DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Inside the WILD sprint car that powered the Blaneys to another improbable win | Daily 9-28-2025
Dale Blaney stunned the Outlaws last night, and we'll deep dive the science experiment sprint car he was driving that goes well beyond just a wonky top wing setup. We'll also talk Lucas championship drama, a first time High Limit winner, and a lot more. Let's go!
It's Sunday, September 28th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
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A Blaney doing something crazy at Sharon Speedway is a story line we are at least somewhat familiar with over the last few years, and it happened again last night. Back in 2021 it was Dave Blaney beating the Outlaws in a stunner. Last year it was Dave winning during the Lou Blaney Memorial in September and promptly announcing his retirement from racing. And last night, it was brother Dale winning against the World of Outlaws to become the oldest winner in series history at 61. Dale went quick time in group B, won his heat, and went six to five in the dash to start on row three. It didn't take him long though to get to the front, as he got by leader Cole Macedo on lap 11, and he went the distance from there. Buddy Kofoid challenged him late, but settled for second, and Sheldon Haudenschild was third. Blaney hadn't won with the Outlaws since 2015, when he won the spring show at Attica, and one of a pair of Silver Cup features at Lernerville. What's even crazier, is Dale doesn't even hardly race anymore. Last night was only his sixth sprint car start of the year, and he hadn't raced since August 11th. He beat a big field of 54 cars, and did it in front of a packed crowd at Sharon. There is a lot to talk about with that Blaney car, but we'll get to that in a minute. The other Outlaw show this week was won by David Gravel back on Friday at Millstream. He topped Kofoid and Logan Schuchart in that one for series win number 15. Gravel maintains a 150 point lead over Kofoid headed next to the National Open at Williams Grove that starts Friday. In his first races in the new ride, Donny Schatz went 17th to 10th at Millstream, and 16th to ninth at Sharon. Kasey Jedrzejek was the highest finishing local on the weekend, going 11th to fifth at Millstream.
Back to that Blaney car. There are several photos of it floating around today, including one from the heat race where you can clearly see how different the top wing is in comparison to the 32 of Bryce Lucius behind. Dave Blaney has long been a mad sprint car scientist, and it's not been uncommon to see wild looking cars rolled out of their trailer. This current iteration had people talking, but there is a lot more to see beyond just the top wing, which is mounted way more towards the right, it's turned a bit, and has side panels mounted like the Kreitz 69K or the Silva qualifying wing on the 57. The nose wing as well has the sideboards mounted very differently. What stands out more to me though, is the suspension on this car. My friend Paul Arch sent me this photo from yesterday and you can get a good look at how offset the car is with that rear axle. We can also see a very different shock and spring setup than we see anywhere else. This car has both torsion arms and bars, but also coilovers. The standard in the game right now is shocks with torsion bars and arms. And then we've got Tanner Thorson and Sammy Swindell running coilover cars with no torsion bars. Here though, we've got Blaney running both. I'm told that right rear bar is longer than standard, and the tube had to be extended to accommodate it. And these shocks on the 10 aren't a standard FK, or Penske or CSI, these are thru-rod shocks from Penske. The Outlaw rulebook specifically mentions the 7700T shock from Penske as allowed, which look like this. Those of you who pay attention to my late model content here know that we've talked thru-rod shocks before and how they were made illegal for the major touring series last year. In sprint car racing, they are allowed by the rulebook though. You can see the rod poking out here on the left rear, and the bags on the right rear are just protecing the coil and the top of the thru rod. The first pictures I have of Blaney's car on thru-rod shocks is from 2023. Photos from 2022, and Dave's win at Sharon in 2021 show more traditional Penskes on the car. So what's good about a thru-rod shock? Well, as I've said before, the reason this type of shock could be beneficial is because of displacement of oil inside the shock body. In a standard shock, as the rod goes in, it displaces some of that oil, which creates added spring rate. A thru-rod shock doesn't have that problem, because the same amount of rod is always inside the body, so no added oil displacement, and no extra spring rate. Something else to point out here with the thru-rods, is it looks like they use them on the front also, but they needed to make some modifications to the front nose wing to allow for that rod to travel. In these two photos, you see what looks like cutouts which would allow for that extra travel space. After the race, Dave was quick to point out that the car works well at one track, but Dale said they may make some starts other places to see if it goes well on other configurations. Cool stuff from the Blaneys, and you know me, I'm a sucker for new and interesting design stuff. And as a friend said to me today, it proves that sprint car teams maybe aren't quite in as tight a box as some want us to believe. There is still at least some space for innovation for those willing and able to take these risks.
