DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Come for the late models, stay for the banner conspiracy chat | Daily 1-20-2025

We are approaching 40 full time late model teams between the two national tours, and today we'll talk about some of the recent additions, including a past champion and a modified standout. Plus, you want to talk about a stupid banner... Fine, we'll talk about a stupid banner. Let's go.

It's Monday, January 20th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

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With late model speedweeks now under way, I wanted to double back today and talk about a few recent signings for the late model national tours. We've talked through most of the Lucas list through the offseason, but Dirt on Dirt's Kevin Kovac had a full run down a few days ago on the roster, and there are a couple of guys I wanted to mention. The first is Jimmy Owens. The O-Show was a bit of a quiet full timer in 2024. He ran all the Lucas races, and finished 10th in the standings. He had a win early in the year at East Bay, along with six total top fives and 16 top tens in 48 races. He's back again to start 2025, along with Koehler teammate Ricky Thornton Jr. I could see a situation where he doesn't go the distance this year, especially with how stacked the Lucas roster is, but I don't know that I would guessed he'd do the whole deal last year either. He had a solid opener, picking up hard charger on Friday after going 23rd to sixth. Some other guys back from a bit further down the order include Cory Lawler, Ross Robinson, and Brenden Smith. Kovac also has Drake Troutman on the Lucas roster. Troutman's decision was still up in the air, and I could see him being a guy to play the both sides game through the opening weeks. Lucas is right around 18 signed on at the moment. On the Outlaw side, their full time roster pushed to 19 in recent days with two more additions. I had last week that they were at 18, but I somehow counted Tyler Bruening twice. So they were actually at 17. But, now it's 19 with the signings of Ashton Winger and Jake Timm. Winger was one we had talked about before as a solid chance to return to the Outlaws, ending a four year run away from the series. Winger was a rookie back in 2020. He'll take his new Fusion chassis brand on tour starting this week at Volusia. Another driver throwing in with the rookie class is Minnesota driver Jake Timm. If you pay attention to modifieds, you should know Timm's name well from USMTS competition. He was second in the standings in 2024, and has 11 career wins. He's stepping up to full time late model racing this year, and he does have more than 30 career appearances between the Outlaws and Lucas. He's picked up four Outlaw top tens, with three coming at Mississippi Thunder. Racing at Volusia doesn't start until Thursday, so Steve Francis does still have a few more days to get this roster to 20 or over. There are still a few names floating around as possibles, like Tanner English. I still also haven't heard anything on a potential new title sponsor for the Outlaws, who parted with CASE after the 2024 season.

This here ends the more normal part of today's Daily show. I'm now going to hurt some feelings about a Chili Bowl conspiracy, so if you aren't here for that, I'll see you back here tomorrow. Otherwise, let's dive in.

