DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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CJB's new direction, it wouldn't be the Natty Open without drama | Daily 10-06-2024
Controversial calls, favored drivers, safety schmafety, championships, silly season updates, and a lot more today on this Sunday edition of the daily. Let's go!
It's Sunday, October 6th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
I'm going to do something a little different today and just rip through a bunch of topics and hit on things that are on my mind following the past few days of dirt racing. And we'll start first with sprint car safety. Friday night at Williams Grove, the National Open prelim show was eventually postponed because of fog at the track. They went as long as they could, but eventually decided to push things to Saturday. There was no consensus among drivers, teams, and the series it seemed like about whether it was okay to continue. We had thumbs up, we had thumbs down, some were happy they called it, others said it went on too long, and even another group said they should have kept racing... That the fog was no worse than a dusty surface. Going on five years of doing daily shows, I'm kind of sick of talking about safety, if I'm being honest. Especially at a time where we continue to think it's okay for fuel cells to come off race cars and for race tracks like Williams Grove to have no catch fencing in the corners, and posts sticking out of the ground for cars to hit as they fly through the air after leaving the ballpark. Three cars out of the track in two days is pretty insane, and Gio is incredibly fortunuate. He flys out of turn four, hits a wood post on the way by, and is only stopped from ending up in the parking lot by a locked gate. I don't know why tracks think this is acceptable, I don't know why series think this is acceptable, and I don't know why drivers and teams think it's acceptable. But, as is usual, nothing will change until something really bad happens. I think I'm off the "talking about safety" bandwagon though. It's just yelling into the void at this point.
On the flip side, the thing that really seemed to ruffle some feathers yesterday was the Outlaws giving Sheldon Haudenschild his position back after the incident with Chase Dietz. Sheldon clears the 2D into turn three, almost loses it, and then Dietz piles into the back of the 17 and turns over. Sheldon's car was still moving at the red flag, so he was deemed to have not been part of the caution, and stayed in his position. Folks online were big mad about that one, and, rather predictably, pointed towards the Outlaws favoring the NOS sponsored car. That's a turn around from two years ago, when apparently the opposite was true. Do you guys remember when Sheldon was hated by Outlaw officials while his stopped car sat in the infield at Weedsport in 2022? He then threw his helmet on the track causing a caution, and then his crew flipped off the tower pushing the car back to the trailer. So is the NOS car favored, or not? It's hard to keep up sometimes with all of the conspiracy theories. As for the call itself, I said earlier this year when Zeth Sabo won a race at Fremont after getting crashed by Cap Henry and keeping his spot that I thought the rule was stupid, and I still think it is. But by the way the rule is written and interpreted, there was nothing untoward about the decision. I wonder if all those people that thought I was wrong about Sabo, saying he shouldn't have got the lead back, will come to Sheldon's defense today.
My brilliant sprint car idea for the day is to eliminate fuel stops and lap counts. I tweeted about this earlier. Let the teams figure out on their own how much fuel they need to get to the end of these races. And that's true of features, heats, whatever. If that means slightly bigger tanks, or filling them fuller, or maybe saving fuel, I don't know. I'm not saying this is a good idea, but I like the introduction of the chaos. It might be entertaining.
The wins at the Grove went to Buddy Kofoid in the prelim, and Carson Macedo in the big show. Second career National Open for Macedo, but he wasn't able to make up ground on Gravel for the title. Nine races left, and 86 points between them. It's looking more and more likely I think that Gravel gets his first title. Next up is Lincoln Speedway next Saturday, which is the replacement event for the sacked Selinsgrove races.
In the ongoing sprint car silly season discussion, thanks to a Natalie Jackson tweet from over the weekend, we know that Barry Jackson will scale back next season into more of a team manager role, and likely not travel as much. As things have played out in recent weeks, it's been part of the rumor mill around the CJB 5 that this was likely, and that a new crew chief would guide that team in 2025. The team won't officially reveal plans until after the final High Limit show at Texas, but new crew chief, along with a new driver inbound here.
Jumping into some late model stuff, I said not long ago that I felt like Devin Moran might be the guy to beat for the Lucas championship, and he leaves the first two nights of the chase as the leader. He led flag to flag on Friday at PA Motor Speedway, and went 12th to second last night. He's got ten points on Jonathan Davenport, who dominated the Pittsburgher 100 finale for $50,000. With two nights at Brownstown next, then the Dirt Track World Championship at Eldora to finish it, Ricky Thornton Jr. and Tim McCreadie have work to do. RTJ was solid, third and sixth, but he's 60 points back. Same with McCreadie, eighth and fourth, but trails by 80. These guys are in must win scenarios from here on out.
At Fairbury, we had a Brian Shirley sweep of the MARS weekend. Several Outlaw teams went this direction, and Shirley showed he's still hot. Four Outlaw wins in his last seven starts there, and now this MARS sweep. Fellow YouTuber Jason Feger able to wrap up the MARS championship, beating Ryan Unzicker both nights to sew it up. Bobby Pierce was off this weekend, he's back at Brownstown.
Another Outlaw driver, Ryan Gustin, went to Wheatland for the MLRA shows, winning Thursday and Friday. He continues to be the top driver in a Wells Infinity chassis. Chris Simpson won the Saturday feature, while brother Chad continues to lead the standings. And if you are curious, Earl Pearson Jr. ended up 8th, 16th, and 7th in a B at Wheatland. We'll see if he shows up anywhere else with that Black Diamond car.
Ethan Dotson and Zack Mitchell were weekend Hunt the Front series winners at Talladega. Zack Mitchell has now won two of the last three series events, showing a bunch of speed with Coltman Farms. Series points leader Brandon Overton still winless since June.
Cannon McIntosh is officially your Xtreme Outlaw Midget champion after two nights at Jacksonville. Ryan Timms had a very small shot at it, but that went away after he and Gavin Miller were involved in some KKM on KKM crime at the end of the Friday feature, which gave the win to Zach Daum. Timms though saying afterwards quote "I can't say I wouldn't have done the exact same thing Gavin did" unquote. Very self aware thing for Timms to admit to. No midget racing now until USAC gets going again in November.
At the Dirt Track at Texas Motor Speedway, Aaron Reutzel swept the two POWRi nights, with Tanner Thorson second in both features. Thorson there to try and dial things in before the High Limit weekend. Thorson also looked like maybe he was experimenting a bit, as that car appeared to have coilovers on it, instead of traditional shocks. It didn't look to be quite the radical setup like we saw from the Sammy Swindell car at the Knoxville Nationals, but we know that Thorson is very deep on the setup of his cars, and it might be something we see again in the future.
In California, Justin Sanders and Tim Kaeding split the two features at Hanford for the Morrie Williams Memorial. The championship was tight going in between Sanders and Macedo, but I haven't seen updated standings today, so I'm not sure where we stand. NARC back to it this coming weekend at Tulare.
For the northeast fans, Mat Williamson the Outlaw 200 winner at Fulton. I believe I saw this was the richest 358 modified payout of the season, but don't go looking for streaming replays or highlights, because there aren't any. I get comments for not mentioning these shows, but the track doesn't stream, their Twitter account is dead, you got three Facebook updates, and the featured story on their website is a sponsor mention from September 24th. I don't think I'm the problem here.
If you want racing today, there is Silver Crown action at Terre Haute. The 100 lap Sumar Classic is on tap for tonight, with practice slated for 5:30 PM eastern. Kody Swanson controls the Silver Crown championship with just two races left.
That's the show for this Sunday. Thanks for stopping by and tuning in, we'll see you back here tomorrow!