DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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The two dirt racing superpowers now running the same playbook | Daily 10-20-2024

Ricky Thornton Jr's redemption, some thoughts on the future of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and FloRacing, do we really know who Spencer Bayston is as a sprint car driver, and lot more today. Let's go!

It's Sunday, October 20th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

So, during the season he should have won the championship, he didn't, and during the season where he probably shouldn't have won the title, he did. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, at Eldora Speedway last night, Ricky Thornton Jr. crowned the 2024 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion. Tim McCreadie had already been eliminated, leaving Devin Moran and Jonathan Davenport the two challengers. Davenport had a shot, leading a few laps and running up front, but his engine went bye-bye with 36 laps to go, and his bid fell by the wayside. And Moran was in a hole to start, having to come from 18th. He did an incredible job to drive to the top five by the end, but he also fell short. Thornton started third, and ran near the front all night. He did have a late run-in with the wall that crinkled the right rear quarter, but it wasn't enough to slow his chances. It was a year marred by turmoil, multiple rides, and crew chiefs, but what looked to be a longshot for the championship just a few weeks ago, turned around in his favor. He left the Pittsburgher 60 points back in third, but that big weekend at Brownstown really flipped things in his favor. A win and a second got him a cushion before Eldora, which he didn't even end up needing. A $200,000 paycheck and a championship not only for himself, but also for Koehler Motorsports, and crew chief Chris Madden. Pretty wild that Madden's first national touring championship in dirt late model racing comes as a crew chief and not a driver. Together Madden and Thornton competed together 15 times. That stretch included three wins, eight podiums, ten top fives, and 12 top tens on their way to the title. The only real blemish was a tough weekend at Knoxville. The two will split for 2025, with RTJ's next crew chief not yet named, and Madden likely running a very part time driving schedule. I do want to mention Moran here as well, as again, that team was incredible down the stretch. They finish the Lucas season with 24 straight top ten finishes. They were so good this season, but because of this chase format, saw their title bid really undone by a 10th and a 6th at Brownstown. That's how good you've got to be here, that even those two finishes can take you out. While Thornton was winning the war, the battle last night went to Bobby Pierce. His first career Dirt Track World Championship score and $100,000 for it. Pierce started 14th, but that wasn't a problem, as he worked his way through the field, taking the lead from Tim McCreadie with 17 to go, and he drove on to the win. It was Pierce's seventh Lucas win of the year, and 35th overall victory in 88 starts. TMac settled for second on the night after leading 79 of 100 laps. I'll be curious to see what's next for Rocket Racing, as their schedule still shows World Finals and the Flo series finale at Senoia still to come. I have been told though, they may call it a season after Eldora to begin 2025 preparations. Rumors continue to run rampant about the future for this team, with Josh Richards intrigue thrown in. They even fueled it a bit posting a throwback Thursday photo last week featuring both Richards and Brandon Sheppard. It was a solid troll job, in my own humble experienced social media guy opinion. Sidebar, don't ever let these teams and car owners and drivers tell you they don't pay attention to social media. They absolutely do. Back to Rocket, it continues to seem highly possible and likely that McCreadie's Rocket house car driver time is coming to a close, and multiple friends have told me that Josh Richards could run at least some races next year in the Rocket orbit, although a full season, every week type of deal is probably not happening. One other Lucas end of season note for you, Drake Troutman the 2024 rookie of the year.

Zooming out a bit on Lucas and looking ahead, they did drop their 2025 schedule in advance of the Eldora weekend as well. This was way earlier than expected, as we didn't get the 2024 schedule until December 1st last year. There are definitely a few alterations, including the Hillbilly Hundred moving to Lernerville. I know that one has a bunch of folks not happy. There is also an expanded Eagle Raceway event, and a reworked speedweeks with the loss of East Bay. Four nights at Golden Isles, three at All-Tech, and five at Ocala will kick the year off starting with practice on January 14th. The season will again end with the Dirt Track World Championship at Eldora. As part of the schedule announcement, FloRacing was also added as the series presenting sponsor, with a new logo coming, and there will be a lot more money on the line. That includes a $1.3 million point fund with chase bonuses, and an additional $800,000 in available purse money. A lot of those $12,000 to win shows are now $15,000 to win, and the $15k to win races, are now $25k to win. Teams keep asking for more money, and there will certainly be plenty of chances to get more next season. We'll see how the World of Outlaws counter this. It's also not lost on me that Flo's involvement with Lucas is expanding. For those sports business nerds like myself, it's clear that Flo sees this as a marquee property, and I think this series specifically will be one to watch in the next several years. This is big speculation on my part, but I can see a scenario where Flo eventually has an ownership stake here, either in part or completely. The World Racing Group business works, at least on some level, because they own the streaming service and the racing series. As Flo continues to try and find a model that makes them profitable and a sustainable, long term business, this could be the path they are following. They've already got their sprint car series with High Limit. And a Lucas buyout or part ownership stake would solidify the late model side, bringing them right in line with WRG. It's much easier when you don't have to negotiate rights fees on regular intervals. And vertical integration has a lot of benefits. As we've watched the last few years play out, I hope you guys understand that when it comes to the top series and special events, WRG with DIRTVision and FloRacing are the two superpowers. The competition between the two sides is going to continue to shape the sport in significant ways.

