DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Where has the Swindell SpeedLab sprint car been? | Daily 9-25-2024

The Flo series hits Brownstown tonight with a tight championship battle, we've got an update on injured sprint car driver Chase Johnson, plus Kevin Swindell is back at the race track looking to help a driver win a sprint car championship. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, September 25th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

Over the past several weeks since the nasty crash at the Gold Cup, we know that sprint car driver Chase Johnson has been in a serious battle at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. He's dealing with spinal chord injuries, and there have been plenty of challenges along the way. Late last night, his Facebook page shared a video of Chase, and it's the first time we've seen and got to hear Chase speak since the incident. It's a quick update on his progress and a thanks to everyone that's been supporting him. He will soon be on the move to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia, where he will begin his rehabilitation. This is the same facility where Daison Pursley went through the same process after his own spinal chord injury a few years ago. I'll link to the video from Chase in the description below if you want to see it. Or you can just head over to facebook.com/chasejohnsonracing.

It's raceday at Brownstown Speedway today with the FloRacing Night in America late models in town for $20,000 to win. This kicks off a busy week at Brownstown, as the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series championship chase starts there on Friday and Saturday with the CJ Rayburn Memorial and the Jackson 100. Before that happens though, Flo series action tonight with Bobby Pierce currently holding a very small three point champoinship lead over Ricky Thornton Jr. Through five races in 2024, Pierce and RTJ have two wins each, and both have been top 10 in every show. The only difference is one less top five for RTJ. Nobody else at this moment really in contention for the title, with Daulton Wilson the next closest in third, but he's 99 points back. Jonathan Davenport the only other driver with a Flo series win in 2024. After tonight we know we've got two nights at Senoia coming up in November to end this season, but we are still waiting on a resolution for the postponed I-75 race from two weeks ago. If that gets rescheduled, that would make it three races still to go. We know that Bobby Pierce has stayed red hot this year, and he's coming off that $50,000 Late Model Knoxville Nationals win last weekend. He's clearly the number one driver right now. RTJ though coming in with a bit of work to do after some down finishes in recent weeks. He was 20th in the World 100, and had a Knoxville weekend to forget after sweeping that one last year. Missed the feature on Thursday, 18th on Friday, 19th on Saturday. He and crew chief Chris Madden will be looking for some more pace tonight heading into the championship season with Lucas. I would expect a nice field tonight, which will include the Flo series regulars, plus a lot of Lucas guys, and the local and regional guys. Dirt on Dirt and Flo say Shannon Babb, Josh Rice, Devin Gilpin, and Stormy Scott are a few names to expect beyond the usual suspects. Outside of Pierce, Brandon Sheppard, and maybe Dennis Erb Jr., I wouldn't expect a bunch of Outlaw teams at this one I don't think. They race Boothill and Rocket Raceway Park this weekend down south. If you won't be at Brownstown tonight, you can watch it live on Flo. If you need a Flo subscription, hit my affiliate link in the video description on YouTube, or visit dirtrackr.com/floracing.

We did talk yesterday about Don O'Neal returning to the seat tonight at Brownstown, and the Mastersbilt family did show off images of the wrap that will be on O'Neal's 71 tonight. This car will definitely be tough to miss through the program. According to Todd Turner, this deal is also in partnership with the McCarters. No word on if any races are planned beyond tonight's action.

In the DIRTRACKR merch shop today, prices on shirts and stickers continue to fall. I said I would keep lowering them until everything was gone, and at the moment shirts are down to $16 each, and stickers are $2.75 and $3.75. You can take advantage over at shop.dirtrackr.com.

One of the questions that I've gotten fairly regularly this season is what's up with Kevin and Jordan Swindell and their #39 Swindell SpeedLab sprint car. If my memory serves me correctly, we haven't seen the Swindell 39 since Hunter Schuerenberg made the Knoxville Nationals main event back in 2023. I believe they had engine issues in that one, and that combined with some health stuff for Kevin kept the car on the shelf for the rest of the season. Before that, they had been on the road some with the midweek High Limit series chasing that championship with Justin Sanders. Back in January of this year, on the heels of their second Chili Bowl win with Logan Seavey, Kevin told Area Auto that they were hoping to run Seavey in the 39 in some winged sprint car races this season, but continuing to grow the Victory Fuel drink business and some more health stuff for Kevin derailed those plans. Seavey has stayed plenty busy anyway, chasing all three USAC schedules, plus adding some late model shows with Chris Bragg and Vinny Guliani, and making some scattered winged starts with Landon Simon. In the meantime though, Kevin has stayed involved in sprint car racing, more recently helping out Seth Bergman as he chases the ASCS National Tour championship. I messaged a bit with Bergman today, and he told me that Swindell has been helping him out since the 360 Knoxville Nationals, and that they will continue together for the remainder of the season. Kevin was back at the race track during the ASCS' recent weekend at Arrowhead Speedway, serving as Bergman's crew chief. The two are planning on hitting the track together again this weekend at Riverside for the joint ASCS/USCS weekend, but that will be heavily contigent on weather with the hurricane that's making it's way up from the gulf. With still ten races to go, Bergman currently leads Sam Hafertepe Jr. by 111 points for that ASCS championship in this first year under World Racing Group ownership. He's got five wins, 17 top fives, and 20 top tens in 23 races. Bergman has been racing his own car for most of the year, but did make some fill-in starts with the 2C after Wayne Johnson's injury. Since then, the 2C has had Hank Davis in the seat before it goes full time with the Outlaws next year with Cole Macedo driving. Heading into Riverside, Bergman is on a run right now of eight podium finishes in his last nine starts, including a win at Big Sky Speedway on August 23rd. With as strong as Hafertepe is in a 360, this should be a good battle all the way to the finale at Creek County in mid November. Good though to see Swindell back at the track, and hopefully he's on a good path going forward and we'll get to see him and maybe his own race car at some point in the future. If they do get racing in at Riverside, they are expecting north of 50 cars, with $10,000 on the line Saturday. All of the ASCS schedule is live over on DIRTVision.

In dirt racing podcast land this week, Passing Points has Rees Moran, Quicktime has Mike Chadd, Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks has Brandon Mattox and Joe Baggott, Hoogie's Garage has Spencer Bayston, Turn 2 Terribles has Ron and Tylar Rutherford, Getting up to Speed has Jim Pettit, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters, Dirt Track Confessions, and the Dirt Nerds. You can find all these shows and a lot more at dirtrackr.com/podcasts.

That's your daily show for today. Don't forget that you can find the daily in lots of different places, depending on where you are and when you want to tune in. You can watch full episodes Sunday through Thursday on YouTube and Facebook, and you can listen to the podcast version of the show across all the major platforms, including Apple and Spotify. You can also see full show transcripts over at dirtrackr.com/daily.

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