DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Confirmed moves; the latest ride and driver chatter; big late models, small track | Daily 9-8-2025

Sprint car news today for Spencer Bayston, Dominic Scelzi, and Ricky Thornton Jr. I'll also clear out the inbox and tell you what I know currently about several sprint car silly season situations. We'll also talk super late models on a really small race track. Let's go!

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

We'll start things off today with sprint car news items that are confirmed. The first is that Spencer Bayston will be in the Tarlton 21 for the next two World of Outlaws weekends in California. James McFadden returned home to Australia after the Skagit Nationals, and Tanner Holmes isn't scheduled to get back into the car until early October. This was a move I first told you guys about on August 27th after Bayston ran the Works Limited car in California. That machine is being driven for the next few weeks by Donny Schatz, and we know that Bayston has been trying to piece things together since losing the Meyers 14 ride after the Knoxville Nationals. Bayston has raced with Tarlton before, and this was probably an easy call for the team to make given they were needing a driver for a few weeks. After struggling for much of the 2025 season, Bayston has looked solid since the Knoxville Nationals. He was third on his prelim night and made the Nationals feature. He then went west and picked up six top seven finishes in seven starts in the W with Silva. McFadden ended up winning seven times with Tarlton, including six NARC shows and the Capitani Classic. The competition level will ramp up with the Outlaws in town, but we know what that Tarlton machine with crew chief Drew Warner is capable of. Looking ahead, I've been told we could see Bayston back with Paul Silva for the Trophy Cup in October. From there, it sounds like he's still on the hunt for a full time ride for 2026. Unfortunately, his name is not being mentioned among some of the open rides at the moment.

The other driver I wanted to talk about here is Dominic Scelzi. He's currently winless in 2025, and if that holds, it will be first time Dom has gone an entire season without a 410 sprint car win since 2017. He's won three 360 shows, but the rest of the season has been an uncharacteristically down one. There were rumors before Gold Cup that the Scelzi 41 team had been shuttered, but the car came out anyway. And then Scelzi drove a second car for Trey Starks at the Skagit Nationals. We know now that the team has fired crew chief Jimmy Carr, and Sprint Car Unlimited reported that the Scelzi 41 went to Gold Cup with help from Brent Ventura and had a Roth Motorsports-owned engine under the hood. Dom told me this afternoon that he will be getting help again from Todd and Brent Ventura the next two weeks as he'll be back in the car for the World of Outlaws shows. That includes this weekend at Kern and Perris, and then the Dennis Roth Classic the following weekend at Tulare. Scelzi scoring top tens late in 2024 at both Bakersfield and Tulare against the Outlaws.

The last announced move is actually a non-wing sprint car move and involves our World 100 winner. Late last week it was announced that Ricky Thornton Jr. will make his USAC National Sprint Car debut at Central Arizona Raceway late in October when the series comes through for the Western World Championships. RTJ will drive a car owned by Jerry Petty, as a teammate to Kyle Cummins and RJ Johnson. Thornton ran a Silver Crown car at Terre Haute earlier this year, and he's made a bunch of midget starts, including at the Chili Bowl. He's also a regular micro sprint racer. And he made five 410 sprint car appearances last year driving for Bernie Stuebgen. Those came against High Limit at Lernerville, and at World Finals. These non-wing starts will come after the Lucas season has ended with the Dirt Track World Championship at Eldora.

So that's the stuff we know for sure is confirmed. Now let's talk about what's going around right now about several unresolved situations. I'll just empty out the message inbox right now with what I'm hearing. We'll start first with Donny Schatz. As I said earlier, he's in California right now driving for Paul Silva and Kevin Kozlowski. That ride will take him through Tulare. What happens next though is still not confirmed. I'd heard a rumor he was talking to Don Kreitz about the 69K, but with Daryn Pittman driving that thing for the National Open, I'm not sure on that one. We talked about this possibility last week. In recent days though, I've heard we could see Schatz back in a Big Game car as a teammate to David Gravel. That was the original plan for the couple of weeks in the midwest after Schatz was fired from Tony Stewart Racing. The deal obviously got shelved though after Schatz had the first lap crash at Ogilvie. He spent the rest of that swing in the Lunstra car with support from Big Game and Huset's Speedway owner Tod Quiring. Of all the things I've heard, this sounds the most realistic right now. That team will have had some time to get that car fixed and be ready to run a second car for Schatz when they return from being out west. As for next year, I said on the Friday bonus episode that Schatz could be a contender for the open Stenhouse Jr. Marshall 17 ride. I've also heard he could go to CJB for a full season run. The chatter around that possibility seems to be picking up some steam lately. I do think CJB's future is up in the air, both for their driver situation, but also their series choice. If they flip back to the World of Outlaws, that's another franchise that could potentially be for sale. Brenham Crouch has been better this year in the CJB ride out with High Limit, but even with the recent third at Port Royal, he's still only got two top fives and seven top tens in 38 races. It's crazy to think about it wasn't all that long ago that CJB was winning double digit races with David Gravel in the seat and finishing top three in Outlaw points. Could they regain any of that magic back with Donny Schatz at this point in his career? We'll see if that ends up happening. The final team situation to keep an eye on is actually one we haven't talked about yet, and that's Vermeer Motorsports. This team running two cars this season with Kerry Madsen running Knoxville, plus pick and choose. And Hunter Schuerenberg has been out fill time with the World of Outlaws. Madsen currently finishing the season with TSR though, and Schuerenberg has struggled during this rookie campaign. He's now on his third different crew chief, and they are outside the top ten in Outlaw points. Garet Williamson, Chris Windom, and Cole Macedo all running better. Schuerenberg with one top five and 13 top tens in 54 races. I've been told it's possible that Vermeer could scale back to one car next year, and that it might be Madsen in the seat for the full season. There is still a lot to figure out here in 2025, and the domino effects will continue.

Did you guys get a chance to see the late model race last night at Action Track USA? It was the first time the 1/5 mile Pennsylvania track had ever hosted late models with the new Fall Clash series in town. The track usually hosting speedstrs and micros, along with the occasional midget show. We've also seen USAC sprint cars there, and some northeast modified action. Just 12 cars in the field for $6000 to win, and out front it was all Trever Feathers. He led all 60 laps, topping Mason Zeigler and Bryan Bernheisel. Zeigler tried to stay with Feathers late, but the 72 was pretty good. Not a bad first go for super late models at the little track, but I would like to see a fuller field. I don't know that you could start 24 cars there, but I do think you could run at least 18. I think that's what the Short Track Super Series has done there previously. With a bit more competition, I'd be curious to see how lap traffic played, and if we could get some really good high low battles through the field. Through four originally scheduled events, the Fall Clash has gotten two races complete. The sanction went away from Selinsgrove, and Bridgeport on Saturday was rained out. They race again on September 12th at Outlaw. Zeigler leads the short series standings after two events.

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 Monday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!