DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Outlaws lose a full timer; how do team logistics work; Dirt Late Model Dream entries, wraps | Daily 6-3-2025
The World of Outlaws lose a full timer, and this one surprised me a bit. Plus we'll talk special Dirt Late Model Dream wraps, more on Mansfield, and a busy day of racing ahead. Let's go!
It's Tuesday, June 3rd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
It's a big week over on FloRacing. They've got midweek High Limit action, Indiana Midget Week, the FloRacing Night in America Series, and then all three nights of the Dirt Late Model Dream from Eldora. If you can't get to those races and want to watch from home, grab a subscription to Flo. You can sign up and help out DIRTRACKR at no additional cost to you, by heading over to dirtrackr.com/floracing. Signing up means you'll get to watch hundreds of races a year, and that's just on the dirt side. They've also got drag racing, NASCAR events, road racing stuff, and I'm sure things I don't even know about. So grab a pass at dirtrackr.com/floracing, or you can click the link below in the video description, or the FloRacing links at dirtrackr.com.
We are going to start this show off with one of the questions I received on the DIRTRACKR Patreon a few weeks ago. I did a call for questions and we've been working through several of them on shows since then. Joleen wanted to know about the logistics that the teams are faced with. Specifically, she asked about how many people do they bring, where does everyone sleep, are there paid and volunteer crew members, what about showers and food, and things like trailer inventory and operating plans. I think it's important to say right off the top, that every team operates differently, and some of this really depends on what level a team is operating at. But for this, we'll stick to top level sprint car and late model teams. Sprint car and late model teams are similar in the number of crew members per car. You're probably looking at three for most; that includes a crew chief, car chief, and tire guy. Obviously in addition to the driver. It's certainly possible to do it with less, but that seems to be what most teams want. For the big teams you know about, those are all paid positions, but it's not uncommon for friends and family to roll through at races during the season to help out on a volunteer basis. As for where everyone sleeps, this one is often drawn down some interesting lines. Sprint car teams are almost wholly in hotels. There will also be points in the season where sponsors or other friends are able to put guys up and house equipment for stretches. On the late model side, hotels can be less common, and guys are often in bunks in those million dollar toter home setups. Whereas you'll see the sprint car teams leave the track each night of a multi-day show, the late model teams often stay in place. Definitely a very different vibe. Showering is done in either those stays away from the track or in the toters. Food is had along the way, often at restaurants, or in the trucks. Daily operations include servicing the race car, maybe traveling to the next event, and obviously working the races. There might not be a written down daily plan, but each team definitely has their routines and ways of doing things. And organization tasks like trailer inventory for parts and tools is ongoing. Teams will make sure they are well stocked before trips with supplies, and parts, and engines, but they can get shipments and stop for things along the way. It is not uncommon for there to be a whiteboard inside a trailer for quote "things we need." As you can probably imagine, it does take a significant amount of planning and attention to make all this happen. Besides food, where to stay, what races you're going to, and staying stocked up, teams also need route plans, trucks serviced and fueled, taxes and other usual business things handled, and there need to be contingencies for flat tires, rainouts, and for when employees move on. Hopefully that gives you at least a high level view of the logistics at the team level, and thanks to Joleen for the question.
It's an off week for the World of Outlaws late model series, but that hasn't kept them from losing a series full timer. Max Blair and the Centerline Motorsports team announced yesterday evening that they will go pick and choose for the remainder of 2025. Blair and the 111 car signed up with both Lucas and the Outlaws to start the season, but ultimately settled with the Outlaws after a solid start to the year during speedweeks. In the 11 Outlaw races though since they left Volusia, Blair has finished in the top ten just a single time; a ninth place finish during the first night of the Illini 100 weekend at Farmer City. The last three races should have been right in Blair's wheelhouse, in Ohio and Pennsylvania, but the best they could get was an 11th at Raceway 7. He was outside the top 15 at both Marion Center and Bedford. The struggles have left the team 302 points behind Bobby Pierce, down in tenth, and that seems to be the motivation for their move. This change felt surprising to me initially, but after looking at the stats, it seems clear maybe a reset will do them good. Blair has five career Outlaw wins, but hasn't won an Outlaw show since he was last a full timer with the series, back in 2022. His last and only Lucas win was back in 2023. In local and regional action though, Blair has been cleaning up. He's got seven wins in various local shows and with RUSH here just recently. And I'm sure we'll see him continue to race around home and stack up more victories. Coming up, Blair will be at Eldora for the Dream, and they will pick and choose from there, which they say will include events with both the Outlaws and Lucas. The social post did say the team plans on being back on a national tour in 2026. The Outlaws losing Blair leaves the series at 16 full timers. That puts both the Outlaws and Lucas on similar footing, as I *think Lucas is at 15 right now. It's a shame to lose Blair from the tour, but I get it. It's brutal out there right now. Bobby Pierce has been winning everything, Tim McCreadie has suddenly found speed, and there is a whole list of others waiting to strike, like Pierce's closest competition in Nick Hoffman. And that's to say nothing of the Lucas guys that pop in and out for the big shows.
