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Sweet, Schuchart split Outlaw wins; Kofoid wins USAC midget opener | DIRTRACKR Daily 2/8/21
It is Monday, February 8th, two thousand and twenty one and you are tuned into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
We've got a lot to talk about today following a busy weekend, including two shows for the World of Outlaws, the USAC midgets opened, and UMP modifieds are set for $5000 to win tonight. We've also got some World of Outlaws event and sponsor news, and more, so let's jump in.
The World of Outlaws Sprint Car season officially opened over the weekend at Volusia Speedway Park for DIRTcar Nationals. We were supposed to get three nights, but because of Saturday rain, only got two. Back on Friday night, it looked like we might be in for a dominating performance from Sam Hafertepe. He went quick time, won his heat, and the dash to grab the pole for the night's feature. But second starting Jacob Allen used the top to perfection on the opening lap to take the lead. Hafertepe later ended up 13th on the night after struggling with power steering problems. Out front, Allen led until lap eight, but Brad Sweet was on the move from his fourth starting spot. He took the lead from Allen on lap nine, rolling the bottom out of turn four. Sweet went unchallenged the rest of the way, leading 22 laps en route to the opening night win. Logan Schuchart drove up from seventh to finish second, and Donny Schatz hard charged his way from 18th to finish third. David Gravel and Carson Macedo rounded out the top five. It was a fantastic rebound from Schatz who was buried after qualifying 18th, and not advancing from fifth in his heat race.
On Sunday, it looked like we might get to see Donny Schatz bag his 300th career Outlaw win in a rare daytime World of Outlaws show. An incredible 6th to 1st run in the dash put him on the pole for the feature. It was only the 4th time back to 2018 that a dash winner has come from sixth. As can be the case with daytime racing, we were headed for the dreaded R word after the B main, so things were delayed a bit with a complete track rework before the feature. Once green, Schatz was quickly to the lead on the first lap and stretching away from the field. He was strong through several restarts, and worked lap traffic masterfully to grow a big lead as the laps wound down. Behind him, Logan Schuchart, Cory Eliason, and Danny Dietrich battled it out for second through most of the race. But disaster struck for Schatz and his TSR 15 with two laps to go. He lost power down the backstretch and slowed to a stop, bringing out the caution. In the work area, his team swapped out the ignition box and got Schatz going again, but the damage was done. He ended up 15th. The issues for Schatz handed the lead to Schuchart, and he drove away on the final restart to take the win and the weeklong DIRTcar Nationals sprint car championship. Danny Dietrich finished second, Cory Eliason third, David Gravel fourth, and Brad Sweet was fifth. And just a quick update on Gio Scelzi. He tangled with Kasey Kahne part way through last night's feature and needed a few minutes after the incident to gather himself. In a tweet from KCP Racing last night, they said he was able to walk back to the truck under his own power after being checked by paramedics. Gio and the team will race with the Outlaws this weekend.
Leaving Volusia, Logan Schuchart leads the points after the first two nights over Brad Sweet, David Gravel, Carson Macedo, and Cory Eliason. Gravel, Sweet, and Schuchart all finished top five both nights. Schuchart continued his momentum from the end of 2020. In his last five Outlaw races, he has two wins and an average finish of 2.6. It sounds like some weren't sure if Schuchart could keep up his pace up from 2020 this year, but I see no reason why that would be the case. His Shark Racing team continues to make strides, and experience is paying off. Two wins this week and the big gator is a strong statement to get this year rolling. Aaron Reutzel is the leading rookie sitting in 7th following Volusia. Schatz is in a 32 point hole in eighth, and Sheldon Haudenschild has some work to do after finishes of 15th and 12th. His 12th place run last night, was actually really impressive after getting upside down and needing extensive repairs in the work area.
Normally the series would have some time off before the next races after Florida, but not this season. Racing continues this weekend with a pair of shows, Friday night at Dixie Speedway in Georgia, and Saturday at the Talladega Short Track in Alabama. More on these races later in the week.
In modified action at Volusia over the weekend, Friday night was the annual night of features, where they split the mods into five groups and run 15 lap features for each. David Reutimann won the first feature, Clay Harris the second, Chad Roush the third, Nick Allen the fourth, and Richard Michael Jr. the fifth. It's always a fun night that gives everyone on the property a chance to win a gator trophy. The Friday field even included NASCAR champion Joey Logano, who raced a modified owned by Ryan Flores. You might remember back after the World Short Track Championship, I talked about Flores and his modified on this show. He bought a wrecked chassis from Kyle Strickler and along with Jerry Kelley, rebuilt the car, which Strickler then took to a win at Charlotte. Flores and Kelley are Penske Racing employees on the NASCAR side. Logano drove from 19th to finish third in the night's first feature.
