DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Some fired... Some not fired... Some hired... It's madness out here | Daily 9-30-2025

We've got sprint car news for days coming up, including late night driver changes, a crew chief in the rumor mill fired, a new Shark on tour, plus USAC busts another team for cheating tires. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, September 30th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

Last night's sprint car news goes to show you that no matter how late I post episodes of the Daily, somebody will always find a way to release news after the show. I hit social media last night with episode links around 8PM eastern time, and KCP Racing announced a driver change at 10PM eastern. I don't know why we are releasing news at 10PM eastern, but I guess PJ Petersen, who wrote the release, is in California, so at least it was 7PM his time, even if it was 9PM in Knoxville where KCP is based. The team announcing that Emerson Axsom was out, and Cory Eliason has been given the ride for the remainder of the World of Outlaws season. That will start this weekend at the National Open at Williams Grove. Axsom appeared 19 times in the 18 after Gio Scelzi quit the deal during the High Limit portion of Kings Royal week. We thought and we were told that Axsom would run the rest of the season in the 18, with him stepping away from the Klaasmeyer Petry ride starting at BAPS back in July. But now Eliason will get the final 12 races of the season with KCP's Matt Barbara quoted as saying "With plans starting to come together for next year, we both felt it was the right time to go our separate ways and we think it gives him a great shot to get started on 2026" unquote. In those 19 races Axsom had seven top tens, with a best finish of fifth at River Cities. He also made the Knoxville Nationals main event, and finished 15th after starting eighth. The last three Outlaw races though had seen Axsom and the 18 outside the top ten, the last race at Sharon, they needed a provisional to start the feature. As for Eliason, he'd spent the last few months driving Shannon Wheatley's 45 car after he and the TKS team parted ways back in the spring. Eliason is coming off of five High Limit top tens during their west coast swing, but he was 28th in the Dennis Roth Classic against the Outlaws a little less than two weeks ago. I've said here multiple times in recent weeks that Sheldon Haudenschild and crew chief Kyle Ripper are headed to the 18 for 2026, and Eliason will just be filling the seat here for the final stretch. He was quoted in the release as saying "I am working on finalizing my plans for next year, and I know the KCP team has some changes coming, so really just looking forward to having some fun and hopefully giving this team a win over the last chunk of the season." My assumption is we won't have official word on Sheldon and Ripper to KCP until likely World Finals. My guess at this moment would be the 18 stays World of Outlaws for 2026. The thing that makes the most sense for Axsom is for him to return to the KPM team he was driving for previously, although it sounds like they'll need some crew help. Chase Raudman on his YouTube channel today talked about crew chief Adam Wallis moving over to Chase Randall's team. If they can sort the crew stuff, I do think that KPM 27 team could be a candidate to go full time Outlaws next year. They nearly did it this season.

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As I'm sitting here writing this episode, there has just been more breaking sprint car news in the last few minutes with Shark Racing announcing it has fired crew chief Kyle Pruitt from Logan Schuchart's 1S team. Pruitt joined the team this season to help take some of the load off Schuchart, who had been effectively serving as his own crew chief. And the move worked out, Schuchart is in the midst of his best season since that magical run in 2020. They've only had two Outlaw wins (which is actually more than last year), but their average finish is much improved, two spots better than 2024. And more top fives and top tens, and Logan has already made more money this season than he did in all of 2024. Schuchart is currently fourth in the Outlaw standings, after finishing seventh last year. They did have four total wins last year, which included two PA Speedweek shows and a High Limit prelim win at Eldora. Currently, Logan is on a streak of 17 straight Outlaw races finishing sixth or better. None of this would point towards needing to make a crew chief change at this moment, and the release gives us no hints as to why. Shark GM Bill Klingbeil said quote "Kyle was an asset this year, but 2026 isn't going to be status quo for us. This sport is extremely competitive and it takes everything to be successful. There will always be ups and downs in the journey." He went on to say they are seeking qualified individuals for their program for next year. Some added context there though, is Pruitt's name has been in the rumor mill in connection to other open sprint car crew chief gigs. One possibility is the Stenhouse Jr. Marshall 17. I'd heard maybe Pruitt and Daison Pursley at the 17 together, but word is going around now that Pursley has himself another deal for 2026 that will surprise people. So was Pruitt looking because he knew he was getting the ax, or did Shark move on from him because he was looking. We've got one of the bigger sprint car weekends of the season coming up with the National Open at Williams Grove, and the entire pit area feels like it's in flux.

And if you want even more Shark Racing news, the future is set for the driver situation for the team's other car, the 1A. Ashton Torgerson will return to the seat full time in 2026, as first reported by Always Race Day, and the team is looking at a move full time to one of the national sprint car tours. The 1A was a long time World of Outlaws team with driver Jacob Allen, alongside the 1S. But Jacob went High Limit in 2024, before going to pick and choose this season, and then eventually retiring from driving completely. Torgerson was brought in to replace Cale Thomas, who was originally named Allen's replacement, but only lasted a few nights before he was fired. Torgerson has since made 54 appearances in the 1A, winning his second night out at BAPS, and he was most recently fifth against High Limit at Path Valley. It will be interesting to see what Shark does with their two cars in terms of series choice. Rumors in recent days and weeks have kind of said all of the above. Both High Limit, both Outlaws, and one each way, like we saw in 2024.

One more weekend sprint car note, Cannon McIntosh will be back in the Roth 83 out in California as NARC hits Tulare on Saturday. This will be start number two in that second Roth entry for McIntosh, who raced the NARC show at Placerville back in September, finishing 14th after crashing in his heat race. McIntosh missed an Xtreme Outlaw midget weekend to run that Placerville show, and it's happening again this weekend, as Xtreme heads to Jacksonville Friday and Saturday. The big connection here for McIntosh is Toyota, given his KKM ride and Roth's ties to Toyota and their sprint car engine development. There have been rumors this sprint car deal could continue into 2026, but what exactly that would look like we don't know.

Final news item for today, USAC has nabbed another sprint car team for chemically altering tires. Back on Friday they put up a story at usacracing.com that part time driver Eli Wilhelmus and his EW Motorsports team have been DQ'd from the September 13th event at Haubstadt, fined $3150, and suspended from the next six USAC National Sprint Car events for failing a tire test from that Haubstadt show. Wilhelmus finished 18th in that race after starting 10th. He's only made five total appearances in his career with the big series, and that 18th was his best finish. The other starts came at Haubstadt in May, Lincoln Park, Bloomington, and Haubstadt in August. He does have a pair of top tens with the MTSC series. If my math is correct, he wouldn't be eligible to return to USAC competition until the final weekend of 2025 at Central Arizona Raceway. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say we won't see him at a USAC event again until 2026.

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