DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Longhorn's house car blues; a wild Schatz rumor; World 100, Tusky 50 on tap | Daily 9-4-2025
The World 100 starts today, and we'll talk win favorites, who's not there, and what else you need to know. I'll also get into the Tusky 50, Donny Schatz's first races with Paul Silva and where he could race next, and just where the hell Brandon Overton has been. Let's go!
It's Thursday, September 4th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
It's World 100 week at Eldora, with racing getting today. 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.
The first of three race days at Eldora for the World 100 kicks off tonight, and everything will build to Saturday. Thursday and Friday will each feature dual, split field programs. You'll have two main events today, and two main events tomorrow, with points setting up Saturday's action. For the Dream, we had half the field run Thursday, and the other half run Friday, but not for the World. Everyone runs both nights, they'll just be split into group A and group B. Heats today will feature a six car invert, although Eldora isn't calling them heats, they are shootouts. The top eight in each shootout go to their respective main event. Headed into Saturday, heat lineups will be set by the points standings from the first two days, and then those lineups will be inverted by a spin of the wheel to determine the invert number. Usual stuff from there, all the way to the feature. The World pays $72,000 to win and $5500 to start. The prelim features are $12,000 to win and $1000 to start. Bobby Pierce is the defending World 100 winner, while Hudson O'Neal and Jonathan Davenport won the two Worlds before that. Davenport also the winner of the Dream back in June. Going back to 2021, nobody has more wins during Eldora crown jewel weekends than JD does. His 11 lead Brandon Overton with eight. Overton though is winless at Eldora since 2022. Davenport also with the most top fives, top tens, and best average finish. He's also led the most laps by far. If you're looking for streakers, JD and Dale McDowell have the current longest, active top ten streaks in main events. Both have eight. Pierce is second with six. Over the stretch of races since 2021, the furthest back a feature winner started was 13th, and 43% of feature wins come from the front row. And 96% of heat races are won from the first two rows. When it comes to prelim features, it's not uncommon to see unexpected race winners, but we haven't had that for a big show in a while. If we split it into Pierce and JD, or the field, who are you taking? I'd have a hard time taking the field I think. As of this morning, I see 96 cars pre-entered, which includes the entire Dirt on Dirt Top 25, except three. No Ashton Winger, no Daulton Wilson, and no Gregg Satterlee. I've been asked what's up with Wilson, and all I know is that what DoD reported, with the team having engine issues. This will be Wilson's first missed race at Eldora since 2021. The two biggest names that are still without an Eldora crown jewel are Ricky Thornton Jr. and Devin Moran. RTJ has been on a tear here recently, and could be a solid not JD/Pierce pick. And Moran hasn't finished outside the top four in a Lucas show over the past nine races. It should be a great week for racing, so drop your World 100 thoughts and win picks below.
I mentioned Brandon Overton in there, with him being winless at Eldora since 2022. There was a stretch those two seasons in 2021 and 2022 where he went first, first, first, first, sixth, first, first, third, 13th, 6th in a B, first, first, third, 14th, second. Those coming in both prelim and big shows at Eldora crown jewels. He's had some good runs at Eldora since then, but nothing like we saw during that stretch. And the same is really true of his entire 2025 season, now as the driver of the Longhorn Factory Team car with Riggs Motorsports. Some solid runs, but nowhere near what I think a lot of people thought was possible for 2025. Longhorn and Riggs bringing in Overton and new crew chief Anthony Burroughs after splitting with Brandon Sheppard. We've watched this year as Sheppard and Rocket have tried to find the speed again together, and there has been hope with the XR2. But while we've seen Overton win a few times, and grab some top five finishes, it's felt like he hasn't even been any where near the conversation at the top of dirt late model racing. Fellow Longhorn runners Bobby Pierce, Ricky Thornton Jr., and Jonathan Davenport are the top guys, and Devin Moran, Hudson O'Neal, and Garrett Alberson have all won more than Overton in Longhorns out with Lucas. Even on the Outlaw side we've seen more from Nick Hoffman and Tim McCreadie. And let's be totally fair here, Overton isn't bad by any stretch. 31 top tens in 42 races, and an average finish in the mid eights. But completely winless since May, and he was never part of the championship chase four conversation with Lucas. He's currently seventh in the series standings, and 540 points behind the final locked in spot. That's a long way back for a driver and team who should be competing for championships. Let's not forget Sheppard won the Outlaw title in 2024 with this team. We know Riggs brought a new Longhorn to Port Royal, and Overton did big work at the Hillbilly 100 driving from a 21st place starting spot to finish fifth in the finale. I doubt anyone is picking them to win this week, but some good runs down the stretch here good really boost that team as they start to look towards 2026.