After the Saturday portion of DIRTcar Nationals was rained out, the modifieds ran both Saturday and Sunday races yesterday. Steve Arpin bagged his first modified win at Volusia since 2007 in the Saturday gator qualifier. He locked into tonight's $5000 to win gator championship along with Michael Altobelli, Nick Allen, Kyle Hammer, Lucas Lee, Mike McKinney, KC Burdette, Michael Long, Jeff Leka, and Will Krup. Nick Hoffman won the Sunday gator qualifier, and he's locked in with Tyler Nicely, Garret Stewart, Matt Crafton, Justin Allgaier, Spencer Hughes, Allen Weisser, Jason Hughes, Richard Michael, and Ryan Ayers. The rest of the field will be split into B mains to race for the final eight spots. The top five starters will redraw for starting positions.
Joining the modifieds at Volusia tonight is the first night for late models. Tonight and tomorrow night are DIRTcar sanctioned late model nights, paying $5000 to win. The remainder of the week the races are World of Outlaws late model events. Hot laps start at 5:30. Besides the full time Outlaw contingent, we should see a fairly strong field of contenders this week. I know some teams were sticking around Florida following the Lucas events, but there are some rain chances through the week, so it's possible some of those guys bailed. It's also not uncommon for guys to sit out one or both of the DIRTcar nights, but then run the Outlaw nights. We'll have to see who's on the property today. If you can't be at Volusia, you can watch live tonight on DIRTVision.
We were supposed to get two USAC midget shows this weekend, but because of weather just got one. The second was postponed and will actually be run at Bubba Raceway Park tonight. The Friday race got a few laps complete in the feature before the rain came, so they completed action on Saturday afternoon. We talked about Buddy Kofoid back on Friday's show, as I think he could be the favorite for the championship, and he started the season off strong. He grabbed the lead from his second starting position right at the start and held off some late charges from Tanner Thorson to grab the win in the opening national midget race of the year. Thorson finished second, Chris Windom third, Daison Pursley fourth, and Emerson Axsom was fifth. NASCAR champion Chase Elliott finished 18th in his USAC midget debut. It was a dominating statement from Kofoid to come out and lead every lap en route to the win over Thorson and Windom who were two of the main title contenders last season, with Windom crowned champion. Kofoid won't have to deal with Tyler Courtney this year as he's off running the All Stars full time, and Thorson's schedule isn't certain for 2021. Thorson and Courtney accounted for 12 wins last season, which was 41% of the races. That's a lot of wins that could be up for grabs this year. The midgets are back on track tonight at Bubba starting at 6PM ET. If you can't be there, watch live on FloRacing.
Other weekend open wheel winners include Todd Gracey and Mark Smith in USCS sprint car action at Hendry County, RJ Johnson with the CAS sprint cars at Central Arizona Speedway, and Jonathan Allard in wingless action down under. To see more weekend open wheel winners, visit tjslideways.com.
Weekend late model winners include Jordy Nipper in crate action at Moulton Speedway in Alabama, and Mark Whitener and Kyle Hardy won crate shows at East Bay in Florida. For more late model news from the weekend, check out dirtondirt.com.
Back on Friday, before racing kicked off at Volusia, World Racing Group announced that NOS Energy Drink has extended it's title sponsorship of the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series in a new multi year deal. NOS has been the series' title sponsor since 2019. Everything you've come to expect from NOS at World of Outlaws events will continue, including the free sampling station. To see more on the announcement, including quotes from all involved, visit worldofoutlaws.com.
And in other Outlaw news...
Over the weekend the World of Outlaws and Skagit Speedway announced an addition to the 2021 schedule. Running September 3rd, 4th, and 5th, the Skagit Nationals will pay out $175,000 in purse money over the three days. Friday and Saturday will be $10,000 to win shows, while Sunday will pay $25,000 to win. Skagit Speedway has been a regular track on the Outlaw schedule for a long time, but the series didn't visit there in 2020 due to the pandemic. In 2021, this event will kick off the fall west coast swing for the Outlaws. For ticket information, visit worldofoutlaws.com.
If you're looking for more dirt racing content to check out on YouTube, hit up the videos section of dirtrackr.com. I've got the upload playlists there for 14 different channels, and I added a new one over the weekend. The list includes USAC, the World of Outlaws, the All Stars, RacinBoys, DIRTcar, King of the West, Knoxville, Eldora, Swindell Speedlab, David Gravel, Hunt the Front, Tanner Holmes, Ryan Missler, and the newest addition, Catalyst Autosport. I've also got all these featured on the DIRTRACKR YouTube channel. You'll find the latest highlights, interview shows, and vlogs there. If you know of a dirt racing YouTube channel I'm missing, drop me a comment or email.
There will be a new conversations episode today, this one featuring sprint car crew chief Drew Warner. Drew has wrenched for a number of drivers, including Rico Abreu, and currently DJ Netto. We talk about his quick rise to being one of the younger crew chiefs in the game, adapting to drivers and equipment, learning from his dad Ricky Warner, wrenching at the Chili Bowl, and much more. You can find that episode in this podcast feed or on the DIRTRACKR YouTube channel later today.
There are three items on the streaming schedule today. DIRTVision has the first night of late model action from DIRTcar Nationals, which also includes UMP modifieds. FloRacing has Flo 24/7 and the USAC midgets live from Bubba Raceway Park. And RacinDirt has karts from the I-44 Winter Shootout. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, hope everyone has a good Monday.
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