DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Turned up headers win big again, another Thornton/O'Neal dustup | Daily 8-25-2024
Turned up headers make their way to the non-wing side, surprises and not surprises with High Limit at the Gold Cup, RTJ and Hudson O'Neal tangle, and I'll tell you what is the best championship battle in the country. Let's go!
It's Sunday, August 25th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
We've run out of ways to describe how good Corey Day has been this season in a sprint car, and last night's Gold Cup Race of Champions finale was never in doubt. Another big win for the California driver, and his most lucrative victory to date, taking down $100,000. He led all 40 laps from the pole after winning his prelim night on Thurday, and was never really challenged out front. He's up to nine sprint car wins on the year, including seven with High Limit, the Outlaw score at Knoxville, and the Super Dirt Cup at Skagit. And he even saved a FloRacing production crew member's life earlier in the week, alerting him to an oncoming water truck during an intervew with Tony LaPorta, which we saw live on stream. Rico Abreu and Chris Windom rounded out the podium last night. It was a really strong weekend for Windom, ending up third against that field. It's been a tough go for that Vermeer 55 group on the road this season, but that will be a big boost. Rico also strong both nights, he's finished first or second in six of his last eight High Limit races. Shane Golobic was the highest finishing California regular in fourth. Elsewhere down through the order, there were some surprises. Tyler Thompson with a very good 9th place run, while Brad Sweet, Justin Sanders, and Tyler Courtney were all well down the order. Sweet has now finished outside the top ten in three straight races. That included the 18th at Placerville after getting involved in a crash, 12th during the Gold Cup prelim after making a rare mistake, and then 17th last night, multiple laps down. He's still winless since May, and he hasn't finished outside the top ten in three straight races since 2020. Very uncharacteristic for him and that KKR 49 bunch. Fortunately for him, his Kubota High Limit championship lead is large enough, and Tyler Courtney has struggled as well, so he's still very much in control of the title fight headed to Roseburg tomorrow. As for Chase Johnson, he had a scary crash last night, and there was a lengthy red flag period as safety workers extracted him from the car. He was alert and communicating with the track crew before being transported to the hospital. As of me writing this on Sunday, there has been no update on his condition. Hopefully we can get some good news soon. The High Limit west coast swing continues this week with Douglas County tomorrow, Grays Harbor on Wednesday, and then Skagit next weekend for big money.
At Port Royal, $50,000 on the line last night for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, and a dominating performance from Jonathan Davenport. Ricky Thornton Jr. tried to make a run at him late, but hit the wall, and it was Superman leading 49 of 50 laps and picking up series win number seven in 2024. RTJ second, and a nice podium result for Max Blair. We did have another run-in between RTJ and Hudson O'Neal, with Huddy getting the worst of a 20RT slider before half way. The 71 eventually needed a trip to the pit area to fix the damage, and he raced back to finish seventh. It was pivotal for O'Neal, because he's now fourth in the Lucas standings coming out of the weekend. Tim McCreadie breaking on Friday and finishing 27th opened the door for O'Neal, and those points he got last night could be incredibly valuable. All we've got left before the final cutoff is Portsmouth, Tyler County, and three nights at Knoxville. This will likely come down to the wire between the two. I can't move on today either without giving a hat tip to Garrett Alberson. He beat Devin Moran in a photo finish on Friday night to score his first career Lucas win and first with a late model national tour. It was a long time coming for Alberson, and finally the monkey is off his back. Lucas is at Portsmouth and Tyler County next Saturday and Sunday and then it's World 100 time at Eldora.
In Ohio, the World of Outlaws late model series championship continued to tighten up after two nights at Atomic. Bobby Pierce a winner on Friday night, leading all 40 laps, and then he was second last night behind a dominant run for Ryan Gustin. Gustin also lead flag-to-flag. Brandon Sheppard certainly wasn't bad, finishing 6th and 7th, but the gap is now much closer at 54 points. Nick Hoffman was fourth both nights, so he's actually tied with Pierce for second. Hoffman trying to turn it around at the right time, going second, fourth, fourth in his last three races, including a charge from 22nd last night. The World of Outlaws late models go quiet now for a few weeks, but we are down to the final nights. All that's left is Senoia, Talladega, Boothill, Rocket Raceway Park, and three nights of racing at World Finals. 54 points over seven races, means Pierce and or Hoffman need to beat Shepp on average by about four positions per race. The lack of races left is definitely a good thing for Shepp, but any sort of problem for any of these three will be devastating. This will likely come down as the best championship battle in the country this season. The Outlaws are back September 14th.
With the USAC National Sprint Cars, it was a big weekend for Justin Grant. He swept Smackdown at Kokomo last year, and this season it was two wins in three nights, including last night's $30,000 finale. He outdueled Mitchel Moles late after early leader, and Friday night winner Kevin Thomas Jr. had a motor go south right before half way. Moles and Robert Ballou rounded out the podium. In an interesting turn of events, and I'm sure some of you are tired of hearing me talk about exhaust header pipes, Grant's NOS car was sporting a set all weekend, a la Paul Silva and Kyle Larson. I went back looking at photos from earlier this season and don't see where he'd used them previously. Logan Seavey continues to lead the championship, with the next race coming up September 5th at RPM Speedway in Texas.
The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series spent the weekend in North Dakota, and it was a sweep for Carson Macedo. He won both Friday at River Cities, and Saturday at Red River Valley. We actually had the same podium drivers both nights, with Sheldon Haudenschild and Buddy Kofoid flipped between second and third. Sheldon now has four straight podium finishes, while these were Kofoid's first podium results since the middle of July. Back to Macedo though, he has now won three of the last four, which is a nice turnaround for his JJR 41 team that has struggled at times this season. Even though he lost a wheel in qualifying last night, David Gravel bounced back to finish eighth, and two more top tens sees not much change in the title fight. He still leads both Donny Schatz and Macedo by triple digits. The Outlaws have more week in the midwest before they head out to California. This week it's three days at Huset's for the Hustle and the rescheduled High Bank Nationals. Friday is $25 grand to win, Saturday is $15 grand, and then Sunday is $100,000 to win.
Other weekend open wheel winners included AJ Flick with FAST at Mercer. He spent the weekend driving for Bernie in the Indy Race Parts 71. Cale Thomas was an AFCS winner at Attica, Anthony Macri swept Williams Grove and Lincoln, Seth Bergman and Jake Bubak were ASCS winners, and Emerson Axsom won the season finale at Knoxville. Austin McCarl, Jamie Ball, and Mike Mayberry the three Knoxville track champions.
Other weekend late model winners included Camaron Marlar and Jason Jameson in Hunt the Front action. Brandon Overton still leading that championship, but still pretty quiet as of late. Daniel Adam and Ryan Unzicker were MARS winners, Derrick Stewart won win the MLRA, Jordan Koehler and Devin Gilpin were Ultimate winners, and Rusty Schlenk won with Iron-Man at Butler.
That's it for the show today. With still some big money on the line and lots to figure out for 2025, I'd think this week and the coming weeks could be pretty interesting and intriguing. Especially with some of the rumors out there. Keep it locked right here for all the latest.
Hope you guys have a great Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!