DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Big drama at Turkey Night, a million dollar late model team sells out | Daily 12-1-2024

A wild Turkey Night including JJ Yeley trying to fight a rookie, and Hendrick driver on Hendrick driver crime. Plus a million dollar late model operation for sale, and why Aaron Reutzel was suddenly in the news. Let's go!

It's Sunday, December 1st, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

Today's show is being supported by our friends at Knoxville Raceway. It's a big day, as four-day ticket packages are on sale now for the grandaddy of them all, the 64th NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's. Go to knoxvilleraceway.com to order online TODAY, or call the ticket office at 641-842-5431 beginning Monday, December 2nd. Secure your seats and make your plans now for four nights in Knoxville, Iowa, August 6th through the 9th, 2025 at the sprint car capital of the world. The best drivers, the biggest car count, with big money up for grabs including $195,000 to the winner, $15,000 to start the Championship A Main and a $100,000 bonus if the winner is using Keizer wheels and hubs. The Knoxville Nationals has had seven consecutive sell-outs so don't wait, order your tickets now at KnoxvilleRaceway.com!

Turkey Night at Ventura closed out the USAC midget season last night, and it was not without drama. Things got started in the USCS sprint car feature with just ugliness and nastiness all the way around. It was an all you could eat buffet of right rears coming in hot. Things came to a head late when David Gasper threw a bomb at JJ Yeley that didn't clear, sending Yeley into the turn one and two wall. His car was basically tacoed from the contact and he was not happy. He threw his steering wheel at Gasper twice, and then told Drake York live on Flo quote "He's rookie of the year, but someone needs to beat the sh out of him, so if they don't stop me I'll be the first one to effin do it" unquote. He tried to keep his promise afterwards in the pits, but a bunch of people, including track workers, kept him away from the 19 year old Gasper. Ricky Lewis went on to the win, while Carson Macedo won the Friday feature. The 98 lap midget main event was a tad cleaner, with Jacob Denney and Buddy Kofoid going at it for a lot of that one. Kofoid led 24 laps, and Denney the most with 57, but Corey Day got around Denney on lap 82 and went on to his first Turkey Night score. The track took rubber, and Denney screwed up into turn one and missed the bottom. That let Day sneak by, which turned out to be the winning move. Kofoid ended up second with Daison Pursley third. Denney slipped to fourth by the end. Day's charge to the win from eighth though, also not without controversy. Right before half way, battling towards the front, Day got into the left rear of Kyle Larson and sent him around. It was a move that the young driver is taking some heat for today, but I don't think there was any intent in there. It looked to me like he made a mistake. My issue with it afterwards, and with what we've seen lately from Carson Macedo, is the lack of acknowledgement. If you make a bad move, own up to it. I would have liked to see Day start out his interview with Kristy Bemmes saying yeah, first off,6 sorry to Kyle over that deal, didn't mean to. I think that changes the equation a little bit. As for the USAC midget championship, Pursley's podium was easily enough for him to clinch his first title. Cannon McIntosh had issues, and ended up 12th, and he would have needed things to happen the other way for there to be a real shot. Incredible turnaround though for Pursley's life and his career. To go from a spinal chord injury in 2021 to series champion in 2024, and now on to High Limit full time next season in the sprint car. Congrats to him and that Chad Boat team. Last night was the end of the year for most of those drivers, with Tulsa Shootout and Chili Bowl the next open wheel events in the US. We do know that Kyle Larson is headed to Australia for the High Limit races at Perth Motorplex right after Christmas.

In weekend late model action, Brandon Overton took the $10,000 604 crate win at Swainsboro in the Turkey 100. Carson Ferguson led a bunch of that one, but he bowed out after half way with mechanical issues. Overton was racing a car for Stacy Roberts, and he topped Michael Brown and Wil Herrington at the end. John Ruggiero Jr won the $5000 602 feature. Coming up this week, you've got more 604 action at Golden Isles. They've got $20,000 to win on Saturday. The big late model focus though will be on the Gateway Dirt Nationals inside the Dome in St. Louis. Racing there starts on Thursday.

I did want to share a couple more Dome paint schemes as well. First, Ricky Thornton Jr. will be sporting this look on both his late model and modified. It might be tough to see in the photo, but the car has a glittery pearl finish on it. He should be easy to spot all weekend. Also, a new look and a new big sponsor for Brandon Overton, Riggs Motorsports, and the Longhorn Factory team. NAPA Auto Parts coming on board with the 76 for the Dome, and what sounds like could be more races into 2025. Clean looking design from Dylan Braddy and Nightowl, and not shocked to see that team land another big time partner.

Jumping back to some sprint car silly season stuff, the Aaron Reutzel to High Limit thing sort of blew up late in the week, and I wasn't really sure why. He mentioned at the Knoxville banquet last weekend that he would be out on the road full time again, and I didn't even think it was worth mentioning, because we had talked way back in September about this likely being the plan. Jeremy Elliott had a whole story about it after Cory Eliason's departure from Ridge was made public. Team owner Brian Ridge said back then quote "unless there is some seismic change, we are going to stay with High Limit and run as many Knoxville shows as possible with Aaron" unquote. That seems about as confirmed as it gets, but it turned into a story anyway. So I guess if you weren't paying attention back then, maybe it was news to you. Reutzel, who did a little trolling on the DIRTRACKR Facebook page a few days ago, apparently he didn't like me posting about Kyle Larson, should be a regular contender for wins with High Limit next season. He had victories with both High Limit and Outlaws in 2024, and seven 410 wins overall. And I guess since we are talking about the Knoxville banquet, 410 track champion Austin McCarl also mentioned the possibility of doing some more traveling next year. He didn't mention a series or schedule specifically, but said quote "maybe a little bit like Aaron I think we are going to kind of venture off too a little bit next year and kind of see what happens and spread our wings a little bit" unquote. McCarl has been a driver rumored a few times in recent years to be a candidate to join up with the Outlaws or High Limit full time, but it just hasn't come to fruition. He had three 410 wins in 2024, including one each at Huset's, Knoxville, and Hamilton County.

Finally today, I was going to tell you that if you had a spare $800,000 lying around, you could buy yourself a complete dirt late model operation, including truck and trailer, spare parts, wheels and tires, tools, and two complete Rockets with Cornett power. They claimed it was a million and half or two million dollars worth of stuff if you bought brand new. But the listing was only up for a handful of days before everything was sold. So you'll just have to save that $800k for something else. On the heels of winning the 2024 Comp Cams Super Dirt Series championship, Missouri driver Logan Martin decided to hang it up, and this was his complete operation. Martin won twice with the Comp Cams series this past season, and had 15 top tens in 18 races on his way to the title, which was his third. Still a fairly young guy, it was a bit surprising to see Martin calling it a career, but he shared to Twitter that he quote "decided back in the early spring this was going to be my last season. Going to focus on growing our family business. Had a great run, I’ll still be around the track from time to time." The Martin family owns a collision repair chain in Missouri called Mr. Dent, with three locations. It was a pretty quick turnaround from 2023, as Martin tried that year to go full time with the World of Outlaws, and now less than two years later is out of the sport completely. Good luck to him on his business going forward.

We'll call it good there for today. Hope you guys have a great Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!