Sticking with dirt late models, Eldora Speedway released prelim night rosters for this week's Dream. We are again having the field split between the two nights, with everyone coming back together for Saturday. Both Thursday and Friday are $30,000 to win each, and then Sunday is $100,000 to win. As of yesterday, there were 96 total teams entered. Here's a look at the Thursday roster. This one includes Hudson O'Neal, Bobby Pierce, Tyler Erb, Nick Hoffman, Joseph Joiner, Dale McDowell, Drake Troutman, and Daulton Wilson. And here is the Friday set of teams. Ricky Thornton Jr., Brandon Sheppard, Brandon Overton, Tim McCreadie, Chris Madden, Jonathan Davenport, and Garrett Alberson. I think on a first glance, I might say that Friday is the tougher of the two nights. Before Dream stuff starts Thursday, don't forget the FloRacing Night in America hits Eldora on Wednesday to kick everything off.
I also wanted to share a few Dream wraps we've had released in the last day or so. The first is from Bobby Pierce who definitely had everyone talking about this Bob Pierce throwback from 1995. I'm a big fan of this, and he's even got the firesuit to match. I'm sure they'll sell a few shirts with this one on it at Eldora. Certainly not uncommon for Pierce to roll out a fresh look for the big shows at Eldora. The Hunt the Front guys also rolling out a new Kubota Genuine Parts scheme for this week on their Capital. These guys have made some noise at Eldora before and are coming off a top five run at Brownstown with the Northern All Stars.
One update to the story we talked about yesterday with Matt Tifft acquiring the defunct Mansfield Speedway. The initial information we had didn't include anything about the surface type. Would Tifft keep it dirt, or go back to pavement. He's since revealed though that the track will come back to life as a dirt track, with maybe a future return to pavement. He talked about wanting to be in a good cash flow position before thinking about pavement, but if he's got good cash flow with dirt, maybe pavement shouldn't be on the table. Just a thought. We'll continue to follow progress, with Tifft mentioning there will be videos posted to YouTube soon, and maybe community cleanup days where folks can help get involved there.
Looking ahead to tonight, a very solid slate of racing for a Tuesday. The Kubota High Limit sprint cars make their first trip into Wisconsin, which was a battleground early on for race tracks, with the series getting shut out of the state in 2024. They'll run at 141 Speedway tonight, and then go to Red Cedar on Wednesday. I would assume then that a bunch of the teams will stick around the state to run the World of Outlaws events this weekend, between Plymouth, Beaver Dam, and Angell Park. We suddenly have a very different looking championship battle following the Brad Sweet DQ at Butler. He's fallen six points behind Tyler Courtney for the points lead, and only 68 points cover the top six. Sweet still looking for his first series win since Central Arizona back in March. The next four races on the High Limit schedule are all midweek championship events also, so we'll see lots of movement there. With two races complete for the championship within a championship, Rico Abreu leads Sweet by 14 points, but a lot can and will change here. Tonight's action at 141 will be fresh territory for a lot of drivers, as it's a regular stop for the IRA sprint cars, but not national tours. The track hasn't held a big national touring event of any kind since the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series was there in 2018. Scotty Thiel was most recently an IRA winner at 141. That victory came just a few days ago. I was a bit surprised we didn't get an entry list posted for this one. We usually get those for the midweek shows.
Also tonight, it's time for Indiana Midget Week. Circle City, Paragon, Lincoln Park, Bloomington, Haubstadt, and Kokomo will host races today through Saturday. Through five races so far, Justin Grant your points leader over Cannon McIntosh and Kale Drake. The amount of completed races will more than double though after this week, so expect a lot of changes here. JG has won twice this season, while McIntosh, Kale Drake, and Jacob Denney all have one win. Daison Pursley is the defending midget week champion, but he'll be in the sprint car for some of these nights, so no title defense. USAC says they expect somewhere around 40 cars to compete this week in various events.
If you aren't a sprint car or midget fan, there is also Super DIRTcar Series action today. The modifieds head to Big Diamond, and then will follow that up with Selinsgrove tomorrow. All of this racing can be found on the streaming schedule at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight. Check that out all season for a full rundown on your options.
That's the show for today. Hope you guys have a great Tuesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!