DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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I hate to tell you, but Tony Stewart wasn't looking for a sprint car project | Daily 9-18-2025
I hate to be the bearer of bad news to all the sprint car free agents and aspiring national tour racers, but Tony Stewart was not looking for a project. My thoughts on that today, plus all the racing to pay attention to this weekend. Let's go!
It's Thursday, September 18th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
It's a big weekend of racing over on Arrow Vision, and they are once again offering their streams up for free to watch. Action is headlined by the Cotton Pickin for the Comp Cams Super Dirt Series at Magnolia Motor Speedway. Friday is qualifying and heat races, and Saturday will feature B-Mains and the $20,000 to win feature. You'll get all the series regulars, including Billy Moyer, Morgan Bagley, BJ Robinson, and Eli Ross, but other big names are making the trip. That inclues defending race winner Ethan Dotson, Cade Dillard, Payton Freeman, and Jimmy Owens among others. Just a handful of races remain on the Comp Cams schedule this season, so don't miss out. Also live on Arrow Vision is racing from Arrowhead Speedway on Saturday night. They've got B-Mod Bedlam for $5000 to win, plus local divisions and the All-American Modified Series. Both of these events will be live at www.arrowvision.live, plus their Android app and the Arrow Vision YouTube channel. The guys at Arrow Vision told me their Apple app should be launched here in the coming days, so stay tuned for that. I'll put links in the video description to both the streaming website and their YouTube channel. All season long, ArrowVision is the streaming home for the Comp Cams Super Dirt Series, the All American Outlaw Modified Series, and Arrowhead Speedway. You can grab an account and tune in over at www.arrowvision.live.
Later last night as the dust started to settle on the day's events, I'm obviously referring to the Tony Stewart Racing, Rico Abreu story, I was sent a social post about the current state of sprint car racing. Derek Hauck, who runs 410 sprint cars in Pennsylvania, shared quote "The amount of owners dropped by one today due to the most recent news, yet people think sprint car racing is at its prime. Ride was earned but not needed, takes another opportunity from someone else. Who pays attention, what other owner/driver changes took away from a "filler"?" unquote. I want to dig into this today and react to the sentiment here, because I see Hauck's point, but I don't agree with it. It's true that for 2026 we are effectively losing a top tier sprint car team. Rico Abreu Racing and Tony Stewart Racing will become one. Where there were two will now be one. On the Rico side though, he was never going to hire another driver. The team is his team, it's built around him, and it works because of him. That's a ride that wasn't available before Rico, and it won't be available after. So even though we are losing a car, we didn't really lose an open seat. Tony Stewart Racing had an open seat after Donny Schatz was fired, and they have now filled it with who they think is the best guy for the job. Given the team's history, marketing partners, and Tony's expectations, they were never going to hire an unknown for this spot. It was going to be a Rico Abreu, or another top tier driver of that same caliber. That car is expected to run up front, and run up front now. This car and team has won everything there is to win, and Donny Schatz not winning races this season and being sixth in Outlaw points was not good enough. Some drivers and teams would kill to run sixth in Outlaw points, but at TSR that gets you fired. And I think it probably gets you fired at some of the other top teams as well. At no point was Tony Stewart looking for a project or a development-type situation. Poor finishes, inconsistency, and potentially crashed race cars as a young or inexperienced driver tries to figure it out on a national tour was never on TSR's radar. Tony didn't tell me that, but to think otherwise is foolish. This guy is arguably one of the greatest race car drivers to ever live, he's going to expect the best. Even go back to Schatz joining TSR way back in 2008. Donny won 19 races in both 2006 and 2007 to go along with the World of Outlaws championships those seasons before going to TSR. As others have pointed out, this move to Rico looks very similar to Schatz for 2008. So no, I don't agree that this move took an opportunity from someone else. And Tony Stewart and his team don't owe anything to the community of available or potentially available drivers to give someone else a shot. And neither does any other car owner to be fair here. There are definitely talented drivers who haven't gotten a shot yet, or who will develop in the future, but if you want a spot like the TSR seat, you've gotta be at the top of the sprint car game. Just being a driver somewhere isn't good enough. And I hate to be the one to spoil some dreams, but if you aren't winning at the level you race at, you'll be hard pressed to get phone calls from big time owners. As Brad Pitt says in Moneyball, if he's a good hitter then why doesn't he hit good. Or translate that into dirt racing, if he's a winner, then why doesn't he win.
