DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Late model rumblings, more vent chat, another injured sprint car driver | Daily 8-8-2025

Kyle Larson strikes again, Brian Brown injured, we'll talk who's locked in for Saturday, and a lot more from the Knoxville Nationals. Plus Thursday race results, and a bunch of dirt late model notes from the North South 100. Let's go!

It's Friday, August 8th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

Today's Daily show is being supported by our friends at ArrowVision. It's a big weekend for the Comp Cams Super Dirt Series with the Clash at the Mag happening Friday and Saturday, and you can watch it all live on Arrowvision. $5000 to win today, and $12,000 to win on Saturday. Hall of famer Billy Moyer leads the series championship at the moment, with Morgan Bagley and BJ Robinson in tow. The series has seen six different winners so far, and Moyer has two of the victories. It's going to be a great two days of action. Arrowvision also has Friday night action live from Arrowhead Speedway. The program includes the All American Sprint League, plus modifieds, stock cars, tuners, pure stocks, interceptors, and midwest mods. Hot laps start at 7pm local time. All season long, ArrowVision is the streaming home for the Comp Cams Super Dirt Series, the All American Outlaw Modified Series, and Arrowhead Speedway. You can grab an account and tune in over at www.arrowvision.live.

I said the other night after the Front Row Challenge that this year was setting up very similarly to last, with Kyle Larson topping Corey Day at Osky. And that feeling persists after the second Knoxville Nationals prelim night. Last year it was a sixth to the win charge, with Yung Money leading the last two laps to win the prelim over Rico Abreu. And last night it was fifth to the win, although this one felt a bit stronger. Larson was to the lead by lap 13 and unchallenged from there. Derek Hagar led laps early from the pole, and then it was Spencer Bayston. But that feeling of inevitability was there all night, especially as we watched Larson move his way forward. It only took five laps to get to second. Larson didn't blow the field away in qualifying, timing in 15th of 49 cars, but he went out a bit later. And a sixth to fourth charge in the heat was all he needed. In terms of the Saturday big show though, Larson will have some work to do, starting a bit further down. We'll talk about that in a minute. The big incident on the night involved Brian Brown and JJ Hickle in heat race three. Brown trying to pick his way forward from row four, with Hickle in that final transfer spot. There were a few times were Brown had to take evasive action to avoid Hickle's defensive moves, but it did eventually go sideways. Out of turn two, Brown tried to get to Hickle's high side, and the 21 ended up over Hickle's right rear. Brown then with a nasty hit to the outside wall, and then tumbling end over end down the back straightaway. Brown did climb from the car, but I was told did later leave the track in an ambulance. We have since learned he's got a broken right hand and a broken left wrist. His Nationals is obviously done, and likely a decent amount of what was left of his 2025 season. In the aftermath, there was a dustup between the Matt Moro-owned team of Hickle, and Brown's crew. The two were pitted right next to each other, and sherriff's deputies were called to the pit intervene. The Always Race Day guys had video of some of the words, with Chad Morgan yelling at Hickle quote "You know better than that. You know better than that bud." Hickle replied quote "if you think I came to the Nationals to move out of Brian Brown's way, you're wrong." Hickle then later telling DIRTVision's Connor Wade quote "The guy in back, it's kind of his job to get by me. Sorry it happened. I never went into the corner once trying to crash Brian, but he's an extremely aggressive racer also. We race here every week, when you miss the bottom, you slide across. I'm just playing the game that I know how to play. It sucks that it bit him, but it's been me a couple of times on his end, too. It's just racing man" unqoute. The biggest name last night that came up short was Buddy Kofoid. He missed out on a feature transfer in the heat by one spot, and started 15th in the B. He charge forward from there, but just not enough. He's one of a number of heavy hitters that will have to try again tonight. The driver who had to hustle all night was Brad Sweet. Quick time, but then missed the heat feature transfer. The pole of the B was helpful to win it, and then he hard charged from 21st to eighth in the main event. That leaves him well up in the points and setup for a good shot at his second career Nationals win. That's got to be a boost after everything that went down last weekend. And talking about those points, Ryan Timms' performance the other night earned him pole position for Saturday night's finale. Carson Macedo will join him on the front row. The other 14 locked in are Logan Schuchart, Brad Sweet, Sheldon Haudenschild, Corey Day, Rico Abreu, Emerson Axsom, Kyle Larson, Justin Peck, Garet Williamson, Austin McCarl, Bill Balog, Gio Scelzi, Cameron Martin, and Spencer Bayston. The guaranteed B-Main starters are Chris Windom, Brent Marks, Jack Anderson, James McFadden, Lynton Jeffrey, Parker Price Miller, Sam Hafertepe, Brock Zearfoss, Danny Dietrich, and Derek Hagar. Everyone else will try again tonight on Hard Knox Friday. That Saturday B will fill feature spots 17 through 20, and tonight's top four feature finishers will get spots 21-24 in Saturday's main event. The biggest surprise was Cameron Martin locking in. His time trial run of second really boosted him, as he didn't move forward in the heat. He was able to protect that second B-Main starting spot, and just get it with a 22 to 16 run in the feature.

