DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Davenport disqualified, brawling drivers, Schatz in a different car? | Daily 7-6-2025
Nick Hoffman takes a beating, Jonathan Davenport DQ'd, Donny Schatz goes testing but not with Tony Stewart Racing, Cory Hedgecock vs. Michael Page, and a whole lot more today. Let's go!
It's Sunday, July 6th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
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We had so much going on this weekend, I'm not really even sure where to start. We had a brawl, we had a top guy DQ'd, another driver take a beating over a slider, some curious testing at Knoxville, plus the regular racing stuff. Kick back, because this is going to be a packed show.
I guess we'll start with Lucas in Ohio. Friday night, the Atomic Speedway show was a battle of attrition on a night where the track had a lot of character. Carson Ferguson out early, Hudson O'Neal had a spin, Tyler Carpenter blew up, Brandon Overton DNFd, Garrett Alberson pulled up lame, and Ricky Thornton Jr. broke. Out front, it was pretty much all Brandon Sheppard after Carson Ferguson went out. He led 46 of 50 to score his first Lucas win since way back at the start of 2024. It was just his second national tour win of the year, to go along with a MARS victory and a Summer Nationals win. That last Lucas win was at East Bay back on February 5th of 2024, when Sheppard was still the Longhorn house car driver. There have been a few times now this season where it started to look like this team was maybe turning things around, only for the speed to go away again. Shepp was solid again on Saturday at Muskingum County, starting on the pole and leading laps before finishing third. If this really is the start of a turnaround, time is going to start not being on their side for making it into the Lucas chase. We are less than 20 race nights away from the final cutoff, and Shepp trails a resurgent Hudson O'Neal by 245 points for that final spot. Jason Durham has O'Neal looking like a different driver, and that pairing has won three Lucas races in their last six starts, including last night at Muskingum County. RTJ and Jonathan Davenport have massive gaps, so they are solidly in. The one driver who has looked a bit more vulnerable lately is Devin Moran. He was on fire through the spring, but the last three races have been a battle. 11th at Lernerville, 12th at Atomic, 16th last night. He's still 60 points clear of O'Neal, but of the four who are in, he's had the most issues as of late. Hat tip to Josh Rice for a 17th to second charge at Atomic, and how about Nathon Loney going 25th to sixth last night.
The other big talking point to come out of Muskingum County was Jonathan Davenport getting DQ'd post race for droop chain issues. He was second at the checkered flag, but was later dropped to 25th and last in the order for the infraction. He told FloRacing afterwards that the car was actually at legal deck height in post-race checks, and by some margin, but that a bolt had backed out, causing the chain to be not tight. The chain not being tight is what then led to the DQ per Lucas rules. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, the major dirt late model series limit how much teams are allowed to travel that left rear suspension. They do so by installing what they call a droop limiting chain that attaches to the left rear axle housing at the bottom, and the frame at the top. During the teching process, the Lucas rulebook says quote "Cars will be jacked up until a forty-thousandths of an inch shim will slide between the left rear tire and the ground. Once the car is jacked up as described a vertical measurement will be taken from the ground to the top trailing edge of the rear deck bar, six inches inboard of the left rear quarter panel outer edge. The measurement must not exceed fifty-one inches" unquote. The part that got Davenport is that section also says quote "The travel limiting chain including the compliance rubber must be installed so that when the car is jacked up from the rear the chain assembly is tight (no slack)." Davenport said he could feel that something was wrong part way through the race, but that the car was still pretty good. Unfortunately for him, the second place finish would have meant he left the weekend as the points leader, but the DQ now sees him drop behind RTJ. The droop stuff was a big talking point a few years ago, but we rarely see it cause problems in tech these days. Lucas back to action on Thursday at 34 Raceway.
Weekend World of Outlaws late model wins at Deer Creek Speedway went to Bobby Pierce and Nick Hoffman. Last night's big money finale was cancelled because of weather. Nick Hoffman took an absolute beating for that Friday win, after an early slider from him on Tyler Bruening resulted in a big, Talladega-style pileup on the Deer Creek front straightaway. That crash ended the night for Bruening, but also for points leader Bobby Pierce (who got upside down in the melee), and Tim McCreadie, among others. Hoffman's slider was definitely a tight one, but certainly not the most egregious I've seen. Bruening tried to turn back down, but got sideways, and ended up losing control right in front of the field. Hoffman doesn't really have a reputation for being a dirty driver, and I feel like that alone should have given him some leeway with the detractors online, but no such luck. You could obviously tell afterwards that he wasn't proud or jubilant over the win. He addressed all of it in his post race interview, and he did later say in a social media post that he'd gone around and talked to some of the drivers involved to square things. Headed to Sharon Speedway later this week, the championship lead between Pierce and Hoffman has been cut down to 50 points, which a lot of the negative commenters have been sure to bring up. I would like someone to talk me through the mechanics of Hoffman knowing that him throwing a tight slider on leader Tyler Bruening would have led to fourth running Bobby Pierce crashing out of the event so he could cut down the lead. Because that is certainly the insinuation, that Hoffman caused the crash to catch Pierce. That's some butterfly effect, illuminati type stuff.
