DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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High Limit accusations disappear, Gustin's new crew chief, another sprint car seat filled? | Daily 1-6-2025

Bobby Pierce stays hot, Brandon Sheppard's winless streak, an infamous crew chief has a new deal, more sprint car ride rumors, tweets deleted, and Chili Bowl prelim night rosters. Let's go!

It's Monday, January 6th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

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At the Wild West Shootout last night, we had some great racing, but very similar results and race winners across the three divisions. In the late model main event, Oregon's Collen Winebarger led early from the front row, but this race came down to an Illinois battle between Bobby Pierce and Brandon Sheppard. The seventh starting Sheppard led at the white flag, but Pierce was able to get to his inside in turns one and two, and he had the right line and the grip through three and four to close out the move. Pierce now two-for-two on the week at Vado Speedway Park, BShepp finished second, and Chase Junghans was third. Sheppard definitely dejected in his post race interview, and for good reason. He's trying to fight his way back into being one of the top late model guys, and it stings to lose one like that. I know he won the Gateway Dirt Nationals, which is a big one, I don't want to dimish that. But did you know that BShepp hasn't won an outdoor race since a split field prelim win at Fairbury way back in July of 2024? His last full field win, was with the Outlaws at the beginning of July at Deer Creek. That's a long winless stretch for a guy who won nearly half the Outlaw races in champioship campaigns in 2017 and 2019. The Dome and this opening stretch at Vado are in his family owned B5, and I do think things will be a little different when he's got the full might of the Rocket house car operation behind him come speedweeks. Last night's Xmod winner was also a repeat at Vado, with Rob Moseley going back-to-back. The modified race saw a photo finish between Jake Gallardo and Dustin Sorensen. Just 22 thousandths of a second separated the two at the line. Racing at the Wild West Shootout now takes a few days off. The track is open for practice on Tuesday night, with another full program coming Wednesday.

In some dirt late model news from the weekend, Ryan Gustin will have a new crew chief when he begins his season soon with Todd Cooney Racing. Previous head wrench Tim Douglas is moving over to Wells Motorsports' Infinity Chassis brand as a representative, and the team has hired Cody Mallory to replace him. I'm not sure at this point who Mallory hasn't worked for in late model racing, as it seems like he's been everywhere, and he never stays very long. We know in recent seasons he's spent time with Garrett Smith's operation, and with Rocket Chassis. He was previously with guys like Jimmy Owens, Scott Bloomquist, and I think Bobby Pierce for like five minutes. Gustin was sixth in the World of Outlaws standings in 2024 with five wins, and he'll be back with the series again this year. I'm not sure of Gustin's schedule at this moment, but we'll either see them next week at Golden Isles with Lucas, or the following week at Volusia for the Outlaw opener. If Gustin can find some more consistency, he could be a darkhorse championship contender with the Outlaws this season. We'll see how long Mallory lasts in this position.

On the sprint car silly season front, I tried to clear out my rumor inbox last week, but things keep popping up. One open ride that sounds like it might have a driver is the Heidbreder 19 car. This team ran a bunch of races in 2024 with Hunter Schuerenberg in the seat, before closing out late with Ayrton Gennetten after Schuerenberg departed. They were able to pick up several wins, and it sounds like they'll be back for more in 2025. A name to watch here, is non-wing guy Kevin Thomas Jr. KTJ does have plans to run the full USAC midget slate with 4 Kings Racing, and I'd imagine he'll be back for a full USAC sprint car run as well. He was fourth in the standings there this past season. Word is he could fill in some more open dates with winged starts with Heidbreder. Thomas hasn't run a significant winged schedule since 2022 when he made 29 appearances. He scattered 10 races later in 2023, including a POWRi 410 win at Lake Ozark. And it was just three races in 2024, running against the Outlaws at Haubstadt, a third with Maverick at Terre Haute in May, and against High Limit at Kokomo. No word yet on a potential schedule or number of races.

A quick update on the Kevin Nouse, High Limit allegations involving series director Mike Hess. We talked about this situation last Monday, where Nouse took to Twitter in December to say that Hess had told Nouse during the 2024 season to ignore potential illegal cars and parts at High Limit shows. Matt Weaver wrote a story about the situation, and Jeremy Elliott also weighed in with a 90 at 9 segment. If you want the full rundown on what happened and my thoughts, go back to the December 30th Daily show. But suddenly in recent days, all of Nouse's tweets with those allegations have been deleted. If you might remember, those tweets came in response to a burner account taking shots at Hess and High Limit, but the entire thread of replies is now gone. I'll leave the judgement and the speculation over possible reasons for why the tweets are now gone up to you, the audience, but I will say, it's curious.

Finally today, we are closing in on the start of Chili Bowl, and the event put out the first run of prelim night rosters for the 371 drivers entered so far. A quick sidenote, Keith Kunz is bringing an incredible 16 cars this year. Where the hell are they going to park all of those at the front of that aisle. That squad will need some serious teamwork and coordination to manage 16 cars over six days. Anyways, back to prelim nights. Monday is highlighted by Tanner Carrick, Brent Crews, Cannon McIntosh, Briggs Danner, Shane Golobic, Justin Peck, Nick Hoffman, and Kyle Larson. Tuesday will feature Brad Sweet, Zach Daum, Thomas Meseraull, Ricky Thornton Jr., Hank Davis, Kevin Thomas Jr., Buddy Kofoid, and NASCAR driver Ty Gibbs. Wednesday has Kyle Cummins, Mitchel Moles, Tanner Holmes, Corey Day, Blake Hahn, Emerson Axsom, and Daison Pursley, You'll see Spencer Bayston, Karter Sarff, Brady Bacon, CJ Leary, Jacob Denney, Christopher Bell, Tanner Thorson, and Chris Windom on Thursday. And Friday has Andrew Felker, IndyCar driver Santino Ferrucci, Daryn Pittman, Tyler Courtney, Logan Seavey, Kyle Busch, Ryan Timms, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Michael Pickens. After a quick glance, Tuesday and maybe Friday the two easier nights. And I say easier with a grain of salt here, as no nights in the expo are easy. There will likely be a few shifts around over the next several days, but these will end up being pretty close. If you want to see the full roster for each night, head over to chilibowl.com. And as you begin your Chili Bowl pool prep and research, don't forget the Chili Bowl section at dirtrackr.com/analytics has stats and analysis on 120 Chili Bowl race days, including every main event Saturday going back to 1987. I've got stat pages for more than 2100 drivers, and you can unlock even more with a subscription to DIRTRACKR Plus. A month will cost you just $4.99. You can sign up at dirtrackr.com/getplus.

Alright, that's the Daily for today. Appreciate you tuning in. Hope you have a great Monday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!