DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Cory Eliason gaining momentum, Mike Marlar going Cup racing at Bristol | DIRTRACKR Daily 3/16/21
It is Tuesday, March 16th, two thousand and twenty one and you are tuned into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Today on the show we take a look at the quiet run Cory Eliason is currently on with the Outlaws, plus we talk about last night's Bristol Dirt Nationals racing, and Mike Marlar is going NASCAR racing again. Let's jump in.
Leading into the 2021 sprint car season, one topic we and others have talked quite a bit about is the wide open battle for the All Star Circuit of Champions title. With three time champ Aaron Reutzel moving on to full time World of Outlaws competition for this season, a tremendous opportunity exists for someone to become a first time champion with the All Stars. And because of that opportunity, we've seen a bunch of drivers throw their hat in the ring, including Tyler Courtney, Justin Peck, Ian Madsen, Brent Marks, and many others. When talking about who could be the favorite, it seems that Cory Eliason, Marks, and Courtney are at the top of most people's lists. And for good reason. Eliason has been right behind Reutzel in recent seasons, plus he has Outlaw wins. Marks is with a potent CJB team, and has Outlaw wins on his resume. And Courtney is capable of winning in anything he jumps in, even though this is his first full season with a wing. Over the first five All Star races to start the season, even though they weren't for points, Courtney was the most impressive of the three, bagging two top fives and three top tens. Marks and Eliason weren't quite up to the form we'd expect for championship contenders, with Eliason getting only two top tens, and Marks getting one top five and two top tens. But since that opening stretch, Cory Eliason seems to have found some of that contending speed.
As we've talked about the Outlaws over the past few weeks, including the championship battle and who might win the rookie of the year, the one driver we haven't mentioned is Eliason. He's run all six Outlaw shows so far, and is very quietly sixth in the standings. His four top tens in six races have him ahead of Sheldon Haudenschild, Reutzel, Kasey Kahne, and even Brent Marks. Since finishing 20th with the All Stars at Volusia on February 4th, Eliason has Outlaw finishes of 11th, 3rd, 7th, 6th, 8th, and 14th. His qualifying average and average feature start are a tick worse through six races in 2021 versus his 18 Outlaw starts in 2020, but all of a sudden he's passing a lot of cars in features. On average he's gaining three positions from the start to the end of features, and is third in feature plus/minus with the Outlaws behind Kraig Kinser and Brad Sweet. In 2018, 2019, and 2020, Eliason had negative feature plus/minuses, so a positive number now in that category is a big step in the right direction. And his four straight top ten finishes between Volusia and Magnolia matched his best stretch of races with the Outlaws back through 2018. Eliason's average finish through six Outlaw starts this season is actually better than his average finish was with the All Stars in 2020. Eliason and his Rudeen team have the next two Outlaw weekends on their schedule before they head to Attica in early April to begin their All Star title assault, and this momentum could be bad for his All Star competitors. Marks and Eliason are the only two full time All Star drivers that have run all the Outlaw shows to this point, and these laps against the best in the business could pay big dividends when their season gets rolling again. I know a few other All Star drivers have traveled a bit in this lull, including Justin Peck and Hunter Schuerenberg, but these races for Eliason and the momentum he's gained will no doubt be an advantage going forward. When Eliason gets hot, he can be very tough to beat. During one stretch with the All Stars last year, he grabbed 10 top fives in 13 races, which included eight podium runs. Continuing to pass race cars and stack up top five and top ten finishes will make Eliason very difficult to beat with the All Stars this season.
Yesterday was the first race day on the dirt at Bristol for the Bristol Dirt Nationals, but we didn't get to see racing to it's conclusion. We did get to see some heat races, but the rest of Monday's action was postponed to today following rain showers. There doesn't seem to be a ton of coverage coming out of the event, and I haven't seen a revised schedule for today which includes last night's racing and today's events posted anywhere. If you want to see some video clips from yesterday, check out facebook.com/racexr. Jimmy Dearing over at stlracing.com did post the heat race results from last night's action that was completed. The original Tuesday schedule shows racing starting at 2PM. For more info, visit bristoldirt.com. Did any of you tune into the racing yesterday? If you did, what are your thoughts on how it looked? Drop me a comment below or on social media with your thoughts.
World of Outlaws Late Model Series past champion Mike Marlar announced yesterday he's joining the NASCAR Cup field at Bristol next weekend, joining Chris Windom and Shane Golobic as dirt drivers getting an opportunity in the event. Marlar will run for Carl Long's Motorsports Business Management team and their number 66 car. Besides being the 2018 World of Outlaws champion, Marlar has two previous NASCAR starts, both in 2019. He ran an Xfinity race at Richmond for Carl Long, and finished 4th in the Eldora truck race that season. Marlar will also partner with Hill Motorsports for the weekend's truck series race as well. The Cup Series will get two practice sessions next Friday, March 26th, followed by qualifying races on Saturday, March 27th, leading into the 250 lap race on Sunday. A combination of qualifying race finishing position and passing points will set the lineup for Sunday's race.
There are two items on the streaming schedule again today. FloRacing 24/7 is running all day, and day two of the Bristol Dirt Nationals is on XR+. Tonight's Bristol action includes 604 late models, open modifieds, and stock cars. 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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