DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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It's mounted crooked (not the body). Here's why... | Daily 9-15-2025

Jacksonville Speedway's promoter addresses their sprint car crash issues from this past weekend, we'll talk Anthony Macri's season to date, Sunday race results, and just why that engine in Bobby Pierce's car is so crooked. Let's go!

It's Monday, September 15th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

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I had one of my industry friends alert me in recent days to a Facebook reel that Bobby Pierce posted last week. In the reel, Pierce is going over his upcoming dirt late model schedule as he shows video of his team wrapping their World 100 car. There are various camera angles of the wrap being installed, but there is one from a bit higher up that looks down into the engine compartment that my industry friend thought I might find interesting. And this friend was correct. From the camera shot, you can see a cool overhead view of the front of the car, and in the engine compartment, you see what looks like a Vic Hill powerplant bolted between the frame rails. As you might notice though, that engine is mounted all sorts of crooked. We've talked plenty on this show about dirt late model construction, including wild shock packages and twisted up bodies, but there are interesting things to notice all over these cars. So why is the engine mounted this way? It's actually for a few reasons. And I know I'm going to get comments from people who'll say everyone knows this, or this is obvious, or whatever. I don't care. I think it's cool, and I wanted to share. Anyway, why are they doing this. The main thing here is teams putting these cars together as if they were running on the track. You might hear this referred to as 'at attitude', or at ride heights. Basically when this car is going around the track at speed, the position it gets itself into. It's possible you've seen photos of dirt late models on pull down rigs or sitting in the shop with the suspensions compressed like they are mid-corner at Eldora. Right side all smashed down, with the left rear pushed up in the air. When Pierce's car is in that position, suddenly that crooked mounted engine wouldn't look so crooked anymore. Asking a few of my very helpful dirt late model friends, this helps with getting maximum flow through the carburetor, because they like to be level for best air and fuel flow. It also keeps the drivetrain happy and not bound up. Drivelines and u-joints work better when they are not going at weird angles coming from the transmission into rear ends. One friend called it driveline efficiency. Making sure the car is getting as much horsepower and torque possible. This final photo will show you a little bit different angle of a late model with that same crooked engine setup. It doesn't matter what they car looks like or does sitting in the shop or in the pits, it matters what it does going around at speed. Thanks to my dirt late model friends for answering my stupid questions. This has been your DIRTRACKR late model tech minute.

Updating the Jacksonville Speedway situation which we talked about on the Sunday Daily show, track promoter Kenny Dobson released a very lengthy statement today on what happened and what they are doing about it. I won't read it all here, but if you want to see the full thing for yourself, it's available on the Jacksonville Facebook page. If you don't know what I'm talking about, over the weekend, Kevin Newton crashed at the track during the MOWA sprint car feature, and track officials didn't throw a red or a yellow for the incident until something like three laps later. There was video floating around online of track announcer Tommy Cook frantically calling out on the track PA system for officials to do something. And it was all broadcasted live on DIRTVision. Dobson put the blame on himself for not being in his usual spot in the grandstands to help track officials spot incidents. He said backs were turned to where the crash happened, and that usually he's there to be the eyes from outside the track. If you aren't aware, Jacksonville's flag stand is in the infield. Dobson also shared quote "No doubt we all could have done something a little different and we have internally taken many steps over the past few days to prevent this type of situation from happening again. I have spoken to our team and all drivers alike identifying what contributed and how to put a process in place to create more eyes and voices, more "specific area" responsibility and most importantly for those who have no responsibility for officiating a race to know that they are empowered to use their radio for any red flag or potentially dangerous situation we need to be aware of" unquote. It's obviously good to hear that changes are being made so this won't happen again in the future. What I will say too, is if any track or series folks are watching this right now, use these moments to go back through your own procedures. Are you sure this can't happen with your races? Motorsports are usually horribly reactive to safety situations, instead of being proactive, but when bad things happen elsewhere, it can be a learning experience for everyone. Kudos to Dobson for owning it, and hopefully others can learn from what happened.

At Selinsgrove last night, it was Anthony Macri picking up the $15,000 Jim Nace Memorial. He went third to the win over Danny Dietrich and Brock Zearfoss. A solid 26 car field, and it looked like they had a solid crowd there. Macri now with 14 wins on the season, which is just one less than he had last year. He's still nine wins shy though of his career best in that category, which came during that incredible 2022 season. I think comparing 2025 though to 2022 brings up an interesting discussion. 23 wins and 71 top tens in 93 starts that year, and about $413,000 in season earnings. I think there is an argument to be made though this year has been better, even with less wins. Winning $200,000 at the Kings Royal back in July has pushed the money he's made this year to $517,000, that's more than $100k above his career best in a single season. He's also won four times on national tours, which is a career best. That's included three wins with the World of Outlaws and one with High Limit. And to be fair, Macri's year isn't done. He'll still likely run 15ish more races this season, maybe a few more, maybe a few less depending on weather. He'll be a threat at some more High Limit races, he'll be a factor at the National Open at Williams Grove, and there are plenty of other winnable races coming up. I'm sure he and crew chief Joe Mooney would like to be a bit more consistent, and I'm sure they think some of these podiums they've had this year could have been wins, but it's hard to argue with a Kings Royal title and a career high in money won with lots of racing still left.

With the FAST series, Tyler Gunn was a Sunday winner at Knox Raceway. He topped Jeremy Kornbau and Bob Felmlee. I don't know where we are with FAST points right now, because they haven't been updated since August 18th. The FAST series has run four times since then, so it's possible Ricky Peterson is still the championship leader, but maybe he isn't. Just one race left for FAST, an October 4th stop at Atomic Speedway.

In Sunday dirt late model action, Dylan Schmer grabbed the best paying IMCA late model win of the year, bagging $8500 in a rain shortened race at Boone County Raceway. The feature was called after just 14 of 35 laps were completed. The race was halted for a crash, and never restarted because of the weather. And at Quincy, Tony Jackson Jr. handled the MARS field for a $5000 score, topping Jason Feger and Ryan Unzicker. Feger with a solid lead in the MARS championship with seven series races left. He's had eight wins and 24 top tens in 26 starts. MARS back at it again on Friday at the Brownstown Bullring.

That's the show for today. Don't forget, if you want even more dirt racing content, make sure to follow DIRTRACKR across social media. That means Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and more. Wherever you are, so is DIRTRACKR.

Hope you guys have a great rest of our day out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!