DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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One Wells Infinity driver is red hot, the other hasn't been the same since this moment | Daily 9-4-2024

The Wells Infinity dirt late models have been fast in the hands of Ryan Gustin, but big question marks surround Wells' own driver Brandon Overton headed into the big week at Eldora. We'll talk about it, plus some sprint car news, schedule changes, and more. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, September 4th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

At Eldora Speedway today it's FloRacing Night in America time with a $20,000 to win main event. This race was originally slated for Dirt Late Model Dream week, but was pushed back to World 100 week after it was rained out. Through four Flo races this season, Bobby Pierce leads the midweek series championship over Ricky Thornton Jr. They are separated by just nine points. They have two wins each, and are obviously the only drivers to win this season. Nine drivers have made every feature so far, they are Pierce, RTJ, Daulton Wilson, Jason Feger, Garrett Alberson, Spencer Hughes, Dennis Erb Jr., Myles Moos, and Carson Ferguson. Remember on top of the race purse money, drivers are competing for a $75,000 championship as long as they have perfect attendance. Mike Marlar won this race a year ago, when it was run in April, and he could certainly use a good run right now. He's fallen well out of contention for the Lucas playoffs and hasn't won with either national tour since Golden Isles way back in February. I think tonight you are probably looking at the usual suspects for the win. That means Jonathan Davenport, Ricky Thornton Jr., Bobby Pierce, Devin Moran, and maybe some guys like Hudson O'Neal and Tim McCreadie. At last check we are up to 106 entries for the World 100, and I would assume the vast majority would take the chance tonight to get on track. Even if they don't make the feature, those extra laps could be valuable for tweaking cars and setups for the rest of the week. After tonight, the next Flo series event is next Thursday night at I-75, which will lead into the World of Outlaws weekend at Senoia and Talladega. If you aren't headed for Eldora this week, you can watch live on FloRacing.

One driver I didn't mention above, and one I'll be super curious to see this week is Brandon Overton. Going back through 2021, Overton has just as many victories during Eldora crown jewel events as does Jonathan Davenport, which includes the big shows and prelims. But he hasn't been to victory lane since that rescheduled Dream in September of 2022. The 2023 events at Eldora were not kind to the Georgia driver, but he did look better in June this year. He was 10th on his prelim night, and finished third behind Jonathan Davenport and Bobby Pierce at the Dream. Unfortunately for him though, the car he was driving back in June was junked in a Southern Nationals race at Wythe in July. Something broke in the car, and Overton pounded the wall between one and two before the car turned over. The piece was written off, and they've been using a different Wells 76 Infinity chassis in the months since. It kinda feels like a bad luck moment has turned into a pivotal point in Overton's season, because it doesn't seem as though this other car has been as good. Overton hasn't won a feature since a split field show at Volunteer in June, and while it hasn't gone badly by any stretch, his recent regional performances haven't set the world on fire. He's allowed Sam Seawright to hang around in the title fight with the Hunt the Front series. And this is at a time when Ryan Gustin, also in a Wells Infinity, is one of the hottest drivers in the country. He's coming off a $50,000 score with XR, and won recent Outlaw races at Atomic and Cedar Lake. Overton was solid though at the North South 100 finishing fifth on the final night, and there could be hope this week. The Wells team is bringing a new car to Eldora for the World, as reported by Dirt on Dirt, and they took the Labor Day weekend off to get everything ready. They do have tonight's race on their schedule, but it will be tough to put them high up on the win chances list unless they show some significant pace tonight. Hopefully they do though, because Eldora and these crown jewels are more fun with Overton in the mix.

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The USAC sprints cars are making a trip south this week for what was supposed to be three races, one at RPM Speedway in Texas, and two at Texarkana 67 Speedway in Arkansas. Unfortunately, that RPM Speedway date has been cancelled. The release said quote "it will not take place due to complications arising for the facility to host this week's event" unquote. I'm not quite sure what that means, but I guess it doesn't really matter. So the focus shifts to Texarkana 67. Friday is $6000 to win and Saturday is $10,000 to win. Logan Seavey leads Brady Bacon and Daison Pursley right now for the USAC sprint car championship.

Another schedule note for you, this one announced just a little bit ago. There will be no Speed Showcase weekend at Port Royal in October for the Short Track Super Series modifieds. This one seems a bit odd, especially with this event still well over a month away. The quote in the announcement was "After careful consideration, both parties have made this difficult decision due to challenges faced throughout the 2024 season, coupled with the need to focus on projects at Port Royal Speedway before the winter season sets in." If you remember back to last year, this event was postponed, and actually run this year in March. And this announcement points to a similar setup for 2025, with quote "plans already underway to make the March 2025 event a memorable one" unquote. This coming weekend's Tuscarora 50 will be the final racing of the season at Port Royal.

I missed this one from a few days ago, but if you are a midwest sprint car fan, Huset's track champion Kaleb Johnson is getting the opportunity to travel a bit here late in 2024. With Huset's done for the year, Johnson will take his family 22K machine to Wisconsin this week for the IRA show at Cedar Lake, and then he'll run Eagle in Nebraska on Sunday with the MSTS. That Eagle race will kick off a several week stretch where he'll race for Dennis Gainey's Team DGRD. They'll race at Eagle and Shelby County, and then go to Eldora later this month for the 4 Crown Nationals with the High Limit sprint car series. After that, they'll run a weekly show at Williams Grove late in September, before trying their luck during the National Open. Johnson took a significant step forward this season in performance, making every World of Outlaws and High Limit feature he attempted, barring the Knoxville Nationals. He had a top ten at Ogilvie, and was eighth on Hard Knox night at Knoxville. This will be a great chance for a regional guy to get his feet wet at some new tracks.

At the IMCA Super Nationals yesterday, Jake Sachau was a sport mod race of champions winner, Cory Probst won the hobby stock race of champions, and Brad Chandler won the night's sport compact main event. Preliminary action continues today at Boone Speedway for the stock cars, modifieds, hobby stocks, and northern sport mods. Again, racing starts at 2PM, and the Super Nationals are listed on the streaming schedule at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.

If you want more dirt racing audio this week, Dirt Track Confessions has Max McLaughlin, Quicktime has Shawn Neisteadt, Getting up to Speed has Natahn DeRagon, Caution Free has Eric Westendorf, and there are new episodes of The Dirt Reporters, Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks, Racing Roundup, Plum Wild, and the Driver's Project. To see the full rundown on shows and their newest episodes, visit dirtrackr.com/podcasts.

That's it for today. Hope you guys have a great Wednesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!