DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Did you notice Jimmy Owens' late model is different? | Daily 1-22-2025

Coming up, the World of Outlaws add a 20th full time late model team, plus we've got regional sprint car news, and we'll talk about a dirt late model veteran going his own way with his chassis. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, January 22nd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

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It was just the other day that I had Jimmy Owens on a show thumbnail, as we talked about him and several other drivers signing on to run dirt late model national tours this season. He's back today though, because he's got some interesting things going on with his current chassis. There are a few places online where this has been pointed out, and I had a friend or two alert me to this in recent days. There was a brief period between, I believe, 2021 and 2022 where Owens was in a Longhorn, but for a lot of the last several years, he's been a Rocket customer. That 2020 season where he won 11 Lucas races and won the series title going away was done in a Rocket. And as late as the Dirt Track World Championship last October, he was still in Rockets. But at the Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series finale weekend at the end of their season at I-75 Raceway, Owens showed up with something different. Gone was the Rocket XR1 sticker on the roll hoop, and missing was the typical intrusion bar that has become common on more modern cars. That intrusion bar runs from the halo down to the top side of the cage in the door. Rockets and Longhorns all have that intrusion bar, which you can see marked in these photos. I've been told the older Bloomquist cars didn't have this added bar, and Capitals are still built this way as well. Here you can see one of the new Dennis Erb Jr. Capitals without it. Owens though, not driving a Capital. This car was supposedly built by Bruce Nunnally at Brucebilt, that's a name that continues to come up a lot in this space. The car is Owens' own design, and friends tell me that it incorporates Bloomquist design elements, mostly around the front clip, and some Rocket flavor around the rear clip. Owens a talented fabricator in his own right, so it's not surprising he has some of his own thoughts and ideas. He spent many years building modified chassis under the Loose Gruff name. One other thing that's been pointed out to me, is the left rear suspension setup. In this photo you can see a bracket with various mounting positions for radius rods. This is usually found on the right rear of cars, and is a z-link or swing arm setup. I found an old Hot Rod magazine article online with more details on the z-link if you are curious. I'm not going to sit here and pretend like I understand how it works. For comparison, you can see in this photo of Ricky Thornton Jr's car, which is obviously a Longhorn, no similar bracket. After debuting this car with the Hunt the Front series, Owens also ran it at East Alabama in November, World Finals, the Flo series finale at Senoia, and it was back this year at the Lucas opener this past weekend at Golden Isles. Owens did not run it at the Dome, instead choosing to bring a Rocket. As for results, things seem to be a bit mixed so far. He was fifth at East Alabama, and hard charged to sixth at Golden Isles. But nothing spectacular at the other races. It's still very early yet though, and we'll see if a bunch of races coming up during speedweeks will allow Owens to dial it in more. He will be at Volusia this week for the Outlaw opener. Today's practice has been canceled for weather, but racing will be on track tomorrow night. A big thanks to those friends that reached out and provided me with info and details on this.

Sticking with the Outlaws, they will indeed start the 2025 season with at least 20 cars on their full time roster, as they were at 19 with the additions of Jake Timm and Ashton Winger, and they got another yesterday. I've been saying for several weeks that Tanner English and the Coltman Farms team had been pondering a national tour run, and they have decided to go Outlaws. This brings English back to the Outlaws for the first time since 2022. That season he finished second to Dennis Erb in the championship, had three wins, and was rookie of the year. He's also previously been on tour with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. This will be the first time on a tour for Coltman Farms, who will also continue to field a car regionally for Zack Mitchell. With so many cars signed on, we clearly don't expect all of them to make it the end of the year, but things will be fierce through the opening part of the season to see who can get themselves established. At this point, I don't know of any other names still potentially thinking about a tour run, but I wouldn't put it past Steve Francis or Rick Schwallie to maybe have another addition or two in the future.

In regional sprint car news from yesterday, the new All Stars have added another to their full time roster with the signing of Kalib Henry. Henry is back in the Running Boxer Farms 101 for year two, after moving from California to Ohio last year to take over this ride. He won six times along the way, including four times with the AFCS, and twice with FAST. Five wins were at Fremont, and one was at Attica. He also added the Fremont track chamionship, plus top fives and top tens against both the World of Outlaws and High Limit. Henry though will have a new crew chief for 2025, as Kevin Osmolski has decided to hang it up and get out of racing. The announcement from the All Stars says Andy Potter is taking over the role, who was the long time crew chief for the Joe Seeling-owned team. The addition of Henry takes the All Stars to seven, with Justin Clark, Aiden Price, Devon Borden, Leyton Wagner, Darin Naida, and Cody Bova also declared. I'd say right now that Borden and Henry are the two early favorites for the championship.

Out west, fresh off a top five run in the finale, and a prelim win during the Chili Bowl, Landon Brooks' sprint car plans are set. Brooks raced last season in Shannon Wheatley's sprint car, but we already knew Hank Davis is taking that seat for this year. No worries for Brooks though, as he's going to drive for the Bates Hamilton team. BHR will field Brooks in a mix of races between NARC, High Limit, and the World of Outlaws. They will also campaign a second car for Justyn Cox, who will run for the Placerville Speedway track championship. Brooks filled in for the BHR team late in 2024, after Cox was hurt in a NARC crash, so these two sides already had a relationship. Brooks joins drivers like Hank Davis and Tanner Holmes as running at least a partial NARC schedule, and we are waiting to see who will race that series full time. My assumption would be that Justin Sanders will be back to defend. That season doesn't start until early March.

That's the Daily for today. If you want more dirt racing content, make sure to drop by dirtrackr.com/podcasts and check out the other shows. There is always something new to discover over there.

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