DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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I guess the Hudson O'Neal / SSI Motorsports situation is settled then | Daily 12-18-2024

On the show today we'll talk full timer commitments for both World of Outlaws series, plus sprint car news in Posse land, and I guess the Hudson O'Neal, SSI situation is settled. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, December 18th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

The offseason news cycle just keeps rolling along, and there is a bunch of stuff to update you guys on today. We'll start first with the World of Outlaws sprint car list of full timers and a confirmation we knew was likely coming. I've been hearing for several weeks that we were just waiting on the announcement that Bill Balog would be back for year two on the road with the Outlaws, and that confirmation came officially yesterday. The ten time IRA champion ended up eighth in the final World of Outlaws standings in 2024, picking up 11 top fives and 33 top tens in 67 races along the way. He led laps at Pevely, Paducah, and on his Knoxville Nationals prelim night, and his best finish of second came at that Paducah race where he led. It was the first time in many years that Balog went winless in the sprint car, but it may have still been his best season to date, which also included his first career Knoxville Nationals main event start. I think a break here or there during 2024, and he could easily have had a few victories. There was a point in the season where I think a lot of us were surprised by how well he was running, but then later on it didn't really shock us anymore. And I could definitely see this group taking a step forward during year two now that they have a better understanding of what to expect, and a better notebook. Balog confirmed brings the Outlaws to eight committed, with David Gravel, Carson Macedo, Donny Schatz, Logan Schuchart, Sheldon Haudenschild, Cole Macedo, and Chris Windom already on the list. As we've said, Buddy Kofoid should be back with Roth Motorsports, along with Gio Scelzi. That brings the Outlaws to ten. The Premier 70 and the Rose 6 remain the two teams with still unknown plans, and I would put money on the six being back as long as Rose can find a driver. The Premier 70 feels like a coin toss at the moment. And according to chatter out and about in the sprint car streets, there is still some possiblity of another addition here. We'll see if that happens or not. My guess though is the Outlaws stay at 12 full timers come Volusia.

On the World of Outlaws late model side, they added another yesterday as well, with Cody Overton and Tri Star committing to year two together. The rookie season was not an easy one for Overton, with a 13th place points finish, and just eight top ten finishes. It was his first significant season though in a super late model, and he showed throughout 2024 that he knows how to win, picking up four crate late model scores along the way. The team is switching from the number 97 to the number 2 for 2025, and I would also look for them to be better in year two. Overton joins Ethan Dotson, Bobby Pierce, Nick Hoffman, Brian Shirley, Daniel Adam, Ryan Gustin, Cade Dillard, Brent Larson, and Dustin Sorensen as confirmed for 2025. Those full timers from this past season with still unknown plans include Kyle Bronson, Tyler Bruening, Dennis Erb Jr., Tristan Chamberlain, and Dustin Walker. And we talked back on Monday about several names looking at series runs, but still undecided. That included Drake Troutman, Tanner English, Dillon McCowan, and Mike Marlar. It sounds like a bunch of teams are going to play the speedweeks game between Lucas and the Outlaws and see where they land come the end of February. From there, I think you'll see more make their final series decisions.

Another dirt late model situation that's been in the rumor mill lately, at least online, is Hudson O'Neal with SSI Motorsports. There had been rumblings a few months ago that this team could switch from Longhorn to Rocket for 2025, which we discussed here on the show. With Anthony Burroughs gone, and O'Neal looking for some pace, a move like that wouldn't have surprised me. And then more recently, I've been asked a ton about the possibility of this team shutting down, although outside of social media stuff, I hadn't heard that was a real possiblity. Regardless of how things went with RTJ, it didn't seem super likely that SSI owner Todd Burns would just shut everything down after throwing in with O'Neal. While he didn't address it directly, Huddy seemed to put all of these rumors to rest yesterday with a Facebook post. He (or whomever runs his account) shared a photo of himself down south testing with Kevin Rumley, and a picture with a shop full of cars. In the post he thanked his owner for allowing him to go test with Rumley, and mentioned being excited for the next year with SSI. The post said he was in Florida, but from the photos and a video I saw, they were actually at Golden Isles in Georgia. It's near Florida, but still Georgia, and likely they are headed to Florida next. Kevin Rumley's wife Jacqueline, who is an OG DIRTRACKR Conversations guest, also shared photos to social media, and you can see the Rumley six parked next to the Riggs 76. And that tracks as Anthony Burroughs had talked to Kyle McFadden about them testing a few times with Brandon Overton after the Dome. So, SSI doesn't seem to be shutting down, and I can't imagine that O'Neal would be participating in a Longhorn test if he was suddenly switching to Rockets in two or three weeks' time. I guess we'll go ahead and add Huddy to the Lucas field as well and call these rumors officially dead.

In Posse territory, another sprint car ride has a driver, with Jeremy Elliott reporting yesterday that 18 year old Preston Lattomus is moving up from 358 competition to take the seat of the Capitol Renegade 91 next year. This car had been driven by Kyle Reinhardt, but we found out not long ago that he's stepping out of the seat to become crew chief for this deal. In that announcement, it was clear a young driver was incoming, and now we know the second half of the equation. Lattomus had three 358 wins, one each at BAPS, Lincoln, and Williams Grove, and this new pairing will run 50-60 races next season. Having an experienced driver with an engineering background like Reinhardt in his corner should help Lattomus' development.

If you want other dirt racing podcast episodes this week, Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks has TJ Mayberry, Hoogie's Garage has Kaleb Montgomery, Jack Hewitt, and Toby from Sprint Car Hub. Ohio Dirt has Rick Farmer, Getting up to Speed has Kalyb Brunnsen, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters, Dirt Track Confessions, the Dirt Nerds, and the Driver's Project. To see all of the shows and their newest episodes, check out dirtrackr.com/podcasts.

Just quickly to close out today, thanks to all the new subscribers we've added in the last 24 hours. Since the show dropped yesterday, we've picked up nearly 200 new folks just on YouTube. Sometimes when I put out that call for subscribers, I'll get scattered comments about why I do it. The usual line is something like stop begging for subscribers, we all know how it works. And to a point, they are correct. Most YouTube viewers do understand how it works, and I'm not going to jump on here every day and say it. But I did want to take you behind the current for a second and share something with you from my analytics. This is a graph of my subscriber growth on YouTube from the past 28 days. The two obviously massive spikes were days where I led with subscribe mentions. YouTubers ask for subscribers because when they do, it works. And more subscribers is good for YouTube businesses.

Thanks for tuning in, hope you guys have a great Wednesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!