DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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A sprint car hot seat, Eldora deserves praise for racing, Tony Stewart hires new GM | Daily 9-8-2024
A globe trophy makes it 32 wins for the 32 plus other World 100 notes, Eldora Speedway hires a GM, the High Limit championship is out of reach after a strange Tusky weekend, and more from around the country. Let's go!
It's Sunday, September 8th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
Coming up on Friday this week, the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets return to racing after a few weeks off, with a stop at Southern Illinois Raceway. The 1/8th mile at SIR should provide some great bullring action, and if you want to go, I've got a ticket deal for you. If you use code 'DIRTRACKR' when you purchase, you'll get $5 off per ticket. That means you can see the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets for less than $20 a ticket. Head over to dirtrackr.com/xtreme, or click the links below in the video description and enter the code before you select your seats. Cannon McIntosh is the current series points leader, and Xtreme is a great series to check out the young stars of tomorrow like Ryan Timms and Jade Avedisian, battling against some of the top veterans. Eight different winners this season, including guys like Zach Daum and Thomas Meseraull. So hit up dirtrackr.com/xtreme, or the links below in the video description, and use code "DIRTRACKR" for $5 off your tickets.
First up on this Sunday, it was a big crown jewel weekend at Eldora with the 54th running of the World 100. Yesterday before racing action got started, they did a very nice celebration of life for Scott Bloomquist. If you didn't get a chance to watch, it is available over on FloRacing for you on-demand. It was a touching tribute to the legend, and inclued his final laps around Eldora. Leading into Saturday, Hudson O'Neal won both of his prelim features, while Ryan Gustin and Jonathan Davenport took the other two. After Saturday heat races and the two B-Mains, I don't know that there were any real big surprises on guys that didn't make the show. And for the main event, it was all the usual suspects starting near the front. Dale McDowell and Garrett Alberson led the field to green, and both took turns out front. By the end of the 100 lapper, we'd had eight lead changes among four drivers, which was the most in quite a few years. Eldora has taken a considerable amount of flack in recent years for track prep and the lack of excitement in the big main events, but I thought last night was really good. Eventual winner Bobby Pierce led the most laps with 45, but he did it in four chunks while battling Alberson, then Davenport, then McDowell late. McDowell actually took the lead inside ten to go, and looked strong, but Pierce was able to return the pass and lead the final five circuits en route to his second career World 100 score. McDowell settled for second with JD third. With what we'd seen earlier in the week, and heard from Davenport, his domination didn't end up continuing. Tim McCreadie and Devin Moran rounded out the top five. Pierce was solid all weekend, finishing on the podium in both prelim shows, and he was second in the Dream back in June. He's now got 32 wins on the season, and will carry a lot of momentum into this coming week's World of Outlaws races where he's still trying to track down Brandon Sheppard for the title. A couple of other notes on some other drivers. We did not end up seeing Mike Marlar at all, which I still find surprising. He never posted anything to his social media or website as to why he was absent, and I haven't seen it covered anywhere else. Neither he or Skyline teammate Tyler Bruening were in action. It's been a tough season for Marlar, he didnt make the Dream main event back in June, and is way down in the Lucas standings. They lost a tire while leading their heat race at the Baltes classic and haven't raced since. I had a comment on my video from last week that someone said they were maybe down on power at the Baltes, and that could be why they did race, but I haven't seen that confirmed. As for a few other drivers we talked about last week, Brandon Overton was solid on the prelim nights, but faded to 18th last night. The other Infinity by Wells in the big show was Ryan Gustin, he finished 9th. And Hunt the Front's Joseph Joiner saw his World end in a Saturday B-Main, getting caught up in an incident. He led laps Thursday in the prelim feature before finishing fourth, but couldn't hang on to a heat race transfer yesterday after starting on the pole. Still plenty of action to come this season at Eldora, with the 4-Crown next in a few weeks, and then the Dirt Track World Championship in October.
