DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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An experimenting chassis builder and veteran driver walk into a track together | Daily 2-24-2025

Chase Dietz comes out firing with his new deal in Central PA, the Hunt the Front roster grows yet again, and we'll talk about a curious pairing that could be a serious darkhorse this season in dirt late model racing. Let's go!

It's Monday, February 24th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

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Sprint car racing for the year is now officially on in Central Pennsylvania with yesterday's Icebreaker at Lincoln Speedway kicking things off. I saw a comment here or there about yesterday's car count with 28 officially signed in. Those comments pointing towards there being "only" 28 cars there. It was actually the most sprint cars they've had for the Icebreaker since 2022 though. We had a bunch of the usual suspects, plus a few travelers like Parker Price Miller and Zeth Sabo. It was also the first appearance of the year for Brent Marks before he begins his High Limit season, and Anthony Macri was in attendance in between trips to Volusia with the World of Outlaws. It ended up being a big day though for Chase Dietz, who was making his debut with the Stehman team. Stehman parted ways with driver Devon Borden later in 2024, and Dietz was hired as his replacement for 2025. Justin Whittall made some late season starts in the 23 as well. The team also grabbed crew chief Tommy Carl from the Zemco squad, with that long-running car appearing to now be gone with the Zemaitis family selling their business and pulling back. It seems like both were good moves. Dietz started on the pole, fell back early, but then drove back to the front and around Danny Dietrich inside ten to go. He earned win number one on the season, and his 11th career victory at Lincoln. Dietrich finished second, with defending track champion Troy Wagaman Jr. going seventh to third. Marks ended up fourth, with Aaron Bollinger hard charging from 15th to fifth. I said last week that I thought this could be a really tough season in Posseland, and Dietz establishing himself early as a contender will put more pressure on some of the other names. Dietz and Stehman aren't chasing any track championships this year, but they seem poised to be a problem at all the good paying races. Dietz has been very solid the last few seasons, he just hasn't yet had a real breakout season yet. You wonder if he can jump up and have a double digit win season like we've seen from a Dietrich, Macri, or Rahmer. I was a bit surprised that Macri didn't run a little bit better in yesterday's feature. He finished 10th. Things started well at DIRTcar Nationals with a top ten on the first night, but didn't get better from there. I'm sure it won't be long though before Joe Mooney has that thing tuned up and Macri is knocking off race wins. David Gravel was the only driver with more 410 sprint car wins than Macri last season. If you're a 410 sprint car fan, things will really start to ramp up now for 2025. Later this week we've got three nights for the Elite Outlaw Series in Texas, Lincoln back again on Saturday, and the Outlaws return to Volusia for Bike Week on Sunday and Monday.

Jumping back to last week, last Thursday to be specific. I ran through the list of Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series full timers. Things were sitting at 11 with Kade Loudy, Mario Gresham, Zack Mitchell, Dillard Hatchett, Oakley Johns, Payton Freeman, Cory Hedgecock, Josh Putnam, Luke Morey, Christian Hanger, and Joseph Joiner all on the list. Since then, they've also added Sam Seawright and Michael Page. Those two will run as teammates after Page was Seawright's crew chief on tour a season ago, while also racing part time. Seawright the highest finishing championship driver who will be back this year from 2024. He finished third behind Brandon Overton and Ashton Winger, who are both national tour drivers this season. Seawright joins Mitchell, Hedgecock, Freeman, and Joiner in the group of guys I think have a real shot at the $50,000 title. There are a handful of other drivers rumored to be joining this series as well, so look for more announcements in the coming days. My prediction of 15 or more full timers is very much in play here.

Another addition we know about for Hunt the Front because of a team announcement yesterday, is Ross Bailes. He's joining up with AK Race Cars and Austin Kirkpatrick to take on the full schedule this year. We saw this pairing debut together during the Wild West Shootout at Vado, and they showed some speed through the week. They started up front in the Friday show before suffering some misfortune, and finished top ten on the final Saturday. They started up front at Screven as well during Winter Freeze, but had some bad luck, and got caught up in a big crash. Kirkpatrick is a guy we've seen only make a handful of starts each season as a driver, but if you've watched his YouTube channel at all, you know he's not afraid to experiment and draw outside the lines. I've spotlighted quite a few examples of guys building their own dirt late model chassis these days, and AK is another in this vein. His video from a while back on his straight axle car that got banned is approaching 600,000 views. If you haven't watched that, check it out. He built a dirt late model with some unique suspension pieces that ended up getting banned by the big tours right as he was starting to have some success with it. He also did a video late last year about taking his dirt late model to Anderson Speedway where the Southern All Stars did a pavement race. He shares some interesting data acquisition stuff in that one. I like that he's not afraid to try some different approaches, and in a world where so much in late model racing is secret, he's also not afraid to share. I'm looking forward to seeing what he and Bailes can do this year. Bailes has won with both national tours, and has a bunch of regional victories around the southeast. These guys could be a darkhorse pick with Hunt the Front, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them win some races. The Hunt the Front season gets rolling again on March 8th at I-75 for $20,000 to win.

That is your Daily show for today. If you want more, make sure to check out dirtrackr.com. There you can find all the past episodes of this show in both audio and written form, along with the conversations episodes we've done. There is also updated news, the analytics section, the archive for past Slider issues, and a lot more. So check out dirtrackr.com each day for fresh stuff.

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