DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Reacting to Brad Sweet DQ'd, Tyler Walker back, Troutman's $100k score, Windom streaking | Daily 6-1-2025
A series of unfortunate events leads to Brad Sweet getting DQ'd, Tyler Walker back in a sprint car, a late model guy did indeed win the $100,000 modified race, and more today. Let's go!
It's Sunday, June 1st, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
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It seems as though it's the talk of the town today, so we'll start off with the High Limit DQ of series owner Brad Sweet last night. Sweet was battling Justin Peck late for the win, but ended up with a flat tire. There was apparently confusion from the flag man on the lap count, with the white flag getting displayed when it should have been the checkered, and the checkered coming out a lap too late. Announcer Tony LaPorta, who was filling in for Chase Raudman, was also confused, as he was clearly keeping an eye on timing and scoring. At the actual end of the race, Sweet still finished third behind Peck and Aaron Reutzel. But at the end of the extra lap, Sweet had tumbled down through the field nursing that flat tire. Thinking he'd finished poorly, Sweet rolled the NAPA 49 towards the pit area, headed for his truck. After the feature though, race director Mike Hess called out the podium finishers who needed to go to the scales. That included Sweet, but it was already too late. Him missing the scale resulted in his DQ from that third place spot. Headed to 141 Speedway on Tuesday, Sweet has now dropped six points behind Tyler Courtney for the High Limit championship lead as a result of finishing effectively 25th. Jeremy Elliott with Sprintcarunlimited.com had quotes from both Hess and Sweet in the aftermath, and there are some important things to point out. Hess admitted that he was not inside the tower at the end, because he couldn't see through the windows. And apparently in the past when cars missed the scales, as long as officials still had eyes on the car and they didn't stop anywhere, they'd still be allowed to scale. With Sweet though, no officials were in the area of his car that had come to a stop short of his trailer, but with him not being in sight, and not going to the scales, the only decision was to DQ him. The confusion on the lap count by the flag man is really the start of the issues here, but it is wild to me in 2025, with all the technology we have, that there is the possibility of officials around the track not knowing what lap it is. I fully admit this will sound like Monday morning quarterbacking, but it seems to me there should be fail safes and back up plans in place. Especially when we know there aren't dedicated series flaggers, and that we're using different folks each week to flag these races. I would think that the race director should be calling out on the radio "hey we're at halfway, hey we're at 10 to go, 5 to go, white" etc. It also wouldn't take much to put an electronic lap counter in the flag stand if a scoring pylon isn't visible. I also don't understand why we have race directors in positions where they can't see the track from the tower, and are then forced away from where they should be, to then be able to see the track properly. There was a lot of confusion that could have been avoided, and should have been avoided with veteran officials running this show. I understand that mistakes are going to happen, but this feels to me like it was entirely avoidable. And on the other end, Sweet gets DQ'd for a series of unfortunate events. A guy who's won six straight national touring sprint car championships didn't just suddenly forget he needed to scale. And let's be honest here, if this was anyone but him or Kyle Larson, there is likely at least an argument to be made for letting them scale to try and rectify a bad situation. But if they don't DQ Sweet after this, they'd have a mutiny in the pit area from the other teams and crews, and likely with the fans. I hope all dirt racing series take a good look at this and use it as an opportunity to learn and get better, because this all could have been avoided. Feel free to leave your comments below. Make sure to stop by sprintcarunlimited.com if you want to see the comments from both Hess and Sweet.
Sticking with sprint cars, weekend World of Outlaws wins went to Buddy Kofoid at River Cities, and Sheldon Haudenschild at Red River Valley. David Gravel and Donny Schatz were the other podium finishers in both races. Gravel's top ten streak now 38 races, while Buddy Kofoid has an 11 race top ten streak going. Hat tip as well to Chris Windom. Six straight top tens in the Sides car. That 7S hasn't had a run like this since 2017. That spring, Jason Sides had nine straight top tens between Placerville and Plymouth, while also leading laps twice. Windom the leading rookie through 27 races. The Outlaws are at Jackson Motorplex on Wednesday, and then Plymouth, Beaver Dam, and Angell Park next weekend.
Other weekend sprint car winners included Brady Bacon and Kevin Thomas Jr. in USAC action at Knoxville. That was KTJ's first win since Haubstadt last September. He hadn't been great so far this season, but since Haubstadt on May 10th, his team has been much improved. Zach Blurton and Sam Hafertepe were ASCS winners, Paul Nienhiser and Jack Wagner split MOWA wins, Ryan Timms won at Knoxville for the second straight week, Chase Dietz took Port Royal, and Brock Hallett won at Fremont. Weekend Xtreme midget wins went to Karter Sarff and Cannon McIntosh.
Out in California, Andy Forsberg and Dominic Gorden were SCCT and NARC winners at Placerville. I did want to point out also, Tyler Walker was back in a car this weekend. He got behind the wheel of the Torgerson 02 and ended up eighth in the NARC B-Main. This was his first sprint car appearance since he ran some shows in Central PA back in 2017. He'd been hanging out at some races in California this year, and jumped in the 02 with Ashton Torgerson racing the Shark 1A right now. He did say during an interview that was posted by the NARC series that his car had a 360 under the hood, so he was definitely missing some steam compared to the rest of the field. Walker has 12 career World of Outlaws wins and won the Kings Royal in 2011. He also had a brief NASCAR career in the early and mid 2000s. Walker though has dealt on and off with substance abuse, getting suspended from NASCAR in 2007, and he was sentenced to prison in 2015 for a three-state high speed car chase. Besides his Outlaw success, Walker has 11 Gumout series wins on his resume, plus victories with USAC, NARC, the All Stars, and more. We'll see if he makes more appearances going forward.
In weekend late model action, Bobby Pierce was the $25,000 winner at La Salle with MARS last night. He topped Ryan Unzicker and Brandon Sheppard. It was a bit wild watching Pierce and Tyler Erb celebrating prelim night wins together back on Friday, given their history. A lot of Cedar Lake photos floating around after that. At Brownstown, Josh Rice picked up $10,000 with the Northern All Stars, topping Tanner English and Jason Jameson. A lot of other shows were rained out, including the entire Hunt the Front weekend.
Finally today, Drake Troutman is $100,000 richer after winning last night's Modified World Championship finale at the Mississippi Thunder Speedway. Troutman started second, and led the most laps, but he battled throughout with Jim Chisholm, Tanner Mullens, Tyler Nicely, and Jake Timm. A dirt late model guy ultimately getting the win, but modified regulars with strong showings. If you are curious, Ricky Thornton Jr. was out in a B-Main. I believe he lost an engine.
That's it for today. Hope you guys have a great Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!