DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Paul Silva's unpainted qualifying wing: DIVERSION or SPEED? | Daily 4-16-2025

Paul Silva got plenty of people talking earlier this year when he bolted an unpainted wing on the 57 for qualifying sessions. But was it a diversion, or is it really providing speed? We'll look at some numbers and talk about a few more things that competitors have noticed. Plus sprint car ride swapping, and a lot more. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, April 16th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

Today's Daily show is being supported by Arrowhead Speedway in Oklahoma. Last year I called this place the nicest dirt track in America you don't know about. Coming up this Friday, they are hosting the Fujita 50. This event includes the Comp Cams Super Dirt Series for $15000 to win and $1500 to start, plus the All American Modified Series driven by McLarty Daniel Buick GMC for $2000 to win. This was a schedule change from the original Friday/Saturday show, so heads up on that. Strong fields will be in attendance for all divisions, and on the late model side that includes all the Comp Cams Super Dirt Series regulars, plus some other big names are expected. That includes Jonathan Davenport, Logan Seavey, new World of Outlaws winner Ethan Dotson, and Cade Dillard. If you can't make it to the track this weekend, check out the action over on Arrowvision at www.arrowvision.live. They are doing some things a bit different with their streaming service, for example, this weekend they are taking 25% of streaming revenue and paying it out to all series A-Main starters. Memberships to Arrowvision are free, and that includes access to all archived videos and previously broadcasted events. You can find more event information at arrowheadspeedway.com, and sign up for Arrowvision at www.arrowvision.live.

The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series is headed for Knoxville Raceway this coming weekend, and if you pay attention to the other coverage out there, you know that another big field of cars is expected to be in attendance. Last week at Pevely we had more than 60, and some estimates are saying we could be across 70 Friday and Saturday. High Limit is still off, so that certainly helps, and this will be the first chance for anyone to race at Knoxville in 2025. Even their weekly guys haven't hit the track yet. Teams will have a practice night Thursday, before racing Friday and Saturday. Even though conditions will be very different between April and August, everyone will want every bit of information they can get to be prepared for the Nationals. So all the Outlaw teams, High Limit guys, weekly regulars, and plenty of travelers. One of those extra guys expected to race is Kyle Larson. The NASCAR Cup Series is off this weekend, and Larson told Kevin Harvick earlier this week he's going to spend his off time at Knoxville in the Silva 57, before taking son Owen to Wrestlemania on Sunday. Still pretty early here in the season, Larson has made six, sorta seven, sprint car appearances, and he's already won three times. That included two victories at Volusia during DIRTcar Nationals, and the High Limit win at Tulare. Going back to Volusia and DCN, Larson and Silva drew plenty of attention with the unpainted qualifying wing that appeared on the car. On the first night at DCN, Larson had the normal wing on the car, and went third in his qualifying group. For the second night though, that unpainted wing was on the car for just hot laps and qualifying. For the final three nights with that wing, Larson was quick time in his group twice, and second the other night. The qualy wing was back for Las Vegas, again, two more quick times. Larson did not run the unpainted wing for Tulare, but did still go quickest, which also included that wild up on the bike moment. Not having the wing on at Tulare would seem to indicate that Silva is only going to use that piece for the big tracks, like he did at Volusia and Vegas, and I think it's a fair assumption to say that thing will be on the car at Knoxville. Back on February 9th, I did a show pointing out all the differences from that wing to a standard wing, which included different sideboard placement, variations in wing supports, a trimmed down wing belly, and a thinner leading edge on that center foil. It seemed clear that some just though Silva was messing with people using the unpainted wing, but there were clear differences. I've also had some friends in the pit area point out to me that the wing tree is aligned differently, which is hard to show in photos. Also, that qualifying wing doesn't have the wing adjuster hooked up to it. In this photo you can see it actually tied down to the top of the roll cage. Once the white wing goes back on, the adjuster is hooked back up. I've looked through a bunch of video this morning, and some photos, and I can't find other examples of cars where that slider ram isn't hooked up. If we look at Larson's qualifying stats, what we've seen this season is dramatically better than what he did in 2024. In 11 Outlaw races last year, he had just one quick time, and an average time trial spot of 11.3. Things better with High Limit, but still just one quick time, and an average of 6.23 in 16 races. This was clearly something they were looking at improving. In seven qualifying sessions this year, he has five quick times and an average position of 1.42. Those numbers are certainly hard to argue with. We'll see if that trend continues this weekend.

One other sprint car note for you, Tri City Raceway Park in Pennsylvania posted to social media last night that Tim Shaffer will be attendance for their race on Friday. What's notable, is that he's going to race the Michael Dutcher owned 17GP. That car was just recently vacated by Landon Crawley, who then moved over to replace Jace Park in the Johnny Herrera owned 45X. Shaffer hasn't yet raced in 2025, with his last appearances coming at World Finals driving a car for Bill Rose. The Steel City Outlaw spent much of 2024 in the Demyan Rudzik 49X, but that car will be driven this season by Trey Jacobs after Cale Thomas departed to take the Shark Racing 1A. A lot of musical chairs in this segment. No word on if this deal will continue past Friday, or if Shaffer has anything else lined up for this season.

Something on the late model side I noticed yesterday that I wanted to point out as well. Arkansas driver Tyler Stevens shared to social media that he just picked up a Longhorn from Mike Marlar. That car still has the gold 157 wrap on it, so it was clearly Marlar's car from earlier this season. We know in recent weeks that Marlar has swapped over to an Infinity chassis from Wells, and him selling this Longhorn makes me think he's decided the Infinity is the way forward. You don't get rid of the old car if you aren't sure about the new one. Since switching to the Infinity for Atomic, Marlar has finished 4th, 4th, 2nd, 4th, and 3rd in the new chassis. Stevens on the other hand was a Category 5 guy, and drove that chassis as recently as this past weekend during the Spring Nationals at Wheatland. Category 5 though no longer building new cars with Stormy Scott going back modified racing, and Jason Durham taking over as crew chief for Hudson O'Neal at SSI.

Before we shut it down, one schedule change for you. The Northern Allstars late models and modifieds were supposed to be at Paragon Speedway on Saturday, but because of impending weather, that show has been moved to Friday. The late model portion of that one pays $10,000 to win. Josh Rice has won the first two Northern Allstars events this season and leads the championship.

That's the show for today. If you are new around here, or just aren't a subscriber, maybe consider hitting that button on YouTube or the podcast places. You can also follow us on Facebook to get all the content. All of that is free to do, and doing so will keep you in the loop on all things dirt racing.

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