DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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"Cutthroat means I'm taking the spot and you're going to crash or you're going to lift" | Daily 12-4-2024

I've seen him called Carson Torpedo, I've seen Crashin Macedo, and lots of other nasty things in recent days, but what were his thoughts on all of the recent incidents? We'll react to his appearance on The Driver's Project podcast, plus talk a sponsor loss for the World of Outlaws, people mad at the PA Speedweek schedule, and more. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, December 4th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

I want to start the show off today with some reaction to Carson Macedo's appearance on The Driver's Project podcast. If you don't know, The Driver's Project is Daryl Turford, Sam Hafertepe, Dominic Scelzi, and JJ Hickle. They regularly come on to talk about things happening in open wheel racing, and late last week they got into some of the incidents that Carson Macedo had been involved in during the west coast sprint car and midget races. There was the sprint car deal at Tulare with Seth Standley, some midget stuff at Merced, and then a few run-ins at Ventura. In the aftermath of that show, Macedo reached out to them and wanted to come on to address everything. I ran through the episode this morning, and I would definitely recommend taking a listen for yourself. Macedo isn't going to change any minds I don't think, especially for the real serious haters, but it was interesting to hear his thoughts on the situations. Going back to the episode before where they talked about Macedo, Dominic Scelzi brought up the Kyle Larson effect, and his point was one I've also made before. That the hyper aggressive style we've seen from Yung Money has likely contributed to a significant shift in how these guys attack these races. Dom said he saw it from Larson during that magical 2020 season, and he thinks racing has changed since then. He pointed towards things being more cutthroat, and that there is less room among the top guys racing against each other. I certainly agree with all of that, and I think it's a major reason why we've see Donny Schatz slip a bit. Everyone wants to talk about the Ford engine and Ricky Warner, but I really believe Schatz's cleaner style has hurt him. He's old school, races by a code, and has not adapted to the more aggressive style. Schatz expects to get raced like he races guys, which has always been wildly clean, and when he doesn't, we've seen him get angry. Think back to the 2016 Knoxville Nationals and the battle with Jason Johnson. Between the two Driver's Project episodes, a lot of recent incidents were brought up, and a lot them were ones we talked about this show. That included Macedo's run-in with David Gravel at Pevely in 2023, where Macedo apologized afterwards on social media. And in responding to why he didn't apologize publicly for these recent deals, Macedo pointed towards the heat he took after the Pevely stuff for why he didn't do it this time. He told the guys now he'll just handle things privately because the Gravel apology didn't go well before. And except for Seth Standley, he said he has apologized to the guys he's had run-ins with in recent weeks. In this insane world we live in with social media, I can't really blame him for just handling it away from public attention. It sounded like opinions on the show were mixed about the Tulare incident, and whether what Macedo did was actually wrong, or if Standley should have drove out of it. Macedo did say though that he could have probably handled it better, but he was worried about Dom lurking behind. Another interesting thing from Macedo was him saying that he knows when he's running non-wing sprint cars and midgets that he runs over his head to try and win, because he doesn't run them that often. It was definitely an honest admission from him, and something you don't often hear racers say. As we pull back a bit, Macedo has had this growing reputation for a while, and the recent stuff only adds fuel to the fire for those that don't like him and how he races. I have less of a problem with his tactics at the Outlaw level then I do when he goes and races these late season shows, because the level of talent in these other races just isn't the same. Those guys further down the field don't have the ability and experience to drive out of some of those situations. Dom pointed out just how good of a driver Macedo is, and I think it would be good for Macedo to shift the mindset just a touch when he's racing away from the top sprint car shows. Throwing a slider at the lap car of Seth Standley isn't the same as throwing a slider at David Gravel. Gravel can see it coming and react, some of these other guys can't. Overall though, I wouldn't expect Macedo to change much, and it's likely that his style is what's needed to win these days. We saw similar from Buddy Kofoid and Gravel earlier this year. Justin Sanders and Kyle Larson had that incident that left people split on who was at fault. Jonathan Davenport has bemoaned how aggressive things have gotten, and Ricky Thornton Jr. has bent some feelings and some fenders. In many of these cases though, how people respond depends on where their allegiances lie. For example, in the Sanders vs. Larson deal, did Sanders make a bad move, or should Larson have relented. Commenters on my show were pretty split. Dirt racing is more competitive than it's ever been before, there is more on the line the ever before, so I wouldn't expect things to cool off any time soon.

Alright, a couple of newsy things to talk about. First, it appears as though the World of Outlaws Late Model Series is on the hunt for a title sponsor again. Suddenly late yesterday their social media profiles were changed, and the series logo at worldofoutlaws.com is without the CASE Construction element. CASE also removed from the sponsor page. CASE joined the Outlaws as title sponsor beginning in February of 2022 on a quote "multi-year" agreement. I guess now we know that multi-year meant three years. It is not uncommon to not get an announcement for when these deals end in dirt racing, it's always just a little jarring when it does. No goodbye, no thanks, just poof, gone. I have reached out for comment, but haven't heard back as of me writing this. I don't know if another deal is coming, or if the series will run unsponsored in 2025, like we've seen them do before.

In Central PA, the Pennsylvania Speedweek schedule dropped this morning. 10 races straight through from June 27th to July 6th. It's Williams Grove, Lincoln, BAPS, back to Lincoln, Grandview, Port Royal, Hagerstown, Williams Grove, Port Royal, and then Path Valley. It wouldn't be a schedule release without some complaining, and this year's main gripe seems to be the loss of Selinsgrove. I believe I saw this is the first time in 27 years Selinsgrove won't be a part of the schedule. And it apparently came as a surprise to the track as well, as even as late as six days ago, they had a TBA on the track schedule for Speedweek. They shared to social media earlier this wasn't their choice. Selinsgrove though has been the site of lots of turmoil here lately, and is currently undergoing a changeover to new promoters. From what I understand, even the 2024 speedweek show there was in serious doubt at one point. If you want to see the full schedule, it's available on the PA Speedweek social media channels.

If you want some new dirt racing podcast content this week, Getting up to Speed has Tom Duncan, The Driver's Project has Carson Macedo as we talked about, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters from Dirt on Dirt, Dirt Track Confessions, and the Dirt Nerds. To see a full rundown on the dirt racing shows and episodes, head over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.

Alright, that's your Daily show for this Wednesday. Tomorrow we'll dive into the Dome, plus other weekend racing, and some other interesting news bits from this week that you may have missed.

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