DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Schatz and Overton weekend Outlaw favorites, NASCAR on the Bristol dirt | DIRTRACKR Daily 3/26/21
It is Friday, March 26th, two thousand and twenty one and you are tuned into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
We've got a busy Friday show with both World of Outlaws series racing this weekend, we've got some driver news, weather cancellations, we talk about the NASCAR dirt weekend on tap, and more. Let's jump in.
We were supposed to be preparing for the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series at US 36 Raceway in Missouri tonight, but that race was cancelled yesterday because of heavy rain in the south and southeast. That leaves Saturday night's Jason Johnson Classic at Lake Ozark Speedway as the lone World of Outlaws sprint car show for the weekend. After a win and a third last weekend at Cotton Bowl in Texas, Brad Sweet leads the series points standings by 24 over Logan Schuchart with David Gravel, Donny Schatz, and Sheldon Haudenschild rounding out the top five. Lake Ozark is a 1/3 mile track in Missouri that's hosted the Outlaws six times in the previous three seasons. Donny Schatz, Brad Sweet, David Gravel, Logan Schuchart, and James McFadden have all won races there, with McFadden the most recent winner in October of 2020. Saturday night's Jason Johnson Classic will be the richest paying show so far in 2021, with $15,000 going to the night's winner. Several drivers are entering Saturday on hot streaks, including points leader Sweet who has an average finish of 2.2 over the previous five races. Sheldon Haudenschild has two wins and two fifths in his last four starts, and Logan Schuchart has 11 straight top ten finishes back to last season. We are still waiting for Donny Schatz to break through for career Outlaw win number 300. He hasn't won an Outlaw race in 15 starts, but does have six straight top tens, and an average finish over the previous five races of 4.6. He's also been good at 1/3 mile race tracks in recent seasons, with five wins and an average finish of 4.2. He's got two recent wins at Lake Ozark, including in May of last season as well. This could be another great chance for him to bag win 300. And looking at win predictions for tomorrow night, Schatz leads the way with a very slight advantage over Brad Sweet in the dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula. McFadden, Gravel, and Sheldon round out the top five in win chances from the formula. I'd also keep an eye on Carson Macedo on Saturday night. He's only got one top ten in his previous four starts, but this will be an emotional weekend for his Jason Johnson Racing team, and they will show up ready to roll and looking to bounce back. That JJR 41 was fast in recent seasons at Lake Ozark with Gravel behind the wheel. If you can't be at Lake Ozark this weekend, DIRTVision will have live streaming coverage with your fast pass.
The World of Outlaws Late Model Series is also back in action this weekend for two nights at Cherokee Speedway in South Carolina. It's been about three weeks since the Outlaws last raced at Smoky Mountain Speedway. Kyle Strickler enters the weekend atop the standings over Brandon Sheppard, Ricky Weiss, Tyler Bruening, and Kyle Bronson. Big money is on the line this weekend, with tonight paying $5000 to win, and Saturday's Rock Gault Memorial finale paying $40,000 to the winner. One of the big stories we've been following so far this season is the performance of Brandon Sheppard. He's yet to win in 2021 and doesn't have a top five finish with the Outlaws through his first six starts. He is still somehow second in the points, but we keep waiting for him to jump up and be a contender for these wins, but it just hasn't happened yet. This might be a decent shot for him to run good this weekend, as his previous three finishes at Cherokee are second, fourth, and second. Points leader Strickler could keep his very good 2021 rolling this weekend as well, as his most recent finish at Cherokee was a fourth back in October. The dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula actually likes Chris Madden for the wins this weekend, which is both a bit surprising and yet not. Madden is eighth in the series standings, but is the most recent winner with the series, has three recent top fives at Cherokee, and has four 3/8 mile wins in recent seasons. Just by the eyeball test though, I don't know how you bet against Brandon Overton this weekend. He's won the two most recent Outlaw shows at Cherokee, and his other finish was fourth. 3/8 mile tracks are his bread and butter, with eight wins in his past 40 starts on those tracks. He hasn't had great luck the past few weeks, with an 11th at Smoky Mountain, and some rough nights at Bristol. Cherokee could be coming at a good time for Overton to strike back. If you can't attend the Rock Gault Memorial, make sure to watch live both nights on DIRTVision.
We had a few different driver announcements yesterday and I wanted to touch on them with today's show. First, Tanner Thorson will run full time in the USAC National Sprint Car Championship with Reinbold Underwood Motorsports. Thorson ran with the team in the opening USAC sprint car weekend at Bubba Raceway Park in February where he finished 6th and 4th. Thorson was a full time runner in the USAC National Midget championship in 2020, finishing third behind Chris Windom and Tyler Courtney. He also made six sprint car starts with a best finish of 2nd at Plymouth in June. This ride will be in addition to his deal to run midgets with Dave Mac Motorsports at select events in 2021.
