DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Penalizing the series owner... | Daily 8-27-2024

High Limit's Mike Hess not playing favorites, updates on Chase Johnson and Corey Day's NASCAR future, some late model driver news, and much more today. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, August 27th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

Not long after I posted the Monday Daily show, we got our first official update from Chase Johnson's family via his racing Facebook page. We know that he's at the UC Davis hospital in Sacramento, and it's clear that he's got a long road ahead. According to the update, he's in the ICU there with a breathing tube following a nine hour surgery on Sunday to repair fractures in his neck to the C4, C5, and C6 vertebrae. This is the same part of the neck where Daison Pursley's injury happened a few years ago. Pursley injured his C4 and C5. And similar to Pursley, Johnson did go through spinal fusion. Johnson also has fractures to his T10 and T11 vertebrae, which are mid-back area, near the bottom of the rib cage. I'm not a doctor by any stretch of the imagination, but I would assume he'll also have to go through surgery to deal with those fractures as well. They were hopeful that the breathing tube was going to be removed yesterday so that they could start having conversations with Chase. The post says they will share future updates as Chase wants. If you want to keep up yourself, you can find Chase's page at facebook.com/chasejohnsonracing. I tweeted this yesterday, but this is one of those instances where I don't like sprint cars, that is when they hurt guys. Most of the time, sprint cars are awesome, but sometimes they really make it hard to like them.

Back a couple of weeks ago, I shared on the show that Corey Day's NASCAR debut is coming soon, with his first truck series start likely coming at Bristol on September 19th. I said then that I was hearing he would make his first starts with Spire Motorsports, which already has at least some connection with Hendrick Motorsports. But in recent days, I've been told those starts will actually come with McAnally Hilgemann Racing, which currently fields trucks for Christian Eckes, Tyler Ankrum, and Daniel Dye. Eckes currently leads the truck series standings after the first playoff race this past weekend at Milwaukee. The team's fourth truck, the number 91, runs part time, mostly with Jack Wood behind the wheel, and I would assume this will be the spot for Day. Day's truck schedule will likely also include starts at Kansas, Homestead, and Martinsville. What Day's full schedule looks like for 2025 I don't yet know, but it sounds like a full Xfinity run might not be off the table. I think as well that at least a partial sprint car schedule would be possible in between NASCAR starts, and that Jason Meyers will continue fielding Day on dirt.

Last night at the Douglas County Dirt Track, no third High Limit win in a row for Day, after he won both his prelim night and the Gold Cup finale. But he did go 13th to fifth in the main event. Out front, Justin Sanders led early from the pole, but after a restart on lap 10, James McFadden rolled the high side to the lead, and led the rest of the way. Kubota High Limit victory number three on the season for JMac, and his second in four races. He's got six straight top six finishes as well as that Roth team edges ever closer to that top five in the owner standings. Just ten points separate the 14 and 83 teams currently. It was another solid run for Sanders, but he was disappointed afterwards. He's still seeking his first national touring victory, but he'll have plenty more chances to do it, with still more High Limit races to come out west, and then the Outlaws making their way to California soon. Tanner Holmes rounded out the podium in front of what was basically his home crowd. His first career top three result with High Limit, and a big boost for that team that has struggled out west. The very solid Roseburg crowd was behind him all night with big cheers any time he was mentioned. The field ended up being better than I expected at 32, which included quite a few California guys who did indeed make the tow north. I'm wondering as well if you guys noticed all the jumped start penalties last night. Corey Day was docked in the first heat, Brad Sweet was knocked back in heat two, and Jacob Allen was busted in the B-Main. Both heat race penalties bumped Day and Sweet out of dash spots, and Sweet ended up eighth after starting the feature in 11th. Hess clearly not playing favorites with his High Limit boss, and Sweet still looking for that next victory. For all the High Limit haters, point them towards this race when they start talking smack. Remember back to November last year when Hess' hire became official, this was one thing they wanted to address, and that was Brad and Kyle not getting special treatment. I'm sure you guys will jump in here, but this was likely one of the first times either High Limit owner was docked. The Big Cat actually extended his championship lead last night though, because Tyler Courtney hit the wall and ended up DNFing. Sunshine not having the greatest time on the west coast, even after winning at Hanford. Those 7BC guys just haven't been able to capitalize on some of these down finishes for the 49. The High Limit teams have today off for maintenance and driving, and they'll be back to racing tomorrow at Grays Harbor, up west of Tacoma, Washington.

If you want some racing today, you do have a few options. The Short Track Super Series south region is at Georgetown tonight for $6000 to win. Anthony Perrego currently leads the south by 31 points over Mat Williamson, while Matt Sheppard leads the overall title fight. You should have all the usual suspects in attendance tonight, and you can watch live on FloRacing.

At 300 Raceway, the $100 grand to win stock car week begins today. Teams will practice and qualify, and then prelim nights for the Yankee Dirt Track Classic are Wednesday and Thursday, before Friday's finale. Ricky Thornton Jr. headlines that stock car field that also includes names on the entry list like Ryan Gustin, Ethon Dotson, Matt Crafton, and more. There will likely be a significant amount of cars on the property for this one. XR's streaming service will have coverage if you want to tune in.

One late model news item for you today. The Viper/Big Frog Motorsports team will field Drake Troutman in some races coming up. Troutman will continue to run his family car on tour with Lucas, and fill in Big Frog races in between. He's currently the leading Lucas rookie in 11th, with four top fives in 34 feature starts. He's got a solid lead over Clay Harris for series rookie of the year. He did have a prelim win at the Firecracker 100 weekend at Lernerville in June, and led laps in the big show as well. Troutman will drive the 58 car on Friday at Bedford with the ULMS, before heading to Ohio and West Virginia with Lucas. He'll then be in the car all week at Eldora, including the Flo series makeup and the World 100. It's also confirmed he'll race for the team at I-75 with the Flo series, and at the XR Super Series race at Muskingum County, with other races TBD. I do think it's interesting to note that Troutman normally runs a Longhorn, but the Big Frog deal will be in a new Rocket XR1.2.

That's it for the show today. Hit up the streaming schedule at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight to see the full schedule today, including start times and links to watch. And give DIRTRACKR a follow across social media, wherever you are, we are too.

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