DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Who will sub for Aaron Reutzel, B-Mod fight night, FALS after dark delivers | Daily 7-27-2025
A late night, emotional win at Fairbury for Brian Shirley. Aaron Reutzel will be out for a while after that Eldora injury, and I've got some insight on who could fill in. We'll also talk weekend dirt racing results, and a wild scene at Farmington Empire as two B-Mod drivers throw hands for $50. Let's go.
It's Sunday, July 27th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
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Well, depending on how you look at it, it was either a very late night on Saturday at Fairbury, or a very early morning. After a lengthy rain delay, the Prairie Dirt Classic didn't go green until about 1:20 AM local time. You never would have known it watching the replay, as the place was still packed. The track was definitely juiced up, especially early, but the Fairbury crew did a nice job to get it into raceable condition, and it didn't really take all that long to widen out. On a night like that, there are going to be issues for guys, and I think we had just 14 cars on track by the checkered flag. Some bowed out with technical issues, while others pulled in to just save equipment. Those pulling in included Ricky Thornton Jr. Gordy Gundaker shared to social media before the race that he'd be starting and parking because he didn't agree with the decision to run it. He did correctly predict there'd be quote "10-15 cars on track at the end." His team though did eventually decide to race after the track prep came together, but they ended up breaking an engine. I understand the desire to save equipment and not spend on money on fixing stuff at the end of a race like that, but there will also be opportunities to finish well knowing others will fall out. Cody Overton went 29th to eighth, and Tim McCreadie went 21st to fifth. As a competitor, I'd personally have a hard time just laying down, but with these guys bowing out, it's certainly not my money they are spending. The competitors weren't the only ones questioning the decision making on Saturday. On race nights like this, there will always be plenty of criticisms, and some clearly feeling like things were too drawn out and that the program could have moved along faster once the rain cleared out. Getting done past 2:30 AM local time is nowhere near ideal, and you would like to see every effort made to move things along as fast as possible. For those that stuck around though, they were treated to a good race and a great finish. Brian Shirley just holding off Brandon Sheppard at the line to score his first career win in the PDC. It was an all Illinois podium with Shepp and Dennis Erb Jr. rounding things out. Shirley with a big celebration, and he was emotional afterwards with his wife in the hospital dealing with some medical issues. Huge win for Squirrel, and a very nice pay day. $50,000 for the victory, plus an additional $33,500 for laps led. Things in the World of Outlaws late model series points did tighten up just a bit, with Nick Hoffman finishing fourth and Bobby Pierce in sixth. Pierce ran towards the front for a lot of that race, but spun on a late restart, and collected a bunch of contenders. There won't be much rest for the teams looking ahead, as the Outlaw competitors head to Wilmot on Monday, and then it's right into the USA Nationals at Cedar Lake starting Thursday.
Other weekend late model winners included three different drivers with the Southern Nationals. Zack Mitchell won Thursday at Sugar Creek, it was Sam Seawright Friday at North Georgia, and Mike Benedum on Saturday at Tazewell. Jimmy Owens actually getting upside down early in that Tazewell show. After races were dropped, Kaede Loudy was crowned the 2025 Southern Nationals champion. He just squeaked it out ahead of Garrett Smith and Jimmy Owens, who tied for second, with Smith getting the tiebreaker. Mark Whitener was a Southern Thunder winner at Penton Raceway, and Kyle Bronson bagged $10,000 at East Alabama.
The sprint car weekend was heavily affected by weather, which included the loss of both the World of Outlaws races at Williams Grove. They will try again today with a Sunday stop at Weedsport. That headlines the dirt racing action today, which also includes the IRA at Angell Park, weekly sprint cars at Huset's, and more. Head over to dirtrackr.com/watchtonight to see all of the streaming options.
Indiana Sprint Week was another affected by rain, with last night's show at Kokomo washed out. They will try again to run that one on Tuesday. Justin Grant took the invitational, non-points win on Thursday at the Dirt Track at IMS, and Robert Ballou broke through on Friday at Lincoln Park. Ballou hadn't won a USAC race since Eldora, way back in May of 2024. With just the one points race complete, Ballou is the way too early sprint week points leader headed to Lawrenceburg today. Kyle Cummins will be looking for a bounceback after a rough stretch. He was melting faces with six wins and 21 top tens in 21 races, but that team has struggled here lately. 16th at Lincoln Park back in early July, 15th at Indy, and 26th on Friday at Lincoln Park. Cummins involved in incidents each of the past two races.