The other story to come out of Eldora this week was the announcement on their new general manager. Remember back to earlier this year, Eldora's GM Jerry Gappens passed away suddenly, and that position had been open ever since. Jonathan Bateman had taken up a lot of that responsibility in the meantime. If you don't know, Bateman has been a cornerstone guy at Eldora for many years, handling all sorts of jobs in the background. One of those guys I think a lot of fans probably don't know about, but you certainly know his work. But starting in about a week, Levi Jones will take over the position and lead Eldora going forward. Jones won six of his USAC championships driving for Tony Stewart, he then rose up through the USAC ranks as an official and executive, and has been at IndyCar the past three years, most recently running the Indy NXT program. When the IndyCar season ends after Nashville, Jones will transition to his new role. From what I know about Jones, I think this is a very solid hire, and one that makes a lot of sense on multiple fronts. I'd say that Eldora is in very capable hands going forward.
At Port Royal this weekend, the Kubota High Limit sprint cars were in town for the big Tuscarora 50 weekend. Back on Thursday, I don't think anyone would have guessed that Brad Sweet would have ended his months long winless streak at Port. Especially on a night where Rico Abreu and Anthony Macri started on the front row. Rico led until late, when Sweet drove up from fifth to take the top spot with just 8 laps left. He drove on to his first win at Port since 2015, and picking up his first win anywhere since May 16th this season. He definitely seemed a little relieved in victory lane. Rico and Macri joined him on the podium. On Friday night, Aaron Reutzel handled the field for his first national touring sprint car win since an Outlaw score at Ransomville in 2021. He was a Knoxville prelim winner in 2023, but obviously those aren't full fledged Outlaw points nights. Justin Whittall and Chase Dietz were podium finishers for the Posse. Some nasty crashes through the weekend, including an ugly tumble for Anthony Macri, Devon Borden left the ballpark on Friday, and Corey Day with a big one early on Saturday. Keep an eye on Borden and that Stehman team for silly season. Some rumblings that a change might be coming there. Borden has just a single victory this season, and struggled all weekend at Port. Last night for the finale, Rico Abreu the big winner, picking up his second big paycheck in as many weeks. Last week it was $100k at Skagit, and this week it was $58,000 for the Tusky. He took the lead from pole sitter Lance Dewease on lap 15, and never looked back. Unfortunately, all anyone seems to be talking about today though is the track latching down basically right after the half way break. A rubbered up surface for nearly half of what is essentially the track's crown jewel certainly not what anyone was looking for. Rico managed it well though, and his 24 team has now won three of their last five High Limit starts and have moved past Tyler Courtney into second in the championship standings. Sunshine with another weekend to forget. They were fifth on the opening night, but 17th and 24th the other two. With just nine High Limit races left in 2024, Brad Sweet's advantage is 230. I said last week that unless Rico and Courtney could make big progress at a weak track for Sweet, things were probably over. And with three nights at Port Royal in the books now, I think this one is over friends. High Limit is at Lernerville this coming weekend for two nights.
Out in California, the World of Outlaws west coast swing is off and running. Friday night at Stockton it was Buddy Kofoid topping Shane Golobic for his second win in a row following the big score at Huset's. The reprofiled Stockton Dirt Track was a problem earlier this year, but I thought it raced pretty well on Friday. It was a big improvement from the NARC show there back in the spring. Last night at Hanford, it was all Carson Macedo for the Tom Tarlton Classic. He led all 35 from the pole, topping Sheldon Haudenschild and Kofoid. I thought this couple of weeks out west could be an opportunity for Macedo to try and make this Outlaw championship into a real fight, but while progress was made, no big jump just yet. Macedo finished behind David Gravel on Friday and lost ground, but made some more back up last night with the win. Macedo though did move into second with Schatz 12th and 10th the two nights. Headed to Bakersfield and Merced this week, Gravel leads Macedo by 110, and Schatz by 134.
Other weekend open wheel winners included Brady Bacon bagging $10,000 with USAC last night at Texarkana 67 Speedway. He's still trying to run down Logan Seavey for that title with seven races left. Danny Sams swept the IRA weekend, and Cap Henry won the AFCS finale and claimed the championship.
Weekend Super DIRTcar Series wins went to Alex Payne Thursday at Brockville and Mat Williamson Friday at Can-Am. The Saturday show at Weedsport was rained out.
And at Boone Speedway, the IMCA Super Nationals winners included Dylan Thornton in the modified, Kelly Shryock in the stock car, Logan Anderson in the sport mod, and Nathan Ballard in hobby stock.
We'll call it good there today. There are a few races happening today, so make sure to check out the streaming schedule at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Hope you guys have a great rest of your Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!