DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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A chassis swap, key sponsor lost, national tour plans settled? | Daily 1-12-2025
Today we're talking Wild West Shootout at Vado, sprint car results down under, another chassis change for Dennis Erb Jr., FloRacing loses a key sponsor, and maybe things aren't so unconfirmed for Ricky Thornton Jr. and Jonathan Davenport after all. Let's go!
It's Sunday, January 12th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
We are off and running at the Chili Bowl today. As you watch this, cars have already been on track for a while for open practice. Teams will get a few opportunities today to get on track, and then racing officially starts on Monday. At last check we were at 389 entries, and there have been a few adjustments on team and driver combos and prelim nights. You can see all the updates over at chilibowl.com. FloRacing does have a live stream running for practice, that at least for some part of the day is just fixed cameras with no commentary. But if you want to see cars on track, you can certainly do so. You are also running out of hours before the pools close, so if you need to get that last minute research in, go grab a subscription to DIRTRACKR Plus at dirtrackr.com/getplus. $4.99 and all the midget data you can handle over there for the Chili Bowl and the national tours. We'll obviously be keeping tabs on the Chili Bowl all week.
At the Wild West Shootout at Vado, we did ultimately lose the Thursday program to weather. They had cold temperatures and snow, so cars didn't get back to racing until Friday. In that night's feature, it was all Garrett Alberson. He went fourth to the lead on lap one, and was able to keep Bobby Pierce at bay over the final few laps to score his first win a the Wild West Shootout since 2022. Pierce and Tyler Erb rounded out the podium. Alberson from not far from Vado, just up the interstate to Las Cruces, so it's always good to get a win near home. He's been solid all week, with no finishes worse than seventh through four nights. Hat tip as well to Ross Bailes and Austin Kirkpatrick. That car was fast in that Friday feature. But as they say, it was going really good until it went really bad. If you like late models, definitely check out AK's YouTube channel. He's an interesting guy, and he's always got a science experiment going on when he brings his cars out to race. Last night at Vado, it was back to the Bobby Pierce show. He led all 40 laps from the pole for win number three in four races. Brandon Sheppard second, Tyler Erb third. Shepp still looking for that first outdoor win since last July. Action at the Wild West Shootout wraps up today with a $25,000 to win program. With what we've seen so far, it's going to be tough to pick against Pierce.
Down under, WA vs USA Speedweek wrapped at Perth over the weekend. James McFadden topped Dayne Kingshott and Cole Macedo in the Friday show, and Kerry Madsen closed it out on Saturday with the win in the finale. He topped JMac and Taylor Milling. Kingshott the weeklong points champion over Brock Zearfoss and Matt Egel. Sprint car teams in Australia will hit up some other tracks in the next two weeks as the focus starts to shift towards the classic at Premier. That event is January 24th through the 26th.
Jumping into some news from recent days. The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series has completed shifted the upcoming schedule at Golden Isles for the season opener. Tuesday's practice is now Thursday, Wednesday is cancelled, and Thursday's racing has been moved to Sunday. So now, you'll get practice Thursday, $12,000 to win racing on Friday, $25,000 to win Saturday, and $10,000 to win on Sunday. We'll see how this all holds together through the week with the weather forecast. This should ease things a bit for those teams coming from Vado as well, because now they have effectively two more days to get from New Mexico to Georgia if they want to race with Lucas. Remember as well we are watching how things play out between Golden Isles and the Chili Bowl for reigning Lucas champion Ricky Thornton Jr. His national tour choice has been in doubt through this offseason, and we know that how things play out this week could go a long way in deciding what direction the Koehler Motorsports 20RT goes. But maybe things aren't so undecided after all. In recent days on the Dirt on Dirt Videocast previewing speedweeks, Ben Shelton talked about RTJ's Lucas title chances like he was already committed here. And if there is someone who would have a good handle on things, it's Shelton. He talked through a potential RTJ vs Devin Moran battle, while also bringing up Brandon Sheppard in the Rocket house car. He also mentioned that it sounded like Jonathan Davenport would be back full time. There has been some question about whether or not JD would return for 2025, as we know his feelings towards national tour racing seem to ebb and flow. At the moment, JD's schedule on his website doesn't show anything beyond speedweeks, but his return to Lucas would certainly make that roster just that much more difficult. We could easily be looking at a four way fight again, between RTJ, Moran, Shepp, and JD. I'd like to throw Hudson O'Neal into this conversation as well, but with all the changes he's been through, and the loss of Anthony Burroughs from the SSI team, I think there are just too many questions around the 71 right now to really know where they stand.
One other Lucas note for you. We know Tim McCreadie is shifting over to the Boom Briggs team for this year, and that group unveiled their new look for this season. McCreadie is going with a mostly white paint scheme, and is switching to the number nine as a tribute to his dad, Bob McCreadie, who passed away this last year. Supposedly this car is running in conjuction with the Rocket house car, as a sort of pseudo teammate, so we'll see if that pays dividends for McCreadie and Boom.
On the Outlaw side, Dennis Erb Jr. is swapping chassis brands yet again. Erb had been a Rocket guy, but there was a several week Barry Wright experiement during 2024, that ultimately didn't stick. Erb finished out the year back in Rockets. But kicking off 2025, Erb has swapped over to Capitals now. Over on Facebook, Capital posted a bunch of photos of Erb cars in progress back on Friday. We've talked here on the show about Erb's struggles since winning that World of Outlaws championship a few years ago, and clearly they are looking for some sort of spark. Erb is back full time with the Outlaws this year, and is set to start his season this week at Golden Isles.
Finally today, the FloRacing Night in America Series released their 2025 schedule in recent days. The mostly midweek late model tour will have ten races this year, with La Salle, Spoon River, Lincoln, Marshalltown, Eldora, Fairbury, I-75, Tri-State, and Senoia all getting dates. All races are $20,000 to win, except the finale at Senoia that is $30k. There are four races in May, one in June, one in July, two in September, and two in November. All races fit into and near existing national tour dates. Ricky Thornton Jr. was the series champion in 2024, and there was no mention yet of the point fund for this year. One note on this that seems to have been missed by some, is that the series is no longer sponsored by Castrol. Castrol had been the title sponsor on the series since it's inception in 2021. They brought on Kubota as presenting sponsor in 2024, and that deal remains in place. I've been told by industry friends that Castrol is shifting their ad budgets and that this deal was a victim of those changes. Flo is on the hunt for a new entitlement deal, and it's possible they could have something in place before the season opener, which is still five months away. This sponsorship deal could be why they haven't announced point fund details just yet. I also don't know if we could also see changes at the Gateway Dirt Nationals, as Castrol was title there as well. You can see the whole schedule for the tour over at floseries.com.
Alright, we'll call it for there today. Hope you guys have a great Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!