Speaking of winners, TSR's new driver did go to victory lane last night with the Kubota High Limit sprint cars at Lawrenceburg. Rico led the first 18 laps, and then was there to capitalize when Corey Day had to hit the work area for a new tire after his went flat. Day led laps 19 to 22, and then battled back to finish sixth. Aaron Reutzel came out of nowhere on the final straightaway to finish second, and Daison Pursley was third. Another couple of feet and Reutzel might have been the winner. Headed to Eldora now for 4-Crown, Rico has extended the lead in both championships. He's got Brad Swet by 39 for the driver title, and the RSR 87 by 24 points in the owner standings. This could be a good weekend for Rico to extend, given he's already won at Eldora this year and had multiple podium finishes.
Also at Eldora this weekend are the three USAC national divisions, and Great Lakes Super Sprints. Tonight it's a full program for the USAC sprint cars and midgets. Friday is High Limit and GLSS, and Saturday's finale is High Limit plus the USAC series. Kyle Cummins and Justin Grant with comfy leads in the sprint car and Silver Crown standings, while the midgets is tighter between Cannon McIntosh and JG. On the weekend, I think Pursley is the only driver trying to run all four divisions. Brady Bacon might be doing it as well. Feel free to correct me in the comments if I'm wrong there.
Out west, it's Dennis Roth Classic time for the World of Outlaws. This is their last west coast event before they head back east for the year. The Tulare Thunderbowl hosts both nights, and Saturday is $83,000 to win. I would expect a solid field this weekend, and Carson Macedo is the defending winner. It's still 144 points between leader David Gravel and Buddy Kofoid for the Outlaw title. It would likely take more trouble for Gravel to draw Kofoid closer, even if Buddy is lights out all the way to World Finals. We'll see though, that's why they run the races. This will be Donny Schatz's last races with Paul Silva before transitioning to a new deal for the rest of 2025. Can a California regular steal some Outlaw money this weekend? Shane Golobic and DJ Netto were the highest finishers in these shows last year.
Other sprint car racing to check out this weekend includes the Hockett McMillin Memorial at Lucas Oil Speedway with the POWRi 410 winged cars and the WAR series. There's also IRA and NOSA at Jackson for the Jackson Nationals, weekly racing at Williams Grove, the Kevin Gobrecht Classic at BAPS, ASCS, and more.
The dirt late model weekend is headlined by the Late Model Knoxville Nationals for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. This is Jonathan Davenport's favorite event every season. Lucas has $10k to win tonight, $10k to win Friday, and $75,000 on the line Saturday. This is the final weekend of the Lucas regular season, and Ricky Thornton Jr., JD, Devin Moran, and Hudson O'Neal are the four playoff drivers. I believe Brandon Sheppard and Garrett Alberson are still technically mathematically in the mix, but the numbers are very heavily against them. For example, Sheppard would need to beat O'Neal by 14 positions each night. That seems highly unlikely. Should be a lot of good cars at Knoxville, and one debut to pay attention to. We talked earlier this week about the internet hope for Dallon Murty to get a shot with Skyline Motorsports, and he'll make his national touring late model debut this weekend with Lucas at Knoxville. It will be a tall task to make these features, but it will be fun to see what he can do. Murty currently third in the Malvern Bank east standings and he's the top rookie.
Other late model racing this week includes the aforementioned Comp Cams shows at Magnolia, MARS at the Brownstown Bullring and Peoria, and a whole host of local and other regional action.
That's the Daily show for this week. Appreciate all of the views and support. Make sure to check out the streaming schedule over at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight over the next few days.
Hope you guys have a great Thursday and weekend out there, we'll see you back here on Sunday!