DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Infinity converts another Longhorn customer, can this dirt track thrive again? | Daily 5-20-2025

Wells Motorsports converts another Longhorn customer to their Infinity Chassis brand, plus we'll talk good news and bad news for two race tracks, High Limit at Grandview tonight, and more. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, May 20th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

If you haven't yet gotten a FloRacing subscription for 2025, this would be a good week to jump in. High Limit tonight, USAC later this week, plus the Show-Me 100, Weikert Memorial at Port Royal, and a whole lot more. You can sign up and help out DIRTRACKR at no additional cost to you, by heading over to dirtrackr.com/floracing. Flo is home to a ton of big dirt racing series and events all season long, and they've also got plenty of paved racing, drag stuff and more. And you can explore an entire world of other sports and events as well through the other FloSports verticals. So dirtrackr.com/floracing, or you can click the link below in the video description, or the FloRacing links at dirtrackr.com.

If you are keeping tabs at home on the dirt late model chassis movement, it looks like Infinity has picked up another previous Longhorn customer. Camaron Marlar posted a photo to Facebook in recent days showing the Infinity logo on his car's spoiler. This one feels a bit inevitable with brother Mike having already made the switch. Camaron though runs a much smaller schedule. He's only made seven appearances this season, with a best finish of sixth. That came a little over a week ago against the Southern All Stars at Lake Cumberland. Besides the Marlars, Infinity's current roster also includes Ryan Gustin, Tyler Bruening, Dillon McCowan, and Tristan Chamberlain among some other regional guys as well. Wells and Infinity making some inroads with previous Longhorn teams, which makes sense given they used to be a Longhorn dealer. Those connections and relationships can be leveraged while they build out their own brand. Isn't it funny to watch this stuff though. Infinity clearly converting some Longhorn guys, but at the same time we see Bobby Pierce, Ricky Thornton Jr., Jonathan Davenport, and others dominating in Horns. And Tim McCreadie looks like a different guy in one. It's an interesting illustration of the chase for speed. Mike Marlar came hot out of the gate in his new Infinity, but he's regressed just a bit in recent races. Ryan Gustin though with a pair of weekend World of Outlaws top fives.

In recent days the future for one seemingly abandonded dirt track got a little bit brighter. West Virginia Motor Speedway hasn't hosted any racing since 2023, and the track was listed for sale in October that year. Since then it's sat quiet, with just a single social media post in the spring of 2024 announcing there wouldn't be any racing at the facility for the season. Back on Thursday though came the news that Mike and Becky Hurley have acquired the track, and are hoping to host events later this summer. WVMS, which is about two hours south and east of Columbus, Ohio, is a bit of a throwback to a different time in dirt racing, given it's size. And the big 5/8 mile layout was likely a major factor in it's more recent demise. Trying to draw cars and events to a track hard on engines, and hard on cars when you crash, is a tall task. The last Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series event there in 2023 only drew 25 super late models. Knowing that, the Hurleys are planning to add a smaller, 3/8 mile layout utilizing part of the front straightaway and infield. They are going to maintain the bigger track as well though, in case there is demand for it. Mike Hurley told a local news outlet that they hope to have the small track finished by the second week of June, and for racing to begin in August. They would then plan a full slate of racing in 2025. In it's previous iteration under promoter Cody Watson, from 2021 to 2023, the track hosted Lucas late models, FAST sprint cars, Ironman late models, and AMA flat track motorcycles among other racing. You can keep up with the progress by finding West Virginia Motor Speedway on Facebook.

While it's good news for this West Virginia track, there is not great news for another. Pennsboro Speedway, which saw racing finally return in 2024, has cancelled it's first event of this season. The Outhouse 25, originally scheduled for this upcoming weekend, was set to feature the XR Super Series and ULMS late models, plus Ohio Valley SCDRA. According to a recent release though, no racing will happen because of damage to the facility that occured during a tough winter, plus construction delays and a wet spring. XR and Pennsboro have two more events on the schedule for 2025, a late August/early September $50,000 to win show for late models, and an August $75,000 to win race for late models.

It's always good to have a little midweek racing, and tonight it's the Kubota High Limit sprint cars in Pennsylvania. They take on Grandview Speedway for the third time in the series' history. Things in the championship have tightened significantly in recent races, with Brad Sweet suffering that Lakeside DNF, and then finishing outside the top ten at Ransomville. His lead is down to just 29 over Tyler Courtney. Remember the midweek races count towards both the season long title, but also a separate midweek championship. With just the one race complete so far, the Monday race at Kokomo, Rico Abreu leading that one very early on over Justin Peck and Brad Sweet. These Grandview races have been well supported the two previous years, and I think this is a stop on the schedule that will continue to be a staple for High Limit, alongside Port Royal. Brent Marks a winner at Grandivew in 2024, and Rico won the first race there back in 2023. The pre-entry list has 32 cars on it, with all the High Limit regulars, along with Posse guys, and a few scattered travelers. We will see Corey Day back in a second Jason Meyers 14, and Christopher Bell is back in the Kreitz 69K. Day already with two High Limit wins this season, although he's coming off a tough Kokomo race. Bell is fresh off that NASCAR All Star race win, and he's made five sprint car starts this season so far. That included four nights at DIRTcar Nationals with the Outlaws and one of the Texas High Limit races. He's got a win, and two total top fives. That 69K has had some bad luck this season with both Bell and Daryn Pittman in the seat at some of the races outside PA. They will certainly be looking for better tonight. This pre-entry list is missing Kyle Larson. He ran the first Grandview show in 2023, but didn't run last year. It's not super surprising given the busy schedule Yung Money has at the moment, between NASCAR commitments and another Indy 500 run. I think Marks and Rico are probably the two favorites going in, and I also like Sunshine with his history at Grandview and recent run of races.

As a quick sprint car aside, I've been toying with a driver rating system. It's been something I've wanted to do for a while, because I think it opens up some interesting and fun avenues for race and driver comparisons. And if it works well, it could easily be ported over to late models and some of the other series we cover with the analytics section. And this one uses a completely different methodology than what you see over at sprintcarratings.com for example. I combined all World of Outlaws and High Limit results going back to 2017 and did a first run of the system over the weekend. It shouldn't really come as a surprise that David Gravel, Kyle Larson, Carson Macedo, Brad Sweet, and Rico Abreu are the top five. It might surprise you though that the system does have Gravel just slightly ahead of Larson. We'll talk more about the system in the future, but I wanted to give just a little bit of a tease today.

That's the show for today. Don't forget, if you want even more dirt racing content, make sure to follow DIRTRACKR across social media. That means Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and more. Wherever you are, so is DIRTRACKR.

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