DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Kyle Larson wins again, Tulsa is Shootouting, dirt racing news items to discuss | Daily 12-30-2025

Kyle Larson doubles up down under, and will now go chase his first golden driller of the year. We'll talk about that, plus we start picking through recent news items from the last week in dirt racing including several crew chief moves, let's go!

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

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After the holiday break, we are back at it today. If you didn't get a chance yet, I'd definitely recommend going back the last few days and checking out the interviews we did with Mike Nuchols, Jeremy Elliott, and Bill Balog. A ton of good stuff in all three, and there are clips floating around as well. If you are any sort of dirt late model fan, the Nuchols interview is filled with all sorts of good information, as we talked about the sport at all levels. Me and Jeremy did a pretty lengthy look at sprint car racing, and there are lots of interesting nuggets in there. And Balog is a sprint car driver that's hard not to root for. He revealed his series choice for next year, and talked a lot about this 2025 season and plans for 2026. All of those are available on YouTube, Facebook, Spotify, and the podcast feed. Today we'll begin digging through the news items that have come out in the last week since we've been away, and talk the racing that is going on.

And we'll start with the racing first, given we had a big High Limit pay day down at the Perth Motorplex in Australia. 40 plus sprint cars across the High Limit International event, and obviously a lot of American drivers in Australia to race. Corey Day and Buddy Kofoid the two prelim night winners. And last night it was Kyle Larson picking up the big money for the second straight year. Larson getting the best of Corey Day and Dayne Kingshott, but Day eventually DNFing with tire issues. The track took some rubber there late, and Day with an exploded right rear. He was really fast though down the stretch. I think Kingshott really opened some eyes in that Krikke Motorsports ride the last few nights. He was on the podium all three features against a very tough field. He does race Perth weekly, but was easily the best local. I'll be curious to see if he maybe gets a look or two for some summer races here in the US in the future. Outside of that flat, Day was good, as was Buddy Kofoid. Jock Goodyer and Kaiden Manders two more locals he had good results. I was surprised to see James McFadden not in the mix, and Rico Abreu with a brutal three nights. The crowd looked great though, and there was a lot of praise from everyone about Perth, the track, and the facility. As we talked about before the break, following his win, Kyle Larson now flying around the world to get back to the Tulsa Shootout. He should be in the building some time Wednesday afternoon to watch daughter Audrey and son Owen race. Yung Money will also participate in a single class, winged outlaw, where he will chase a driller. In Australia, some drivers are sticking around to continue racing through the end of January, others will head back after the High Limit event. Sprint Car Hub is a great place to keep up with everything going on over the next month, and Clay Per View will stream a lot of the races. We'll check in from time to time to see how guys are doing before the US sprint car season starts in February. One other note, the fuel tank from Kris Coyle's machine flying over the catchfence on night two at Perth was a graphic example of why we're seeing the move towards better mounting systems for fuel tanks. It was lucky that the tank went over at a place where no spectators were, but that's the type of thing we absolutely cannot have.

Turning to some of the news items that became public during Christmas week, Josh Rice and the JRR late model team have found a crew chief for 2026. The team is pairing veteran Randall Edwards with Rice next season. Randall most recently with Tyler Erb, then Brandon Sheppard with Longhorn and Riggs. He'd spent the past two seasons working for young driver Carson Brown. Edwards will lead Rice out on a national tour next year, where Rice will be a rookie. We don't know yet whether it will be Lucas or Outlaws, but if I was a betting man I'd say the team stays Lucas. They will debut together though during the World of Outlaws opener at Volusia in January. I like this move for both sides, and having a vet like Edwards in the pits should make things easier for Rice. In 2025, Carson Brown split time between dirt and pavement late models, but he did have some solid runs on dirt with Randall. With his previous deal, Rice was a regional guy who a lot of folks wanted to see make the move to a big tour, and he had 10 wins this past season.

The other new driver crew chief pairing announced in recent days was on the sprint car side. As part of the CJB Motorsports expansion into two full time teams, Brenham Crouch's car needed a new boss with Barry Jackson partnering with Donny Schatz. CJB announced on December 22nd that veteran Tyler Swank will be paired with Crouch next year. CJB's entries will split the national tours, with Schatz and Jackson going Outlaws, and Swank and Crouch staying High Limit. Jeremy Elliott mentioned on a recent 90 at 9 that Schatz will be available to Crouch for questions and information, and between that and Swank, this could be another season of growth for the young driver. He went from 16th in the High Limit driver standings to eighth from 2024 to 2025. His average finish was up about 2.5 positions, and he had his first three career top five finishes this season, including a podium at Port Royal. The CJB operation will be split though, between the PA shop, and one near Knoxville. Schatz's machine will run out of the main CJB shop in PA, and Swank will keep Crouch's equipment there in Knoxville. This isn't uncommon, we saw Roth do the same with the Kofoid and McFadden cars a few years ago. Kofoid and Dylan Buswell were in Knoxville, and McFadden with crew chief Brent Ventura were in Indianapolis. At 20 years old, it's really hard to say what Crouch's ceiling really is as a sprint car driver. 2025 was only his third full time, and he doesn't yet have 200 starts. He was thrown to the wolves early, and is still very much trying to find his footing. A ten time Outlaw champion as a resource, and a veteran crew chief should aid the progress though. I think High Limit will continue to be a tough series, and another top ten points finish could be a win.

Finally today, the Tulsa Shootout is off and running today with eleventy billion heat races. We've already had shenanigans today with a helmet toss and a car ended up literally in a trash bin. They flipped up into the fence in turn one, and ended up in a bin that reads "no parking." You can't make this stuff up. Racing continues all day and into the night through Saturday, with six golden drillers on the line across divisions. If you want to watch, action is live on FloRacing. You can grab a Flo subscription at dirtrackr.com/floracing.

That's it for today. Hope you guys have a great Tuesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!