DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
Dirt racing news, results, discussion, analytics. Sprint cars, late models, modifieds, you name it. From national series, to top local shows. Brought to you five days a week. Email the show at info@dirtrackr.com.
This car can't race with Lucas or the Outlaws... But why? | Daily 12-12-2025
Photos of a particular late model on display inside the PRI show have made the rounds on social media, and it's a cool looking piece, but it wouldn't be allowed to race with any major dirt late model series. We'll take a look at the car and share what's illegal, plus sprint car wraps, USAC schedules, and more. Let's go!
It's Friday, December 12th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
If you spend any amount of time at the race track, it's important to protect your hearing. And I'm a big fan of the premium earplugs from Eargasm. They are pretty small, and fit right in your ear, but the good thing is you can wear them for protection, but still be able to have a conversation with the people around you. I wear these when the NHRA comes to Charlotte, and they are great for even top fuel and funny cars on track. I will warn you, they are pricey, but if you use code DIRTRACKR10 at checkout, you'll get 10% off your order at eargasm.com. That's code DIRTRACKR10 at checkout for 10% off at eargasm.com.
Welcome into a little bonus Daily show for this Friday. There is so much stuff to talk about coming out of PRI that I didn't want a few things to get lost in the shuffle. If you're curious about some of the bigger stuff, check out yesterday's show. We talked the FloRacing acquisition of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, Gio Scelzi and Spire Motorsports announcing their sprint car deal, new rides for Chris Madden and Daulton Wilson, and the World of Outlaws late models losing their title sponsor. The Thursday show is available on the YouTube channel, Facebook page, and podcast places.
At the PRI trade show, there are a ton of different race cars in the building this weekend, including a bunch of dirt stuff, drag cars, pavement cars, hot rods, off road, you name it. It's obviously a place for builders and manufacturers to show off their newest trick stuff and their capabilities. When I was at the show a few years ago, one of the coolest displays was the Bilstein shocks booth that featured a dirt late model hanging from the ceiling. From all around the convention center, you could see that thing hanging, which was a really cool substitute for signage. No hanging late model this year, but they did hang an off road truck in a similar way. There is however a very interesting dirt late model in their booth nonetheless. Austin Kirkpatrick, who you've seen me interview before here, has one of his AK Racecars REV1 chassis in that booth, and it's quite the display piece. They've got the suspension compressed, so it's in the attitude you would see it at going through the corner, and the entire right side door panel is clear so you can see through to all the goodies underneath. Photos of this car have been making the rounds online, and I've had quite a few folks reach out to me about it. What's interesting to note about the car, is it is not legal to race in it's current form. Neither the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series or World of Outlaws Late Model Series would let AK roll this one out onto the race track at an official event. And because a lot of other series use the same unified rules, it would be illegal regionally as well. And the reason is because of the front suspension. On a typical dirt late model, the front shocks are mounted vertically inside the control arms, but on this AK piece, they are mounted horizontally, parallel to the valve covers on the engine. A pushrod sits in place of where the shock would normally be, and there is a pivot point to connect the shock itself. This is much closer to what you'd see on an open wheel car, like an IndyCar, with the shocks mounted inboard, then it is to any normal full body race car. In terms of the legality though though, in the rulebooks under section ten for suspension, subsection I for shock absorbers, item g., it says quote "Unless otherwise authorized, all shocks must be mounted as close to vertical as possible" unquote. These are clearly not mounted anywhere near vertical. And obviously, this is a show car brought in to display all the latest from Bilstein, including those crazy, what look to be like six way adjustable shocks. I texted Austin to ask about the setup, and he tells me there is no inherent speed advantage to mounting the shocks that way, but it would be nice in a crash to mess up a much cheaper pushrod, then a much more expensive shock. But even so, this way of mounting them is still illegal. As for the rest of the car, if you pulled that shock setup off, everything is completely 100% legal and ready to race. AK Racecars picked up Skyline Motorsports for this coming season with drivers Tyler Bruening and Dallon Murty. And this feels like a significant moment for Kirkpatrick's deal to have one of his cars on display, where in the past we would have very likely seen a Longhorn. We talked later in the season about Longhorn and Kevin Rumley's project with Ohlins, and it was announced just about a week ago that Ohlins are now available exclusively through Longhorn Dynamics. Bobby Pierce's car he won the Dome with was on a set of those new Ohlins. For AK though, this should bring some serious attention to what he's doing as he continues to try and find a foothold in the chassis game. I wonder too with Rumley now gone from Bilstein, if they would look toward a tighter relationship with a guy like Kirkpatrick to stay on top of development. Longhorn Dynamics is going to continue offering service for other brands, and I'll be curious to see if get a massive swapover to Ohlins from Bilsteins, or what will happen there. Good stuff though from AK and Bilstein.
