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Let's talk 2026 sprint car driver, team scenarios | Daily 8-25-2025

Big time free agent drivers, open sprint car seats, and domino effects inbound. We'll talk through a bunch of sprint car silly season scenarios today, including who's looking, what I'm hearing, and what makes sense. Plus Donny Schatz's west coast ride, High Limit in Oregon, and more. Let's go!

It's Monday, August 25th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

Today's Daily show is being supported by BAPS Motor Speedway and SprintCarUnlimited.TV. Coming up on Wednesday, that's this Wednesday, August 27th, the 2025 BAPS 410 sprint car schedule continues with another round of their season long championship. This will be a 410 sprint car-only show, and all the heavy hitters will be there including Danny Dietrich, Anthony Macri, Chase Dietz, and more. They've got free camping, free parking, and kids 12 and under are free. The infield spectator area will also be open. If you can't get to the track, watch it all live on SprintCarUnlimited.tv. Sprint cars will be on track for hot laps at 7PM. Just a handful of 410 races remain on the schedule in 2025 at BAPS, and a track championship is on the line. Head over to bapsmotorspeedway.com to see the rest of their schedule, and if you want to watch each of the championship races live, including this Wednesday, plus the Kevin Gobrecht Classic, and the season finale Sprint Showdown in November, you can do that all season long on SprintCarUnlimited.TV.

With all of the changes we've already seen in 2025, and how much there is still left to settle, we are in the midst of one of the more intriguing sprint car silly seasons we've seen in a few years. I wanted to run through a bunch of stuff today, talk about the different scenarios, and set you up for what is likely to be a busy next couple of months as teams and drivers figure all of this out. At the moment our two biggest free agent drivers are Donny Schatz and Gio Scelzi. Both at very different points in their careers, and I think it's not hard to see that arguments could be made for either to be called the number one free agent. Obviously Scelzi doesn't have anywhere near the resume that Schatz has, but there is still a lot of potential with Gio, while Schatz is much closer to the end of his career then the beginning. Both drivers will be at the top of the wishlists for teams looking for a new wheelman, and I think each will have very good opportunities put in front of them. Both drivers though not without questions. Schatz is winless in 2025, and the wonder will be if he can get back to anywhere near the form we saw from him while he was winning ten Outlaw titles. The sprint car game has changed a lot, and quickly, and I wonder if Schatz can adapt. I've talked about this multiple times on this show and elsewhere, but racing has turned hyperaggresive, and that's just never been Donny. As for Gio, 10 career Outlaw wins, two more with High Limit, but can he take that step forward and become a real title contender. He's shown flashes, but with KCP, he just seemed to lack some of the outright pace of the Gravels, Macedos, and Kofoids. He's been solid in the fill-in role with Clauson Marshall, and I think in the right situation he could be that guy. It was his choice to walk away from KCP, and clearly he's searching for the right combination of team, crew chief and equipment. The other national touring level driver who's looking for his next deal is Spencer Bayston. He obviously lost the JMR 14 ride after the Knoxville Nationals, and has looked strong out west with Paul Silva. His worst finish was a seventh, which came Saturday in the Gold Cup finale, and he's driving like a driver with his career on the line. As I mentioned previously, you don't win five Outlaw races if you don't have talent, but Bayston is winless since 2023, and hasn't looked like a driver capable of competing on the big stage in recent years. You could talk me into CJB not being the right situation for him, but his time at JMR was disappointing. While Corey Day melts faces in a partial schedule out of the same shop, Bayston struggled to even finish in the top ten most nights. I'll be curious to see and hear what the actual market is for Bayston and where exactly he fits in. Has he shown enough out west to raise his stock back up, or will owners look at him as a driver that is too up and down. I do think with how fluid things are out there right now, there will likely end up being other drivers on the market, as domino effects start to happen with bigger signings. But outside of these three drivers, the others to watch at the moment include James McFadden and Justin Sanders. There have been rumblings of teams inquiring about JMac's future, but it's unclear to me if he has any interest in continuing in the states beyond the summer schedule. He left a full time ride here in 2024 to return to Australia with his family, and I don't know if that's changed. And Sanders is a guy who's gotten a ton of interest in the past year or so from teams outside California, but it's my understanding he's turned them all down. His performances filling in for Aaron Reutzel are keeping him top of mind, and I think he'll have his choice of opportunities if he wants to expand to a larger schedule.

