DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Bailes, Madden get Xtreme wins; Outlaws & Lucas make schedule changes | DIRTRACKR Daily 2/22/21
It is Monday, February 22nd, two thousand and twenty one and you are tuned into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Today we take a look at racing that happened over the weekend, including two shows for the Xtreme DIRTcar Series. There is also a bunch of news items to talk about, so let's jump in.
There wasn't a ton of racing that happened over the weekend, but we did get two Xtreme DIRTcar Series super late model shows in South Carolina. On Saturday at Lake View Motor Speedway, we had big drama with 15 laps to go. The lap car of Kale Green slowed suddenly down the backstretch which brought out a quick caution, but the front runners couldn't avoid Green's car. Leader Matthew Nance and second place running Ross Bailes were both collected, with both sustaining damage. Nance kept it going, but Bailes spun because of the contact. On the restart though, both leaders were given their spots back as the caution was for the lap car and not the contact. After the restart, Nance maintained the lead, but his damaged car wasn't strong enough to hold Bailes at bay. Bailes took the lead with six to go and drove away to the win in the Xtreme DIRTcar Series first trip to Lake View. Nance was second, Cla Knight third, Dustin Mitchell fourth, and Stewart Friesen was fifth.
On Sunday at Cherokee Speedway, it was all Chris Madden. He started on the front row, grabbed the early lead from Ross Bailes, and led every lap en route to his second series win of the season. Bailes finished second, Kyle Strickler third, Adam Yarbrough fourth, and Stewart Friesen rounded out the top five after needing to transfer in through a B main. With one race left, Chris Madden's points lead over Kyle Strickler is now 25. Daulton Wilson, Anthony Sanders, and Trent Ivey are the rest of the top five in the standings. Madden is trying to win his second straight Xtreme championship. The Xtreme DIRTcar Series closes out their season this Saturday at Modoc Raceway. If you can't be there, you can watch live on DIRTVision with your fast pass.
If you're a late model fan, these Xtreme events have been really entertaining, especially during a time of the year when we don't normally get a lot of racing. And the fields are really strong each time out. We've had 69 cars total attempt an Xtreme event, while eight guys have run all five races so far. Last year we had four winners in five races, and we've had the same so far this season. It's fun to see some nationally known guys like Madden, Overton, and Strickler mix it up with some of the regional favorites like Michael Brown, Ross Bailes, and Daulton Wilson. It's also a chance for some of these smaller teams to get some bigger attention on DIRTVision.
In other racing this weekend, Shane Golobic out-dueled Carson Macedo to get his first ever win at Keller Auto Speedway in Hanford, California on Saturday night. Tim Kaeding, Dominic Scelzi, and Mitchell Faccinto rounded out the top five in the Kings of Thunder 360 sprint car event. In USCS action, Tim Shaffer and Mark Smith split the weekend at Southern Raceway in Florida. Josh Shipley won with the ASCS Desert Sprint Car Series, Jock Goodyer grabbed a 410 win at Toowoomba, and Justin Sanders picked up an ASCS Southwest win at Central Arizona Speedway. To see more weekend open wheel winners, visit tjslideways.com.
Other weekend late model winners include Rod Carroll and Sam Seawright at Fort Payne Motor Speedway in Alabama. For more from the late model weekend, visit dirtondirt.com.
Since DIRTcar Nationals ended, we've lost the four southern World of Outlaws sprint car shows in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, the entire west coast swing, and now we've lost the two nights at Cotton Bowl Speedway in Texas. Due to the ongoing state of emergency in Texas from the unprecedented winter weather, the Outlaws have sacked this weekend's racing at Cotton Bowl, with hopes of postponing it to a future date. We are still waiting on a revised spring schedule to replace the lost west coast dates as well. The series did reschedule Magnolia and the Rev to March, which are the next two races on the schedule, March 12th and 13th, but those races are nearly three weeks away. Hopefully we hear soon about some more races being added. To see the full announcement, along with ticket information, visit worldofoutlaws.com.
Back on Friday the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series announced date changes for two races. Originally scheduled for April 9th and 10th, series officials have rescheduled 411 Motor Speedway and Talladega Short Track to May 14th and 15th due to scheduling conflicts in the area. Those scheduling conflicts appear to be the World of Outlaws Late Model event at Bristol Motor Speedway that same weekend. This is a good move by Lucas, for both fans and competitors. Let those that want to hit up Bristol the freedom to do so. For more information on the announcement, visit lucasdirt.com.
We'll see another driver running a partial USAC National Sprint Car schedule this season with the announcement on Saturday that Cole Bodine and Clauson Marshall Newman will partner up for select races. Bodine drives the 39BC midget for Clauson Marshall, and these races will be in addition to his midget schedule. Bodine ran the full USAC national midget schedule in 2020, finishing 10th in the points standings with one top five and six top ten finishes. He also made three sprint car starts last season with a best finish of 10th at Lawrenceburg in October. He also competed in the opening sprint car weekend at Bubba Raceway Park about ten days ago with a different team, finishig 15th in a B on night one and 22nd in the feature on night two. Clauson Marshall will not be competing for any USAC championship this season, as the organization focuses on Tyler Courtney's rookie campaign with the All Star Circuit of Champions, but they will field sprint cars and midgets at many of the Indiana and bigger USAC shows. For more, visit clausonmarshallracing.com.
We talked last week about Jeremy Elliott's foray into streaming with the creation of SprintCarUnlimited.TV, including a new conversations episode. Since then, he's released several of the tracks and events they will offer on the pay per view service this year. Between Trail-Way Speedway, BAPS Motor Speedway, and Selinsgrove Speedway, the new service, which is a partnership with Dirt Track Digest TV, will show 29 races including several big events and many divisions. There 410 sprint car shows, late model races, a Dirt Classic qualifier, URC events, and more. Unlike many of the bigger streaming platforms that have switched to a yearly or monthly subscription model, Jeremy and Dirt Track Digest's Mike Mallet are offering these events on the more traditional pay per view basis. They say this works better for them and their track partners. To see more details on the schedule of events, visit sprintcarunlimited.com or sprintcarunlimited.tv.
Stay tuned because I'll be dropping a new DIRTRACKR Conversations episode later today. Late last week I had about an hour long chat with the new voice of USAC on FloRacing, Tony LaPorta. I think a lot of folks, including myself, were a little surprised to tune into the first USAC broadcast of the season and hear a voice we weren't expecting. But after the first two USAC weekends for the midgets and sprint cars, and chatting with Tony, I think that position is in good hands. We talked a lot about his journey to the position, his mad dash to get up to speed, and dealing with the haters on social media. You can find that episode later today in this podcast feed and 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.
Before we close out, I just wanted to say a big congratulations to Christopher Bell on his big NASCAR Cup win yesterday at Daytona. From humble beginnings in Oklahoma, Bell has won in sprint cars, midgets, and at the top three levels of NASCAR. He's got three Golden Drillers, World of Outlaws wins, and will be serious threat in years to come to win a Cup championship. And he did it completely on his own merit and talent. It's great to see this younger generation of drivers be successful on the national stages, and yet still return to the short tracks in their free time. It's important to keep that connection between the two.
That's it for the show today, hope everyone has a good Monday.
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