The Lucas championship chase got off to a raucus start this weekend at Brownstown, and we had two separate incidents of chaser on chaser crime. Friday it was Ricky Thornton Jr. getting into the back of Hudson O'Neal sending him around, and Saturday it was Devin Moran and Jonathan Davenport coming together. In the RTJ incident, O'Neal ended up spun around, and then he got hit by Daniel Hilsabeck, ending his night with suspension damage. Huddy's weekend didn't get better on Saturday, as he faded late in the feature to 17th. The 270 points that O'Neal now trails the points lead by basically take him out of contention for the championship. That's something like 50 feature spots with only three races left. You could maybe hope for trouble for one of the other guys, but no way all three have disasters each of the next three races. And Davenport had issues Friday, including a flat while leading and an incident with Carson Ferguson where he actually looked to end up on Ferguson's roof. JD was 14th on the first night, and bounced back to sixth after the Moran tangle last night. The RTJ deal with O'Neal definitely looked like it had something behind it, maybe there was contact there before. The two did trade spots on that restart. But Moran and JD was just a racing deal that Davenport ended up on the wrong side of. JD not pleased with Moran after though. Thornton winning the big show last night, outdueling Moran, is a big step towards him repeating. He already had that 70 point advantage entering the weekend, and going next to PA Motor Speedway, RTJ leads Moran by 80, and Davenport by 160. Nick Hoffman the Friday winner over Brandon Sheppard. That was Hoffmans' first ever Lucas win.
We also had a first time winner with the Kubota High Limit sprint cars last night Bridgeport. That program affected by weather, and the feature was eventually called after just 10 laps were complete because of rain coming down. Gio Scelzi led the first seven laps, but fellow front row starter Danny Sams made a pivotal move in lap traffic to take the lead when Scelzi got held up behind Kyle Spence. That move was worth $12,000 and Sams' first career High Limit win. Scelzi and Brent Marks also on the rain shortened podium. Not a ton of change in the standings with Brad Sweet, Rico Abreu, and Aaron Reutzel finishing fourth, fifth, and sixth. Rico's leads are 30 and 70 points headed to Path Valley today. That win for Sams has to be a major shot in the arm for that family team. He'd never previously finished in the top five in a series race, and I'm sure that winner's check will help out a bunch. High Limit at Path Valley today for their first ever race at the PA track.
Other weekend sprint car winners included Mitchel Moles and Kyle Cummins in USAC competition at Paragon and Butler. Logan Julien was an IRA winner while Blake Nimee wrapped up the series title. It was really great to see Paul Nienhiser back in a car after his injury earlier this year. He picked up a couple of second place finishes behind wins for JJ Hickle and Jake Neuman. Brent Marks won at Williams Grove, RJ Johnson won the CRA show at Perris, and Andy Forsberg was the Fall Nationals winner at Chico.
Other weekend late model winners included Zack Mitchell with the Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series at Southern Raceway. He beat Dalton Cook and Joseph Joiner, and now only trails Jimmy Owens by two points for that Hunt the Front championship. Hunt the Front closes out their series season in two weeks at Cherokee Speedway for the Blue Gray 100. Kevin Eder won $15 grand with WISSOTA at ABC Raceway, Ryan Unzicker was a local winner at Peoria, and Logan Bradford topped Sam Seawright at Duck River for $10k in crate competition.
USMTS wins during the Fall Jamboree went to Joe Chisholm, Dustin Sorensen, and Brandon Davis. And Matt Sheppard beat Jack Lehner and Bobby Hackel at Fonda last night with the Short Track Super Series.
If you're looking for Sunday racing, stop by dirtrackr.com/watchtonight. There are a number of optoins today, including High Limit at Path Valley, late models at Coles County and more.
Hope you guys have a great Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!