DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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WALK-OFF! Sprint car legend calls it a career in the best way possible | Daily 9-22-2024
A sprint car legend calls it a career in the best way possible, Jonathan Davenport ruffles feathers with Knoxville comments, more sprint car ride swapping, and everything you need to know from the dirt racing weekend. Let's go!
It's Sunday, September 22nd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
Real quick off the top, the prices on DIRTRACKR merch continue to fall. Shirts are down to $17, while the stickers are $3.25 and $4.25. Every day that goes by they will go even lower until everything is gone. Take advantage now over at shop.dirtrackr.com.
Last night, something very cool happened in sprint car racing, and it's definitely flying under the radar a bit today, and I want to fix that. At Sharon Speedway, the rescheduled 16th annual Lou Blaney Memorial went down for $12,000 to win. 38 sprint cars in attendance, which included most of the main guys in Ohio like Cale Thomas, Cap Henry, Tim Shaffer, Greg Wilson, Cole Duncan, etc. There were also some PA travelers, including AJ Flick, Carl Bowser, and even a Danny Dietrich appearance. Out front, Dave Blaney and Ryan Smith started together on the front row, and each led laps through the opening stretch. Blaney though took over for good on lap eight, and held off a serious challenge from Danny Dietrich in the closing laps to score the win. It was Blaney's third win in the race named for his father. In victory lane, the Buckeye Bullet was emotional, and it immediately became clear why. Last night's race was the final start in Blaney's incredible racing career. Live on DIRTVision he said quote "no better way to retire than to win this one." It's hard to disagree with that. A walkoff win, at your family's race track, in the race named for your dad. It doesn't get much better than that. Over his incredible career, Blaney was a force in a sprint car, winning the 1995 World of Outlaws championship, and 95 races. He's currently ninth all time on that Outlaw win list. He also scored 49 All Star wins, and crown jewel victories in the 1997 Knoxville Nationals, and twice at the Kings Royal, in 1993 and 1995. He parlayed that success into a lengthy NASCAR career as well, making 473 Cup Series starts between 1992 and 2014. And even at age 61, Blaney still very strong behind the wheel of a 410 sprint car. He won an Outlaw show in 2021, and in just two Outlaw starts in 2023, had two top seven finishes, including a third at Weedsport. He raced seven times this year, making the Outlaw feature at Sharon in May, and finishing no worse than fourth in six starts across Sharon, PA Motor Speedway, and Lernerville. And last night's field at Sharon was as good as any you'll see in Ohio this year. Happy trails to Dave Blaney and what an incredible walkoff win to end his career.
Alright, let's dive into the rest of the dirt racing weekend, and we'll start with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at Knoxville for the Late Model Nationals. Bobby Pierce took the $50,000 victory and his first Late Model Nationals win of his career. He topped Brian Shirley and Devin Moran in a race that was halted at one point because of rain. Hat tip though to Knoxville for all the work they did all weekend to keep that track in shape. Last night was the cutoff race for the Lucas championship chase, and Hudson O'Neal entered the weekend with a slight advantage over Tim McCreadie for the final spot. He started fifth and led eight laps right around half way, but his SSI Motorsports 71 faded hard down the stretch, and he ended up 15th. That combined with a top five run for McCreadie saw O'Neal slip to fifth, and TMac locking down that final spot in the group of four that will vie for the 2024 Lucas title. That group also includes Ricky Thornton Jr., who had a miserable weekend, Devin Moran, and Jonathan Davenport. Going back to the Lucas situation post speedweeks. Hudson O'Neal departed the Rocket house car before Atomic Speedway in March. At that moment he was second in the standings, while McCreadie was way down in ninth. Huddy is on his third ride since then, while McCreadie methodically marched his way through the standings. There are still questions about the future for the Rocket house car and TMac, but it's no small feat to do what they did. The 10 night battle for the championship begins this week at Brownstown, with the CJ Rayburn Memorial Friday and the Jackson 100 Saturday.
