DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Lucas late models suspend driver, Donny Schatz ride update | Daily 8-19-2025

Lucas responds to the Cade Dillard, Garrett Alberson incident with a big suspension; we'll talk Donny Schatz's near future and why he's got a big incentive to find more rides; plus we'll talk World of Outlaws and Super DIRTcar Series. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, August 19th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

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We will get rolling today with the breaking news of the morning, and that was the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series announcing penalties following that Cade Dillard/Garrett Alberson incident at the Topless 100. In the second of two Friday prelim features, the two tangled on a restart with 18 to go. Dillard was leading, and Alberson threw a slider at him into turns one and two. It initially looked like the slider would clear, but Alberson lost a lot of momentum and Dillard ended up running into the back of the 58. Dillard could have gotten on the brakes to avoid the contact, but instead it looked like he got into the throttle and drove through Alberson's machine, sending him spinning through the air down the backstretch. Both cars were done for the night, and afterwards Dillard had some very pointed comments about Alberson including quote "I hope they have to send his back to the jig" and quote "if he touches me again I'll total him out again." Dillard didn't race on Saturday, and I've heard a few people say he was told to not return by the series. I do not have confirmation on that though. As of this morning, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series has suspended Dillard for six months from all series competition. A release from the series says quote "In an interview with FloRacing, Dillard admitted to intentionally causing the chaos and expressed his intentions to do it again if the opportunity arose. After review, Dillard's on-track and off-track actions were deemed aggressive, violating the conduct policy in section 1.4 of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series presented by FloRacing rulebook." The six month suspension levied will bar Dillard from any remaining Lucas events in 2025, and will expire right before Lucas speedweeks begin later in February in 2026. Remember the speedweeks schedule for Lucas shifts back next year to after the Daytona 500. This is the third lengthy suspension we've seen handed to a dirt late model racer this year, with Dillard joining Taylor Farlling and Bob Gardner. Farlling suspended after that Port Royal limited late model incident, and Gardner banned after his retaliation against Daryn Klein in a MARS event. Given the nature of the incident, and Dillard's comments after, this seems like a reasonable response from the series. I'm not sure why we've seen so many of these types of paybacks this year all of a sudden, but these series and tracks moving swiftly to levy big penalties to try and stave off additional incidents. Dillard will likely continue racing modifieds for the rest of the year, and we'll see if any other late model series join Lucas in upholding the penalty. I did reach out to the World of Outlaws to see what their stance on it is, but I have yet to hear what their decision will be.

As we continue to follow this Donny Schatz story and his release last week from Tony Stewart Racing after something like 18 years together, there was another update last night on his near future anyway. Schatz was initially set to run the seven races after his release for Big Game Motorsports and owner Tod Quiring, as a teammate to World of Outlaws championship leader David Gravel. Things went sideways though on Friday at Ogilvie when Schatz crashed right at the start of the feature. Team owner Dave Lunstra was lending his truck and trailer to the team anyway for the second Big Game entry, so when that crashed car couldn't be repaired for Saturday at Jackson, Lunstra just went ahead and rolled his car out for Schatz. A solid qualifying effort, a dash appearance, and a top ten finish for Schatz was a solid bounceback. With only a few days though between races, there was uncertainty about what Schatz would do for tonight at Mississippi Thunder and beyond, and FloRacing's Kyle McFadden was all over it. He reported last night that Schatz will now race through the end of August in the Lunstra ride with support from Big Game and Quiring. Brad Alexander and Stephen Hamm Reilly will continue to crew for Schatz, and he revealed he's been using a Tim Kaeding seat, because he hasn't gotten his seats yet back from TSR. Looking ahead, there are still 21 Outlaw race nights left this season after Schatz's final scheduled race with Lunsta at Huset's, so he'll be working to try and find more deals to finish the season. He's currently a solid sixth in the Outlaw standings. There is significant incentive for Schatz to try and maintain that position through World Finals, because between the exclusivity bonus and year end point fund with the World of Outlaws, he'd be looking at nearly $55,000 in payouts. And that would obviously be on top of any purse money earned down the stretch. So understand this isn't just about continuing a streak, or Schatz staying in the game. There is a lot of money available to him if he can get to Charlotte in November still in good standing. As McFadden pointed out in his story, after Huset's is the big west coast trip, and that might be the most difficult stretch for Schatz to find a ride. I'm sure over the next about two weeks he'll be burning up the phones trying to put something together.

Tonight's Outlaw show at Mississippi Thunder will be the first ever stop for the series at the Wisconsin track. It's been a regular on the World of Outlaws late model tour, and other sprint car races have happened there, but not the Outlaws. At the moment, David Gravel leads Buddy Kofoid by 168 points in the Outlaw standings, and that means Kofoid needs to gain, on average, about 7 points per night all the way through World Finals to pass Gravel. That would be about 3.5 positions per race. It's not over at this point, and not completely insurmountable, but it is going to be extremely difficult. Outside of the Knoxville prelim night debacle, Gravel hasn't finished outside the top six in an Outlaw race since June 6th. I'm not saying they are doing this, but Gravel can afford to be just a touch more conservative down the stretch. Coming into tonight, Carson Macedo has won three of the last four Outlaw races that weren't the Knoxville Nationals. Buddy Kofoid also winning during the stretch. After tonight, the Outlaws head to North Dakota for Friday and Saturday stops at River Cities and Red River Valley.

In other action last night, Tim Sears Jr. was a first time winner with the Super DIRTcar Series. He went eighth to the win at Brewerton Speedway during SummerFAST action, topping championship leader Mat Williamson and Jimmy Phelps. Sears had made 110 previous series starts without a victory. With Alex Yankowski down in sixth, and Matt Sheppard ending up 20th, Williamson extended his points lead with two more SummerFAST nights still to go. The series heads to Land of Legends today and Fulton on Wednesday.

That is the show today. If you want to see your streaming options for this Tuesday, don't forget you can stop by dirtrackr.com/watchtonight. There are two other items listed there besides the World of Outlaws and Super DIRTcar Series shows I mentioned earlier. That page has what's racing, at what track, what service it's on, start times where available, and links to watch.

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