DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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So which shocks were REALLY on Jonathan Davenport's car? | Daily 5-12-2025
Coming up I've got an update on this Jonathan Davenport shock situation, plus Max Blair's incredible weekend, High Limit at Kokomo, and much more. Let's go!
It's Monday, May 12th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
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I want to start today off with an update on the Jonathan Davenport stuff we talked about on the Sunday show. If you didn't watch that one, after winning at Fairbury on Saturday night with Lucas, Davenport called out Penske Shocks in his victory lane interview, not once, but twice. It was strange because it happened twice, and Davenport's Longhorns are usually on Bilsteins. Very early on Sunday morning, around 1:45 AM, Davenport posted a correction to social media, but it sure was a curious situation. Was the car really on Penskes and Davenport blurted it out, and then later tried to cover his tracks, or was it a legit mistake. Since that show, I've had some emails, some messages, and did a little digging. Gavin Landers, who is obviously part of Davenport's team, with Lance Landers the owner, commented on the Facebook version of the Sunday Daily show that it was indeed a slip, and that the car is still on Bilsteins. We certainly appreciate his input on that. I also went looking through photos to see if we could spot anything from the last few days. Depending on the angle and the lighting, you can sometimes peak underneath the car and see what's on it, especially on that left rear. I couldn't spot anything from Josh James, Ryan Roberts, or Heath Lawson. There is a Brendon Bauman photo though from Thursday at Lincoln where you can clearly see a Bilstein logo on the shock underthe car. That's certainly not evidence that it wasn't a Penske at Fairbury, but given what we've heard from Davenport and Landers, and that it was Bilsteins at Lincoln, I do find it a bit of a stretch to think they'd change two nights later. I guess they could have put Bilstein stickers on Penskes, but that seems far fetched as well. I think we can probably put that part to bed. What this JD slip situation did do though, was draw some attention to some of these relationships, and there are some interesting rumors and rumblings about Longhorn, Bilstein, and Kevin Rumley floating around. Nothing is confirmed, but this late model shock space, especially around Longhorn, will be an area to watch as the season progresses. It's difficult to get to the top of this game, but it's probably even harder to stay on top. I don't envy Steve Arpin, or Mark Richards, or Rumley, or the Wells, or any of these builders. Every race there is going to be one happy customer, and 23 unhappy customers. Stay tuned.
It's another busy week of dirt racing, and if Mother Nature plays nice, we should have big time shows every day. That starts tonight with the Kubota High Limit sprint cars at Kokomo. With previous races at Texarkana 67 and 81 Speedway lost to weather, tonight's Kokomo race will kick off the midweek championship series for High Limit. Remember they have this series within a series. For the season long title, Brad Sweet had his points lead basically halved after getting caught up in that crash Friday night at Lakeside, but a bounceback second place finish on Saturday pushed it back to 49 points. He leads Tyler Courtney, Brent Marks, Rico Abreu, and Aaron Reutzel. The pre-entry list for tonight's show that the series posted last night shows 28 cars. I wouldn't be surprised to see that grow past 30 by the time everything is said and done tonight. All the High Limit regulars, plus Kyle Larson back in the sprint car fresh off the Cup win on Sunday at Kansas. Also listed are Emerson Axsom, Brady Bacon, Corey Day who won at Tri-City, and Cory Eliason. And after losing his deal in the Shark Racing 1A after just three races, Cale Thomas has been driving the Beaver 12X, and is again listed for tonight. He made both features this past weekend, and was actually quick time at Tri-City. Mechanical issues though knocked him from both main events. This will be the third trip to Kokomo for the series, with Justin Peck winning in 2023 when High Limit was just a midweek series, and Tyler Courtney won there last year. Kokomo has been working on adding new grandstands since last season ended, and things weren't quite finished for the USAC Midget Kokomo GP a few weeks ago. Fans had to hang out in the stands on the backstretch for those race nights. Good news though, those new stands on the front straightaway are open for today's action. I'm sure they'd be happy to sell you a seat in them. After tonight, these teams will have Tuesday off, and then they'll be right back to it on Wednesday with a stop at Fremont.
Updating a story we talked about last week, in recent days Cody Sommer and his DRT late model team named Dylan Thornton the driver of their car at the Dirt Late Model Dream at Eldora coming up. Thornton is a past winner at the IMCA Super Nationals in multiple divisions, and is a regular competitor in late models, and IMCA modifieds. The California-born driver made his World of Outlaws Late Model Series debut last weekend at Mississippi Thunder Speedway, and I don't believe he's ever competed at Eldora. He picked up a SLMR East series win on Saturday night at Stuart Speedway driving for Ricky Kay. Sommer debuted his DRT chassis brand at Eldora during World 100 week last September, driving the car himself. The design has been tested as well by Nick Hoffman, and it looks as though they are built in Hoffman's shop in North Carolina. We are just about three weeks away from the Dream at Eldora. Action starts Wednesday, June 4th with the Floracing Night in America Series, and then the 31st Dream starts Thursday, June 5th.
In Sunday racing results, Kaleb Johnson was a first time 410 sprint car winner, bagging the season opener at Huset's. He rolled by leader Austin McCarl in lap traffic with five to go, and then held off a charge Ryan Timms to the checkered. Johnson went ninth to the win, and Timms 16th to second. Don't tell me there's no passing in sprint car racing. Johnson, now driving for Dennis Gainey and Team DGRD, was the track champion at Huset's last season, but never won a race. He did pickup a 360 Knoxville Nationals prelim win last year driving for Gainey, and was an MSTS winner back in 2022. Nice to get that first one out of the way. I'm sure there will be more coming. Third place finishing Scott Winters also with a big charge, going 12th to third.
And how about Max Blair this weekend. Went to Eriez yesterday and won both the super late model feature and the RUSH feature. That made his win total five for the three days. That included both of yesterday's wins, plus a super late model victory Friday at Tri-City, and a sweep of the super and RUSH features Saturday at Stateline. Blair currently sits ninth in the World of Outlaws standings, and this could be a good week for some good runs on tour. They race Thursday through Sunday in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and these will be tracks he knows well.
That's the show for today. Hope you guys have a great Monday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!