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More sprint car drivers on the move, Justin Grant vs. Shane Cottle! | Daily 6-4-2025

Sprint car driver moves and rumors today that are all connected, and involve teams from the midwest to the west coast. Plus we talk Shane Cottle versus Justin Grant, High Limit, Flo series at Eldora, and more. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, June 4th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

I've got some sprint car silly season news and rumors to talk about off the top today, as things continue to move and shift with various rides. Back on Monday, Hank Davis announced he had parted ways with Shannon Wheatley and the 45 car out on the west coast. The initial plan was for Davis to run at Skagit, some NARC shows, and with the national tours when they came out west. But this deal has gone sideways after just four races together. Davis had made four starts at Skagit, finishing 9th, 6th, 4th, and 6th. Certainly solid results for a driver who has effectively no west coast experience. Davis is a guy we've seen have success in a midget at the Chili Bowl, and he won three times with the ASCS last season driving the TwoC machine. In a social post, they thanked Shannon Wheatley for the opportunity and said they don't have anything lined up. Some friends though tell me Davis is a candidate for some other open seats, and could announce a new deal a bit further east in the coming days. We'll see if that ends up being true or not. On the flip side, it doesn't sound like Wheatley's 45 will sit quiet for long. We know that Cory Eliason has been without a ride since parting with TKS Motorsports a little over a week ago. Word on the streets is that Eliason could fill that seat left empty by Davis departing. No word on what type of schedule the 45 could run with Eliason in the car, but he's obviously a guy with a ton of success out west. If they continue racing Skagit and maybe down in California, Eliason will be racking up some frequent flyer miles, as he's been in the Indianapolis area. And the final tentacle here is that open TKS ride. The 2KS will go to Knoxville on Saturday this week with Christopher Thram behind the wheel. I'd heard after the Eliason deal went south that team owner Troy Renfro was talking to Thram, and these two will team up quote "for the next few races to see how we work together." Thram, who can normally be found driving his family's Thram Farms 24T, has two top tens finishes this season in 15 410 starts, with both coming at Huset's. He's also made seven features in nine appearances against the World of Outlaws. So that gets you up to date on as the sprint car world turns.

Tonight at Eldora Speedway, Dream week starts with the FloRacing Night in America Series. They've got $20,000 to win, and then the Dream gets started for real on Thursday. Bobby Pierce leads the Flo series points after four races, and we've had four different winners so far in 2025. Pierce won the opener, with Jonathan Davenport, Devin Moran, and Hudson O'Neal scoring the other victories. After Eldora, we won't see the Flo series again until later in July at Fairbury. JD won the Flo show at Eldora last year, but this event was postponed from Dream week to World week. Tonight will be everyone's first chance to get on the track at Eldora this season, so I'm sure we'll see a lot of the 96 cars entered for the Dream participate. I think we'll be talking about the usual suspects all week, Davenport, Pierce, O'Neal for sure. Throw in Moran, RTJ, and we'll see if anyone else can throw their name in the hat for a win.

No Kubota High Limit sprint cars at 141 Speedway last night. Action was postponed because of weather in the area. They will try again tonight at Red Cedar Speedway, and the postponement creates a busy week for the sprint car teams in Wisconsin. Red Cedar today, the postponed 141 show will now run tomorrow, and then we'll have World of Outlaws shows straight through Sunday between Plymouth, Beaver Dam, and Angell Park. I would expect a number of teams to run all these shows, and that does include Anthony Macri, who's been in the midwest here lately. He made appearances at Knoxville and Huset's last weekend, and his initial 2025 schedule shows him in the area until after the High Bank Nationals at Huset's later this month. Kyle Larson also expected to run the two High Limit shows before he heads off to Michigan for NASCAR stuff this weekend. We'll be watching to see if Brad Sweet can bounce back from the Butler DQ to take back the championship lead, or if anyone behind can really take advantage of this opportunity. Tyler Courtney has eight straight top ten finishes right now, and Aaron Reutzel has six. Reutzel with an average finish of 3.4 over his last five High Limit starts.

Indiana Midget Week got rolling last night with a good one at Circle City. We had six lead changes among three drivers, with Kale Drake and Kevin Thomas Jr. battling it out late for the win. Drake able to sneak away from KTJ to score his second USAC midget win in a row, and third of his career. Drake also the night's hard charger, driving up from ninth to the win. KTJ ended up second with Karter Sarff third. Early leader Logan Seavey faded to fifth at the end. Trouble for Cannon McIntosh combined with Drake's win has shuffled the top three in the standings. Justin Grant still leads, but Drake is now second with McIntosh third. Midget week keeps going tonight with a stop at Paragon Speedway.

Also at Circle City last night, we ended up with some drama between Shane Cottle and Justin Grant in the sprint car feature. Grant led early, but in typical Shane Cottle fashion, he rolled some hot bottom and drove up from eighth to get into the battle for the win. Inside ten to go, Cottle gave Grant a little bump into three to move him off the bottom lane, and then drove through to take the top spot. Grant though didn't take too kindly to the shot, and took his revenge into turn one, basically just running over the back of Cottle's 34C. Nothing subtle about it. Amazingly, both were able to continue, but it was all Cottle from there. Afterwards in victory lane, Drake York asked Cottle about the battle with Grant (ear muff the kids here friends), and Cottle said quote "He was driving me like a little bitch, so he went down there in turn three and I gave him a shot in the shorts and got him the hell out of the way, and then he tried to dump me down here in one. If he wants to race that way I can race that way. I might just have to whoop his ass sometime but that will be part of it" unquote. My favorite part of that moment might have just been Drake York letting it end on that. There was no follow up question, because a follow up question wasn't needed.

We'll shut it down there 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 Wednesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!