Also, Chris Windom has picked up a Silver Crown Series ride for the seven dirt races in 2021. He'll take over the reins of the Hans Lein owned number 97 that Tyler Courtney has driven in recent seasons. Courtney is focusing on his move to winged sprint car competition this season, which left the seat open. Windom is the 2016 Silver Crown champion and has eight wins in 74 career starts. The Silver Crown starts for Windom will add to a busy season for the reigning USAC midget champion who is back with Chad Boat for a full USAC midget season, along with winged and non-wing sprint car starts with Hayward Motorsports. To see more on these two driver announcements, visit usacracing.com.
And in other open wheel driver news, Keith Kunz and Pete Willoughby have added another young driver to their stable for this season. Gavan Boschele, who's run the past few years in outlaw karts and micro sprints at Millbridge Speedway in North Carolina, will join KKM to run a partial POWRi National Midget schedule and select micro events. His first race with Keith Kunz will be tonight in POWRi action at I-44 Riverside for the Turnpike Challenge. Boschele has racked up a ton of wins and championships in his young career, and most recently has been racing with Kevin Swindell and their Swindell SpeedLab micro team. For more details, check out Jacob Seelman's article at sprintcarandmidget.com.
In super late model news from yesterday, the Bobby Pierce/Cody Mallory pairing is over almost as fast as it began. Mallory joined Pierce's team in December after having worked with Jimmy Owens for most of 2020. Pierce had a strong start to 2021, including a win at DIRTcar Nationals and some strong finishes with Lucas, but according to the piece from Dirt on Dirt and Kevin Kovac, the logistical issues of the pairing weren't working out. Mallory lives in Tennessee and Pierce's shop is in Illinois. Pierce told Kovac that the two parted on good terms and that he'll maintain some ties with Mallory at least on a consulting basis. As I said when this was announced back in January, these crew member deals go hot and cold so fast. To see the full piece from Kovac, visit dirtondirt.com.
It was a rough last 24 hours for a lot of tracks and series in regards to rainouts. Rain across the south and east has affected a bunch of races and we've seen the entire ASCS weekend lost, the Thaw Brawl at LaSalle postponed, the first night of the Turnpike Challenge at Creek County cancelled, the first night of the King of America at Humboldt Speedway lost, Attica's Friday program pushed to Saturday, and the Sprint Nationals at I-75 postponed. Make sure that you check track and series websites and social media before you head out to the track this weekend to make sure racing is still happening.
I didn't want to close out the week without talking about the Bristol weekend on tap for NASCAR. Today both the trucks and Cup Series have practice sessions on the dirt, with Saturday featuring heats for both series and the truck series race tomorrow night. The Cup cars race on Sunday afternoon at 3:30PM ET. Nobody really knows what to expect for the racing, but if anything, I think it will be one hell of a spectacle. Keep an eye on the weather through the weekend though. Things look pretty good for today, but rain chances ramp up for Saturday and Sunday, so delays are possible. The truck field is stacked and includes a lot of Cup guys looking for experience, including Larson, Kevin Harvick, Ryan Newman, Daniel Suarez, Martin Truex Jr., and others. I think some drivers to watch for that race include Larson, Stewart Friesen, and series regular Sheldon Creed. Sheldon is an interesting one to watch with his offroad background. As for the Cup race, I think there are a lot of intriguing guys to watch. I do think Larson and Bell are probably 1A and 1B for win picks. They are both obviously incredible dirt racers, and do have experience with the trucks at Eldora. I also think Tyler Reddick could be one to watch with his previous dirt late model experience, and he won't be scared to run the top. It will be fun also to see what dirt guys like Shane Golobic, Chris Windom, and Mike Marlar can do in this race. Even if you aren't a big NASCAR fan, this will be a good weekend to jump in and watch again. Literally anything can and will happen over the next three days.
There are 12 items on the streaming schedule today. DIRTVision has 410 sprint cars and late models from Williams Grove, and night one of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series from Cherokee Speedway. There are several shows on FloRacing including modifieds at Woodford Glen in New Zealand, the Kingdom of Speed from Bridgeport Speedway, the SCDRA and street stocks from All-Tech, USAC CRA sprint cars at Thunderbowl in California, and weekly racing from Ocean Speedway. MAVTV Plus has the POWRi National Midgets from I-44, RacinDirt has the King of America from Humboldt Speedway, and Speed Sport TV has action from Brownstown and Mohave Valley Raceway. To see the full daily streaming schedule, with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight. Looking through the weekend, right now there are about 40 different streaming broadcasts available across platforms, so that watch tonight page will be a good place to check out each day.
That's it for the show today, hope everyone has a good Friday and a good weekend.
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