DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Is this our first 2025 High Limit sprint car team commitment? | Daily 9-26-2024
RTJ and Devin Moran tangle, Dennis Erb Jr.'s house car experiment looks to be over, plus penalty news from POWRi, Danny Sams getting that chance, and I think we have our first High Limit team for 2025. Let's go!
It's Thursday, September 26th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
FloRacing Night in America Series last night at Brownstown Speedway. I hope you enjoyed the show, because it might be one of the few dirt races we actually get to see this week with all of the weather out there. If you are in the south, please stay safe, and if you live somewhere else, make sure to double check the event or series you are planning on seeing before you take off for the track. Anyways, Brownstown. Hudson O'Neal and Tanner English led the field to green, but it didn't take fourth starting Jonathan Davenport long to take the top spot. He was out front by lap two, but even though he led a significant amount of laps, this wasn't his night. O'Neal took back control of the race before half way, and went the distance from there to score his first Flo series win since Tri-County in October of 2023. English ended up second, Tim McCreadie third, and Devin Moran hard charged from 17th to fourth. Moran's drive through the field though wasn't without a little drama, as he was involved in a tangle with Ricky Thornton Jr. on lap 33. RTJ tried to clear Moran with a slider, but the 99 stayed in the spot and the 20RT went for a spin. Under the caution RTJ showed his displeasure to the 99, and later was able to race his way back into the top ten before retiring late and finishing 15th. RTJ out and Bobby Pierce in seventh means Pierce's championship lead was extended to 27 points with either two or three races left in the Flo series season. We know for sure that the finale is set for November 15th and 16th at Senoia. We'll see what happens with that I-75 postponement.
Looking ahead for Brownstown, the CJ Rayburn Memorial and Jackson 100 are on deck for Friday and Saturday to open the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series championship chase. We'll see if they are able to race, or if mother nature will have other ideas. RTJ, Moran, Davenport, and McCreadie have all seen their seasons reset, and they will race it out over the final ten nights to decide the 2024 series champion. For clarity, the two prelim nights at East Bay, and the Dirt Track World Championship prelim night are all non-points events. So just the finales at those two races will affect the chase standings, along with both Brownstown races, Atomic, and the two nights of the Pittsburgher. Drop me a comment and let me know who you are picking to win the Lucas championship. I think right now the two guys I'm watching for are Moran and Davenport. I like McCreadie's consistency, but I'm not sure that team is capable of winning some of these shows down the stretch. RTJ's lack of pace here lately makes me a bit concerned to pick him right now as well. They were solid last night before the issues with Moran, but didn't look to be a race winning car. We'll see if they can turn it back on when things get serious.
On the flip side, the World of Outlaws Late Models have their final weekend of racing coming up before World Finals in November. They'll be at Boothill tomorrow and Rocket Raceway Park on Saturday. This might be one of our best bets to actually see some dirt racing over the next few days. We've got a three way fight for the championship here, with Brandon Sheppard still out front, and Pierce and Nick Hoffman trailing by 54 points each. With five races left, Pierce and Hoffman need to average an 11 point gain per night over Sheppard, which is about 5.5 positions on track. Under most circumstances I would probably say that might be a bit too much to overcome with so few races remaining, but we've seen Shepp have some missteps lately, including a 27th at Cedar Lake after mechanical issues. One off night for him and that B5 team, and Hoffman and Pierce will be breathing down his neck. The rainouts a few weeks ago at Senoia and Talladega were definitely a boost for BShepp, but this thing isn't over yet. Sheppard originally had last night's Flo series event on his schedule, but he was a no-show. That makes me think these guys wanted to focus on this weekend with the Outlaws and avoid the added travel and distractions. Both of these nights will be live on DIRTVision.