Weekend open wheel winners included a Jacob Denney sweep of Xtreme Outlaw midget shows at Arrowhead and Tulsa, Jordan Goldesberry was an IRA winner at Mississippi Thunder, Jeremy Weaver won with FAST at Tri-City, Joe B Miller was a POWRi winner at Macon, Scotty Thiel won the IRA show last night at Beaver Dam, and Kaleb Montgomery was a first time NARC winner last night at Santa Maria. We spotlighted Montgomery earlier this season, as he ran really well against High Limit with his low budget operation. He led every lap last night, topping Ryan Bernal and Landon Brooks. And how about Sam Hafertepe right now with the ASCS. Five straight wins, which ties the previous series win streak held by Gary Wright, and Hafertepe from 2017. The 15H currently well in control of the ASCS championship battle over Blake Hahn and Matt Covington. And as expected, a number of High Limit teams and other travelers showed up at Knoxville last night to take advantage of the final weekly show before the big racing starts. Rico Abreu taking the win over Brian Brown and Ryan Timms. Others in attendance included James McFadden, Spencer Bayston, Justin Peck, Sye Lynch, Tanner Holmes, Tanner Thorson, PPM, and Chase Randall.
A few other things for you today before we close out. First, Ridge and Sons Racing shared back on Friday that Aaron Reutzel underwent surgery on his foot to repair injuries he sustained in that crash at Eldora during the Kings Royal/Jokers Jackpot week. The team said quote "The procedure went as planned, and his medical team is optimistic about a smooth and full recovery." Reutzel one of a trio of drivers who suffered injuries in action at Eldora. The others were Brad Sweet and Tyler Courtney. Courtney is done for the year after having surgery as well, and Brad Sweet's timetable for a return to the seat is unknown. The RSR 87 and the KKR 49 taking advantage of series medical provisionals for last week's High Limit race at Lernerville. The 7BC had Cole Duncan in the seat, and Gio Scelzi will fill in for Sunshine for the remainder of 2025. As for the 87, nothing is public about their plans, but I've had multiple industry friends tell me in recent days that the plan is for Justin Sanders to likely get into the seat coming up. Sanders currently leads the NARC standings driving the Mittry 2X out west. Going back to Las Vegas early in the season, when Reutzel was injured by that dirt clod or rock hitting him in the face there, Sanders did drive the 87 that night very briefly. I haven't heard what races Sanders might run in the 87, but I'd assume the Knoxville Nationals for sure. And for the High Limit schedule, Sanders would be the perfect super-sub, as after the Nationals, High Limit makes their fall west coast swing starting August 15th at Tulare. That goes through the Skagit Nationals in late August. There is some thought that maybe Reutzel could return to the 87 by the Tuscarora 50 at Port Royal in early September. Sanders running that car out west would definitely keep RSR in the fight for the owner's championship with High Limit. I'm sure we'll have an official announcement in the coming days.
Finally, we've seen multiple drivers face lengthy suspensions in recent weeks for retaliating on track with their race cars, and doing dumb stuff like driving around backwards. If you are going to go at it though, I'm not mad about what Farmington Empire did last night. Apparently things reached a boiling point in B-Mod action between Tyler Worley and Collin Parmer, and the two decided to throw hands on the race track. Word on social media is the track paid them $50 to fight it out, and they treated it like hockey, where the first guy to go down caused officials to step in and break it up. These screenshots come from a video that was shared to TikTok by modified racer Cody Bell, thanks to him for letting me share. Both looked like they got some good shots in, but Worley's body slam ended the dustup. Worley later posted to social media quote "I apologize to all my sponsors and fans that see those actions but I've been repeatedly raced with disrespect from that team since I've gotten into racing and last night was absolutely the final straw" unquote. I am obviously not condoning violence of any sort, but at least if things are going to devolve to this point, resolve it on the track in front of everyone. If you want to see the full video, find Cody Bell on TikTok.
We will 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!