Alright, let's talk about this stupid Larson, banner conspiracy situation. I saw a quote yesterday that said "everything is a conspiracy when you don't know how anything works." And that definitely applies to this Larson thing at the Chili Bowl. On the show yesterday, I mentioned that Larson was saved by the banner caution, but I didn't know this was such a big topic of discussion. I figured the tire doping stuff would be way bigger, so that's what I went deeper on. But clearly I was wrong. It didn't take long after my show was posted for the conspiracy theorists to hit my comments section, angry at me for not talking about it more, and furious over Larson supposedly getting saved. I didn't watch the Chili Bowl feature live, and when I scrolled way back through my Twitter feed to see what the conversations were about, I saw very little of this anger over the banner. So because I didn't talk about it, clearly I'm a shill for Larson, and the Chili Bowl, and Emmett Hahn is the puppet master controlling the media. That was all sarcasm for those who struggle with understanding that type of thing. To be very crystal clear, nobody in the industry has ever called or texted or emailed to tell me not to talk about something. That notion is categorically false. Back to the quote about not understanding how anything works, let's talk through the entire scenario. And before we even get started, the conspiracy folks should know, they aren't going to like what I'm about to say. Because I'm going to eviscerate your case. Now, before we get into what happened on the race track, understand how officiating works at the Chili Bowl. The main officials booth in the expo center is almost right next to that front stretch camera position we were watching on Flo. That same camera is the one that caught Pursley hitting the wall in the first place live, and then Larson. When you watch that race, at neither point when Larson or Pursley hit the wall, can you actually see the banner down on the track. If the camera can't see it, neither can the officials in the booth. If Chris Wilner doesn't say something, those of us at home don't know the banner is damaged. So why could Wilner see it? Because the FloRacing announce booth at the Chili Bowl is actually at track level in turn four. Those guys can actually look right down the front straightaway. The announcers are not next to the officials like at a lot of other race tracks. In this instance, the tower can't make that call to throw the caution because they can't even see it. They need an official in the infield to see the banner down, radio up, and then a decision made from there. Now, to the on track situation itself. First of all, the banner wasn't down for three laps or four laps like some were saying. It was a single lap. Not three, ONE. Pursley hits the frontstretch wall with four to go, Wilner calls it out, and then it's the next lap later that Larson does his wall ride. There is one point debunked. Next, let's talk about this idea that the caution should have been throw "automatically" when the banner was down. The conspiracy folks out there do realize right that decision making and relaying messages does take time. There is no automated system for cautions when an incident happens. An actual human has to make the judgement call, push a button and radio out. Pursley hits the wall with four to go, if you want actual time, it was just 13 seconds later that Larson hits the same spot, and then the caution is thrown. Even after Pursley hits that spot and damages the banner the first time, it took Wilner three seconds to even start saying anthing on the broadcast, and his sentence wasn't complete until about 5 seconds later. And Wilner was locked in on Pursley talking about him. So of your 13 second lap, now five are gone, leaving eight SECONDS for hearing the message, deciding, and initiating the caution period. If an official in the infield wasn't deadlocked on that spot with their attention, you could easily add another few seconds to that equation, taking that eight seconds down to seven, or six, or five. By the time that message gets relayed, Larson is already in three and four. Now the race director needs to process what they've heard and decide. In less than a few seconds. Next, let's talk about the caution itself. Larson wall rode and got sideways, yes. But he never spun. He didn't hit anyone else. And he didn't stall the car. How exactly is a caution needed for what happened? And because a caution wasn't needed, Larson didn't spin or stall, there is no reason to send him to the tail. If the race director at Tulsa threw a caution every time someone got sideways through the week, or hit a wall, we'd constantly be under yellow. The last thing is the debris itself. I've seen some saying that Larson caused there to be debris, so he should have been sent to the tail. We are really reaching at this point in the argument. You don't see guys sent to the tail for shock guards coming off. Or a body panel. Wheel covers, yes, sometimes if they can identify them, because that can be dangerous. But under what scenario is it Larson's fault there is a banner on the front stretch wall? He didn't put it there. Can you imagine that driver's meeting. Uh, hey guys, if you tear down that banner we put right on that wall where it's easy to ramp off, you'll be sent to the rear. There would be a mutiny. If a guy throws something on the track to get a caution, sure, penalize him. Larson was just on the wheel trying to keep his lead and hit a banner that probably shouldn't be there. He got bailed out by a very timely caution, and that's it. Remember, when it doubt, try using Occam's Razor on these deals. The modern interpretation of Occam's Razor is when you are presented with competing hypotheses about a situation, you should prefer the one that requires the fewest assumptions. To get to a point where one believes the Chili Bowl called this caution to save Larson, means one needs to take on a whole lot of assumptions. The more wild assumptions, the more likely it isn't true. So what are those assumptions? Well, how about that the Chili Bowl wants Larson to win. That's an assumption. I think there is a good case to be made for the event wanting Larson to race there, but things can easily break down for wanting him to win. Don't forget Larson was at the forefront of a decent amount of negative attention for the Chili Bowl in recent years. These folks are also assuming the Chili Bowl knew that a lap after the banner came down, they'd need to save Larson. Or, if they don't assume they had a crystal ball, they then assume that officials were able to make the split second decision with the banner on the track that Larson needed to be saved, and that this was the exact right moment to do it. If the race stays green, there is no guarantee Pursley even gets the lead. They were still side by side when the caution flew, and even if Pursley exits two with the lead, Larson probably slides him into three. From there, if Pursley survives with the lead anyway, the caution would still have needed to be thrown for the banner down. With another lap not complete, scoring reverts back to the previous lap, and Larson still the leader anyway. Instead of creating these maddening scenarios, why can't these folks just admit they didn't want to see the favorite win. That's okay. They are allowed to not like Larson. I like Larson, but I myself was kinda rooting for Pursley. It's also cool with me to question the officials' decision making. These are not easy calls to make, and there were things that happened through the week I didn't like either. Some of the work area stuff was suspect to me, and I don't know how Ricky Stenhouse Jr. skates after driving into Logan Seavey's door after a race is over. Poor calls happen, sure. Some secret conspiracy to help Kyle Larson win, no.

That's the Daily for today. Hope you guys have a great Monday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!