One other dirt late model note for you today, this one got pointed out to me by a tipper on Facebook. It appears as though the Dennis Erb Jr., Barry Wright house car relationship has ended already. If you might remember back to the middle of August, Erb showed up to the Outlaw race at Highland with a Barry Wright Icon chassis, replacing his Rocket. It hasn't been a great season on the road with the Outlaws in 2024 for Erb, and they were clearly looking for a jolt. It doesn't appear though that it worked. I count 13 race nights for Erb in the BWRC car, with one Outlaw top ten, and one MARS top five. No bright spots anywhere else, and following a missed feature at the World 100, Erb has gone back to the Rocket. He went to Davenport Speedway with the MLRA and finished second and 10th, he won at Peoria this past weekend, but DNF'd last night at Brownstown after starting 16th. We'll see if things get better with the Outlaws, where Erb hasn't won since June of 2023, and he's only led laps in a race twice this year.
The weekend open wheel schedule coming up includes the BC39 at the Dirt Track at IMS. We should be right near 60 USAC midgets for the event, plus the handful of sprint cars that will run tonight for the invitational. Justin Grant is the defending event winner, and Daison Pursley continues to the lead the midget championship.
In Ohio, the World of Outlaws sprint cars are set for stops at Wayne County on Friday and Sharon on Saturday. The Wayne County race is being promoted by Sheldon Haudenschild and is $15,000 to win. Carson Macedo still trying to run down David Gravel in the Outlaw standings.
As for High Limit, their Saturday show at Florence has already been cancelled as of today, along with the Tuesday show next week at Atomic. That means the Lucas race at Atomic is gone as well. Next up for High Limit is I-70 on October 8th. If you want to see Corey Day this week, he'll be back on pavement, running ARCA and the truck series at Kansas.
Elsewhere you've got the IRA at Plymouth, POWRi sprint cars at I-70, plus regular weekly racing in places like Central PA and California. The ASCS weekend at Riverside is off.
To close out the week, a few sprint car news items. First, we teased this one a few days ago, but it's now confirmed. On a show called the After the Scales podcast, Danny Sams shared yesterday that he will indeed join the TKS Motorsports team coming up. They are going to run that POWRi 410 show at I-70 this weekend, and then see where it goes from there. Sams replaces Hunter Schuerenberg, who recently departed the 2KS car after 11 races together. After I-70, Sams was supposed to be in action with High Limit next Tuesday, with that start coming back in the 24 car that we've seen Sams drive all season. With that race off though, we'll have to wait and see where Sams pops up next.
And speaking of POWRi, they were in the news yesterday for disqualifying Jake Bubak from his 410 sprint car win at the Hockett/McMillin Memorial. Tire samples taken after the race did not conform to the benchmark. That means Bubak is DQ'd, losing the points and pay for winning the event. Bubak and his team though are appealing the decision. If the penalty is indeed upheld, and Bubak is officially disqualified, that will elevate Scott Bobucki to the Hockett victory. We'll keep you posted here as the process plays out.
Finally today, I think we might have our first High Limit team commitment, at least somewhat publicly, for the 2025 season. There have been a ton of rumors about Buch Motorsports and it's future beyond the 2024 calendar. Rumblings point to Justin Peck being on the move to another team, and there was some thought that maybe Buch would just shut the team down. But yesterday, Buch Motorsports shared to Twitter a photo of a sprint car chassis on the jig at Russ Mitten's RPM Chassis shop. The tweet said quote "The first new car for the 2025 season is up and on the table" unquote, and both RPM and High Limit were tagged in the post. Buch and Peck got their first win of the season this past weekend during 4-Crown action at Eldora Speedway, and Peck is currently sixth in the High Limit standings. Buch itself is seventh in the owner standings, which the charter stuff is based on. They trail Brent Marks by 77 for that all important fifth position. So if Peck is indeed moving on, who is Tom Buch getting to replace him? Some sprint car friends have told me recently to keep an eye on a certain young driver we might have talked about earlier this week who had a NOSome performance, shall we say, at Eldora in non-wing action at 4-Crown. If true, I certainly wouldn't call that move a bad one. The sprint car silly season intrigue continues.
Alright, that's the Daily show for this week. If you don't subscribe wherever you tune in, you should, it's free. Also, I'd love it if you could help spread the word about the daily, maybe via social media or telling a friend. We certainly wouldn't be where we are now without all of your incredible support.
Hope you guys have a great Thursday out there, we'll see you back here on Sunday!