DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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A helmet throw, judgement calls, Kyle Larson crashed, and more from a wild weekend | Daily 11-16-2025

It might have been one of the last dirt racing weekends of the season, but it certainly didn't lack for storylines. We'll talk rules interpretations, helmet throws, season-long frustration, bad sliders, and a lot more. Let's go!

It's Sunday, November 16th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

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We had drama and issues both nights this weekend at Senoia Raceway during the finale for the FloRacing Night in America Series. The weekend turned into a Jonathan Davenport sweep, but he was no doubt helped out by a judgement call of the rules on Friday night. Zack Mitchell and Tyler Millwood running at the tail end of the lead lap tangled in front of him, and Davenport ended up spun sideways trying to avoid Millwood's car. In the Flo series rule book it says quote "In the event of a caution, the car, or cars, involved in the incident that comes to a stop on the racetrack, will be sent to the rear. If a car spins or creates a caution and you make contact and stop, you are also part of the caution. All cars that are indirectly involved in the accident (spinning or stopping to avoid the wreck without contact made) will be given their position back" unquote. Officials deemed that Davenport somehow fell under that final clause in the rule, and given his spot back. It sure looked to me though that JD made contact with Millwood's car, and Davenport admitted in his victory lane interview that he hit Millwood. JD said quote "We got really lucky there. I saw the crash happening, but this place is so slick like there's no where I could go. I thought he was going to hold the brakes and I could get by the top, and then he closed the hole up and so then all I could do was try not to hit him right with the nose, but hit him with the side. Fortunately I didn't get put to the back there. Obviously I don't really know all the rules, but it worked in our favor there" unquote. Davenport also making reference to Bobby Pierce benefitting from a judgement call as well, as Pierce kept his spot in a separate incident after tangling with Kyle Bronson. Pierce ended up spun around, he threw the 32 into reverse to try and keep it rolling, then flipped it around from there and continued. I guess officials ruling that he never actually stopped, so again, he kept his position for the restart. I think both drivers ending up on the right side of calls that could have easily gone the other way, and there were plenty who thought both should have gone to the rear. I've said before on this show I don't like rules like this, and the blend rule, because it leaves a lot up to interpretation. By the way the rule reads, Davenport should have probably restarted at the back, and there is definitely a case for Pierce as well. In the end though, Davenport won and Pierce finished seventh, so the gap between the two was 27 points headed to Saturday. Things even more wild last night, with Pierce and Brandon Overton clashing. While Davenport was dominating the main event, Overton ended up crashed into turn one and he turned his full anger towards Pierce. Into three, Overton tried to dive low, but Pierce didn't give him a ton of space, and the two made contact. Both were able to continue, but then into one the next lap, it looked like the right front on the 76 gave up, and Overton hit the wall pretty hard, collecting Brandon Sheppard, Mike Marlar, Cody Overton, and Trey Mills. We then had an epic helmet toss from Brandon Overton to Pierce's 32, shades of Tony Stewart at Bristol, and a scuffle in the infield under the caution period. There were a lot of choice words from Overton and even a helmet smack in there. Pierce said afterwards he'd take the blame, and quote "if he owes me one, he owes me one." Overton refused to be interviewed by FloRacing, but his Facebook page shared post race quote "Wasn't the smoothest operation tonight. Appreciate 32 owning his mistake post race, and I always expect him to race me hard, but you don't have to make contact chopping me off and cut down the right front. Went into 1 after contact and a flat right fenced us. Junked the car. Appreciate all the guys busting ass to put this car back together and sorry to all the folks that got collected in the mess" unquote. Smoothest operation, I see what they did there. Of all the incidents I've seen this season, this one to me felt pretty tame, and maybe didn't deserve a helmet toss. Definitely a racing deal, and not intentional from Pierce. Let's not forget he was the car in front at the time there was contact. I do think though this was an entire season of frustration for Overton that all got released on Pierce in that moment. We've documented the struggles on this show for Overton in his first season in the Longhorn house car, and he was again reiterating to Kyle McFadden this week that nothing is changing on that car for 2026. 2025 hasn't been what anyone thought it would be for Overton, crew chief Anthony Burroughs, and that 76 team. Some time off this summer to regroup is something they are all probably looking forward to. Pierce was able to battle back to a sixth place finish out of the work area, and beat Davenport by six points for the $75,000 Flo series championship. With the Flo series done for the year, your very last opportunity to see all the heavy hitters will be at the Dome in a few weeks for the Gateway Dirt Nationals.

