DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Spicy night at Volusia, driver faces hard truth of racing | Daily 2-13-2025

The same cast of characters keeps winning during late model speedweeks, Max McLaughlin facing a harsh reality of motorsports, and Alex Yankowski isn't afraid to mix it up. Let's go!

It's Thursday, February 13th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

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I'm going off the rails today and talking about the Super DIRTcar Series first. It was the most entertaining race of the night on Wednesday, and since this is my show, I can do whatever I want. I'm sure there are a reasonable amount of folks who turned DIRTVision off after the late model features, and I also would bet that many saw Matt Sheppard won, and glossed over this one completely. But Alex Yankowski going right at Sheppard on those restarts was really great. A few times early Sheppard picked the top, and Yankowski wasn't afraid to push the envelope once the green was dropped. One start was even called back for the 84 jumping. I think Sheppard's quote afterwards was something to the effect of Yankowski was firing first like he was the leader. Yankowski also not afraid to get the elbows out and make his car a bit wide, and Sheppard did not take kindly to it. There were multiple times under cautions where the two were communicating through sign language, and there was a solid amount of bent feelings and bent fenders. Late contact from Sheppard actually hurt Yankowski's run, and Justin Haers was able to slip by to bag second at the end. Both were fairly diplomatic in their post race interviews, but the jawing continued during the podium photo. At one point, it looked like an event worker had to step in to get the two to chill for a second so the photos could get taken. The photos are classic, because they show Yankowski and Sheppard at each other, and Haers standing there with a big grin on his face. I loved that the younger guy in Yankowski not afraid to go right at Sheppard, and also show he wasn't going to be pushed around. The crowd certainly didn't sound like they were on the side of the 9S as he was booed during his victory lane interview. I hope over the next few nights at DIRTcar Nationals, we get to see the 84 and the 9S around each other more, because it was great theater.

I said yesterday on the show that the triple late model features might give the Rocket cars a shot with things thinned out a bit, but that didn't end up being the case. It was all Ricky Thornton Jr. in race one. Jonathan Davenport held off a fierce challenge at the end from Devin Moran with Ethan Dotson also leading in race two. And it was all Brandon Overton in race three. He got his first win with the Longhorn Factory Team and Riggs Motorsports. So three more victories by the horn squad. Looking forward, things get serious now through Saturday night with more money and Outlaw points on the line. You'll have the Lucas guys trying to bag more cash, and the Outlaw teams trying to position themselves against a large field of early full timers. What happens over the next three days should give us at least some clarity over which drivers could go which direction as far as national tours. And get your big time late model fix in now, because after Saturday, we won't see a lot of these guys again for another month. It will be regional stuff for about the next four weeks. There seems to be at least some ongoing debate about how's number one right now in dirt late model racing, and Ricky Thornton Jr. is probably at the top right now with already five wins. But I do think that Davenport and Moran are right there with him. Those two have had really good speedweeks. Bobby Pierce also in this conversation, although he hasn't been quite as dominant in these few races he's run since leaving Vado. Still fast, but not lighting the world on fire. All the racing from Volusia is live on DIRTVision all weekend.

At Ocala last night, Justin Grant made it three different USAC sprint car winners in three races. He slipped by Daison Pursley in lap traffic and drove on to his first win of 2025. It was a tough night for several guys, including Briggs Danner who got swept up in a crash. And Brady Bacon and Kevin Thomas Jr. were well down the order, each suffering issues. Kyle Cummins picked up his third straight top two finish, and we go into the next three nights at Ocala with him out front of the championship. The rest of the USAC sprint car nights will be live over on Flo.

In recent days, I had an email from a show watcher wanting to know what the situation was with Max McLaughlin. We haven't seen Mad Max at all in 2025, and they wanted to know what his status was. Max obviously a multi-time winner in big block modifieds, but he spent 2024 out full time with the World of Outlaws late models. He joined up with GR Smith for the year, and at times looked really solid, even though he'd never raced late models previously. He won an Outlaw prelim at Talladega and a Summer Nationals feature at Quincy. By seasons' end though, he was out after an 11th place finish in the standings, and the ride was taken by Drake Troutman. Late in the year though, McLaughlin was announced as the driver for a new dirt late model team with Niece Motorsports. Niece had previously run scattered late model shows with Ross Chastain and Carson Hocevar, but this new deal sounded bigger. They weren't going to run a tour, but instead quote "chase after some of the most prestigious races on the calendar." They ran the Flo series finale at Senoia in November, with a feature DNF the first night, and a B-Main exit the second. We haven't seen that team since. Late last night though, McLaughlin posted a video to his Facebook page sharing that he is now effectively out of a ride. The Niece team had a primary sponsor back out, and Max said they now don't have the funds to go racing. He's left with nothing on his schedule for 2025. In the meantime, he's working on some business stuff and trying to figure out what's next. Besides the late model wins he had last season, Max also has a bunch of career wins in modifieds, including at DIRTcar Nationals, and with both the Super DIRTcar Series and Short Track Super Series. He's also made scattered appearances on pavement, including in NASCAR divisions, plus starts against the World of Outlaws sprint cars and at the Chili Bowl. As many racers have found out through the years, the harsh reality is there isn't any racing without funding. He's a talented driver though, and I can't imagine he'll be completely rideless for long.

If you want other racing this weekend, you do have a few options. USCS 360 sprint cars are at Southern Raceway Friday and Saturday. And the USAC CRA sprint cars open their 2025 season at Perris Friday and Saturday. RJ Johnson the defending champion of that series. You can keep up with your streaming options over the next few days at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.

That's the Daily show for today and for this week. Thanks as always for tuning in, wherever you do so. Whether that's on YouTube, Facebook, or the podcast places. New here lately you can watch the full video version of the show on Spotify as well.

Hope you guys have a great Thursday out there, we'll see you back here on Sunday!