DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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The hits just keep on coming | Daily 7-29-2025
USAC suspends a driver and team over a failed tire test, and we've got the details today. Also, the list of injured dirt racers grows with Stewart Friesen's ugly modified crash last night, Monday racing results and what's coming up. Let's go!
It's Tuesday, July 29th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
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We will get rolling today with some penalty news that flew under the radar over the weekend. Back on Saturday, USAC, a bit quietly, announced that Jadon Rogers and his Amati Racing team have been suspended from six USAC National Sprint Car races for a failed tire test going back to the July 4th race at Lincoln Park Speedway. Rogers finished 13th that night after starting second, but has been DQ'd from the event, has lost 44 championship points, and must pay back the $675 in prize money. He has also been fined $2500 per the USAC rulebook for the infraction. USAC's release says quote "A sample taken on the night of the event failed to meet the benchmark after testing by an independent laboratory" unquote. Rogers isn't a full time USAC driver this season, and last raced back on Thursday in the invitational show at the IMS Dirt Track. He finished 10th in that one. He was an entrant on Friday at Lincoln Park, but shared to social media they found an engine issue and decided to load up. The penalty release from USAC is dated for Friday, but it looks via some metadata that it was posted on Saturday to the website. It was not shared to social media or distributed to any media outlets that I can see. If there are no additional rainouts this week, and Friday's race at Lincoln Park is included in the six race ban, Rogers would be eligible to return to the series on Saturday at Haubstadt. In a social media post from yesterday, Rogers shared that the tire in question had been used for four races, and that he believes the failure came from some type of penetrating oil they use to shine the outside of the tire. The initial sample cuts were from the outside edge, and that's possibly where the contamination came from. Rogers says USAC later took rows of samples from all the way across the tire and sent those to a different lab, and those came back clean. But because of the initial test failure, he's in breach of the rules and facing the suspension. Per USAC's rulebook, if a driver decides to appeal a failed tire test and loses, their penalty is then doubled. So 12 races and $5000. If they appeal a third time, it doubles again, to 24 races and $10,000. So in this instance, Rogers decided to just take the initial penalty and not try and fight it on appeal, potentially risking a heavier sanction. He also said the appeal would only be with the initial set out of samples, and not the second set that came back clean. Knowing that, I'd assume his chances of success on appeal would be low. I've never heard of a series levying heavier penalties on an offender for appealing, but it is right there in the USAC rulebook. I guess that clause does a good job of discouraging competitors from appealing, because avoiding appeals is the only reason I can see for that being in place. Knowing that Rogers isn't a full time driver, the suspension is probably not that big of a penalty, especially since his 14 team is dealing with engine problems. I'm sure the $3175 they have to pay to USAC hurts a lot more. You can see the release for yourself over at usacracing.com, and Jadon's comments are available at facebook.com/jadonrogerracing.
Indiana Sprint Week continues tonight at Kokomo with the rescheduled show from the weekend that was rained out. Logan Seavey currently leads the sprint week points with two races complete. He's trailed by Briggs Danner and Kevin Thomas Jr. Justin Grant looks like he's going to miss some time with that broken foot he suffered the other night at Lawrenceburg. His wife Ashley shared yesterday that he needed surgery and they aren't sure yet how long the recovery will be. Seavey and Robert Ballou with the two sprint week wins so far, plus JG's Indy win that was non-points. After tonight, there is still Circle City, Terre Haute, Bloomington, and Haubstadt left on the sprint week slate.
Moving on, the list of injured dirt racers continued to grow last night. This time it was modified racer Stewart Friesen involved in an ugly crash. He was competing with the Super DIRTcar Series at Autodrome Drummond in Canada. On lap 17 of the 75 lapper, Friesen went wide into turn three while battling in the top five, and caught the end of outside wall. Drummond with basically no outside wall down the backstretch, and Friesen's 44 car hit right where the wall begins on entrance to three. He then went for a wild ride with the car briefly on fire. Friesen was then hit by multiple cars that were coming from behind as the 44 landed back onto the racing surface. In the aftermath, Friesen was communicating with safety workers, and the race was delayed as they got the driver out and transported him to a local hospital. This morning, Friesen's wife Jessica shared that he has no head, neck or spine injuries, but did suffer a quote "open-book pelvic fracture" and a fractured right leg. He has since been transferred to a larger hospital to undergo surgery on the injuries. Off the top of my head, we now have eight drivers who have suffered significant injuries in recent weeks. That includes Paul Nienhiser, Kalib Henry, Brad Sweet, Tyler Courtney, Aaron Reutzel, Ian Madsen, Justin Grant, and now Stewart Friesen. There is obviously no conclusive connection to any of these injuries, as they happened in three different car types at six different race tracks. Matt Sheppard was the winner last night, his 100th with the series. He topped Alex Payne and David Hebert to earn a guaranteed starting spot into the main event at Super Dirt Week. The SDS right back to Drummond tonight.
Up in Wisconsin, Ryan Gustin was back in victory lane with the World of Outlaws late models at Wilmot Raceway. It was his first series victory since Swainsboro back in March. His team has been good though for much of the season. He's currently on a run of 14 top eight finishes in his last 16 races. That's included five podium runs and laps led at Deer Creek. Gustin topped Bobby Pierce and Dennis Erb Jr. Erb also on a solid run as of late. Nine straight top ten finishes and three straight podiums. Hat tip as well to Boom Briggs who ended up sixth in the final rundown. That's his best result in a national touring race in a few years. He even finished ahead of employee and teammate Tim McCreadie. The Outlaw teams are off today and tomorrow, before the USA Nationals at Cedar Lake start on Thursday.
We'll wrap it up right there for today. Don't forget you can watch the Daily show completely ad free over at patreon.com/dirtrackr. That is one of the perks of the top tier membership I have named "reserved seating." You can sign up free as a member on Patreon, but the premium tiers do have added benefits. So check that out at patreon.com/dirtrackr.
Hope you guys have a great Tuesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!