DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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A deal called off, big shoes to fill, crew problems, late model legends reunite | Daily 10-22-2024
You might have overlooked this sprint car crew chief change from yesterday, but there is a lot to unpack here, including series choice confirmations, and ripple effects to talk about. Plus two late model legends reuniting, Cory Eliason joining others at World Finals, and more. Let's go!
It's Tuesday, October 22nd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
As we continue to follow this sprint car silly season, a few more moves came to light yesterday thanks to news from Jeremy Elliott at Sprintcarunlimited.com. And there is a lot to unpack here. One of these changes I alluded to last week on the daily show, when I said a top driver was going to have a new crew chief for 2025. And that top driver is Brad Sweet. After six championships, a Knoxville Nationals score, Kings Royal, and just a boat load of victories together, Sweet and crew chief Eric Prutzman are splitting. Prutzman will scale back his traveling schedule, but continue to be part of Kasey Kahne Racing, as he moves into a role overseeing the race team. The KKR team will continue fielding the 49 for Sweet out full time with High Limit next season, so there is team confirmation number three. The High Limit list now includes Sweet, Daison Pursley and Buch, plus Spencer Bayston in the JMR 14. Prutzman's crew chief duties though are not completely coming to an end. He's going to slide over to Kasey Kahne's nine car, and lead that group when Kasey wants to race. In Jeremy's story it was revealed that Kahne will run a pick and choose schedule next year, so as we continue to unpack all of this, that is a car lost from the High Limit roster. Kahne's status was one that I had heard was in doubt, and there are several reasons for it. It was obviously a tough season, with Kasey finishing 14th in the standings with nine top tens in 51 starts. Crew help was an issue on the nine for much of the season, and let's not forget that Kahne has a young family to look after. Prutzman will stabilize that crew, along with the recent addition of Andrew Bowman, who returned to KKR after a stint in NASCAR. I like this move for Kasey, and I wouldn't be surprised to see his performance tick up in 2025. A schedule that works better for his family, and a top crew chief leading the way. From where I sit, it's hard to not root for Kasey, given all he's put into sprint car racing over his career.
Jumping back to Sweet, Jeremy also broke the news that Tye Wolfgang will slide into Prutzman's role as crew chief on the 49. Wolfgang has served as the car chief on the 49 in recent seasons, and this move makes a lot of sense. Wolfgang gets the promotion he wanted, Sweet continues with a guy he's familiar with, and Prutzman is available if Wolfgang needs guidance. As much sense as this makes though, this definitely puts some big question marks about what Sweet can accomplish next year against a High Limit field that will again be tough. The right combination of people is so vital in racing, and we've seen other drivers struggle after changes like this. The most drastic one that comes to mind is Donny Schatz. Since Ricky Warner departed and that team swapped to Ford, Schatz hasn't been the same guy. I'm not saying that will happen here, but a 23 year old, first time crew chief suddenly being thrust into the spotlight with arguably the best sprint car driver in the game is going to be a tough task, and it's a big unknown. The one big difference though, is Prutzman is still in the building. That could be a big key. One of Wolfgang's first orders of business will be to fill out his own crew roster, as he's got some holes to fill on that 49 squad.