Shifting to potential open seats, this is where things start to get a bit murkier. The obvious one is Tony Stewart Racing. Kerry Madsen will finish the season in the TSR 15, but that team is on the hunt for a younger driver they can build a future around. I'm sure Tony's phone has been ringing off the hook with drivers who want to get in there, but will they be able to convince a top driver to sign. That I'm not sure about. There has been a lot of turmoil and change with that team, and they are trying to right the ship after the departure of Schatz. Madsen has performed very similarly through his first five races in the 15 to what we saw Schatz do. Two top tens, but also runs of 15th, 12th, and 16th. Given the performances and all the changes, could they, for example, talk Gio Scelzi into coming there. I don't know about that. So if it's not Gio, who else could they get? Maybe Bayston is a candidate here. Anything else would mean grabbing a driver who is currently in a seat. And then TSR signing a new driver would mean Kerry Madsen would need a ride again, although it's likely he could continue his deal with Vermeer in that second 55. From there, other rides with questions include Jason Meyers' team, Kasey Kahne Racing, and what KCP decides to do for 2026. Meyers obviously shut down their second team with Bayston out, and there are rumblings he could secure that High Limit franchise, and then try and sell it. A scenario that has been floated here, is Meyers gets the franchise, then sells it to Clauson Marshall, who then starts a second team for Gio Scelzi. This would be in addition to Tyler Courtney, who is hoping to return in early 2026 after that back injury suffered at Eldora. That would return Meyers team to a pick and choose type schedule, likely with just Day in between NASCAR commitments. If they don't go that direction though, maybe someone could convince Meyers to bring that touring car back out and use that franchise. As they say, money talks. I added Kasey Kahne Racing here, because they parked the nine car to focus on the 49 for the rest of 2025. Would Kasey listen to offers to field that second car for a different driver? Maybe if someone can bring some extra funding. Something to at least think about. And KCP brought in Emerson Axsom to finish the 2025 season after Gio Scelzi departed, but did not commit to him long term, at least publicly. We obviously know Gio Scelzi wouldn't go back here, but what exactly Axsom needs to do to secure that ride is unclear. He's made 11 410 starts in the 18, with top fives on his Knoxville Nationals prelim night, and back on Friday at River Cities. He hasn't torn anything up really, which is good, but he's also got seven finishes outside the top ten. Could this team go after Schatz, or look elsewhere if they choose to not keep Axsom. At this point in the season and the conversation, these are the most solid drivers and teams who are or could be on the market. Anything else is just even more speculative. I do think outside the top couple of team and driver combos, I wouldn't be shocked to see changes almost anywhere else though. There are a lot of moving parts right now, ongoing conversations, and rumors flying around. Remember there are some crew chiefs who could be in play, thinking about a guy like Eric Prutzman, and there could be more itchy car owners and drivers.

Along this same vein, we know Donny Schatz is trying to piece together rides to finish this Outlaw season, and he's now got things worked out through the September 20th race at Tulare. He's going this weekend to Huset's in the Lunstra car, and then he'll run the entire west coast trip in the Works Limited car with Paul Silva. This is obviously the car we've been watching Spencer Bayston drive, and Bayston will run it tonight at Douglas County, and this weekend at Skagit. Schatz will then take it over for six races starting September 5th at Vado. This car used to be the 57W, while Silva's cars were the 57. But with Bayston getting in it, the car has been listed as just the W the last few weeks. Schatz told the World of Outlaws in a release that Sam Elicker set the deal up. Elicker with JVI Group who sponsors Silva and Kyle Larson. JVI Group is a construction company in Pennsylvania if you are unaware. So Schatz will work with Silva to race Vado, Kern, Perris, and Tulare. After that, the Outlaws head to Ohio for two races, then to the northeast for the National Open, New Egypt, and Lincoln. Schatz's next job will be finding rides for those races and beyond to World Finals. As we talked about last week, Schatz in line for more than $50,000 in year end driver payouts if he can maintain his status all the way to the end. That number could rise as well, if he's able to run down Sheldon Haudenschild for fifth in the standings. Just a hundred points separating the two right now. Schatz in really no danger of losing sixth, with Bill Balog more than 200 points back.

Sunday race winners included Ryan Timms at Huset's in weekly 410 action. That was win number three for Timms and Shane Liebig on the weekend, as they also swept the ASCS races in Montana. Timms now with 15 total sprint car wins in 2025, including 12 in the 410, and three 360 scores. All of that headlined by the Knoxville Nationals win. Also, Cap Henry and Ricky Lewis were FAST and BOSS winners at Millstream.

Looking towards tonight, the Kubota High Limit sprint cars are in Oregon for a stop at Douglas County in Roseburg. James McFadden the winner of this event one year ago. If the pattern keeps repeating, Justin Sanders should win tonight. Going back to Tulare on August 15th, it was Corey Day, then Sanders won Placerville, then Day won his Gold Cup prelim, then Sanders the second Gold Cup prelim, then Day the finale. So tonight it's Sanders turn. High Limit has 19 races left in the season, and the owner's standings are tight, with Brad Sweet and the KKR 49 leading, but three other teams in pursuit. The RSR 87 is 15 back, the CMR 7BC is 33 behind, and Rico Abreu's 24 is 71 back. This should be tight all the way to Texas. This race last year drew 32 cars, with some California cars coming north, and some Oregon and Washington cars joining the field. With Skagit paying $126,000 to win this weekend, hopefully some of the California guys will stop at this one again on the way north.

That's the Daily show for today. If you've gotten all the way to this point in the episode, and you don't already subscribe to the show, maybe consider hitting that button. You can subscribe for free on YouTube and the podcast places, and like and follow on Facebook. New shows are posted five days a week to those platforms, plus dirtrackr.com.

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