DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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This Rocket chassis winless streak is starting to bum me out | Daily 2-12-2025

Rocket cars stay winless, and it's starting to bum me out. Young guys shine with USAC at Volusia, POWRi closes out their winged 410 roster, and I've got an update on injured driver Chase Johnson. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, February 12th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

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At Volusia last night, it looked, for at least a few laps anyway, that we might get our first Rocket chassis win of 2025. Tyler Erb started front row and led the first 12 laps. Polesitter Ricky Thornton Jr. actually fell back to third early, but was back to second after a restart, and took the lead from Terbo just before half way. He drove away to a two second win, with Bobby Pierce nipping Erb late for second. A similar cast of characters down through the top ten, with Jonathan Davenport fourth, Brandon Overton fifth, and hey! A sixth pace run for Brian Shirley! Hat tip to Nick Hoffman for his flu game. Raced, finished 10th, while dealing with a stomach bug. Looking around, Rocket cars have won some crate shows this season, but no super late model features that I can find. All the Lucas races were Longhorn wins, the January Volusia Outlaw shows were split between Longhorn and Infinity. Wild West Shootout was all Longhorn. And if we branch out to some other series, Cory Hedgecock won the Southern All Stars show in his BMF. I believe Michael Page won at Fort Payne in a Black Diamond. Sam Seawright's Ice Bowl win was in a Longhorn. The best we've seen from Rockets was Josh Putnam's second place run at the Ice Bowl. Sheppard had some second place finishes at Vado in his own B5s. And Terbo has a couple of podiums. It's certainly an interesting moment for the chassis game, because we've got Longhorn just dominating everything, Rocket having a down time, and a bunch of others going their own directions. Those examples include Ashton Winger, Jimmy Owens, plus guys like Hedgecock and Stormy Scott. With Erb and Sheppard really carrying the Rocket flag on the national level right now, it sure feels like we could leave speedweeks with them winless. Shepp was eighth at Volusia on Monday, but only managed 18th last night after needing a B-Main transfer again. Unless the Rocket 1 really hits on something, and soon, Erb might be the best hope. The one caveat here, is that tonight's triple 20 lap feature program could even out the odds a bit. If one of these guys catches the right lineup in one of those features, they could get Rocket off the schneid. I kinda hope they start to figure it out soon. Late model racing is just more fun with more cars and teams in the mix. Last night's field did grow from 51 to 55 cars, and I'd expect at least a few more additions tonight and tomorrow.

In Tuesday's USAC finale for DIRTcar Nationals, it was all Logan Seavey out front. The defending USAC sprint car champion got his first win of the year, and he'll head to Ocala today looking for more. Kyle Cummins ended up second, and that combined with the Monday win earned him the big gator trophy for the two nights. The real battle last night ended up being for third, with Daison Pursley coming out on top of a three or four way fight there. It was a solid first two nights for Briggs Danner who is full time with the series for his first go. He was fifth and fourth. And how about Kale Drake. The two best USAC sprint car finishes of his career. He went 14th to seventh on Monday, and hard charged from 19th to fifth last night. Good runs in that 2B machine. He might be a sneaky one to pay attention to. The USAC teams now make the trek over to Ocala where they've got $6000 to win tonight.

Besides more late model action at Volusia today, you've also got the Super DIRTcar Series big block modifieds moving in. $5000 to win shows each of the next three nights, then $7500 to win on Saturday. No series points on the line for the big blocks, just event points and cash. Their championship season won't start until March 29th at New Egypt. Expect good fields all week, they've already got 39 signed in today, including all the big players. Volusia will be live on DIRTVision, with Ocala over on Flo.

I did want to pass along some good news today for a driver injured during the 2024 sprint car season. Chase Johnson had that ugly crash at the Gold Cup back at the end of August, and he's been working through recovery and rehab from the spinal chord injury he suffered. He spent a bunch of time in Georgia at the Shepherd Center, which was the same rehab facility that Daison Pursley went to after his USAC midget crash a few years ago. Last week though, Johnson was released from the Shepherd Center and returned to his home in California for the first time in five months. According to a post on his Facebook page, he's made significant progress with movement and control in his arms, hands and legs. He's been approved to drive street cars with hand controls, and he'll continue therapy at home to aid in his rehabilitation. Pretty cool too to see the local community there putting up signs to welcome Johnson back to California. I'm sure it won't be long before we see him hanging around at area dirt tracks again. You can keep up with Chase's journey over at facebook.com/chasejohnsonracing.

As we continue to track some of the regional sprint car stuff, it looks like POWRi has filled out their 16 car roster for their winged 410 series. With about a week and a half until their season starts at the Texas Motor Speedway Dirt Track, car owner, driver, and sponsor Kevin Newton was named the 16th and final driver here just a little bit ago. He joins Ayrton Gennetten, Xavier Doney, Natalie Doney, Joe B. Miller, Noah Gass, Lane Warner, Scotty Milan, Preston Perlmutter, John Barnard, Rees Moran, Reed Whitney, Gage Montgomery, Miles Paulus, Kyle Jones, and Jack Potter. This Elite 16 program for POWRi is a full on program like you'd get with the bigger series, with signed drivers getting a point fund, provisionals tow money, free pit passes, and other benefits. Ayrton Gennetten won this championship a year ago, and he's the easy favorite out of the gate. I think Noah Gass and Joe B. are probably his closest competition, although we will likely see Xavier Doney take a step forward. He finished third in the standings a year ago, and did pick up a win. POWRi's 410 series is at Texas next Friday and Saturday, February 21st and 22nd, and then we won't see them again until early April with a trip through Missouri. Rosters for some of the other regional series, like the All Stars, FAST, and IRA are still in progress.

We will shut it down there for today. For more dirt racing content, check out the podcasts page over at dirtrackr.com, or scroll down the DIRTRACKR YouTube page to find even more dirt racing channels. I know I've had several folks reach out about adding them to the podcast page. Since I've been slacking there, hit me again with a DM or email, and I'll get you added.

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