The other news item to come out of the Outlaw weekend was Ashton Winger off the tour. We were just talking about him running better back in a Rocket chassis, versus the Fusion piece he'd been running. But instead of going to Deer Creek, he was at Senoia on Saturday with the Hunt the Front series. He led laps at River Cities the week before, and then finished third. He was 14th at Norman County the next night, but things went sideways at Nodak. He pulled up lame in qualifying, and was done for the night. He didn't run the heat or the main event. His departure leaves the World of Outlaws now with 14 full time drivers, and Winger will just be pick and choose now. Last night wasn't what he was looking for either back around home. He's listed as finishing 18th after starting 12th. No word on what his future schedule will look like.
Moving on, and sticking with that Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series event. It was a wild night at Senoia, and not for good reasons. In the super late model feature, a last lap slider from Cory Hedgecock on Michael Page set off a wild sequence after the checkered where Page went after Hedgecock with his car. Contact from Hedgecock in the battle for third sent Page into the outside wall, and Page was not happy about it. Page going after the 23 post-checkered flag then turned into a brawl on the backstretch with the two drivers in some sort of wrestling match and a lot of crew members and bystanders involved. Hedgecock is still listed in the third, but Page was DQ'd and put to the rear. Certainly not the first altercation we've seen Page involved in over the years, and Hedgecock was clearly not afraid to mix it up. I would be surprised if there weren't more penalties announced over this in the coming days. We've now had wild post-incident altercations two weeks in a row in dirt late model racing, althought at least Page didn't drive backwards around the track. I did like Sam Seawright pulling his car to a stop right behind the two drivers to watch everything unfold. By the way, Jimmy Owens the winner last night. He maintains the championship lead.
There was also a frightening moment during the night when a 604 late model got into the catch fence towards turn four, and several bystanders were injured. Senoia Raceway shared quote "During tonight's event at Senoia Raceway, an on-track incident occurred that resulted in injuries to three spectators. Emergency personnel responded immediately, and the individuals involved were transported to a nearby hospital for further evaluation. We have been informed that all parties are alert and receiving care" unquote. We certainly wish the best for all involved there.
The final item I wanted to touch on today was the sprint car test session that took place at Knoxville back on Thursday. Several cars on hand to get some laps in during an off week for major sprint car racing. Drivers taking part included Emerson Axsom, Kerry Madsen, Gio Scelzi, Scott Bogucki, Garet Williamson, and Donny Schatz among others. The thing to point out though, was that Schatz was there not driving the Tony Stewart Racing 15. He was actually shaking down Guy Forbrook's five car. Forbrook's car hasn't been out all year, and besides Schatz helping shake it down, the 10 time Outlaw champ was also there watching over his nieces, Laela and Amelia Eisenschenk, who were getting some laps in with their 410 sprint car. While this was certainly something to take note of, I don't think there are any shenangians going on here with Schatz or TSR. Meaning I wouldn't expect a shock midseason change where Schatz leaves TSR for Forbrook's car. It sounds like this was just Schatz helping out Forbrook, with that five team working on some preparations for the Knoxville Nationals. If you're going to work on some setup stuff, you'd be hard pressed to find a driver with more success at Knoxville than Schatz. Outside of this test session, and Logan Schuchart and Brent Marks each making a few PA Speedweek appearances, none of the other national touring guys finding their way to sprint car races during this off week. I'm sure we would have seen a few maybe at Knoxville last night, but that event was rained out.
Pennsylvania Speedweek wraps up today with the finale at Path Valley. Going back to late last week, Kyle Larson won the Hagerstown stop on Thursday, Danny Dietrich took the Grove on Friday, and Lance Dewease your winner last night at Port Royal. Anthony Macri is in control of the PA Speedweek championship with just the one race remaining. He's got 35 points on Dietrich, with nobody else anywhere near contention.
Other weekend sprint car winners included Logan Seavey and Carson Garrett with USAC at Lincoln Park, All Star wins went to Devon Borden and Kalib Henry, AJ Flick and Jordan Ryan were FAST winners, and Bryce Lucius and Cap Henry were AFCS winners.
Other late model winners included Tyler Millwood, Jason Feger, and Shannon Babb with the Summer Nationals. Dave Hess Jr. and Mason Zeigler were ULMS winners, Max Blair won an unsanctioned show at McKean County, and Camaron Marlar was a Souther Thunder winner.
I think that's enough for today. Hope you guys have a great Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!