DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Tire doping penalties for days, Kasey Kahne hires his next driver | Daily 10-26-2025
Ashton Winger fails a tire test for the second time in two months, Kasey Kahne signs his next guy to replace Brad Sweet, plus we'll talk other driver news, weekend racing, and more. Let's go!
It's Sunday, October 26th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
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No national tours racin the last few days, but still plenty of interesting things to talk about and news that broke. I want to start first with the Ashton Winger DQ. On Friday, the MARS series announced that Winger had been DQ'd from the FALS Frenzy win back on October 4th for a failed tire test. Winger lost the $12,000 in race winnings, plus $50 in contingency money, $200 for the tire analysis fee, and $125 for shipping. He's been suspended from the first five events of the MARS season in 2026, and will be on probation all season long. This is the second time in a few months that Winger was penalized after winning a late model race, with the last one happening back in August. We told you then here on the show that he'd been quietly DQ'd from a Comp Cams series win, but we were never told by the series why. I did reach out and ask, but didn't get a response. I said then that the penalty would have been consistent with a failed tire test, but that there was no way to know what actually happened. Now though, we do know what happened. And we know, because Winger told us. In a Facebook post responding to the MARS situation, he revealed that the Comp Cams DQ was also because of a failed tire test. As you could have guessed, the post went on for several paragraphs with Winger professing his innocence in both cases. Winger closed out the Fall Classic at Whynot Motorsports last night winning the race and $20,000 by topping Ethan Dotson and Zack Mitchell. Quite the swing of events. This situation did spur some social media posts of my own, in which I said it would be nice if just one time a racer came out and admit they doped their tires. Because every time this happens we get the same line. Nobody in the history of dirt racing has ever been guilty of doping tires apparently. I'm not here to litigate Winger's situation, because regardless of what I or anyone else say, people believe what they want. I don't remember though a scenario in which a driver was busted twice for the same infraction just two months apart, at two different tracks, by two different series no less. This too is just days after Zack Mitchell lost a Hunt the Front series win for the same thing. On October 10th, Coltman Farms Racing denied any wrongdoing, but I've been told that in the days following that announcement the team parted ways with crew chief Aubrey Pruitt. Mitchell won at Southern Raceway, was fifth at Senoia, ninth at Cherokee, then had back-to-back wins at Cherokee and Talladega, and then the crew chief was gone. That's certainly an odd course of events given what's played out. Anyways though, the comment section on this video should be entertaining. Lab attacks, Hoosier attacks, questions about running over chemicals on the track, and the like are all incoming.
Moving on, as expected, Kasey Kahne Racing confirmed their full time High Limit sprint car driver back on Friday, with the announcement that Daison Pursley will indeed join the team for 2026. He'll drive a NAPA sponsored nine car, filling the seat left vacant by the retiring Brad Sweet. Pursley will make his debut with the team at World Finals in a few weeks, before tackling his second season of High Limit next year. This was a move we first told you was coming back on October 9th. Pursley moves over from Buch Motorsports after one season together that included a High Limit win, seven top fives, 23 top tens, and a seventh place points finish, along with rookie of the year. Pursley with two career winged 410 wins, along with the 2024 USAC National Midget championship, he's got four USAC sprint car wins, and 20 midget wins between USAC, POWRi, and Xtreme. This rookie year on a tour started tough for Pursley, who had multiple early race crashes to start the year, but thing settled down, and he started to find his footing. There were a lot of good finishes through the summer, and then that first win at Lernerville in September. This is a massive spot to step into, given Sweet's history, but Pursley is certainly one of the brightest young talents in the sport. As we've documented, the next challenge for Kahne will be who he pairs Pursley with for crew chief. I talked about Jarrett Martin as a possibility after KKR couldn't get a deal done to bring Joe Mooney back from Macri Motorsports. We'll see who ends up in that spot. At KKR, Pursley should have everything he needs to win, as long as a good crew chief can be secured. I wouldn't expect championshp contention next year, but hopefully a couple of wins, and him finding some consistency will be in the cards. These championships are really tough to win, and experience is rewarded. As for Buch, all signs are pointing towards a younger driver. I know some fans have clambored for Tanner Holmes, I've heard Kalib Henry and Steven Snyder Jr. mentioned in connection with this seat, but I don't believe a deal is done just yet.
Staying with High Limit, despite rumors of possible changes at CJB, Brenham Crouch did enough down the stretch of the season that things will stay status quo there for 2026. Crouch will be back in the five for another High Limit full pull. This was first reported by Jeremy Elliott at sprintcarunlimited.com. For the last few months, there was talk that this team could go pick and choose, that maybe they'd flip to the Outlaws, or possibly even start a second team. But in the end, Chad Clemens and Barry Jackson decided to stay the course. Crouch earned his first three career High Limit top fives in 2025, and his average finish ticked up almost 2.5 positions, despite starting features a tick worse versus 2024. Crouch Motorsports was 16th in owner points in last year, but CJB with Crouch was 10th this year, so definitely a marked improvement. With Crouch returning, and Pursley in at KKR, the only real remaining High Limit questions are who else stays with or joins the series for next year, meaning the non-franchise teams. I don't think we'll know for sure until the World of Outlaws package is clear.
Looking through weekend racing, Logan Seavey swept the Western World at Central Arizona to finish the USAC sprint car season. He went four to one on Friday, and led all 35 laps last night to take home over $40,000. Big stuff from Ricky Thornton Jr. in his USAC sprint car debut. A Friday heat win, plus 10 to four in the main event. And last night another top five. RTJ continues to show just how good of a race car driver he is. Down through the order, Justin Grant not making friends this weekend. He had both James Turnbull and Kevin Thomas Jr. dropping f-bombs on FloRacing, with KTJ admitting they were friends, but maybe not after their incident. Both victims complained of Grant's big lane changes. With both the sprint cars and Silver Crown series done, the 2025 USAC calendar will close out with the USAC midget west coast swing that starts November 14th at Placerville.
In weekend winged action, Cole Duncan and Bryce Lucius split the Atomic wins Friday and Saturday, and Anthony Macri topped Ryan Smith and Brent Marks at BAPS. The NARC show at Kern County was cancelled over concerns of a low car count.
Weekend late model winners included a Mike Marlar sweep of the Atomic shows, good runs for him back with Delk. Trey Mills and Garrett Alberson won Fall Classic prelims, with Winger taking the finale. Trever Feathers was a Fall Clash winner at Bedford, and Cory Hedgecock took the SAS race at I-75. Hayden Cardwell a 604 winner at Bulls Gap.
And finally, the Short Track Super Series year ended with Matt Sheppard taking the Hard Clay Finale at Orange County Fair, along with the north region title. That was a sweep of both championships for Sheppard.
We'll pull it out of gear right there. Hope you guys have a great Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!