Looking at a couple other race cars, Tyler Courtney's NOS Energy Drink wrap for 2026 can be seen inside the PRI show. He's looking to return to the seat to begin next year after sitting out a lot of 2025 with injuries sustained in that terrible looking crash at Eldora. Nice looking car for Sunshine and Clauson Marshall, and the Spire Motorsports tie-in looks to be continuing even with them announcing their own team. Spire featured on the nose wing, and TWG sponsor Gainbridge on the top wing. Sidebar, is that Front Row Joe Nemecheck pointing at the back tire? It sure looks like him...
Also, Logan Schuchart's look for next season is in the building. All his same partners, but a refreshed wrap on the 1S. His Shark Racing team has hired Carly Holmes to join their crew for the 2026 Outlaw season, but they are still on the hunt for a new crew chief after they parted with Kyle Pruitt late in 2025. Pruitt now the crew chief on the Stenhouse Jr. Marshall 17 with Spencer Bayston driving. Schuchart had long served as his own defacto crew chief, but there is clearly some benefit of taking that pressure and responsibility off the driver's shoulders on race nights. They still have some time before Volusia to lock in on a new head wrench. Carly Holmes spent some time with Anthony Macri's team late in 2025 before getting the call from Shark. She'd obviously been a key part of brother Tanner Holmes' crew in recent years, but his situation is set with that move to Buch Motorsports and a full High Limit run.
The final thing for today is the trio of USAC national schedules. They were released back on Thursday, and I wanted to go through them here on the show. First, the Silver Crown teams have 12 dates from May to October. Six dirt races and six pavement races. That includes the Kansas State Fairgrounds, IRP, World Wide Technology Raceway, Port Royal, Terre Haute, Winchester, Iowa Speedway, Springfield, DuQuoin, Eldora and Toledo. There is one TBA, September 13th, which will be a paved race somewhere. The USAC midgets have 29 races between April 24th and November 28th. All the usual stuff here is here, including midget week, the BC39, 4-Crown, and the late season west coast trip. There are still three TBAs, and the one new track here looks to be Jacksonville. I still don't love the big breaks in this schedule. The entire month of May off, and nothing again in October. I know the USAC crew is the same for all three series, and they don't have extended manpower, but this series gets forgotten about during those several week breaks. The USAC National Sprint Cars get 55 dates, starting at Volusia in February, and they'll close again at Central Arizona in October. After two nights at Volusia, the usual stop at Ocala is there, along with sprint week, Let's Race Two, Eastern Storm, Smackdown, and 4-Crown. The Dirt Track at Indy is back on the schedule, and the Commonwealth Clash at Lernerville that was previously a winged show, now gets the USAC non-wing treatment in September. Good looking schedules all the way around, and not heavy alterations from this past season. You can see these for yourself at usacracing.com.
I haven't seen any major news come out of the PRI show today, but if anything else happens later today or tomorrow, we'll include it on the Sunday Daily.
That's the show for today. If you've watched all the way to this point and you aren't yet subscribed or don't follow DIRTRACKR, hit that button. That means YouTube, Facebook, and the podcast places.
Hope you guys have a great Friday out there, we'll see you back here on Sunday!