DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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The rumor that won't go away, a future in doubt, the internet wants who they want | Daily 9-16-2025
A bunch of silly season updates today, including rumblings about Daulton Wilson's future, who the internet is rooting for to get the Skyline late model seat, what's ahead in the short term for Donny Schatz, and the one sprint car rumor that won't go away. Let's go!
It's Tuesday, September 16th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
If you haven't grabbed a subscription to FloRacing yet this season, it's a good time to jump in. Coming up this week they've got midweek High Limit action from Lawrenceburg, plus the Late Model Knoxville Nationals, the 4 Crown at Eldora, and plenty more. If you can't get to those races and want to watch from home, grab a subscription to Flo. You can sign up and help out DIRTRACKR at no additional cost to you, by heading over to dirtrackr.com/floracing. Signing up means you'll get to watch hundreds of races a year, and that's just on the dirt side. They've also got drag racing, NASCAR events, road racing stuff, plenty more. Grab a pass at dirtrackr.com/floracing, or you can click the link below in the video description, or the FloRacing links at dirtrackr.com.
Late last week we got word that Mike Marlar was departing the Skyline Motorsports team, which became our first decent sized move of this 2025 dirt late model silly season. Marlar is leaving after about two years in the Skyline ride, and the plan is for him to return to a Ronnie Delk owned car. We don't yet know when this new slash old pairing will debut, as Marlar's website shows nothing for his future schedule. As for the Skyline ride, the interwebs is clearly rooting for Dallon Murty to get a shot there. I've seen and heard his name more than any other attached to the open Skyline seat, but there is nothing definitive yet out there about the team's future. Neither Skyline car has raced since the World 100, while Murty was at the IMCA Super Nationals about two weeks ago now, and did some USRA racing this past weekend. His 15 wins on the season have been spread between stock cars, and pro and super late models. Jumping into the Skyline ride though would be a significant step up from the racing he's been doing. Murty with no previous Lucas or World of Outlaws appearances, and he's been a rookie this year on the Malvern Bank east series. Those Skyline teams no stranger to full time touring life, and serious pick and choose schedules. A lot of folks think Murty is the real deal, and on his way to potential stardom in a late model. We'll see if he ends up being the guy, or if it's someone else.
Another late model situation to keep an eye on is Daulton Wilson and his time with JRR Motorsports. The team has been full time with Lucas all season, but things went sideways for them after Port Royal. They won a North South 100 prelim at Florence, then were 23rd in the Topless 100, and ninth and 17th at Port. Just a few days after that though, Wilson announced via social media his team would miss the Hillbilly 100 weekend at Lernerville quote "due to circumstances beyond our control." He also didn't race the World 100. Dirt on Dirt has mentioned a few times that JRR was having engine issues, and took a puase to get things squared away. Wilson's last completed race was at Screven on September 6th, but that start came in the Big Frog ride. Wilson's social post said they'd return to the track with JRR for the Late Model Knoxville Nationals, and they reiterated that again on September 8th. Big Perm is currently eighth in the Lucas standings, but this 2025 season has been a bit of a step back from 2024. He's finishing in the top five and top ten less often, and his average finish is nearly a position and a half worse than a year ago. Through the summer last year, this team looked like it had turned a corner, and that Wilson was going to be a regular up front and on the bigger stages. But things have been up and down since then, and the win at Florence was one of the lone bright spots on the season. His only other super late model win in 2025 was a Northern All Stars score at Brownstown on August 2nd. The chatter out there points to Wilson and JRR going separate ways for 2026. If that happens, I've heard Josh Rice could be a candidate for JRR. A rumor I've heard for Wilson could be a move to Wells Motorsports, but we haven't seen that team run since Brandon Overton departed. There was talk that Eric Wells would return to the seat for that team this year as they continue to develop the Infinity Chassis, but as far as I can find, that hasn't happened. As I said last week though, barring a big surprise, I wouldn't expect many big changes with dirt late model teams and drivers this offseason. I think most of the top names are pretty set.
One more late model thing to share today. If you want to nerd out over some technical details, check out the 2025 setup guide that Longhorn Chassis has on their website. I ran across this yesterday while looking for some other information. I don't remember seeing this there before. Mouseover the word "late model" in the nav bar at longhornchassis.com, and you'll see a link to the PDF. In there, you'll find a bunch of technical drawings, along with steps to take to change a car's balance. This is the type of information that the general public isn't usually privvy too, especially on the drawings. Some pretty interesting stuff to look through in there. You can find some late model tech info if you go on YouTube deep dives, or if you subscribe to a place like RaceKnowHow. It can be tough sometimes though to get good information easily. This setup guide won't help with your family car, but it might give you some insight into your favorite racers' weekend processes.
Updating a few sprint car silly season things. It sounds like some announcements are coming in the days ahead for a few different situations. One to watch for will be Donny Schatz's plans post west coast. We know after this weekend at Tulare where he'll race twice more in the Works Limited car with Paul Silva, he needs a ride for the rest of the World of Outlaws season. He's trying to hang on to sixth place in the standings, which would guarantee him a $50,000 plus payday come the Outlaw banquet. Since getting ousted from Tony Stewart Racing, Schatz has driven cars for Big Game, Lunstra, and Works Limited. Going forward, it sounds like the deal he's secured is a bit of a new setup, with Schatz getting some help from a sponsor who's been of assistance lately and an exisiting team. I've been told it's not a second Big Game car again, and nothing crazy like racing with Don Kreitz in the 69K. After Tulare, the Outlaws have six days to get to Millstream for Sheldon Haudenschild's race, so word should come soon here. Also, looking ahead to 2026, I said not long ago here on the show that there were rumors going around Schatz could be in a CJB car next year, but don't expect that to happen. CJB could still see changes, but it's not Schatz. We'll have to wait around to see what he ends up putting together, because I don't have any other insight there. One more update, it's sounding more and more likely that Gio Scelzi has a future beyond this year with Clauson Marshall. This is a rumor that has been persisting for weeks. Scelzi's been filling in for the injured Tyler Courtney, and he'll drive the 7BC through the end of the year. Spire Motorsports, which has involvement with CMR and fields Cup cars and trucks in NASCAR, is supposedly involved in the deal, and one source has told me they have locked down a veteran crew chief. That came into my inbox today. The 7BC trying to keep pace in the owner standings with High Limit, but just four top tens in their last 10 High Limit starts has seen them fall 108 points behind Rico Abreu's team. Stay tuned.
That's the show for today. Remember when it comes to tuning into the Daily, you have a lot of options for where to find these episodes. They are available on YouTube, Facebook, and Spotify in video form. You can also listen via Spotify, YouTube's podcast feature, and all major podcast platforms. That includes Apple and iHeartRadio. You can also read the show over at dirtrackr.com/daily as full transcripts are available for each day.
Hope you guys have a great Tuesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!