DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Sprint car world lights up over hot High Limit finish, watch controversy | Daily 5-13-2025

High Limit puts on a Monday banger at Kokomo, but the community is up in arms over a driver wearing a watch in the car. Plus racing tonight, a modified series schedule update, and more. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, May 13th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

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One hell of a finish last night with the Kubota High Limit sprint cars at Kokomo Speedway. Justin Peck dominated the feature from the outside front row starting spot, leading 39 of 40 laps. As they say though, the only one that matters is the last one. And that one was led by Rico Abreu. A shell shocked looking Peck told Tony LaPorta he ran three and four low to block the slider line, but that left the top wide open, which Rico ripped hard, and the 24 was able to nip the 26 at the line by a tenth of a second. Rico was able to erase the nearly full second lead Peck had over the final few circuits. It was really fun watching two guys known for driving the absolute crap out of their race cars weaving through lap traffic, and I think Peck was probably the faster of the two. He had the fastest lap time of the race, and the fastest average lap time. It was a bit surprising to see Peck change his game plan there down the stretch, because he'd had so much success ripping the top through much of that main event. It got him the initial lead from Rico, and he used it regularly to clear traffic. Definitely a tough beat though for the 26 team, and one I'm sure they will be replaying a lot in the coming days. Behind those two, Brad Sweet again on a High Limit podium in third, Tyler Courtney was fourth, and Brady Bacon with a solid top five. Kyle Larson the night's hard charger going 17th to sixth. Yung Money will be in his third different type of race car in three days, going from Cup on Sunday at Kansas, to High Limit last night, to Indy 500 practice today. Back to Rico, he and crew chief Ricky Warner have really hit on something here lately. In their last seven sprint car races, going back to the World of Outlaws race at Knoxville, they've won five times. This is reminiscent of when they really got rolling during the summer of 2023, when they had 21 straight top tens, and won three of four between the Outlaws at the Grove and the All Stars at Knoxville. Not a bad time of the year to start figuring it out either, with more High Limit cash coming up, including the Weikert at Port Royal later this month. The High Limit teams are off today to do some maintenance and travel, and then the schedule has them at Fremont tomorrow for another midweek show.

Now, on to the other storyline last night, and that was my mentions, text messages, and DMs lighting up over Rico wearing a watch during the race. He could be seen checking it during his interview post-win with TLP. According to both the High Limit and World of Outlaws rulebooks, which are nearly word-for-word the same, smart watches are not to be worn. The rule specifically reads quote "Cellular, satellite and/or Wi-Fi devices in or attached to the race vehicle or the driver’s person will not be permitted. No cellular phones or smart watches are permitted at any time" unquote. Rico certainly not the first driver to be spotted wearing a watch, and many supposedly wear them for fitness tracking and physical performance reasons. Why smart watches are illegal though, is they can be used for communication between crew members and the drivers. I have a pretty hard time believing a driver could read messages or feel vibrations while the race was going on, but caution periods are a different story. We've seen sweeps for various types of illegal communication at the Chili Bowl and Eldora late model special events. And one of Brian Brown's crew members was penalized following World Finals last year for trying to signal to him using a laser pointer. In dirt late model racing, there are varying takes on signaling using sticks and colored gloves. In sprint car racing, there is nothing in the rule books preventing that type of lofi signaling. The High Limit book has no verbiage at all, while the Outlaw book says specifically it's permitted. In this case, I don't know where we draw the line between fitness tracker and quote unquote smart watch. Sprint Car Unlimited's Jeremy Elliott shared he asked High Limit's competition director Mike Hess about Rico's watch, and was told Rico brought it to them ahead of using it, and was cleared because it didn't have any communication features. I texted Hess this morning for comment, but have not gotten a response. We obviously live in a world where everything is a conspiracy, and if someone is winning, it's clearly because they are cheating. But if Rico has approval from officials, I don't really know where that leaves those who are suspicious. You'd certainly think that if he was using it for illegal or nefarious purposes, he'd do a better job of trying to hide it. But if it's not actually a smart watch, then it's not illegal by the way the book reads. There are all sorts of watches on the market that would fit that description. Things obviously get muddy by the way the rule reads, because a smart watch and a fitness tracker look basically the same, especially on a stream. And at a point where armchair officials are looking for anything untoward, they are going to latch onto something like we saw last night. It might be easier to just outlaw any sort of device like this, to avoid the situations at all, but making that rules decision is above my pay grade. Rico certainly didn't need a smart watch message last night to be beat the 26. Peck went low, so he went high. It was a split second choice we've seen drivers make for decades.

Looking ahead to tonight, the FloRacing Night in America Series is back racing after running three times last week for Illinois Speedweek. Bobby Pierce won at LaSalle, Jonathan Davenport took Spoon River, and Devin Moran was victorious at Lincoln. Tonight racing shifts to Marshalltown Speedway in Iowa. Marshalltown returing to the Flo series slate after not being on the schedule in 2024. Hudson O'Neal won here in 2023 when he was still in the Rocket house car. Pierce currently the series championship leader, with Brian Shirley and Ricky Thornton Jr. in tow. Marshalltown a favorite race track for a lot of folks, and they have a robust weekly program that features IMCA action on Friday nights. Tonight's race should draw plenty of Lucas guys, with that series headed for Eagle Raceway in Nebraska later this week and the three nights of the High Bank Heist. World of Outlaws teams that want to race will then have to hustle back to Ohio for Thursday's action at Raceway 7.

We were also supposed to have the Super DIRTcar Series racing tonight at Georgetown Speedway, but the big block modified racers will have to wait, as weather has forced the postponement of today's action. No makeup date was announced. The SDS races next at Weedsport on May 25th.

That's all for today. Hope you guys have a great Wednesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!