DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Outlaws announce new spring schedule, Zeb Wise partners with Wayne Priddy | DIRTRACKR Daily 2/23/21
It is Tuesday, February 23rd, two thousand and twenty one and you are tuned into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Today on the show we have the updated World of Outlaws spring schedule, news from Zeb Wise, Thunderbowl Raceway, and Angell Park Speedway. We've also got details on the FloRacing Night in America series, and some new numbers to share. Let's jump in.
Just this morning, the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series announced their revised spring schedule, following the loss of events in the South, Texas, and the west coast. 12 new and rescheduled races make up the spring slate, starting March 5th and running through April 10th. The new dates are March 5th at Volusia Speedway Park, March 6th at East Bay Raceway Park, March 12th at Magnolia Motor Speedway, March 13th at the Rev, March 19th and 20th at Cotton Bowl Speedway, March 26th at US 36 Raceway, March 27th at Lake Ozark Speedway, April 2nd and 3rd at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55, April 9th at Kokomo Speedway, and April 10th at Tri-State Speedway. Tickets for the new events will go on sale starting tomorrow morning at 9AM ET. All of these races will also be live on DIRTVision. The Outlaws haven't raced since February 7th at DIRTcar Nationals, and by the time they get back on track it will have been nearly a month since they raced. This new schedule includes a mix of old favorites like Pevely and Haubstadt, and some places we haven't seen the Outlaws in a very long time like East Bay. Logan Schuchart currently leads the series points standings with two nights complete over Brad Sweet and David Gravel. To see more on the new schedule, visit worldofoutlaws.com.
Ever since he announced his departure from Sam McGhee Motorsports following the 2020 All Star season, we've been waiting to see where Zeb Wise would end up, and yesterday the announcement finally came. Wise is teaming up with veteran crew chief Wayne Priddy to form Wise-Priddy Racing. The new team will compete full time with the All Star Circuit of Champions in 2021. starting with the series points opener at Attica Raceway Park on April 9th. Wise told Jacob Seelman that they hope to get some starts in Pennsylvania in advance of that first night out at Attica. Priddy has worked with a number of drivers in his career and was most recently part of the Baughman-Reutzel team working with Aaron Reutzel, Josh Baughman, and Ian Madsen. Driving for McGhee in 2020, Wise ran the full All Star schedule, finishing third in the standings and winning rookie of the year. He had three top fives and 19 top tens in 44 attempts with the All Stars, with a best finish of second at 81 Speedway in June. Wise also has eight World of Outlaws attempts in the last two seasons, along with a fifth place finish in the 2019 USAC National Midget standings. He's a multi-time USAC midget winner as well. This should be a solid pairing for Wise and Priddy. Wise is young and talented, and having that first year on the road should pay dividends this season, as he starts seeing race tracks for the second and and third time. And having veteran leadership from a guy like Priddy, who knows how to make cars go fast, can only elevate Wise. The duo is entering a stacked field of All Star contenders, but I don't think race wins are out of the question. Another top five points finish is definitely attainable.
I missed this a few days ago, but I wanted to double back and talk about it. We got more details back on Friday last week about FloRacing Night in America, which is their midweek super late model series that will race 10 times in 2021. The scheduling of the shows will allow regular competitors with the national series and big tracks to compete during the week and avoid conflicts. Eight of the shows will be 40 laps and pay $10,000 to win, one will be 50 laps and pay $15,000 to win, and one will be 50 laps and pay $20,000 to win. The year end points fund will pay out 10 places, with $20,000 going to the champion. Drivers do not have to enter every event to be eligible for the championship, and their seven best finishes will count towards the season ending points. There are perks for drivers who maintain attendance though, including free entries, and those up in the standings will receive tow money and free pit passes, depending on where they sit. Ray Cook will handle event tech, while Matt Curl will be race director. Ben Shelton and Dustin Jarrett will be on the call, while FloRacing will provide extended coverage through studio shows, commentary, and social media integration. The ten tracks on the schedule are 411 Motor Speedway, Tri-City Speedway, Tyler County Speedway, Atomic Speedway, Brownstown Speedway, Marshalltown Speedway, Florence Speedway, Fairbury Speedway, Tri-County Racetrack, and Volunteer Speedway. This series is a bit of an experiment from Michael Rigsby and FloRacing that grew out of the Late Model Night in America shows that popped up during 2020 to get racing going back again after the COVID shutdown. I certainly applaud all involved for trying this out and putting up good money throughout the season for competitors. These shows will also fill some of those midweek holes where we wouldn't normally have dirt racing to watch. For more information on the series, visit floracing.com.
Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, California has cancelled their Kings of Thunder sprint car event that was scheduled for this Saturday due to local COVID regulations. The next event on the schedule for Thunderbowl is a March 12th stop for the Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Cars, and California sprint car guru Gary Thomas said on Twitter that things are looking hopeful with the county allowing them to race on that date. For more information, visit thunderbowlraceway.com.
An up and down offseason for Angell Park Speedway in Wisconsin got a little brighter yesterday with the announcement that Gregg and Angie McKarns have reached a five year agreement to operate the Sun Prairie dirt track. The couple owns and operates the paved Madison International Speedway which is close by, and also the ARCA Midwest Tour for asphalt late models. They are currently planning a 10-race schedule at the track in 2021 including USAC National Midgets, the All Star Circuit of Champions, IRA Sprint Cars, and local and regional racing. The track previously had an agreement in place for SLS Promotions and Hans Lein to operate the track this season, but issues around the track's liquor license caused the partnership to dissolve. To see the full schedule and get more information, visit angellpark.racing.
I've made a few additions to the analytics section of dirtrackr.com in the last 24 hours. First up was an easy one I was missing, and that was total hard chargers. For all series in the database, and the individual year pages you can now find total count of hard chargers. I need to add hard chargers to the individual driver pages, so stay tuned for that. For an example, over the last 206 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series races, Logan Schuchart and Sheldon Haudenschild lead the way with 19 hard chargers apiece. If you don't know, the hard charger is given to the driver that advances the most positions from the start of a feature to the finish.
The other new categories I've added are a little deeper and we can start really digging into the power of the dirtrackr.com analytics database. These new stats are efficiency numbers for top fives and top tens. Effectively, how often you finish in the top five after starting top five, and how often you finish top ten after starting in the top ten. This is available for all series in the database, World of Outlaws Sprint Cars and Late Models, Lucas, All Stars, Chili Bowl and the three USAC National Series. These aren't available for individual seasons yet, or on the driver pages, but will be soon. So for example, in the last 56 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series races, Jimmy Owens has 37 top five starts and those have led to 28 top five finishes. His top five efficiency is about 76%. And in the last 99 All Star Circuit of Champions races, Aaron Reutzel has 73 top ten starts which have led to 60 top ten finishes, which is an efficiency of 82%. These numbers start to show us who can capitalize on good starts, and we can take numbers like these even further. My next idea is to start looking for value from drivers and finishes, and who is able to make the most of starts further back. Stay tuned for those. We'll do deeper conversations on this show with these numbers in the coming days and weeks, but feel free to start perusing them. You can find all of this and more at dirtrackr.com/analytics.
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.
That's it for the show today, hope everyone has a good Tuesday.
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