DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Dirt late model house car changes coming, and what we know | Daily 10-24-2024

The sprint car silly season has been busy, but what about what's happening in late model racing? We'll update some situations today, including both the Rocket and Longhorn house cars and what I'm hearing on drivers. Plus we'll talk Pennsboro's return, weekend action, and more. Let's go!

It's Thursday, October 24th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

We've been talking a lot of sprint car silly season stuff here lately, but I did want to do a late model update today. The two big situations we are waiting on a resolution for are the house car teams of Rocket and Longhorn. Brandon Sheppard will end his time as the Longhorn Factory Team driver following World Finals, and an announcment about the future for that team, which is owned by Scott Riggs, is expected in the next few weeks. A high profile driver and crew chief will be teaming up there. We've known officially since about the middle of September that Sheppard was departing the Riggs team following a two year stint together, but in the weeks since we haven't gotten the official word on what's next. It's my understanding though that the driver and crew chief stuff has been squared away for some time. As for Sheppard, all he shared at the time was that he would start 2025 at the Wild West Shootout in his family owned car, and that they were working on other plans. Since then, the rumors and speculation about a BShepp return to the Rocket house car have run rampant, and team owner Mark Richards hasn't helped quiet that speculation. He recently declined to comment about the future to Dirt on Dirt's Kevin Kovac, and the team even trolled us a bit on social media sharing a Throwback Thursday photo of BShepp and Josh Richards together. Josh is also rumored to be making a return, for potentially a partial schedule next year. But with the Lucas season now complete, I've been told by several friends that the Rocket car is done for 2024, which I mentioned a few days ago. Even though races remained on Tim McCreadie's schedule following Eldora, that included World Finals and Flo at Senoia, we won't see the Rocket 1 until the season starts again in 2025. In the days since the Dirt Track World Championship, those races have been removed from TMac's schedule, and it's my understanding that in recent days he has been told that he will not return as the Rocket house car driver next season. McCreadie's departure would clear the way for a new driver, with all signs continuing to point at Sheppard. McCreadie's future is now up in the air, and some sort of Boom Briggs situation has been floated for a while, which Kovac also mentioned.

A couple of other notes for you. It would seem as though the future is set for Ricky Thornton Jr. and Jimmy Owens with Koehler Motorsports. RTJ sticking with Koehler for 2025 was something I actually predicted back at the end of August. I think some think he could be the next Longhorn Factory Team driver, but I wouldn't put money on that. Just about two weeks ago, team owner Bobby Koehler shared to social media that they are looking for additional crew help for next season and specifically tagged Jimmy and Ricky in the posts. We know Chris Madden is on the move and RTJ needs a crew chief, but the driver situation looks to be set here. Another team to keep an eye on for changes next year is SSI with Hudson O'Neal. Huddy shared to Facebook this week a year end post and pointed towards a return to this car next season. I do think this is a team that could be in play for a chassis change. SSI was a Longhorn team with RTJ, and O'Neal spent the rest of the season in Longhorns through various teams after leaving Rocket. But I've heard a few rumblings about this one, and O'Neal has had significant success in Rockets. A move here would not shock me.

Before we move on to some weekend racing stuff, I did spend a bit of time at the Dirt Track at Charlotte yesterday with the ongoing test. I have some video footage that I will cobble together and hopefully post either later today or tomorrow. That includes Thornton in the Indy Race Parts sprint car, Jonathan Davenport testing with Kevin Rumley, Nick Hoffman in Cody Sommer's car and more.

It's been a multi-year saga to get here, but the first racing event at Pennsboro Speedway in 22 years is this weekend. The Mason Dixon 100 features the XR Super Series late models, and will also have modifieds and 604 late models on the card. The track was open for practice last night, and there will be full programs of action starting today, and running each day through Saturday. Today and tomorrow are each $10,000 to win features for the super late models, and Saturday is $30,000 to win. Barry Braun and his XR team have been working a lot of overtime in recent weeks to get the facility into raceable condition, and despite a lot of naysayers and haters, they've done some incredible stuff. They've got guardrail and catchfencing done, concrete walls placed, grandstands, a new scoring tower, and a lot more work completed. As others have pointed out, the racing wasn't always the best at Pennsboro through the years, and I don't know that I'd expect bangers this weekend. The track is really narrow in places, and that odd egg shape, but I do hope the fans come out and support them. It's pretty incredible what they've done there, even in just that last several weeks. Into the future, I do think it's possible to create better racing at the track, but it would take some reconfiguration of some areas, including dealing with the bridges and creeks. If you are going to head out, make sure to check out the Pennsboro website or social media accounts for details. Because of the nature of the facility, they have had to implement some creative solutions. For example, event parking is 2 miles away. There isn't a lot of extra property around the track itself, so nowhere to put any extra cars. They will run free shuttles to and from the event parking location all weekend. For practice last night, they had 13 super late models on the property, with that list headlined by Bobby Pierce and Devin Moran. Others taking part included Mike Benedum, Eddie Carrier Jr., Logan Zarin, and Tyler Carpenter. I'm not sure what the car count will look like at Pennsboro, but Dirt on Dirt also has Nick Hoffman, Freddie Carpenter, Colton and KC Burdette and others listed as expected entrants. There is competition in the area, with Bedford Speedway hosting their Keystone Cup this weekend, just three hours away. That one pays $24,000 to win and is drawing a lot of the Pennsylvania cars, and guys like Matt Cosner, Mason Zeigler, and Max Blair. And then there are others cars that are headed for Whynot Motorsports Park and their Fall Classic, that pays $20,000 to win on Saturday. That's where the Hunt the Front car will be, along with Ethan Dotson, Cade Dillard, Tyler Erb, Spencer Hughes, and more. So big weekend at Pennsboro, plus other regional late model action with the Outlaws off until World Finals and Lucas done for the season.