On the complete opposite end of the country, we also had a late clash in the Hangtown 100 at Placerville. The track crew did incredible work to have that surface in anything close to raceable shape following all the rain they received there late in the week. The front of that USAC midget feature was populated by the drivers you would have expected. Kyle Larson, Corey Day, Daison Pursley, and Buddy Kofoid all hanging around in that top five. Pursley though the only driver of the four to make it all the way to the end. Corey Day had a nasty end over end crash that took him out after he jumped the right rear of lap car Gavin Miller. He's definitely going to be feeling that one for a few days, and he tweeted afterwards just the word "ouch." Glad to see him get out under his own power. The incident everyone is talking about today though was the crash between Pursley and Larson. Coming to five to go, Pursley got a big run out of four, and got to the rear bumper of Larson's 1K. Into one, he shot for the slider line, but misjudged the entry. It looked like he caught the inside berm and the slime, and the Chat Boat-owned 86 took off up the race track. Unfortunately, that was where Larson was running. Contact between the two sent Larson tumbling up over the track in between one and two and out of the race. Larson emerged from his machine and gave Pursley both a round of applause and dual thumbs up for the move. Over the final few laps, Pursley was able to hold off Steven Snyder Jr. and Shane Golobic to win the $20,000 check even though his 86 had a broken right rear shock. The Placerville crowd though let Pursley know they didn't approve of his tactics, and loud boos rained down as the younger driver was interviewed by Drake York. Announcer Bryan Hulbert also had to make a PA call about not throwing things on to the race track. For context, Placerville is only about an hour from Larson's home town of Elk Grove, CA, that held a parade for Larson in advance of the weekend to celebrate his NASCAR championship. It was a heavy pro-Larson crowd. Afterwards, Pursley didn't celebrate much, and he told York that it wasn't intentional, and that he doesn't want to win like that. He also said he'd go down to see Larson and quote "take my ass chewing." It's obvious Pursley didn't wreck the 1K on purpose, and that it was just a mistake. In this current era of open wheel racing though where things are so aggressive, this is the type of stuff that's going to happen sometimes. Pursley had his run, and with it being Larson, he knew it was maybe his only shot. I thought Larson handled it well though. He made his displeasure known, but said afterwards he wished it didn't happen and that he figured Pursley wished it didn't happen either, but quote "oh well." In the bigger season long picture, things got tighter at the top of the standings. Cannon McIntosh now just has a three point lead on Justin Grant, with Kevin Thomas Jr. 70 behind, and Jacob Denney slipping to 97 back with a DNF. This final run to the end for the USAC midgets continues Wednesday at Plaza Park in Visalia, California.

Brent Marks your winner in the final 410 sprint car race of the season. He topped Chase Dietz and Anthony Macri at BAPS Motor Speedway. Nice field there with 30 cars in attendance. Danny Dietrich crowned track champion even though he was a scratch for the night after heat races. A solid race though, and a good win for Marks headed into the offseason. I'll have more on Marks' situation with his team in the coming days.

At Creek County, Blake Hahn and Zach Daum won the last two ASCS National Tour features of 2025, while Sam Hafertepe Jr. went home with his sixth series title. Hafertepe now with the most ASCS titles all time, moving one ahead of Jason Johnson. Garrett Benson is your ASCS rookie of the year. Jesse Schlotfeldt swept the 360 shows at Vado, and Howard Moore won at Riverside.

Other weekend late model winners included Justin Williams at Natural Bridge, and Sawyer Crigler in super action at Springfield. If you want racing today, don't forget there are late models at Cherokee for the Freddy Smith Memorial. It's a nice day around here, so check that out.

We'll shut it down there. A lot more to come this week though, so stick around. I've got topics we didn't get to today, and I'm sure more news will break.

Hope you guys have a great Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!