Jumping over to sprint car racing. In the hours preceding the Thursday daily show where we talked about a bunch of sprint car silly season stuff, Jason Meyers went ahead and confirmed that Spencer Bayston will indeed be full time with the team for next year. Bayston will run full time with High Limit, and a second car will come out when Corey Day is available in between his pavement racing commitments. It was just a few days before that it was officially announced that Bayston was departing the CJB sprint car, with that team's plans still to be revealed. If the JMR 14 team was going to remain a full time High Limit contender, they needed another driver with Day expected to spend much of 2025 working his way into a pavement and NASCAR career. Day will be back in a truck on the NASCAR side this coming week at Homestead, and again the following race at Martinsville. In the hours leading up to that Thursday daily show where I said I wasn't sure if this deal was quite locked down just yet, I was literally told three different things about Bayston's future. One was that the 14 deal was done, another was that he was in discussions for the Crouch 11, and still a third was that he was working towards a 14 deal, but that it wasn't complete yet. That should tell you just how crazy the rumors have been. Bayston will make his debut in the 14 with the NARC series this coming weekend at Kern County and Hanford. He'll also head east for World Finals. In the days since this move was made official, I have seen a lot of Bayston slander. It seems as though folks view this as a good move for him, but maybe not for JMR. Looking at the responsoes, it's clear that the jury is still out on whether or not Bayston can be a top sprint car driver, and looking at his results the last few seasons, it's not hard to understand why. Just a couple of wins, and a lot of just average finishes. The question I have here though, is how much of that is on him, and how much is on CJB? Because CJB teams have not been serious contenders since the departure of David Gravel after the 2018 season. Since then, Shane Stewart, Paul McMahan, and Brent Marks all had time in that ride with very mixed results. Stewart lasted a season, Marks a season plus a few months, and McMahan was in and out at various points. Stewart and McMahan were at the tail end of their driving careers, but Marks really seemed to blossom after departing that ride. So I don't know that we have a clear picture of who Bayston is as a driver just yet. 2025 though should give us a clear picture, as we know what Day was able to do in that car. I don't think anyone views Bayston as having the same talent as Day, but another year like 2024 will not be good enough. The JMR 14 with Bayston becomes our second confirmed High Limit team for next year, joining the Buch 13 with Daison Pursley.

Alright, looking at other weekend dirt racing results... Aaron Reutzel and Buddy Kofoid split the World of Outlaws sprint car wins at the Dirt Oval at Route 66. Reutzel hadn't won an Outlaw show since 2021, the season of his infamous chassis scandal. Kofoid bounced back on Saturday to win after having mechanical issues on Friday that prevented him from even starting the feature. As for the championship, we can just about call this one decided. Carson Macedo finished behind David Gravel both nights, and is now 78 points back with five races left. The Outlaws head to Riverside this next weekend.

At Trophy Cup, Justin Peck and Cory Eliason won the two prelim nights, while Trey Starks took the finale. Corey Day was the Trophy Cup points champion for the event. Definitely not a clean weekend at the Tulare Thunderbowl, as track conditions were an issue, and Colby Copeland found out on Friday he didn't win via the driver radio after the checkered. He crossed the line as the winner, but officials deemed that he didn't stay nose to tail on a late restart, so they docked him two spots post race. Trophy Cup going forward will be managed by Kevin Rudeen though, and I think this event could use some fresh blood in charge. This one has seemingly drawn complaints pretty regularly every season, including about how it's covered.

The ASCS weekend at Riverside was swept by Derek Hagar, Brent Marks took the finale at Lincoln and $20,000, Ricky Lewis and David Gasper were CRA winners, and Kody Swanson got the Silver Crown walkoff, winning the finale at IRP and taking the Silver Crown championship over Justin Grant.

Your 2024 Comp Cams late model champion is Logan Martin, with BJ Robinson and Jon Mitchell winning the final two races.

That's the Daily for today. Feel free to leave your comments on the dirt racing weekend below.

Hope you guys have a great rest of your Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!