Jumping back quickly to Jonathan Davenport. I know he ruffled some feathers with his comments about Knoxville following the opening night prelim win on Thursday. JD has made it clear on several occasions that Knoxville is not his favorite race track, and that continued this week. Last year he called it a dump, and this year said it was like going to your in-laws with your wife, you don't really want to be there, but you have to. Certainly not mincing words there, but I don't really have a problem with it. We usually get pretty vanilla answers from so many guys, I like the honesty we got from Davenport. He did tweet later though quote "just so ya know I like my in-laws" unquote.
At Eldora for 4-Crown, no sweeps this year like we saw from Logan Seavey in 2023, at least for the non-wing portion. Daison Pursley came pretty close though. He won both midget features, led laps after starting on the pole in the Silver Crown show before finishing fourth, and he did win the sprint car feature, going fifth to the win. Pursley's grip on the midget standings has grown to nearly 100 points headed next to the BC39. Mitchel Moles won the Silver Crown main event, his first with that series, and Kody Swanson maintains the championship lead. And with just four sprint car races to go, Logan Seavey's lead there is 86 points over Brady Bacon.
The two winged sprint car wins with the Kubota High Limit sprint cars went to Justin Peck and Rico Abreu. Both drivers led every lap in their respective main events. It was pretty surprising to be this deep into the season before Peck finally scored his first win of 2024. He hadn't won a sprint car race since the High Limit show at Kokomo in August of 2023. I believe I heard Chase Raudman say it was 93 races between wins. That's got to feel good for that driver and team, especially with rumblings about the future for Peck and Buch Motorsports. The Saturday win for Rico was his eight with High Limit this season, and fourth in his last nine starts. He's moved back around Tyler Courtney for second in the standings. Just six races remain for High Limit, with Florence up next on September 28th.
A couple of ride notes from Eldora. Chase Randall was there driving for Kevin Newton. He continues to jump rides since leaving the TKS Motorsports seat, and there is still nothing definitive out there about where he could land for 2025. As for that TKS ride that has seen Hunter Schuerenberg in the seat here lately, I was told a change could be coming there again, maybe as soon as this week following the 4-Crown. Schuerenberg has made 11 starts in the 2KS since jumping in for the season finale at Knoxville. It's been a struggle though. A 13th in the Commonwealth Clash prelim was his best result, and he's missed features in five shows. We'll keep you posted if that rumor does indeed become official.
Out in California, the World of Outlaws wrapped up their west coast trip with two nights at the Tulare Thunderbowl. Friday night, David Gravel broke a 15 race winless streak, leading the final 12 laps after starting in sixth. That race saw four different leaders, and an 18th to fourth charge from Sheldon Haudenschild. And last night, Carson Macedo led all 35 laps from the pole to pickup the $83,000 Dennis Roth Classic finale. Outlaw win number nine on the year, and the JJR 41 stays hot. With 12 races left, the gap in the Outlaw title fight between Gravel and Macedo is down to 90, but Macedo is going to start running out of races quickly. I think he probably needed to leave California with things a bit closer to really make a run. He needs 7.5 points per night through World Finals to pull even, which is nearly four positions per race. Not impossible, but going to get ever more difficult. The Outlaws will be at Wayne County and Sharon next weekend.
Other weekend open wheel winners included Noah Gass and Sam Hafertepe in POWRi 410 action at Creek County, Kasey Jedrzejek was a 410 winner at Attica, Paul Nienhiser won at Jacksonville, Justin Whittall at Williams Grove, Craig Mintz at Fremont, and Andy Forsberg was a Sprint Car Challenge Tour winner at Petaluma.
Other late model winners included Skip Arp in the Southern All Stars pavement race at Anderson, Billy Moyer was a Comp Cams winner at Batesville, Camaron Marlar won the Bloomquist tribute race at Volunteer, and Payton Freeman and Zack Mitchell split the Hunt the Front series wins at Thunderhill.
And at Albany-Saratoga last night, Mat Williamson took advantage of late contact between Matt Sheppard and Demetrios Drellos to get Super DIRTcar Series win number seven on the year, and lock himself into the finale at Super Dirt Week. He still trails Sheppard by 27 points in the standings.
Alright, that's the Daily for today. Hope you guys have a great rest of your Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!