Weekend sprint car action coming up is headlined by the World of Outlaws at Riverside for two nights. I believe these are both $12,000 to win shows, and this will be Carson Macedo's final opportunity to try and put any pressure on David Gravel for this championship before the finale at World Finals. They are separated by 78 points currently. It would likely take trouble for Gravel for Macedo and the JJR 41 to really have a chance, but those bad races have been few and far between for the 2 team this season. Just seven finishes outside the top ten, and just two outside the top 20. Gravel hasn't finished outside the top 15 in an Outlaw race since Atomic way back in May. This team's consistency has been a real strength this year as they've marched towards their first ever Outlaw championship. On the 41 side, Macedo has been really good down the stretch, with seven of his 10 wins this year coming in the last 18 races. He's been the best driver in average finish over the last five and ten race stretches, but even if he continues to stack up wins, it likely won't be enough if Gravel stays clean. Two other things I'll be curious to see this weekend. One is car count. They ended up having 38 at Joliet, which was more than I expected. The High Limit show at Riverside back in April drew 38, so we'll see how the Outlaws do. Also, I have not seen or heard any updates about the catchfencing situation at the Ditch. If you remember back to High Limit in April, there were multiple stoppages for fence repair, including one where Brian Bell left the ballpark in turn three. I certainly hope that's been addressed, even though, according to some of you, it's apparently better if the catchfencing sucks or doesn't exist.

At Red Dirt Raceway in Oklahoma, the USAC sprint car season wraps up Friday and Saturday night. Logan Seavey very much in control of the championship, he leads Brady Bacon by 84 points. Bacon is the only driver with a mathematical shot still at the title. Daison Pursley, Kevin Thomas Jr., and CJ Leary complete the current top five. This weekend is a joint show with ASCS non-wing competitors. This weekend will be the final for this current USAC sprint car configuration. Big driver changes are coming to this series for next year, with both Bacon and Pursley headed for full time winged competition. I think it's likely we'll see some other driver movement here as well. We are also getting down to the end of the road for current Red Dirt Raceway promoters Cody and Melissa Brewer. The track is currently for sale with the Brewers stepping back after this season.

Other winged action coming up includes the NARC sprint cars at Kern County and Hanford. We've mentioned these shows a few times here lately, because Spencer Bayston will make his Jason Meyers debut this weekend, and Ryan Timms is back in the Roth 83. This NARC championship though is coming down to the line between Cole Macedo and Justin Sanders. Sanders had issues last time out at Tulare, and Macedo now leads by 11 points with just three races left. This will be a dog fight to the finish, no doubt. In Central PA, the focus will be on BAPS Motor Speedway with $10,000 to win on Saturday. This is the dual Kevin Gobrecht Classic and Britton Finkenbinder Memorial. This show and the November 16th race at BAPS are your final two chances to see sprint cars in PA this year. You've also got the 360 ASCS National Tour at RPM Speedway for two nights, where Sam Hafertepe is still trying to track down Seth Bergman. The gap though has swelled to 129 points with six races left.

And if you want some modified racing in your life, the USMTS is at Lakeside and 81 Speedway Friday and Saturday, with Jake Timm and Jim Chisholm locked in a tight one. And the Short Track Super Series is at Orange County Fair Speedway tonight for the Hard Clay Finale and $10,000 to win. Matt Sheppard likely headed for the north region title. Tonight's Short Track Super Series program kicks off the Eastern States weekend at Orange County that culminates Sunday with the 200 lapper.

Alright, that's the show for today and the week. Thanks for tuning in, hope you guys have a great Thursday and weekend out there, we'll see you back here Sunday!