DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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You're one of the best teams in the country, and you're SLOW. What next? | Daily 3-25-2025

Coming up, one man's dirt racing trash is another's dirt racing treasure, plus things get worse at I-70, and the ups and downs in big time sprint car racing aren't for the faint of heart. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, March 25th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

Today's Daily show is being supported by BAPS Motor Speedway and SprintCarUnlimited.TV. Coming up this Sunday, BAPS will kick off an expanded 410 sprint car schedule with the first of 11 races. Sunday's program will feature some of the best sprint car teams in Central Pennsylvania, joined by the 358 sprint car competitors. If you can't get to the track, watch it all live on SprintCarUnlimited.tv. The rest of the 2025 season at BAPS will feature ten more 410 sprint car shows, including Pennsylvania Speedweek in June, and the World of Outlaws in July. All races, except the World of Outlaws event, will be included in the track championship. And new this year, the BAPS point fund has been grown to $20,000. The champion will earn $5000, and additional money has been added for drivers finishing fourth on down. It was important to track GM Kolten Gouse to make sure they were taking care of their smaller teams, as well as the top drivers. Head over to bapsmotorspeedway.com to see the full schedule, and if you want to watch each of the ten championship races live, including this Sunday, plus the PA Speedweek show, the Kevin Gobrecht Classic, and the season finale Sprint Showdown in November, you can do that all season long on SprintCarUnlimited.TV.

Back on Saturday at Port Royal for their season opener, Anthony Macri got around Brock Zearfoss inside ten to go and drove on to the victory. In the story of Macri's 2025 season, this feels like it could be a pivotal moment. This Port race was one that Macri wasn't even originally scheduled to be at. When the team shared their 2025 slate back in January, they had planned on racing with the World of Outlaws through the Arrowhead Speedway weekend in early April before heading back to Central PA. But the opening six weeks of the season had not gone well for Macri and the 39M team, and they were looking for a change. From Volusia in February, through Magnolia in March, the team raced nine times and picked up just two top ten finishes. Their average finish over that stretch was an incredibly pedestrian 16.9. That span included five finishes outside the top 15. Even a trip home to PA to run the Icebreaker at Lincoln wasn't exactly what they were looking for. Lincoln a track that Macri has won at a lot, including with the Outlaws, but all they could manage in that race was 10th. The 39M was in the midst of one of their worst runs of performances in a couple of years. This team is usually one of the top sprint car teams in the country, and won 15 races in 2024. At Kennedale in Texas with the Outlaws a few weeks ago, Macri and crew chief Joe Mooney decided they'd had enough. Macri shared with Jeremy Elliott they pulled down their second car in the trailer and went racing with it instead. The car they had been using was one that had previously been repaired, and maybe something wasn't right with it. Things were immediately better. Macri went quicktime on that Friday and finished eighth after a dash appearance. He backed it up with another top ten on Saturday. And then instead of staying on the road, the team came back home to PA and really got the boost they were looking for, driving from seventh on the starting grid to the victory. Macri admitted to Jeremy that things were looking really down, and that this Port race felt like a must-win situation. It's an interesting illustration of how quickly things can go south and how difficult this game is. The 39M wasn't terrible against the Outlaws in those early races, they had some decent speed in qualifying, and were heat racing okay. It would have been enough to fool the team into thinking maybe things were okay with the car. But then the speed just wasn't there in the features. Now though, to see what they've done in three races on a different car, clearly that other piece has some problems, and that was what was hurting them. That's a mind frick and a half. You hear all the time about drivers having favorite cars, and that even off the same jigs, certain cars are just better than others. And with a repaired piece, who knows if maybe something isn't quite straight, or now it doesn't flex the same. But it's easy to see why teams can get into these pits of despair and it can be tough to find their way out. I'd put good money down that these three races, between Kennedale and Port, will be a significant turning point in the year for Macri and Mooney.

Updating a story we talked about yesterday, the news at I-70 Speedway in Missouri continues to not look good. Yesterday we discussed the track losing Casey Shuman to Lucas Oil Speedway, and I said the schedule there for 2025 was in doubt. And just hours later, POWRi announced their slate of races at I-70 for 2025 are now off. They were supposed to be at I-70 on April 6th and September 13th with their winged 410 sprint car series, and September 6th with WAR, but in a release, the sanctioning body said they are now actively looking for alternative venues to host those events. Both winged shows were scheduled to be $10,000 to win features. The only reason given in the release for the cancellations was quote "unforeseen facility circumstances." I believe the only other known event on the 2025 schedule for I-70 is USAC National Sprint Cars, also in September. But that September USAC date is the same as the WAR event, so that was clearly a co-sanction, and I'd say the loss of POWRi isn't a good sign for that race either. We'll stay tuned on what USAC decides to do with that race. You can see the I-70 release over at POWRi.com.

One last thing today, I did get tagged in this Brownstown Speedway Facebook post yesterday. I have no idea if this is real or not, but I don't have any reason to believe otherwise. The track though posting this photo with the caption "Free tires!!! Come get em." The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series was at the Indiana race track on Saturday night, and I think the assumption here is that these were left by the Lucas teams in attendance. Teams leaving behind old tires is always a point of contention, and it usually draws the ire of track folks in the aftermath of really any racing. It seems as though it wouldn't be a difficult thing though to come up with some sort of tire recycling setup so these aren't just left next to a dumpster. What I will say though, is if you are a racer, I'd be seeking these tracks out after national tour events. Because there is a lot of still very good rubber sitting there that could be had for free. At a couple of hundred bucks a tire, there is a few thousand dollars worth of Hoosiers sitting there next to that dumpster. Back last year I did a Daily show about sprint car driver Trey Osborne, and him loading his truck up with tires after a big race at Eldora. For budget racers, where there is a will there is a way. I haven't seen an update, but 24 hours later, I'd bet that pile is gone.

That's your Daily show for today. Don't forget you have a bunch of options when it comes to tuning in to these episodes. If you're around the house or scrolling your phone, you can watch on YouTube and Facebook. Or if you are out and about, maybe at work, or mowing the lawn, you can also listen in across podcast platforms. The Daily is available on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio and more. You can also read the Daily over at dirtrackr.com/daily. So tune in and subscribe wherever it's easiest for you.

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