was an MSTS win at Jackson just a few weeks ago. This ends a partnership that started early last summer. I exchanged a quick message with Randall yesterday, and he told me he wasn't sure when he'd be back racing, but hopefully soon. I know there was some thought out there that maybe he'd return to his family car, but he told Jeremy Elliott that won't be the case. I have a bit of a hard time believing that Randall would leave a deal like this without having a pretty good idea of where he's going next, but no indication yet of where that will be. I also don't think he'll sit out for the rest of 2024. He's a solid young talent, and would be a good driver to build a program around. As for TKS, I'd say this move was a bit of a surprise to them. They had posted to social media just back on Monday that they were headed to Jackson this weekend with Randall to race against the Outlaws, so it appears as though plans changed quickly. No word from them yet either on next steps, but I'm sure their phones are buzzing with potential driver candidates.
Also, very late last night came word of an impending US debut for one of Australia's bright young sprint car stars. Jock Goodyer will jump behind the wheel of the Works Limited 57 for a sizeable west coast schedule, that Toby Bellbowen at Sprint Car Hub says runs for six weeks. He'll start at Tulare tomorrow night with High Limit, and race something like 16 times up through the Outlaw west coast swing and their Tulare stop in September. Goodyer is 22 years old, and has already made a name for himself down under, winning shows like the Australian Sprintcar Championship, the Krikke Boys Shootout, and finishing top five in the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic. If you might remember back to the covid season and iRacing, Goodyer made some appearances during some of those World of Outlaws invitationals as well. Getting to debut in the US under the watchful eye of a guy like Paul Silva is a great opportunity for a driver like Goodyer. Silva and his guys will be busy though, especially tomorrow, as High Limit and Tulare have been promoting that Kyle Larson is racing. So Silva will be wrenching on both his own 57, and the Kevin Kozlowski owned 57W. With the NASCAR playoffs approaching, I don't know how much Larson will be driving the sprint car, so this is a good time of the season for Silva to bring in another driver. This hasn't been uncommon in past years, for Silva to work with other guys when Larson isn't available. This will be right into the deep end though for Goodyer, as the combination of the High Limit teams and the California regulars will be serious competition. It will be fun though to see what he can get done.
My final news item for you today, and this is another DIRTRACKR exclusive, is regarding Corey Day. If you were paying attention after the Knoxville Nationals, Wade Aunger tried to make a deal with Day during his podium interview that he wouldn't go anywhere full time until he won the Nationals, and Day said he couldn't make that deal. And the reason is his transition from sprint cars towards pavement racing is happening quickly. It's been something we've documented here in recent weeks and months. He made his ARCA debut at Salem Speedway not long ago, and we know officially and publicly that he'll also run ARCA shows at Bristol and Kansas in September. To go along with the ARCA races though, I've been told by some friends in the NASCAR garage that he will likely make his NASCAR Truck Series debut coming up soon as well. Supposedly races at Bristol, Kansas, Homestead, and Martinsville are on the table, and that his debut will come with Spire Motorsports. Spire at the moment fields three trucks, including full time efforts for Raj Caruth and Chase Purdy, plus the part time seven truck that's seen a variety of drivers. That seven will likely be the spot for Day. All of these races are happening under the watchful eye of Jeff Gordon, Jeff Andrews, and Hendrick Motorsports, where Day has signed a contract. If this late season stock car schedule goes well, more is likely towards the end of the season. And this is also setting up a full time pavement schedule for 2025. Those Bristol and Kansas races do run up against High Limit shows at Eldora and Florence, but things should be fine if there is no weather. The Homestead and Martinsville races are after the High Limit season ends.
If you want more dirt racing content this week, might I suggest one of the many podcast episodes that are new this week. Passing Points has Grady Mercer, Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks has Joe Baggott, Hoogie's Garage has Kelby Watt, Turn 2 Terribles has Garrett Bard, Plum Wild has Chris Ferguson, Getting up to Speed has Grey Ferrando, and there are new episodes of The Dirt Reporters, Dirt Track Confessions, the Dirt Nerds, and the Driver's Project. You can find all of these shows and much more, plus links at dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
Alright, that's it for today's show. If you want some DIRTRACKR merch, including shirts and stickers, head over to shop.dirtrackr.com. Sprint car shirts are in stock now, and I've got daily show and DIRTRACKR logo stickers ready to ship. Those stickers look great on laptops, coolers, refridgerators, and back windows of trucks. If you buy today, I will ship today.
Hope you guys have a great Wednesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!