DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Who was up for the seat, other ride news, are unsanctioned races good? | Daily 4-10-2025
Jacob Allen officially chooses his replacement, and we'll tell you who else was up for the job. Plus Landon Crawley's new gig, Outlaws at Pevely, Illini 100, and we'll talk about whether unsanctioned races are good or bad for race tracks. Let's go!
It's Thursday, April 10th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
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We'll kick this final show of the week off with a few silly season updates. First, and this should come as no surprise if you are a regular around here, but Jacob Allen did indeed officially announce yesterday that Cale Thomas is the new driver of the Shark Racing 1A machine. The new pairing will make their debut this weekend against the World of Outlaws at Pevely. I know a lot of folks threw out names for possible replacements for Jacob after his retirement, and Zeb Wise was one that popped up a lot of places. Jeremy Elliott at Sprint Car Unlimited did report that Zeb was a finalist for the ride, and that he was called, but the team chose to got with Thomas instead. It seems like anyone involved in and around sprint car media these days gets asked regularly about Zeb's status, and I understand it's crazy to think a driver who was the All Star champion less than two years ago is still without a ride. I know there have been attempts to get Zeb from several different teams, but it's clear he's waiting for the right opportunity. I do think this ride with Shark and Jacob could have been that right chance, but I also don't hate this for Cale Thomas. Let's not forget he won eight times a year ago in Ohio, he's got a win on his resume with the All Stars, and top tens against the Outlaws. Do I expect him to go out and run top five this weekend at Pevely, of course not. But this will be a good opportunity to race a lot across different series and parts of the country. Jacob had originally planned a very aggressive schedule, which you can see right here, and I would bet that a slate of races similar to this will still be the plan. I was told previously Thomas and the 1A were going to debut in Central PA, but the weather there seems to have changed their minds. Going forward, I'd think we'll see that 1A machine a lot. As for what's possible this weekend, Thomas hasn't raced at Pevely with the Outlaws since 2021, but over his previous 12 starts there, made 10 features with a best finish of eighth in 2018.
On the Landon Crawley front, he departed the Michael Dutcher 17GP car earlier this week, and he wasn't off the market for long. I think it's clear the next deal was lined up for Crawley here before they made the decision to quit Dutcher's team. But as of this morning, Crawley is joining Johnny Herrera's 45X team, with that squad moving on from driver Jace Park. Herrera and Park joined up for the 2024 season, making appearances across the Outlaws, High Limit, POWRi, and more. Just seven top tens though in 49 starts, with a best finish of second that came on night two at the Hockett in September. Through four Outlaw shows in 2025, Park made three features, with a best run of 20th at Cotton Bowl. Crawley and the 45X will be another team debuting this weekend at Pevely against the Outlaws.
It has been a hot second since we saw the World of Outlaws sprint cars because of weather. The last completed race night was back on March 28th at Lawton Speedway. As a quick reset, David Gravel the championship leader with Carson Macedo trailing by 78 points and Logan Schuchart 88 back. Buddy Kofoid and Sheldon Haudenschild the rest of the top five. Gravel leads all drivers with five wins, and others with at least one victory include Kofoid, Kyle Larson, Gio Scelzi, Carson Macedo, Christopher Bell, and Bill Balog. Gravel leads in top fives and top tens, and has an insane average finish of 2.3 right now. Pevely hadn't typically been a super strong track for Gravel, but he had led laps there in the past before picking up a win back in the spring last year. Other recent winners at Pevely include Larson, Donny Schatz, Spencer Bayston, and Brad Sweet. With High Limit off and weather affecting some parts of the country, we should have a big field Friday and Saturday. We could get across 50 cars between the full time teams, and all the others coming to race. There are a few High Limit teams expected, including Aaron Reutzel, Rico Abreu, Justin Peck, Spencer Bayston, and Danny Sams. We also know Danny Dietrich is inbound, as is Chase Dietz, Brian Brown, Brady Bacon, and Kerry Madsen.
