DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Some curious Jonathan Davenport photos and why this area of a late model matters | Daily 2-19-2025

Jonathan Davenport was super fast during speedweeks, and it seems as though some of his competition is digging deep to try and find out why. Come along for the journey today as we show you the evidence of what they found, and why it matters. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, February 19th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

Real quick, I know we are in a bit of a dirt racing lull at the moment, but things will start picking up here soon. If you need to get a FloRacing subscription for 2025, and you want to help out DIRTRACKR at no additional cost to you, sign up over at dirtrackr.com/floracing. Flo is home to a ton of big dirt racing series and events, and they've also got plenty of paved racing, drag stuff, plus action sports like snocross. I've been a paid Flo subscriber since 2020 myself. So dirtrackr.com/floracing, or you can click the link below in the video description, or the FloRacing links at dirtrackr.com.

I'm going to warn you off the top today, we are going down a rabbit hole. I was sent some photos, there are some interesting late model tech things being talked about a few different places, and some of this might not come off as super rational. You'll see why in a bit. But there are a few different angles to take on this topic today, and the more pulled back view is it's an interesting illustration of how motorsports is at certain levels. In the context of dirt late model racing, and we've talked about this very recently, there are a handful of guys who are just faster than everyone else right now. If you are a competitor of theirs, the natural question then is going to be what do they have that we don't. And in the cloak and dagger world of late model racing, where teams cover the rear of the cars, and boards are used to cover wheel openings in the pit areas, and endless test sessions (sometimes secret), it might not always be easy to try and discover those things. In Formula 1 and NASCAR for example, it's not outside the bounds for teams to spy on each other. Employees get poached for information, and photographers with high resolution cameras and big lenses getting every possible angle of cars in the pits, on track, and sometimes after crashes so teams can go over them with fine-toothed combs. Those photos can reveal car attitudes, suspension geometry, and other important details. So does this type of spying happen at this level of racing? Well, the answer is obviously yes. Some of it happens the same as I just mentioned with F1 and NASCAR. Sometimes though, it doesn't even need to be that direct. A lot of photographers have websites where they sell their work, and anyone can go peruse the offerings. A buyer like me, I'm looking for things to use on these shows and to post on social media. Maybe a racer buys to see what their rivals have under the hood. And this takes me to where this all started. Recently I was sent some photos of a top dirt late model team's car on track, and these photos sparked some discussion. And that discussion was had in a relatively public forum, and involved some other racers. I'm not going to share exactly what I was sent because they aren't my images, but I did find something very comparable. Obviously we are coming off of a speedweeks where Jonathan Davenport was very fast, and it would seem as though some rivals have his car under a microscope. Thanks to photographer Chris Anderson's website, he shot a lot of speedweeks races, I found this photo he took of Davenport's car at Volusia. At first glance, it seems like a fairly inocuous shot. But this angle is very similar to what I was sent, and the area to focus on is the bottom of the car, underneath the number. This area right here. What can be seen, or maybe not seen, is the part of Davenport's car under scrutiny. I ran this shot through Photoshop, and did some crazy stuff on it to see if we could get the area to pop out a little more. This shiny area, that maybe looks like it's filled in a bit, has folks wondering if this is maybe some aerodynamic manipulation. Me doing this Photoshop to a zoomed in photo is where a bit of that irrationality comes in. I'm doing it to talk about the situation, others though are doing this exact same thing looking for answers and maybe some speed. This could also be ammunition to take to rules makers to get things banned. Yes, that happens also. Sometimes the best policing officials can do is to let rivals turn each other in. The unified dirt late model rules have some very specific clauses about not allowing aero manipulation with panels and bits under the car, but there are some things allowed for protecting certain parts and pieces using quote "deflectors." This specific part of the chassis might be murky as well in the rules, since it's underneath the driver. This under-car area matters, because these chassis are not great for air movement. A friend that works in aerodynamics in NASCAR told me these cars are very inefficient underneath, because of the nature of all the bars and cage pieces. Making the air move more cleanly through here would have at least some benefit. And with the attitude of a dirt late model, with the left rear so high up at speed, all the air under the car is going to exit out the left and towards the rear. So smoothing areas, or cleaning things up would be helpful. Is that what the Landers team is doing here? It's tough to say for sure just from these photos. They are obviously not super definitive. Again, the irrationality of this endeavor. In a screenshot I was sent though, one driver commented they were told to quote "remove it for 2025." The "it" being whatever this piece is that's in question, so maybe that is confirmation there is something going on. But for some comparison, here is a photo of the Rocket house car that I've also manipulated a bit. The chassis being blue helps out the visuals, but in a very similar photo and angle, you don't see a smoothed out area. I looked around at a lot of other cars as well, and I can't seem to find anything or another car that resembles what we are potentially seeing here on the 49. It doesn't mean others aren't doing whatever "it" could be, but it's not as obvious if they are. Just like with the Paul Silva qualifying wing situation we saw at Volusia, there are things to spot from time to time if we know where to look. And that doesn't just go for people making YouTube videos like me. These discussions are being had by drivers and team people at this exact moment. And some in fairly public places online. It does seem a bit crazy to be investigating and scrutinizing pixelated areas of dark race cars, but I can certainly see and understand why it goes on.

One schedule note for you as we wrap up, this weekend's Southern All Stars late model trip to Buckshot Speedway has been postponed because of cold weather. They are looking for a makeup date for the $5000 to win race, and hope to announce that soon. Unfortunately, this early in the season, it's going to be very hit or miss on whether or not these races actually happen or not. If you are planning on attending events over the next several weeks, make sure to check in advance that things are still on. As long as they don't get cancelled, we will walk on tomorrow's show about some of the other racing coming up this weekend.

Alrighty, we will call it there for today. If you want more dirt racing content, make sure to follow DIRTRACKR across social media. Wherever you are, so is DIRTRACKR. Just search D-I-R-T-R-A-C-K-R on your favorite platform. I'm always posting photos, show links, short videos, and more.

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