DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

Dirt racing news, results, discussion, analytics. Sprint cars, late models, modifieds, you name it. From national series, to top local shows. Brought to you five days a week. Email the show at info@dirtrackr.com.

Offseason racing dashed, a car owner reverses course, Rico talks Chili Bowl | Daily 12-17-2024

Carson Macedo's offseason plans are dashed after it's revealed he's injured, Rico Abreu talks Chili Bowl, Ian Madsen is back, plus sprint car news in Central Pennsylvania and with USAC. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, December 17th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

At the moment, the YouTube channel is 477 subscribers away from 38,000. What's interesting is that over the last 28 days, we've had well north of six figures in terms of unique show viewers. That means a lot of you watching right now do not subscribe to the channel. Subscribing on YouTube and the podcast platforms is free to do, and will always be that way. So hit the button, and the notification bell and make sure you never miss a future episode. Full video episodes are also posted Daily to Facebook and Spotify. You can also read show transcripts over at dirtrackr.com/daily.

There was tough news last night that came out of Australia with Dyson Motorsport announcing that sprint car driver Carson Macedo will now miss the entirety of their winter sprint car schedule down under. Macedo is apparently injured, and will take the time off to recover so that he is ready in time for the start of the World of Outlaws season in February. The original plan was for Macedo to run 15 times with Dyson from December 14th through January 26th. That included the High Limit event at Perth, and the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic at Premier. There were also some scattered midget starts planned as well. Toby over at Sprint Car Hub reported via Facebook that Macedo injured his leg away from the race track, which is the only information we have at the moment as to what happened. It is not uncommon for the American drivers that go down under to also treat the trip as vacation, so it's possible that other activities and adventures are on these drivers' schedules. Maybe something along those lines is what happened to Macedo. There was no indication from Dyson that they will try and replace Macedo for those races, and the other American drivers in Australia all have rides lined up. I've seen people saying that Cole Macedo should replace him, but he's already got races lined up with Trent Pigdon's team. Those High Limit races at Perth aren't until after Christmas, running December 28th through the 30th. Hopefully Macedo will be ready to go come DIRTcar Nationals in February.

Another American driver down under this winter is Rico Abreu. He's got those High Limit races on his schedule as well, and some action in January. As we've watched a lot of the main players from the last 10 or so years come back to the Chili Bowl after years away, including Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell, Rico was the only event winner since 2015 we didn't know a status for. There were no rumblings or rumors of a return for him, but the questions were still out there floating around. The schedule I've seen for Rico has him in Australia well into January, so it didn't seem realistic that he would be back in time to race in Tulsa. And then back on Sunday in a video posted to Facebook for a contest he was running, he did share that he is not racing Chili Bowl in January. This will be the second straight year of no Chili Bowl for the two time event winner. It seems highly likely that Rico will race in Australia through January, and then we probably won't see him until the High Limit opener at Las Vegas in March. He did run DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia in 2024, but it was his first trip there since 2018. And it coincided with the High Limit schedule in Florida and Georgia. With that part of the schedule not returning for 2025, I doubt we see Rico make the Florida tow for the Outlaw opener.

If you are curious on Chili Bowl and Tulsa Shootout, the track build started this week inside the expo center. We are currently sitting at 308 Chili Bowl entries, with 1,658 for Shootout. Still a lot of TBAs on that Chili Bowl list, and no Keith Kunz entries yet. Plenty of time still to go however.

Did you guys see that Ian Madsen is back racing sprint cars again? The 2018 World of Outlaws rookie of the year announced in November of 2023 that he was hanging up his helmet after a 20 year career, but he's popped back up again recently making some starts at Sydney International Speedway in Australia. He hadn't competed, at least in the US, since some IRA starts in September of 2023. He ran races though at Sydney in October and November, and finished second this past weekend to Michael Stewart, in a race that also featured Lynton Jeffrey, Jessie Attard, and Matthew Dumesny. Madsen has been driving the N49 for Jamie Matherson, and that team had planned a sizeable schedule between Sydney, Warrnambool, Toowoomba, Borderline, and Murray Bridge. Towards the end in 2023, Madsen had bounced around to a few different rides and dealt with injuries, but his run over the weekend showed he's still got plenty of speed left.

Looking at some sprint car silly season moves, after initially deciding to close up shop, team owner Scott Cowman has reversed course and will continue to field a sprint car in Central Pennsylvania. He had parted ways with driver Dylan Cisney earlier this year, but Jeremy Elliott reported yesterday that Cowman will field a car 25 times next year for Gerard McIntyre. They split time between Port Royal and Selinsgrove, and McIntyre will fill in the remainder of his schedule with the 33 team he's been driving for. In 2024, McIntyre raced 25 times, mostly at Port, with a best finish of second there in July. He's got a pair of All Star wins on his resume, but hasn't won a 410 show since 2022. Cisney ended up finishing the year with Bill Rose, but as of right now, I don't think he's got settled plans for next season. He won at Port in the spring, and has 11 410 sprint car wins over the past six seasons. His best run with Rose down the stretch was an 11th place finish at Route 66 with the Outlaws.

On the non-wing side, Briggs Danner is set to tackle the full USAC National Sprint Car season next year in the Hogue 39. The young Pennsylvania driver made 29 appearances with the national series in 2024, picking up his first three career wins, along with 19 top tens. His first score came at Grandview in June, followed by victories at Bloomington and Lawrenceburg later in the year. With Daison Pursley and Brady Bacon departing, there will be added opportunity with this series next year, and Danner will certainly be one poised to take advantage. Danner also set to run Chili Bowl next month with Alex Bowman's team, and he's a driver I've hit on a few times on the show. He's not afraid to race anything, anywhere. His 2024 schedule included winged 410 starts, 360 stuff, non-wing, USAC east coast, non-wing micros, midgets, Silver Crown, and speedstrs. Some other drivers we know right now who have national sprint car plans for next year include Logan Seavey who will be back with Abacus, and Jake Swanson with the new Daming Swanson team.

Alright, that's the show for today. If you want even more content, head over to dirtrackr.com where you can see the latest news from around the sport, plus the analytics section, the daily streaming schedule, and more. Add it to your regular trips around the interwebs.

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