DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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More sprint car updates, the champ staying busy, testing underway | Daily 10-23-2024

Even with James McFadden gone, that second Roth car keeps showing up. We'll talk about their plans today, plus quick updates on Justin Peck and CJB, testing at Charlotte, a new dirt late model series, and more. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, October 23rd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

First up off the top today, thank you for 36,000 YouTube subscribers. We crossed that number yesterday. If you would like to join 36,000 of your closest dirt racing friends, hit that subscribe button and like these videos. Both are free, and both help you and the channel. If you are curious about some of the top line numbers, we've already done more views and plays this year than we did all of 2023. And we just recently crossed over 13 million total views on YouTube. Very cool.

We'll start things off today with some updates on a few sprint car situations. The first one being Roth Motorsports. We don't know their future plans for the second car following the departure of James McFadden, who is returning home to Australia full time. McFadden will likely make appearances in the US in the future, but on a much shorter schedule. That second Roth team was in action at Trophy Cup this past weekend with Ryan Timms in the car. He finished 17th and 14th in the prelims, and 18th in the big Saturday show. Timms' time with Roth will continue this week as well, as the NARC series shared to social media yesterday that this pairing will compete Friday and Saturday at Kern County and Hanford. This will be the fourth straight year that Timms has made late season appearances with NARC. He ran Hanford and Kern County in both 2021 and 2022, and Kern County and Stockton in 2023. So six career NARC appearances, with a best finish of 6th at Hanford. Timms still has to finish out the USAC midget season with Keith Kunz, where he is currently third in the standings, but that final west coast swing doesn't begin until November 15th at Placerville. In the meantime, we also know that Timms will appear with the Liebig 10 car at World Finals, swapping over from the Curt Michael Heffner car that he'd ran a few times. Four starts with Liebig in High Limit shows in recent weeks led to four top nine finishes, including a 2nd at I-70 and a two top fives in the High Limit finale at Texas. I would not be surprised as well if it was announced that Timms was going to stay in California after Saturday and run the NARC finale at Stockton the following weekend. I don't know have inside info there, but it would make a lot of sense. Going forward, the Roth plans for that second car remain unknown. I've had several messages saying that his car could just stay on the west coast next year, and then be available for a traveling schedule once McFadden returns. But I've also heard they could be back full time with High Limit to take advantage of that charter, and even some others have pointed to potentially two Roth cars on tour with the Outlaws. I wish I had more clarity for you on this one, but it's just not out there. Roth not known for being a particularly communicative team, and the only reason we know about these NARC starts for Timms is because of the series.

Elsewhere, we know Justin Peck has been on the search for a new team with the revelation that he won't be getting the CJB ride for 2025. I have heard from two different sources that his California trip for Trophy Cup was fruitful beyond just winning the Thursday prelim show though. Look for a new deal to be announced for him in the coming days. He has too much talent and potential to be without a top ride for next year. And on the flip side, with CJB, we should have clarity on their new driver as early as this week. Once that new driver is announced, I'd expect CJB to make a start or a few starts late in this season to start working towards 2025. Besides the World of Outlaws races at Riverside and World Finals, there are also winged 410 shows remaining with POWRi and the ASCS Elite Outlaw series, plus Bridgeport and BAPS.

In advance of World Finals at Charlotte, there is testing going on this week. There were videos shared last night from the track of late models going around, and Ricky Thornton Jr. there back in Bernie's Indy Race Parts 71. The plan is for RTJ, who is fresh off that Lucas title, to run both the sprint car and late model at World Finals. Some of the other cars there included late models for Zack Mitchell and Tanner English, Nick Hoffman, Kyle Bronson, Brian Shirley, Brandon Sheppard, Mike Marlar, and Bobby Pierce among others. There are also a few modifieds, of both the UMP and northeast types. Chris Madden will also be back in the seat, he's obviously also a Lucas champion now as crew chief. He'll be in a second GR Smith car next to Max McLaughlin. Madden raced with GR earlier this season at the World 100. These late season Charlotte tests have become tradition it seems like, and things will stay busy at the track with the World Short Track Championship coming up as well before World Finals.

Looking at some other late model news, there will be a new super late model series debuting in the southeast for 2025. Announced yesterday, the Southern Thunder Super Dirt Series will run next year across Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. They are looking at around 20 races, with shows paying between $5000 and $10,000 to win, with a $30,000 point fund. Industry veterans Travis Scott and Kelley Carlton have partnered up on this one. Scott currently involved with the Hunt the Front series, and Carlton has been around a long time, having recently stepped down from running the Ultimate Southeast Series. They will release a schedule at the PRI show in December, and have partnered with Hunt the Front for streaming coverage. I know there will be questions and comments about there being another southeast based regional series, but clearly these guys see opportunity and a hole to fill. And lets not forget, there are a lot of tracks and a lot of late models in that area.

Before we close out today, a quick note about schedules for 2025. I saw today that Knoxville released their slate of races for next year, and this will start happening more and more as we move towards the winter. I have no idea when the other big series will start releasing their schedules, but the tracks will usually reveal at least a few dates in advance. The PRI show I just mentioned, had long been the traditional place to drop schedules, but as series have looked to take over the news cycle and narrative, some have been getting released earlier. Those track schedules though are often glimpses of how the larger seasons will play out. Just a hint if you want to try and start spotting some of that stuff.

If you want some more dirt racing audio this week, there are a bunch new podcast episodes floating around. Winged Nation has Brad Sweet, Dirt Trac Confessions has part two with Barbara Pauch, Passing Points has Michael Tyre, Hoogie's Garage has Cole Olson, Turn 2 Terribles has Chad Trout, the Driver's Project has Trey Starks, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters, the Dirt Nerds, Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks, Plum Wild, and Caution Free. You can see all of this and more over at dirtrackr.com/podcasts.

That's the Daily for this 23rd day of October. I do have have some Slider content I need to send out, so if you aren't subscribed to our email newsletter, you can sign up over at dirtrackr.com/theslider. It's free, and you'll get writing and interviews from a whole cast of characters that doesn't include me. It's my place to spotlight other creators.

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