Tonight, we'll have split field qualifying, six heats, a C, two Bs, and the feature. Heats inverted by four, and no feature invert. No points or anything, so you just gotta go fast and pass cars. The guys to watch for tonight include David Gravel, Donny Schatz, Buddy Kofoid, Justin Sanders, and Anthony Macri. Some guys will definitely leave tonight very disappointed about their Saturday position.

Real quick before we move on, I had a friend send me a spy shot of the inside of one of those arm guards with the vent that we talked about on the show earlier this week. Someone told me I should call it a scoop. Scoot, vent, whatever, you get the idea. This one is off of Kyle Larson's 57. It seems pretty clear that you can't buy an arm guard like this, and that this one was modified to fit the piece. As we talked about before, this seemingly offering some sort of aero benefit for qualifying. It's the only time it's used on the car, and clearly not for driver cooling. Thanks to that friend for sending this to me. This shot really showing the full qualifying setup for Paul Silva's car with the qualifying wing there as well.

In Appalachian Midget Week action last night, Kyle Jones picked up his first ever national series win at Linda's Speedway. He took the lead from Michael Faccinto with ten to go, and held off Jacob Denney and Cannon McIntosh at the finish. Denney's incredible streak continues, and he's pulling away even more in the championship fight. The Xtreme Midgets head for Path Valley today, and then Clyde Martin on Saturday.

At Florence, the North South 100 is off and rolling with the first prelim night done. Daulton Wilson and Garrett Alberson winning the two prelim features, each worth $6000. Remember these first two nights are split field program with everyone earning points to set Saturday's heat race lineups. Alberson outdueled Devin Moran in race one, and Daulton Wilson battled early with polesitter Jonathan Davenport, before eventually leading the final 21 laps. Wilson hadn't been to victory lane with Lucas since East Bay back at the start of 2024. They will do the same thing all over again tonight there at Florence. A couple of notes from last night. It looked like Mike Marlar was back in the Longhorn. Remember we've seen him switching back and forth between the Longhorn and the Infinity the last few weeks. He was third in race one. Also, I heard an interesting rumor yesterday about Cory Hedgecock's future and what could be next for his BMF race cars dirt late model chassis brand. Could he be switching teams, I'm not sure. But this could be a space to watch for you southeastern regional fans coming up. Kyle Strickler was in the field last night, we haven't seen him make a lot of dirt late model starts recently. And of note, he was driving one of Austin Kirkpatrick's new AK Racecars REV1 chassis. They finished 13th, and it sounds like we might see Strickler a bit more. Also, we can add Jimmy Owens to the Rocket XR2 driver list. I heard from a very good source that he did some super trucking and put in some hours to get to West Virginia, pick up a new car and build it, and have it ready to race this weekend. He went 13th to sixth in race one last night.

If you are looking for some other dirt late model options tonight, there is the aforementioned Comp Cams Clash at the Mag. You've got Iron-Man at Millstream and MARS at Sycamore. To get a full look at your Friday night streaming options, head over to dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.

We will call it a day right there. Stick around, as we will likely be doing a Saturday Daily show as well to get you ready for the Knoxville Nationals finale, the North South 100, and more. So keep an eye out tomorrow.

Hope you guys have a great Friday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!