DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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What will Hunt the Front do with it? | Daily 9-2-2025
If Hunt the Front's Joseph Joiner jumps to Lucas for 2026, what would that mean for the Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series? We'll talk about that today, plus an injured sprint car driver back, we'll talk High Limit franchises and the future for one team, Monday racing and more. Let's go!
It's Tuesday, September 2nd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
It's World 100 week at Eldora, with racing getting started on Thursday. If you're going to be in town, make sure to stop by The Whistle Stop and grab something good to eat. It's just a seven mile ride straight south of Eldora Speedway to Ansonia. All week you can get breakfast, lunch, dinner, pizza, and you can get some food to bring back to the track with you. And when you stop in, they've got a full bar so you can enjoy a nice adult beverage. Andrew and his staff do a great job, so if you stop in, tell them DIRTRACKR sent you. If you want to ride a little further south, head to Sure Shot Tap House in Greenville, Ohio, a great place to eat, drink and play. They've got a full menu, plus all sorts of adult beverage options on tap, self pour, plus the Bullseye Game Lounge upstairs with duckpin bowling and 24 arcade games. When you're not at the track, keep yourself fed and entertained with these two establishments, the Whistle Stop and Sure Shot Tap House. Thanks to them for their support of Eldora and this show.
Two weeks ago, we told you here on the show about the possibility of dirt late model racer Joseph Joiner and his Hunt the Front team potentially partnering up with JCM Motorsports to go full time with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series in 2026. We know at the moment that Joiner is finishing the 2025 Lucas calendar with the team, sans Brownstown, and that they are partnered up for the World 100 this week. Joiner is going to miss Brownstown, because it conflicts with a Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series event. That tour will be at Southern Raceway that weekend, and Joiner is only 58 points behind Jimmy Owens for the championship lead. Given the possibility that Joiner goes to Lucas for a rookie run, I've seen some comments about what that would mean for the future of the Hunt the Front series. Would they shut it down, would the draw suddenly be less if they don't, etc. I did reach out for clarification and was told regardless of what ends up happening with Joseph and the race team, which is still not solidified as of now, the series will indeed be back next year and that they are working on bigger and better for both the racing and the streaming service. I think it's important to point out that the series has had something like 10 cars make all the races, or pretty close to all the races. And some of the biggest names in the southeast appear regularly. Owens, Zack Mitchell, Cory Hedgecock, Sam Seawright, Dale McDowell. We've even seen national guys like Brandon Overton, Mike Marlar, Ryan Gustin, and Tyler Erb make multiple starts in 2025. I don't see that changing into the future with good payouts and popular race tracks. Their best showing this season was 53 cars entered, and they've averaged 37 cars over the 12 completed races. And even if Joiner makes the jump, I'm sure he'd still be in line for a bunch of series starts in between Lucas commitments. So, regardless of what 2026 brings, don't expect the Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series to go away.
When the Kubota High Limit sprint cars head to Port Royal this week, one of the drivers missing from the series due to injury will be back in the car. Ridge and Sons Racing announced this morning that Aaron Reutzel will return to the seat of the 87 machine. He'd been out since the Knight Before the Kings Royal after suffering a broken foot in a crash at Eldora Speedway. Justin Sanders has been filling in for the team since then, with Sanders making 12 starts, including at the Knoxville Nationals, and eight High Limit races out west. Knoxville was a struggle, but Sanders was very strong on the west coast. He won twice, including at Placerville and his prelim night at the Gold Cup. He was most recently fifth in the Skagit Nationals finale. Sanders' performances have kept the RSR 87 team in the thick of the High Limit owners championship battle, where they currently trail Rico Abreu's 24 team by just ten points. The top four in the standings are separated by just 60 points, with the KKR 49 and the CMR 7BC also in the mix. Reutzel is usually good at Port, and some strong runs this weekend would go a long way towards keeping them in that title hunt. Reutzel is a previous winner of the Tusky 50, and he won the Bob Weikert Memorial at the track back in May. Reutzel and Rico will be two heavy win favorites this week, with Rico the defending Tusky 50 winner. Rico has also been strong on half miles this year, including a bunch of success at Knoxville, and strong runs at Eldora. With Reutzel back, and Rico rolling, there will be added pressure on Brad Sweet this week to try and rebound from a brutal Skagit Nationals. Central PA has long been known to be a tough part of the country for Sweet, although he did win a High Limit show at Port back in 2024. That team now has a bit of a hole to dig out of. With Reutzel back, it's possible we could see Sanders back in the Mittry car this week when NARC heads to Placerville. After that though, Sanders will jump in the Jason Meyers 14 to race Lernerville, Eldora, Lakeside, and Texas with High Limit.
And just a quick update on the future for the 14, Jason Meyers was on Jeremy Elliott's podcast last week and shared that there are a lot of question marks right now for 2026. Meyers said they know they are going to race with Corey Day, but they don't know how many times. And then depending on how much Corey is available, he doesn't know if they'll run other races, or if they can get another high caliber driver to run other shows. Meyers getting drivers to finish out the High Limit season will earn them a franchise, so they would have options for next year. And those options could include another full time High Limit run, or the ability to sell that franchise to another team. As we've said here before, one rumor out there is Meyers sells the franchise to Clauson Marshall so they can start a second full time High Limit team with Gio Scelzi in the seat. Scelzi obviously filling in for Tyler Courtney with the team for the remainder of 2025. And I think it's possible that the Meyers franchise might not be the only one available for next year if teams are looking to make the leap to High Limit. It sounds like CJB Motorsports is exploring all of their options for 2026 also. As we wait and watch for the driver market to work itself out, series choices will again be a storyline to follow.
In Labor Day sprint car action, Brock Zearfoss was a 410 winner at Port Royal. He made a very late move around Parker Price Miller to earn his first win since the Sprint Showdown at BAPS late in 2024. PPM and Chase Dietz on the day's podium. The only racing left at Port this season is the Tuscarora 50 coming up this week. Justin Whittall looks to be on his way to the track championship over Logan Wagner and Zearfoss.
At day one of the IMCA Super Nationals at Boone Speedway in Iowa, Jesse Sobbing handled the late model field to score the $3000 win over Zach Zeitner and Cody Thompson. It was Sobbing's first Super Nationals win. Other Mondah winners included Jon Padilla and Dillon Raffurty in mod lites, Tyler Heckart and Jason Bannister won northern sportmod qualifying features, and Dylan Nelson was a hobby stock qualifying feature winner. Today it's another packed schedule, with a full program for sport compacts, more northern sportmod and hobby stock qualifying, plus the hobby stock and sportmod races of champions. Events are live all week long at imca.tv, which is included on the streaming schedule at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
We will shut things down 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!