DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Brandon Sheppard's early season struggles, MAVTV partners with POWRi | DIRTRACKR Daily 2/17/21
It is Wednesday, February 17th, two thousand and twenty one and you are tuned into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Today we dive into Brandon Sheppard's early season struggles with Lucas and the Outlaws, plus we already have postponed events this weekend, news from MAVTV and POWRi, new podcast episodes this week, and more, so let's jump in.
Now that the opening Florida late model stretch of races is behind us, one of the main topics that we talked about throughout that first month or so was the struggles of Brandon Sheppard. Every day on the show after another late model race, we'd talk about how Sheppard hadn't won yet, and we kept waiting for him to shake off the string of uncharacteristically low finishes. But that never happened. Through 16 races between Lucas, DIRTcar and the Outlaws, Sheppard had an average finish of 9.4 and a best run of second on the first night at East Bay on January 25th. He hasn't won a super late model race in 2021 so far. And an average finish of just a little more than ninth might not sound bad for most drivers, but not when we are talking about Brandon Sheppard. Through 40 World of Outlaws events in 2020, Sheppard racked up 14 wins, which was 35% of total races, and had an average finish of 4.2. When you're used to seeing a guy contend regularly for wins and always finish inside the top five, watching him slip down the order and be battling for top tens is almost jarring for a driver like Sheppard.
For more context on Sheppard's struggles, I have the last 86 World of Outlaws shows, through the 2019 season, in the dirtrackr.com database. Over that span, Sheppard only has eight double digit finishes, or effectively finishes of 10th or worse. Three of those have come in his last six races, the other five are spread over 80 races. At one point to start 2019, Sheppard went 27 races without a finish worse than 6th, with 15 of those being wins. That's insane. And as we look through these races in the database, Sheppard has two notable winless streaks. One started on September 19th, 2019 at Stateline Speedway and lasted 11 races. But over that stretch, even without a win, his average finish was still 3.9 and he had nine top five runs. His other notable winless streak is one he's in right now. His last Outlaw win was at Thunder Mountain Speedway on September 26th, 2020 and he hasn't won in the nine races since. But this winless stretch is very different than the one in 2019. He has three finishes outside the top ten and an average finish of 8.4. His lack of wins and top fives in Outlaw competition see him back in sixth in the standings leaving Volusia, 80 points behind Kyle Strickler who has two wins, 4 top fives, and five top tens. For comparison, in seven starts in 2020 to open the season, he had a win and six top fives between Vado and Volusia. And in 2019 in his first six starts between Screven and Volusia, he had five top fives and four wins. Very, very different to start 2021. This break now until early March might be just what the doctor ordered, but if anyone or any team can break out of a stretch like this, it's Sheppard and the Rocket Team. With their ability to get and stay hot, they could wipe this 80 point deficit out in a matter of a few races. For more stats and numbers like these I've just shared, checkout dirtrackr.com/analytics. Let me know in the comments on YouTube and Facebook, or on social media why you think Sheppard has struggled this season. Are they just off with their cars, or has the competition stepped up this season.
As expected, the two World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series shows originally scheduled for this weekend at Magnolia Motor Speedway and The Rev have been postponed to a yet to be announced later date. The winter weather across the southern US is the reason, which is expected to continue into the weekend. Those with tickets for the events can use them for the rescheduled races or request a refund. For more details on the announcement, visit worldofoutlaws.com. Up next on the schedule for the Outlaws is February 26th and 27th at Cotton Bowl Speedway in Texas.
And I mentioned the Lincoln Speedway opener yesterday on the show, the Icebreaker, and as of this morning it has also been postponed. They now hope to run it on February 27th.
There was another move yesterday in the ongoing scramble from the streaming services to snatch up content. MAVTV and POWRi announced a new agreement which will see MAVTV and MAVTV Plus become the exclusive home for POWRi events and series in 2021. Between live racing on MAVTV Plus and tape delayed events on MAVTV, 62 POWRi events will be covered this season. Every race for the POWRi National Midgets, WAR Sprint Cars, Outlaw Micro Sprints, and West Midgets will be shown live on the rebranded MAVTV Plus, starting with national midgets on March 19th and 20th. Last season, POWRi events were streamed through POWRi.TV which was a partnership with Speed Sport's streaming platform, SpeedSport.TV. MAVTV Plus offerings now include the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, the Lucas Oil Pro Pulling League, scattered ASCS National Sprint Car events, the Little 500, and POWRi. In terms of the hierarchy of streaming platforms, DIRTVision and FloRacing are at the top with their combined incredible quality and quantity of events. The Lucas Late Models make MAVTV Plus a contender as well. From there, we are seeing lots of niche providers fill the remaining space. The partnerships that SpeedSport.TV has have turned it into almost a niche provider aggregator, with those smaller streamers it partners with getting support and distribution through their site and apps. From there you have sites like RacinDirt showing mostly modifieds and Fast Four streaming Outlaw kart action from the west coast. And I think this is where things will settle, at least for now. The major series and events are wrapped up by the bigger providers, and the niche guys grab up what's left. As for what's next, I think you'll continue to see added elements to broadcasts, including more production value and things like pre and post race shows.
With the season rolling along now, there are plenty of other dirt racing podcast episodes to explore this week. Winged Nation has Tim Shaffer, Danny Dietrich, and Jerry Parrish. Open Red has a DIRTcar Nationals special, Loudpedal has Chet Christner, Forward Bite has Zack Mitchell, Ohio Dirt has Dave Argabright and Brad Doty, Quicktime has Justin Zoch, Wednesdays with Wayne has Noah Gass, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Nerds and the Midwest Autosports Podcast. To see the full list of shows and episodes with links to listen, checkout dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
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.
If you're looking for other video content, checkout the Swindell Speedlab YouTube channel and the films section of FloRacing. The All Access piece from Speedlab following Logan and Sammy all week at the Chili Bowl was really entertaining. I love all the conversations between Kevin and the drivers about lines and the way the cars drive. Super interesting to hear that stuff that we don't normally get access too. Those YouTube videos are free to watch. If you're a Flo subscriber, they've been ripping out their doc pieces lately. They had a bunch of stuff from the Wild West and Wild Wing Shootouts, plus they've done all access pieces at the Chili Bowl with Justin Allgaier and Flea Ruzic, Dillon Welch, and Kevin Thomas Jr. We are still waiting on the Jason McDougal video. Do you hear me Flo, we want that JMAC video! Flo also has two videos out from the opening USAC weekends as well that are fantastic, including the newest one with Reinbold Underwood crew chief Tyler Ransbottom, or Rizzy as he's known. Make sure to watch those videos without the kiddos, as they are uncensored.
That's it for the show today, hope everyone has a good Wednesday.
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