DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Moran Volusia Gator Champ; Justin Grant, KTJ split USAC sprint weekend | DIRTRACKR Daily 2/15/21
It is Monday, February 15th, two thousand and twenty one and you are tuned into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Since we haven't done a show since last Thursday, there is plenty to talk about on this Monday, including the World of Outlaws Late Models at Volusia along with the Super DIRTcar Series, the USAC sprint cars at Bubba, and more, so let's jump in.
DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park closed out over the weekend after a nice run of race nights back to February 2nd. On Thursday night, the program was delayed significantly by a rain shower, but they did get racing in, with action finishing well into Friday morning. When the feature was complete, it was Devin Moran who grabbed his first ever DIRTcar Nationals win and fifth career World of Outlaws victory. Bobby Pierce and Dale McDowell rounded out the podium. McDowell and Chris Madden also led laps, but Moran took over the lead on lap 23 and drove away to the win. Points leader Kyle Strickler finished 4th, while Brandon Sheppard rallied from 23rd to finish sixth.
On Friday night, there was no stopping Brandon Overton. The first two Outlaw nights at Volusia were miserable for he and his Wells Motorsports team, finishing 32nd and 30th, but he made up for it on Friday. Originally scheduled to start fourth, he got to move up a row when Bobby Pierce couldn't make the call, and that was all the opening he needed. He took the lead from polesitter Kyle Bronson on the first lap and never looked back. Overton led all 40 laps en route to his 14th career Outlaw victory and first gator win at Volusia. Devin Moran finished second, Kyle Bronson third, Chris Madden fourth, and Rick Eckert was fifth. Points leader Strickler bagged another top ten run with a sixth place finish.
Big rain early in the day on Saturday forced event officials to cancel the final night of DIRTcar Nationals, so Devin Moran was crowned the week long late model champion. It was a nice pickup after Moran wasn't even initially sure they'd run DCN. He ended the week with a win, two seconds, and a third. His lone blemish was a 31st place finish back on Wednesday after having mechanical issues late in the going. That was the incident where he slowed dramatically and collected Brandon Overton.
Leaving Volusia, newly signed on Outlaw regular Kyle Strickler continues to lead the series points standings. His lead grew to 68 markers, with Kyle Bronson second, Ricky Weiss third, Tyler Bruening fourth, and Dennis Erb Jr. fifth. In five series races, Strickler has two wins, four top fives, and five top tens to lead all drivers. He also leads all regulars in average finish at 3rd. Going forward, there are quite a few guys we thought would be contenders who have work to do when the series returns to action in a few weeks. Defending champion Brandon Sheppard has yet to lead a lap in Outlaw competition this season, with a best finish of 6th. It's wild to see that stat for a guy who won four straight Outlaw nights at Volusia in 2019. He's currently sixth in the standings 80 points back. Darrell Lanigan, Cade Dillard, and Chase Junghans also left Volusia wanting more. All are more than 100 points behind Strickler in the championship chase. Another guy to take a look at is Ricky Weiss. If he could find a way to start a little better in these features, he'd be really dangerous. He leads the series in feature plus minus at +46 leaving Volusia with an average finish of 9.8. But his average start is 19th. It's great he can pass race cars, but that team needs to find a way to not be buried come feature time. So far this season we've had one winner from the pole, one from second, two from fourth, and one from fifth. 75% of heats have been won from the pole, with the furthest a winner has come being fifth. The Outlaws return to action on March fifth at Duck River Raceway Park in Tennessee.
Along with the World of Outlaws at Volusia, the Super DIRTcar Series closed out the week with two shows Thursday and Friday. Thursday night's race had drama right at the start into turn one. Fifth starting Max McLaughlin picked up a push on corner entry and got into Matt Sheppard, sending him up the track and collecting Peter Britten. Under caution the two ended up nose to nose with Sheppard showing his displeasure with the move. It didn't end there though. Sheppard confronted McLaughlin after the race, with things escalating into a physical altercation. Sheppard has since been placed on probation by series officials until July 1st for the incident and he forfeited the night's winnings. For McLaughlin though, it was quite the turn around. From turn one incident to victory lane. He ended up winning the night, holding off Billy Decker at the line. Michael Maresca finished third, Mat Williamson fourth, and Sheppard rebounded to finish fifth.