At this point in the discussion, you might be thinking to yourself, but wait, I thought Justin said Wolfgang was going to crew chief the CJB five. And you would be correct, that was the plan. Wolfgang was set to replace Barry Jackson at CJB, as he is stepping back from full time travel. That deal had been in place for several weeks, but clearly things changed. Prutzman's decision to change roles and the chance to keep some continuity on that 49 team played a a big part here, which Wolfgang alluded to in his comments to Jeremy. But even though he didn't come out and say it directly, it's hard to ignore the elephant in the room with CJB. And that is their driver situation. With Spencer Bayston departing for the Jason Meyers team to replace Corey Day, it was looking like Wolfgang was headed to CJB to work with Justin Peck. If you're going to go get your first crew chief gig, having a wheelman like Peck in the seat would be very attractive. But, as we've documented here on the daily, CJB decided late that Peck wasn't going to be the guy, and another driver is taking that seat. So if you're Tye Wolfgang, do you stay with CJB for that other driver, or forego the deal to remain with KKR and get to lead the team for a driver that's won five straight Outlaw titles and the first ever High Limit championship? To me, the answer seems pretty easy. Unless that driver CJB is getting is David Gravel, or Rico Abreu, or Tyler Courtney, or Carson Macedo, or Buddy Kofoid, which I can assure you it is not, I think you bail. And clearly, that's what Wolfgang decided. As the Prutzman move started to get out there, this was actually a discussion I had with some industry friends. With Peck not the driver, and Prutzman out, what would Wolfgang do. And then over the weekend, I started getting messages that Wolfgang had made his decision to stay at KKR.
Pulling back a bit, understand that crew help is a problem across dirt racing right now. It's a tough life, and until you reach the upper levels, the pay isn't great. But even when you do reach the upper levels, and start making better money, you are still traveling a few hundred days a year in a truck and trailer. Eric Prutzman is one of the top crew chiefs, and he's not an old guy. You would hope that at the top of his game, he wouldn't be pulling back. Jeremy even reported that Prutzman had an offer to go elsewhere, but turned it down. This is a problem that I'm not sure how the dirt racing world solves. Even with these moves at KKR, they still have holes to fill. There are rumors of others in sprint car racing potentially cutting back, and now CJB needs a top guy to lead their team into 2025.
A couple of other news items for you today. First, Jonathan Davenport is set to reunite with Kevin Rumley for two events coming up. Davenport will drive Rumley's six car at the upcoming National 100 at East Alabama, and at World Finals at Charlotte in November. This pairing of Rumley and Davenport was one of the most potent driver/crew chief combos in the sport's history while they were together from 2014 to 2016. That 2015 season saw them win the Lucas title, plus an insane list of crown jewels that included both the World and Dream, the USA Nationals, North/South 100, Show-Me 100, the Jackson 100, and the Prairie Dirt Classic. Rumley's car though doesn't come out very often anymore, and it's made scattered starts this season with Kyle Larson, Hudson O'Neal, and Ricky Thornton Jr driving. This isn't some sort of prelude to a move or change for Davenport, who made it clear that he'll continue racing the Lance Landers' owned 49 for as long as the team will have him. JD will be back in the 49 at Gateway in December.
Also, the list of drivers to appear with TKS Motorsports will grow yet again. Coming up for World Finals, Cory Eliason will jump into the 2KS sprint car for the four day show. Eliason is ride searching at the moment, after having competed in 2024 with the Ridge team on the road with High Limit. Ridge though paring down to just one car for next season, and it's possible that Aaron Reutzel could become a full time High Limit driver. Eliason spent this past weekend at Trophy Cup driving for Rod Tiner. He won the Friday prelim show, and finished 11th in the Trophy Cup finale. Danny Sams was most recently in the TKS car, this past weekend at Joliet with the Outlaws. He was 18th and 16th in the two features, although things were going pretty good on Friday until they went pretty bad. Since Chase Randall left the 2KS car a few months back, they've had Kelby Watt, Hunter Schuerenberg, Sams, and now Eliason. I want to say here as well, I think there was some concern about what that World Finals sprint car field would look like with High Limit done for the season, and several of those teams likely choosing not to tow to Charlotte. But it does seem like quite a few have announced intentions to be here in a few weeks. Besides the full time Outlaws, we'll have Eliason and TKS, Ryan Timms in the Liebig 10, Bayston in the JMR 14, I know Flea Ruzic talked about their version two sprint car with Sammy Swindell. And that's just what we've heard about here with still a few weeks to go.
That's your show for today. Make sure to stop by dirtrackr.com today to see all the latest from around the sport, plus the streaming schedule, and a lot more.
Hope you guys have a great Wednesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!