DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Brent Marks, James McFadden mull futures; CJB's new crew chief; Ryan Timms' many rides | Daily 10-09-2024

A double High Limit tie, Ryan Timms and James McFadden's futures, another KKR crew guy getting a big shot, Brent Marks' 2025 plans in doubt, a PA driver taking a break, and more today. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, October 9th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

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Following last night's Kubota High Limit sprint car show at I-70, we've got our second series champion crowned. Brad Sweet had already locked up the season long title, but the midweek championship was still in question. Tyler Courtney was in the driver's seat coming into the night, with Sweet the closest likely challenger. On Sweet's side, he did everything he needed to do to sweep the two titles. He went fourth to the lead by lap nine, and led the rest of the way for series victory number eight on the season. For Sunshine, a sixth place finish would net him the championship, and after leading laps early, he faded down the order. The good thing for him though, was that he was able to hang on to sixth by the checkered and claim the midweek crown. Officially, Courtney and Sweet were tied in the points. The first tiebreaker was wins, which they also tied in. So the second tiebreaker was second place finishes, and that's where Courtney prevailed. It's not been an easy second half of the High Limit year for Courtney and the Clauson Marshall 7BC, but that $25,000 check should ease things a bit. Each of the full timers has had 48 races so far, so we can split Sunshine's year into 24 race halves. Same amount of wins for each half, three, for six total. But the rest of the numbers are very different. First 24 races, nine shows with laps led, 16 top fives, and 20 tens. Second 24 races though, six features with laps led, just seven top fives, and 12 top tens. Sunshine went from being a serious contender for the High Limit season long championship, to now third behind Rico. Up next for High Limit, they are right back to racing tonight, with a makeup from earlier this year at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri. $25,000 to win tonight's feature. Tyler Courtney won the other race at Wheatland, back in June.

Looking down the High Limit results from last night, Ryan Timms and James McFadden joined Sweet on the night's podium. There are a few things to note on these two drivers, which is why I'm pulling them out here. Timms was strong all night, going quick time, fourth to second in his heat, eighth to fifth in the dash, and fifth to second in the feature. As I said yesterday, Timms was indeed in the Liebig ten car, with Scott Bogucki driving the 17GP. Bogucki had been in the Liebig car for much of this season previously. The family-owned 5T machine for Timms remains on the shelf, with the Oklahoma driver racing for several other owners here lately, including Guy Forbrook, the Curt Michael Heffner ride, and now Liebig. The Timms we saw last night looked a lot more like the driver we saw in 2022, who a lot of folks, myself included, thought looked ready to become one of the sport's top young drivers. 2023 and 2024 have been a battle though, even though there have been glimpses of that past speed. He's still got the USAC midget season to finish with Keith Kunz, and I think you'll continue seeing him make scattered sprint car starts in other rides. Word on the sprint car streets is that Timms will likely run Trophy Cup at Tulare here soon with a certain beef backed sprint car team. And speaking of beef, pulling McFadden into this conversation, there are a lot of rumblings about his future racing sprint cars in the United States. He's battled his way into a charter spot with High Limit driving that Roth 83, but chatter points to him potentially pulling back to a partial schedule for 2025, and spending more time in his home of Australia. I've heard from some it's already a done deal that he's pulling back, while others say it might not be 100% just yet. But definitely a situation to pay attention to. Buddy Kofoid staying in the other Roth car seems to be a foregone conclusion, but that second team has question marks.

As for other silly season stuff tied to High Limit, we talked on Sunday about Barry Jackson coming off the road full time as the crew chief for the CJB 5 team next year. He told Area Auto this week that Kasey Kahne Racing car chief Tye Wolfgang will become crew chief of that car for next year. Wolfgang currently apart of the 49 team with Brad Sweet. I'd heard several weeks ago that Wolfgang had signed up for this spot, and he becomes the next in a long line of KKR crew members to move on to bigger positions. KKR has really become a pipeline for good crew members through the years. Wolfgang replaced Joe Mooney on Sweet's crew, after he moved on to crew chief for Anthony Macri. The Eric Prutzman crew tree looking strong. All signs continue to point towards Justin Peck becoming the next driver of the CJB sprint car. Area Auto's Len Sammons also says that Jim Shuttlesworth will pull back after spending most of the year leading Cory Eliason's team at RSR. He'll likely jump back into a Central PA team. And the other note, is that Brent Marks' future on the road looks to be in doubt. He's currently in line for that fifth and final guaranteed charter spot with High Limit after being a full timer this season, but is eyeing a return to regular competition in Central Pennsylvania. His family recently expanded, and that along with spending more on travel this season than expected is weighing on his decision. This was not a driver I'd heard was potentially questioning his national tour status, and I think this is a strong indication that teams aren't quite sure right now what it will mean to hold a High Limit charter. Of the teams in line for a charter, we now have two with questions about their future with the series between Marks' 19 and the Roth 83. You can see this week's full issue of Area Auto over aarn.com.

The other sprint car news from today was the announcement that Devon Borden is taking a break from racing and will step out of the Stehman 23 car in PA. When the World of Outlaws hit Lincoln on Saturday, Justin Whittall will be in that ride. With as much as this team has struggled this season, there had been rumblings for a while that changes were likely coming to the 23, but Borden told Jeremy Elliott that this isn't him getting fired. He wants to take some time off, and focus on his pressure washing business. There's no timeline for a return, but Borden did say that when he does return to racing, it will be with the Stehman team. Borden has just a single win this season in 72 410 races, it came way back in April at Port Royal. He's got just two top five finishes since PA Speedweek ended in July, and didn't make the feature either night at the National Open.

At Oswego today, the plan is to have pro stocks and 358s on track for preliminary Super Dirt Week action, but on track activity is on a delay because of wet conditions. As of an hour ago as I write this, they shared to social media they will provide updates on start times as they know more. It was wet there yesterday as well, but hopefully this will be the last of the weather they'll have to deal with. When action does get on track, you can watch live over on DIRTVision if you are not at Super Dirt Week.

If you want more dirt racing content this week, Hoogie's Garage has Aydin Lloyd and Scotty Thiel, Getting up to Speed has Andy Obertello, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters, Dirt Track Confessions, the Dirt Nerds, Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks, Turn 2 Terribles, Racing Roundup, and the Driver's Project. If you'd like to find something new to listen to, head over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.

That's the show for the day. If you haven't weighed in yet on my poll, hit the community tab on YouTube, or the DIRTRACKR Twitter account. I'm curious if you guys would be interested in an ad free version of the daily show. I'd offer it in both video and podcast form, likely through a platform like Patreon. That would mean no platform ads, and no ad reads from me. If I did something like that, I'd get rid of the channel membership program on YouTube, which I've been contemplating getting rid of anyway. Let me know.

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