On the sprint car side, the big weekend race is the Tuscarora 50 at Port Royal that starts today. The Kubota High Limit sprint cars come in, and there pre-entry list that was released has 52 cars on it. That obviously includes all the series regulars, a lot of Central PA teams, and some extra travelers. We found out this week that Aaron Reutzel is planning his return to the Ridge and Sons 87 following that broken foot injury he suffered at Eldora. Jeremy Elliott reported this morning in his 90 at 9 that Justin Sanders is still on stand-by in case Reutzel can't race after tonight. Supposedly he's still dealing with the injury and the cast stuff, so if he ends up not being able to go, Sanders would fly in from California. The other driver who is back this week from injury is Brian Brown. He had hand a wrist breaks after crashing at Knoxville, but he plans on racing at Port Royal. He's a past Tusky 50 winner as well. Some other travelers coming in include Parker Price Miller, Steven Snyder Jr., Brady Bacon, and Ryan Timms. Remember too that Trey Starks is taking over the Meyers 14 for the weekend. This will be the fourth big event that High Limit has been a part of at Port Royal. Danny Dietrich won the Weikert in 2024, while Rico Abreu was the Tusky winner. And Reutzel was the Weikert winner earlier this year. Mixed in, we've also seen Brad Sweet, and Brent Marks pickup wins. Besides who's going to go home with the $58,000 after Saturday, the High Limit championship battle will be front and center all weekend. The driver portion is likely down to Rico and Sweet, with those two just 35 points apart. Brent Marks has an outside shot, but he's 99 points back at the moment. The owner side though is much more wide open. Rico leads that too, but the RSR 87 is 10 points back, the KKR 49 is 35, the CMR 7BC is 60, and then Marks in fifth 99 back. There are 15 race nights left, and with things so tight, we are probably going to see multiple big swings back and forth depending on who runs well. If Reutzel is healthy enough, I like his and Rico's chances this weekend. Central PA is always a question for Sweet, but he and his team will be pushing for a bounceback after that rough Skagit Nationals. I'm not sold on the 7BC being a real contender here, because Gio Scelzi has been up and down in his sub role with the team. And I think Marks is probably too far back to make a real charge.
Out west, the World of Outlaws sprint cars begin their west coast swing with two nights at Vado Speedway Park on their way to California. This will be the first big sprint car race at Vado since 2022, when the Outlaws were last through there. The spring Vado race for High Limit was cancelled for high winds. Both shows, Friday and Saturday, are $12,000 to win and $1200 to start. I'll be super curious on car count for this one. The last time the Outlaws were through, they got 22. But with POWRi in action, ASCS racing, and NARC running Saturday at Placerville, it could be a tough weekend for cars. There just aren't many sprint cars in that southwest part of the country. We will see a new Vado Outlaw winner, as Brad Sweet took that show back in 2022. My guess is that it will be David Gravel, Buddy Kofoid, or Carson Macedo. Those three drivers have won all the Outlaw races going back to Weedsport in July, bar the Knoxville Nationals. Ryan Timms and Kyle Larson picking up wins there. The last winner that wasn't in this group was Anthony Macri, who went back to back at the Kings Royal and BAPS. This will be the first weekend for Donny Schatz and Paul Silva working together, as Schatz gets in the Works Limited ride. Silva is coming off of having Spencer Bayston in the seat, plus winning the Louie Vermeil Classic with Logan Seavey in the non-wing car. Schatz hasn't won out west since 2017, and is winless at the moment going back to Lincoln in October of 2024. Given what we've seen other drivers do with Silva, this could be Schatz's best opportunity to find victory lane. He'll be in the car for the next six races. What happens after that though, we still don't know. Coming back from Tulare later this month, the Outlaws then hit Sharon, before the National Open at Williams Grove. There are still 13 races Schatz needs a ride for. With some races still to go in the midwest, maybe we could see Schatz back with Big Game or Lunstra. But outside of a rumor about talks with Don Kreitz and the 69K, I don't have anything solid for you here. The 69K thing might make a bit more sense to me if they didn't have Daryn Pittman lined up for the National Open.
Looking at other weekend events, outside of the World, there isn't a ton of dirt late model races. WISSOTA is at River Cities for some good money, the Ultimate southeast series is at Screven for $10k to win, the Fall Clash has races at Bridgeport and Action Track USA, and there are some other scattered regional and local events.
There is a lot of open wheel racing to come though. That includes USAC sprint cars at Tri City and Wheatland, the All Stars in New York and PA, the IRA is at Cedar Lake for a big weekend, POWRi hits Tri City and Benton, the ASCS is in action, and the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets take on Doe Run and Highland. And if you want modifieds, check out the Super DIRTcar Series at Can Am and Weedsport this weekend.
Day three at the IMCA Super Nationals was delayed just a bit by weather, but they did get through the full program. Dallon Murty stayed rolling in his stock car, winning his qualifying feature. Remember he's coming off that big XR $100,000 win. Jeffrey Abbey also won a stock car qualifying feature, and Tim Ward and Dakota Sproul won the two modified qualifying features. Looking ahead to the rest of the event, qualifying and race of champions events continue through earlier in the day on Saturday, and then Saturday night, they'll crown champions for the hobby stocks, northern sport mods, stock cars, and modifieds. All three remaining days will be included on the streaming schedule over at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show this week. Thanks for the support, the comments, and tuning in each day.
Hope you guys have a great Thursday out there, we'll see you back here on Sunday!