DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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How many rules did they break?! Plus Outlaws, Lucas get more drivers; a big late model crash | Daily 1-4-2026
Cheaters get busted and first time winners at the Tulsa Shootout, we've got our first late model wins of 2026, plus both the Outlaws and Lucas pick up full timers. Let's go!
It's Sunday, January 4th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
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The Tulsa Shootout is complete, drillers were handed out, fights were had, and drivers were DQ'd. So, just your typical week of micro sprint action indoors in December and January. We had four first time winners, and two repeat winners in Saturday night action. Jax Wittmer won the junior sprint main event, and Braxon Vasconcellos was your restricted winner. Both of those were first timers. The other two drivers to bag their first golden driller trophies were Cullen Hutchison in stock non-wing, he did a very nice job holding off some veterans behind him; and Daison Pursley took down winged outlaw. It's a bit crazy to think that Pursley hadn't yet won a feature inside the Tulsa Expo, but he might not be done yet. With what we saw last year at the Chili Bowl, and his growth in 2025, I think a lot of folks will have him towards the top of win chances coming up. Kyle Larson tried to take a shot at Pursley late in that winged outlaw feature, but made a mistake on the cushion and fell back to fourth. That was the only division that Larson competed in. In outlaw non-wing, Jonathan Beason broke through for his first driller in nearly a decade. It was his third career win at the Shootout, and first since 2016. He didn't even run the shootout last year. There was drama in winged a-class though, as Jett Yantis dominated the feature, but was later disqualified after post-race tech. It wasn't one violation, or even two, but three different issues on his car. Officials discovered illegal head work, with quote "bowl porting over a quarter-inch past the valve seats." His car also had epoxy inside the intake port, and ceramic bearings in the transmission. All are no-nos, and that's a lot of cheating for a single car in a race that pays $2500 to win. So he was out as winner, and Frank Flud was elevated to the victory after his car passed post race tech. Other DQ's on the day included Kale Drake getting bounced for failing a tire test. His stock non-wing ride owned by Dave Mac Motorsports failed on a right rear sample. There are still additional samples out for testing, so it's possible we could see more here. And Wout Hoffmans was booted from an a-class B-Main transfer after wiping out Drew Sherman coming to the checkered. That one was about a blatant as it gets, and fully deserved. With Shootout done, the expo now goes quiet for a week with Chili Bowl up next. Teams will start moving in next Friday, and practice starts at 9AM next Sunday. Racing officialy kicks off Monday night with the first split field prelim. At last check, we've got 373 entries.
With the calendar now turned over to 2026, we've got our first three late model winners of the year. At the Talladega Short Track, Sam Seawright took the super late model portion of the Ice Bowl for the second straight year. He led all 50 laps and topped Dalton Cook and Michael Page. Page the winner of the 604 late model feature. It looked a little foggy there at Talladega, but good to see they were able to get the program completed.
And at Arrowhead Speedway for their First Blood event, Cade Dillard topped a field of 21 super late models for the $5000 score. RC Whitwell and Clay Stuckey the rest of the podium. This was a Comp Cams series event, but non-points. Arrowhead ending up with 175 cars across eight divisions for an event that was added to the schedule late. I was glad to see Tony Jackson Jr. was okay after a nasty crash in that late model feature. He barrel rolled in turns three and four battling for second and went for a wild ride. His number 56 car was destroyed, and they definitely had to do some cutting on that one to get it back in the trailer. I doubt they'll be able to save much off of it. The Comp Cams Super Dirt Series championship season starts in March.
In Australia, Corey Day and Aaron Reutzel picked up weekend sprint car wins. Day won Friday night at Perth, topping Cole Macedo and James McFadden. And Reutzel beat Carson and Cole Macedo Saturday at Bunbury. While a lot of drivers will see their trips to Australia come to an end following the Classic in January, Reutzel is one that is staying longer. He's a guy we won't expect to see open the season at DIRTcar Nationals with the Outlaws, as his schedule that Toby posted on Sprint Car Hub shows him racing Perth through the middle of February.
Moving over to dirt late model series rosters, both Lucas and the Outlaws added drivers over the weekend. On the Outlaw side, Pennsylvania driver Logan Zarin becomes the second rookie to sign up for the full pull. He'll go up against Trey Mills for rookie of the year. Zarin has been a regular with the ULMS in recent seasons, and has made 25 appearances against the Outlaws. His best finishes have come at Sharon Speedway, with top 15s there in 2021 and 2025. There was some thought out there that Zarin would maybe go Lucas instead, but a teaser image posted to his Facebook account after Christmas revealed a DIRTVision logo on the car, making the series choice pretty clear. DIRTVision obviously the streaming home of the Outlaws, with Lucas on FloRacing. This will be a big leap for Zarin, and he'll have a tough task trying to outrun Mills, who is one of the brightest young talents in the game. With Zarin, we are up to six confirmed, including Ryan Gustin, Nick Hoffman, Mills, Drake Troutman, and Tristan Chamberlain.
On the Lucas side, they are welcoming back Max Blair to full time membership. Blair last ran Lucas in 2024, and had flipped to the Outlaws for 2025. But things didn't go well to start the year, and the 111 team eventually pulled back to pick and choose for the rest of the season. Blair ended up with 12 wins in 2025 across super and RUSH action at places like Stateline and Eriez. In his two Lucas seasons, Blair was ninth in the standings both times. He does have one career Lucas win. His lone full season with the Outlaws was 2022, when he ended up third in the final rundown. Blair joins Devin Moran, Garrett Alberson, Cory Hedgecock, and Dan Ebert as officially in with the Lucas side. Outside of that top six with Lucas, there are a lot of question marks going into next season. I do think a guy like Blair could be in the mix for sixth, seventh, eighth in the standings, especially if Brandon Overton and Riggs Motorsports flip to the Outlaws. With FloRacing taking over Lucas series ownership, it would be nice to see this series make it easier to follow who is declared as a full timer like the Outlaws do. I think they are missing out on this a bit, as a chance to promote their series and drivers. We'll obviously keep tracking it here though as the opener approaches.
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Hope you guys have a great Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!