Elsewhere this weekend, there is a lot of other open wheel racing coming your way. That includes the USAC National Sprint Cars at Lincoln Park and Lawrenceburg. We haven't seen the USAC teams since Ocala way back in February. Kyle Cummins tied with Daison Pursley for the championship lead there. Pursley though running High Limit full time this season with Buch Motorsports, so likely not a serious threat for the title. Cummins, Pursley, Logan Seavey, Justin Grant, and Bacon all with victories so far in 2025. The USAC weekend continues on Sunday at Terre Haute with the Silver Crown opener. That one expected to draw north of 30 cars, which will include the debut of Ricky Thornton Jr. RTJ will be at Farmer City through Saturday in the late model, then to Terre Haute on Sunday.
In Ohio, as of just a few minutes ago as I write this, the All Star opener at Attica is rained out. The event will not be made up. I wonder if this might lead to an extra team or two heading for Pevely to race with the Outlaws. Up next for the All Stars is Fremont on April 26th.
Your other options include the ASCS National Tour at Salina on Saturday, the Mini Gold Cup at Chico that will feature 410s both Friday and Saturday night, with Saturday being NARC sanctioned. There is also USAC CRA, weekly action at various tracks and a lot more. To see everything coming up, hit the schedules at tjslideways.com or sprintcarratings.com.
If you want big time super late model action, it looks like most of the traveling teams will be split between the Illini 100 at Farmer City with the World of Outlaws, and the Spring Nationals at Lucas Oil Speedway. Bobby Pierce heads to Farmer City as the Outlaw championship leader with Ryan Gustin and Nick Hoffman tied behind him. Pierce and Hoffman split the Illini wins a year ago, and Pierce won the two previous Farmer City races before that. It's going to be very difficult to pick against the 32 this weekend. Other names coming in to challenge the series regulars include Ricky Thornton Jr., Brandon Sheppard will be in the Rocket house car, Devin Moran, Garrett Alberson, Tyler Erb, and others. Jimmy Owens is coming as well, which will keep his full time status intact as he continues to toe the line between the Outlaws and Hunt the Front. Farmer City will also feature the season debut for the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets. Cannon McIntosh will be looking for back-to-back titles with that series.
At Wheatland, the Spring Nationals pays $7000 to win Friday and $20,000 to win on Saturday. This one is unsanctioned this season after previously being a staple on the MLRA calendar. The MLRA though is no more after 2024. Drivers headed this direction include a few Lucas series regulars like Jonathan Davenport, Hudson O'Neal, and Carson Ferguson. Cade Dillard will be back in his late model at this one, plus Mike Marlar, and Chad Simpson. I am a bit surprised more Lucas guys aren't hitting this one up given that the Show-Me 100 is next month. Big money there, plus the Diamond Nationals in July.
Other late model action this weekend includes $50,000 to win for 602s with XR at Fayetteville. A number of southeastern based teams headed for that one. There are also unsanctioned super races at Volunteer Speedway and East Alabama. I'll be curious to see how these unsanctioned shows do, including Wheatland. It's obviously good for tracks to run unsanctioned in certain cases, because they aren't paying fees to a series. But the question becomes can they draw enough big time cars to get the fans to show up. The good thing about scheduling those series is your are guaranteed at least a certain number of cars and drivers, which you can sell to your fans in advance. But the pre-race release for the Spring Nationals at Lucas Oil just mentions Davenport and Chad Simpson. Is that enough to get fans to buy tickets and watch on FloRacing? I guess we'll see. It makes me wonder why with no MLRA and a gap in the Lucas schedule, why the Spring Nationals didn't just become a third national event. The same people own the track and the series after all. I have the same unsanctioned event thoughts for Voluteer and East Alabama. Neither of those two tracks have advertised a single driver incoming for their two races on their social media accounts.
That's the show for this week. To get even more from DIRTRACKR, make sure to check us out on Patreon, Facebook, and TikTok among others. Fresh content and dirt racing discussions happening all the time on those platforms.
Hope you guys have a great Thursday out there, we'll see you back here on Sunday!