On Friday night, in what ended up being the finale, it was a dominating night for Michael Maresca. He started on the pole, held off Matt Sheppard, and drove away to his first ever Super DIRTcar Series victory. Sheppard was second, Billy Decker third, Billy VanInwegen fourth, and Peter Britten was fifth. A few weeks ago on the conversations episode with Mike Mallett, he said Maresca was a guy to keep an eye on this season. He definitely showed out on Friday. A ninth place result on Friday night was good enough to see Max McLaughlin lock down the week long championship and the big gator trophy. I loved his quote following the trophy presentation. He said "I made a mistake hitting the water on Lap 1 and got into Sheppard and got punched in the face for it. That’s alright. Whatever. I got one black eye, one busted lip, and one DIRTcar Nationals championship." So good. The Super DIRTcar Series now goes quiet until April 10th at Can Am Speedway.
Over the weekend we also got two of three nights in for the USAC National Sprint Cars, with Saturday being lost to that Florida rain storm. Back on Thursday night, Kyle Cummins jumped to the early lead in the feature, but third starting Kevin Thomas Jr. wasn't going to be denied. He took the lead from Cummins on lap 14 and drove away to the opening night win. Justin Grant finished second, Kyle Cummins third, Brady Bacon fourth, and Tyler Courtney was fifth. When we talked to KTJ before Chili Bowl he was pretty open about his struggles last season, and it looks like those offseason changes he talked about paid off.
On to Friday night's feature, Jake Swanson led the most laps from his fifth starting position, taking over the lead from Kyle Cummins on lap two. But the win wasn't in the cards for him. Justin Grant took several shots at him, finally taking the lead inside ten to go with a physical move into turn one. Grant drove away over the final eight laps to earn the win over a hard charging Brady Bacon, Buddy Kofoid, Tanner Thorson, and CJ Leary who rounded out the top five. After the two nights, Justin Grant is the series points leader over Brady Bacon and Kevin Thomas Jr. on the strength of that win and a second. Grant and Bacon were the only two to finish top five both nights. Bacon was hard charger both nights, going 12th to fourth and 10th to second, to lead the series in feature plus minus at +16. In his last five series starts back to last season, Bacon's worst finish is 4th. The last time he didn't finish in the top ten was back on August 2nd at Haubstadt. And as we talked about before, it looks like KTJ is trending in the right direction, with finishes of second, first, and sixth in the his last three starts. The USAC National Sprint Car Series is now off until April 3rd at Lawrenceburg Speedway.
In other weekend open wheel action, Danny Martin Jr. and Tim Shaffer picked up 360 sprint car wins at East Bay Raceway Park, and Michael Pickens swept Saturday at Western Springs, winning both the midget and 410 sprint car features. To see more open wheel winners, check out tjslideways.com.
With the Florida swing now complete, action is pretty quiet this week. The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series has a pair of shows this weekend in the south, but cold temperatures are forecasted, so keep an eye as the week progresses on the status of those events. The Xtreme DIRTcar Series late models are also scheduled for a pair of shows, Saturday and Sunday, at Lake View Motor Speedway and Cherokee Speedway. We'll talk more about these events as the week goes on.
A new DIRTRACKR Conversations episode will drop later today, this one featuring Ashley Stremme. Ashley is one of the co-hosts of Winged Nation on MRN, owns Lethal Chassis with husband David Stremme, and grew up around Pennsylvania dirt tracks watching her dad race sprint cars. She joined me to chat about building Lethal into a major player in the dirt modified circles, getting media gigs like Winged Nation and pit reporting, her thoughts on the upcoming sprint car season, and a lot more. You can find that episode later today in this podcast feed and on YouTube at youtube.com/dirtrackr.
There is nothing on the streaming schedule today except Flo 24/7 over at FloRacing. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
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