DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Dirty move, or just a racing deal? | Daily 8-22-2024

Justin Sanders ends Kyle Larson's win streak under a shower of boos while Corey Day stirs the pot, Tim McCreadie has been driving a new Rocket chassis version, but is it really better? Plus racing ahead this weekend and a lot more. Let's go!

It's Thursday, August 22nd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

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FloRacing Night in America Series debuting at Lernerville Speedway last night, and yet another strong performance from Bobby Pierce. He started seventh, took the lead from Tyler Erb just past half way, and pulled away to a five second victory. Win number 29 on the season, and he now leads the Flo series championship by nine points over Ricky Thornton Jr. Erb ended up second last night, with Daulton Wilson third. RTJ was the points leader entering the night, but slipped to second after finishing sixth. The Flo series is back in two weeks, when the Eldora show gets made up on September 4th. That will lead into the World 100 weekend.

Looking a little further down the order on Wednesday, I was surprised to see Tim McCreadie not run particularly well. He finished 14th, and got lapped by Pierce. I had been looking this week at some numbers around McCreadie's recent performances, especially given the recent swapover to a new version of the Rocket XR1 chassis. Rocket Racing debuted the updated piece at Davenport Speedway back in July against the XR Super Series, and it's taken them some time to find their footing with it. They are calling it the XR1.2, and last Saturday night's win in the Topless 100 was definitely a big moment for them. Kyle McFadden did a big article at Dirt on Dirt about the evolution of the Rocket chassis, and Mark Richards trying to get Tim McCreadie comfortable. If you haven't read it, I'd definitely check it out, some good nuggets in there, including the notion that Scott Bloomquist was interested in getting one of the new cars from Rocket and doing some testing for Richards before his death. Lernerville though has been a strong track for TMac in the past, and coming off that win I thought they'd be right in the mix. But that didn't come to fruition. Looking at the numbers, there doesn't appear to be any marked improvement with the new car versus the old, at least in terms of average finish. McCreadie started with Rocket at Atomic in March, and in 26 races had an average finish of 7.27, and obviously no wins. Since the change, they did win the Topless 100, and in the first 12 races, their average finish was 7.25. So just a very tiny improvement. But when you add in last night's 14th place run, the average finish drops to 7.77 over 13 races. We still only have a very small sample size, and it's clear they are still ironing things out, but no magic bullet with the 1.2. Headed to Port Royal Friday and Saturday, this is another track where McCreadie has run well, including Lucas wins over the past few years. This team though was outside the top ten at Port back in April. We'll see if they can improve upon that. Lucas has a full program on Friday for $10,000 to win, and then $50 grand is on the line on Saturday. Hudson O'Neal the defending winner of this race a year ago. Still RTJ, Devin Moran, Jonathan Davenport, and McCreadie in the top four, with O'Neal now 60 points back. He was also not particularly strong last night, finishing behind McCreadie. He posted to Facebook today they are sticking around Lernerville on Thursday to do some testing. Both Lucas nights will be live on FloRacing.

While the Lucas regulars stay in Pennsylvania, the Outlaw teams are headed the other direction for two nights at Atomic Speedway in Ohio. $10 grand and $15 grand to win races, and we're still keeping a watchful eye on this championship battle. Brandon Sheppard still in control, leading Nick Hoffman by 64 and Pierce by 76. The 32 team running out races to close the gap. Both of these nights will be live on DIRTVision.

At Silver Dollar Speedway last night, the Gold Cup Race of Champions week got rolling with a full program for 360 sprint cars. Kyle Larson there in his only appearance this week, and 50 cars signed in. That included a bunch of drivers we'll see over the next few days in 410 competition, but a lot of them were in different race cars. One of those was Corey Day back in Willie Kahne's car, which I always like to find photos of, as he's always got something interesting going on. If you might remember back to last year, we did a little profile on this car when it appeared up in Washington with Day for the first time. In the night's main event, Kyle Larson and Justin Sanders led the field to green, and Larson was quickly away. He was trying to win his seventh sprint car race in a row, but that ultimately didn't happen. Late in the going, Larson get hemmed in behind lap traffic, and Sanders was able to put a move on him for the lead. It resulted in Larson crashed down the backstretch and out, and Sanders went on to the victory. I'll leave it up to you to decide if it was a dirty move from Sanders, just a racing deal, or whatever. Afterwards, you could hear on the broadcast Sanders got an earful of boos from the local crowd as he emerged from the car, and didn't seem to be too apologetic for what happened, even taking a bow towards the grandstands. He said quote "When it's thrown on at me, it's well, the thing is you got two pedals every time I hear." Later on, there were lots of mixed reactions online from various competitors and fans. I also liked Day stiring the pot, saying quote "I'd rather lose a race then win it that way." Remember Day and Sanders had a run-in last week that resulted in Sanders crashed, a middle finger on the track afterwards, and then supposedly a dustup in the pits post-race. With still a bunch of racing left to do on the west coast, this Sanders-Day situation could be a story to watch. And I feel like that incident last week likely played a role in how Sanders raced Larson last night. But Larson's win streak stopped at six races. I guess if you want to only count 410 shows, then it's technically still alive. The last time I could find an instance of a driver winning six in a row was Donny Schatz in 2014. And the last seven race win streak I believe was Sammy Swindell in 1997. That came from a Johnny Gibson message board post I found. Looking ahead to Thursday and Friday, split field prelim nights for the Kubota High Limit sprint cars. Points on the line, with the top two after each prelim night guaranteed into Saturday's dash. The next 40 are headed for Saturday heats. At last check I saw 68 cars entered for the event, so 34 on each prelim night. And Saturday's main event pays $3000 to start and $100 grand to win. Corey Day your defending event winner. All three nights, live on Flo.

Elsewhere, the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars are in North Dakota Friday and Saturday, at River Cities and Red River Valley. David Gravel well in control of the Outlaw championship right now, but still quite a bit of racing left to do. In Indiana, you've got Smackdown at Kokomo starting tonight for the USAC National Sprint Cars. Big money on the line, and guys still chasing Logan Seavey in the title fight. Brady Bacon the closest contender, with Daison Pursley still with an outside shot I think. In Kentucky, the Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series is at Lake Cumberland for $5000 to win Friday, and $15,000 to win Saturday. Sam Seawright and Ashton Winger trailing Brandon Overton for that championship. It's been pretty quiet for Overton lately, we'll see if he can get back in the win column. There is plenty of other local and regional action, so make sure to stop by dirtrackr.com/watchtonight all weekend to see your streaming options.

Drop me a comment with your weekend racing plans, what tracks your headed to, or what you'll be tuned into on streaming.

We'll call it good right there for the Daily show this week. I do have a backlog right now of Slider issues to send out, so if you want in on those, head over to dirtrackr.com/theslider and sign up for free. Some new names contributing fresh pieces.

Hope you guys have a great Thursday out there, we'll see you back here on Sunday!