DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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David Gravel vs. Kyle Larson, Bob Gardner's antics, Anthony Macri crowned | Daily 7-20-2025

It's been a crazy last few days in dirt racing, and we'll begin to unravel all of it today. We're talking Anthony Macri's Kings Royal score, an ugly week at Eldora, David Gravel vs. Kyle Larson, and Bob Gardner completely losing his mind in a heat race at Farmer City. Let's go!

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

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I'm going to give you the disclaimer right off the top today, there is so much that's happened over the last few days, there is no way I'm getting to all of it on today's show. We are going to be unpacking things for at least the next few days.

We'll start first with Anthony Macri becoming King Anthony the 42nd last night at Eldora Speedway. A massive $200,000 win, and a marquee accomplishment in his still young career. He'd already won the Weikert and the Tuscarora 50 at Port Royal, but to win a crown jewel like this, and away from Pennsylvania, is a significant statement for him, crew chief Joe Mooney, and that team. I think those really hard core sprint car people out there know that Macri is more than just a guy that can win in PA, but this will no doubt silence any of the porch talk around the Concrete Kid. He took the lead immediately at the start from polesitter Kasey Jedrzejek, and had no problem down the stretch keeping Rico Abreu and Kyle Larson at bay. What's even more crazy, is it was just two years ago that Macri walked away from his family team at this exact weekend, and we know it was several months before things got worked out and he returned. We were stunned back then over the departure, and now here we are just two years later with Macri wearing the crown. The rest of the top ten included Brian Brown, David Gravel who went 19th to fifth, Ryan Smith, Carson Macedo, Logan Schuchart, Ashton Torgerson, and Danny Dietrich. I'm sure the party for the Macri bunch went well into the morning hours, and might continue today.

With all that said, and I don't know how you guys feel, but I'm glad these four days of racing at Eldora are over. It was a brutal week for crashes, and I think a lot of folks held their breath through a lot of the on track action. Tyler Courtney needed surgery after his crash the other night, and is likely looking at an extended absence from sprint car racing. Aaron Reutzel's incident was one of the more frightening I've seen in a long time. Those extra hits from Zach Hampton and Steven Snyder Jr. were awful to watch. Reutzel suffered a fractured right foot, and I'd guess he'll miss time as well. And last night it was Brad Sweet taking a nasty hit from Cale Thomas after going for a tumble in turns one and two. Sweet also took a trip to the hospital, but was discharged over night with all scans coming back clear. He shared to social media that he's sore and beat up. I don't know if something has changed about the racing or the track, or if it was just a bad luck week at Eldora, but none of those last four days were really fun to watch. After the Kalib Henry crash at Attica earlier last week, I said there are times that I really don't like sprint car racing, and those feelings continued through last night. The speed, and the ferocity of the racing, and the fearlessness of the drivers that strap in are all what draws us to the sport, but those things can also lead to terrible consequences. These last four days will have negative longer term affects on the drivers, their families and friends, and the racing itself. The fallout and the ripple effects won't be fully known or understood for quite a while.

Moving on to the David Gravel vs. Kyle Larson situation from Friday. The two drivers went at it for that final podium spot, with Larson eventually coming out on top at the checkered with a last corner slider. Gravel didn't like the way he got raced, and decided to show his displeasure to Larson after the race was over. There was some swerving and some shenanigans, and Larson eventually ended up turned around down the backstretch. I don't know that I fully believe Gravel intended to turn the 57 around, but there would be justification there if the Outlaws decided to penalize Gravel. We've seen post race dustups like this go both ways, where drivers were penalized, and times where they weren't. It was a frustrating week for Gravel with that penalty and then the B-Main crash, and I think his frustrations just boiled over. There will be no lack of outrage though if Gravel isn't penalized. Afterwards, Larson chalked it all up to hard racing, but Gravel said this has been brewing for a while. He said back to Huset's, and he clearly thinks there is bad blood between the two sides, given the High Limit-Outlaw stuff, the penalty last week, and the history of Cody Jacobs comments. I've even heard from some friends in the pit area that the dustup included a confontration between Jacobs and Paul Silva. Larson makes some big moves in a sprint car, it's honestly what makes him so incredible to watch; that he's willing and able to pull those types of passes off. And I'm honestly surprised that it's taken this long for someone to lose their cool with Larson over a pass. I certainly don't blame Gravel for being upset over some short sliders, but I don't think that Larson owes Gravel anything because of the championship, or the fact that Larson doesn't drive sprint cars full time. Gravel made a comment about how Larson running third or fourth doesn't change his life, and that is 1000% true. But it's also true for Gravel. Just as Gravel maybe expected Larson to yield, Gravel could have done the same. Back out, run fourth, don't take the risk. But this is racing after all. As they say, racing didn't start with the first car to hit the road, it started once we had two. Battling for a win, battling for fifth, tenth, whatever. These guys are competitors and they want every inch. That's why we watch. Buy tickets. Take vacation days. Buy t-shirts, streaming, take multi-hour road trips. To see the best go wheel-to-wheel. Not to see one guy back out to be nice.

The last thing we'll talk about today is the Bob Gardner, Daryn Klein insanity from the MARS show at Farmer City. If you missed it, it was shades of the Taylor Farlling Port Royal deal, going backwards around the track to get revenge. But Gardner dialed it up a notch. In their heat race, it took multiple attempts to get the race even started, and then once it did, Klein threw a slider on Gardner for the lead in turns three and four. Klein tried to close it out by letting his car drift high, but Gardner was already in the spot, and his 4G machine ended up hard into the wall at the turn four exit. It's the type of move that would make any driver angry. Gardner had every right to be upset for what Klein pulled. As they exited four, Gardner stayed in the gas as he started to slide, I think hoping he'd wipe out Klein in the process. It didn't work though, as Klein was able to slip away, and Gardner piled into the oncoming Dylan Thornton. And that right there, before we talk about any of the rest of Gardner's antics, is why trying to get revenge like this sucks. Because if it would have just been Klein taking the hit, whatever. But in this case, Thornton gets collected, and he had nothing to do with it. Thornton is an innocent bystander, and this is the law of unintended consequences. Gardner can't control his emotions or the situation enough to not involve someone else. At least in this case, Thornton had a race car around him, and it wasn't a photographer or track official standing in the infield. Unfortunately we weren't done there, as Gardner, still seeking revenge on Klein, then pulled onto the front straightaway going the wrong direction while the race was still green. Officials immediately throwing the caution then, because driving head on towards the field is bad. Gardner couldn't get to Klein, so he drove through the infield, caught Klein in four, and promptly hit him in the left rear. Since this all went down, Gardner has taken to YouTube to explain his side of the incident, and he said he wanted to flatten Klein's left rear tire so his heat race would be ruined. But again, back to unintended consequences and having control, the contact to Klein's left rear actually turned the ten car over onto it's roof. I certainly appreciate and commend Gardner for not hiding, and admitting that his actions were wrong. He did also apologize to Thornton. But someone throwing a bad slider doesn't justify turning Klein onto his roof, driving backwards onto a green track, and wiping out Thornton. As we saw with Farlling, I'm sure Gardner will be handed a nice long break from competing in dirt late model racing, which he rightly deserves. There is no place for this type of behavior. And from grown-ass men.

We are going to shut it down there for today. Hope you guys have a great rest of your Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!