DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Chassis builder shares what went right in Tyler Courtney crash | Daily 7-31-2025
Today we'll dive into the 360 Nationals field, including subs and some drivers returning after injuries. Plus we got a close up look at Tyler Courtney's crashed car from Eldora and we'll point out a few things there. Those things and a lot more today. Let's go!
It's Thursday, July 31st, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
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The 360 Nationals at Knoxville start today, and this year will likely see one of the toughest fields of cars this event has ever seen. Today and Friday are split field prelim nights setting up Saturday's $20,000 to win main event. At last check we are just shy of 100 entries, and the list has been strengthened by a lot of 410 teams coming in early to get laps before next week's Knoxville Nationals. It also doesn't hurt that the NASCAR Cup Series isn't far away at Iowa Speedway, and Kyle Larson decided to run this event instead of going to Pevely, like he did the previous two years. Besides Kyle Larson, the regular ASCS and weekly 360 runners at Knoxville, this field is packed with other sprint car talent. Jeremy Elliott at Sprint Car Unlimited reported that Brad Sweet will indeed race this weekend. We haven't seen him since that ugly Eldora crash during the Kings Royal, remember he took a medical provisional for the High Limit show at Lernerville. There have been questions surrounding his status, including for next week, but it's good to hear he's well enough to get back in the seat. We'll also see the debut of Gio Scelzi in the Clauson Marshall 7BC. After departing the KCP ride, he'd been resting his injured wrist, but he'll now run the NOS car for the remainder of 2025 with Tyler Courtney sidelined after Eldora. I think he'll definitely be one to watch over the next few days. The other sub who makes his first appearance tonight is Justin Sanders. He's filling in for Aaron Reutzel, who is out with a broken foot. The Ridge team has announced Sanders will for sure drive this week and next at Knoxville, but nothing yet beyond that. Other future races will depend on Reutzel's recovery, but I think it's likely his time in the 87 continues into the High Limit west coast swing. Along with Gio, I think win chances are good for Larson, Brian Brown will be tough, I do like Sanders in the 87, and Rico Abreu. No driver has ever won the 360 and 410 Nationals in the same season. Brian Brown and Shane Stewart have finished second in the Knoxville Nationals after winning the 360 Nationals. Stewart did it in 2011, and Brownie did it in 2014. Sammy Swindell and Danny Lasoski are still the only two drivers to win both events in their careers. That's a wild stat. So winning the 360 Nationals isn't a great sign for winning the week after, but it's not uncommon for the 360 winner to still finish well at the Knoxville Nationals.
Obviously with all the crazy crashes we've seen lately, and the injuries, a lot of the conversations in the sport in recent days have been around safety. That continued yesterday with sprint car chassis builder Schnee-Lawson's co-owner Dan Lawson sharing some photos of Tyler Courtney's car from Eldora. It certainly appeared on the video replays that Sunshine's car hit went top of the cage first into the Eldora fencing, and screenshots of the car being towed away were shared quite a bit afterwards. It showed that cage top pushed down, and Lawson's photos gave us an up close view of the damage. As seen here, the cross member above the rock screen is in a U-shape, and the upright on the left side has been pushed down significantly. Lawson shared that none of the welds or tubes broke, and he pointed towards the quote "lifesaver bars" that are installed. Those bars go from the hip rail and connect to the upright just below the cage top. You can see them much better in this photo. This specific style and installation isn't required by the major sanctioning bodies, but it is an option from several builders. On both the winged and non-wing side, I've found photos of cars with these types of bars on Schnee-Lawson chassis, MAXIMs, Triple Xs, and DRCs. You'll see plenty of drivers that do run them, and others who don't. As with a lot of things though in this area, talking to some folks who know way more about this stuff than I do, there are no free lunches and magic bullets. If you want to see some more thoughts about the photos, check out Flea Ruzic's Twitter/X account. He talked about the tubing quality, and some of the things he saw that Schnee did right with the chassis build. A question I had, and I know others do as well, is the efficacy of a halo type system, with more tubing above the driver. If you don't know what that looks like, here is a DIRTVision screenshot of Corey Day's car from Eldora. Day has run this on his car now for a while, and it does provide additional tubing above the driver's head, with the idea being that it provides added protection. Not many drivers run them though, and it sounds like the jury is out on whether these are good or not. It feels like these crashes are so different from one another, that a pierce or a bar that would be beneficial in one case, wouldn't necessarily do any good in another. We are certainly thankful that so many of these injuries here lately weren't worse, but I don't envy the guys that have to make these decisions on safety. These are really hard problems with serious consequences.
At Circle City last night for Indiana Sprint Week, CJ Leary went wire-to-wire for the win, just narrowly holding off Mitchel Moles at the checkered. It was Leary's first win since way back in February of 2024, when he won the second night at Ocala. Before last night, he'd only led laps in three USAC sprint car races since that last victory. Leary took over the Team AZ 21 ride for 2025, with Daison Pursley off to full time winged sprint car competition, but he hasn't been able to match Pursley's success. Leary sits down in ninth in the standings right now, and came into Circle City on Wednesday with just four top fives in 26 races. Last night's win will be a weight off for sure as sprint week begins it's final run to the finish. With Terre Haute, Bloomington, and Haubstadt left, Briggs Danner maintains just a seven point lead on Logan Seavey for the sprint week title. Overall, it's all Kyle Cummins' game now. Justin Grant was forced to miss last night with that broken foot after trying to make a go of it the night before at Kokomo. Even a dustup with Robert Ballou last night didn't stop Cummins from extending his championship advantage for the season.
In Wednesday Super DIRTcar Series action, Alex Payne closed out the Canada trip by leading all 75 laps at Brockville Ontario Speedway. He topped Mat Williamson and Matt Sheppard for series win number two of his career. With the series going quiet now for a few weeks, Williamson maintains the championship lead over Alex Yankowski. Sharon Speedway is next up on August 11th.
Looking ahead to the weekend, besides the races I've already mentioned, a packed slate is coming up. The big focus in dirt late model racing will be the USA Nationals at Cedar Lake. The World of Outlaws are coming in with big money on the line. Tonight is a full program with a $10,000 to win feature. Then Friday is prelim action for Saturday, with qualifying heats, plus the heat winners and FANS Fund dashes. That leads into the $100,000 to win show on Saturday. Bobby Pierce has won the last two USA Nationals, with Jonathan Davenport winning the two before that. This will be the richest paying race on the Outlaw schedule this season, and the most money ever paid out at Cedar Lake. This event drew near 50 cars the last few years, so I'd expect something at least that good coming up. Besides the Outlaws, there is also Southern Thunder, Hunt the Front at Duck River, ULMS at Selinsgrove and Marion Center, and other regional and local races.
The weekend open wheel slate includes the World of Outlaws at Pevely for the Ironman 55. I'll be curious to see how the field shapes up there, with so many regular 410 teams headed to Knoxville for the 360 Nationals. There is also All Stars at Hartford, FAST, POWRi, NARC at Ocean, and weekly racing in Central PA. There is also the 305 Nationals at Belleville, and if you want some modified racing, check out the USMTS at Creek County today, and Wheatland Friday and Saturday.
We are going to call it good right there for the week. To keep up with your streaming options all weekend, stop by dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Hope you guys have a great Thursday out there, we'll see you back here on Sunday!