DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Brad Sweet stays hot with the Outlaws, Buddy Kofoid makes POWRi history | DIRTRACKR Daily 3/29/21
It is Monday, March 29th, two thousand and twenty one and you are tuned into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
There is a lot to talk about today, including Brad Sweet staying hot, Buddy Kofoid making history, and more from the dirt racing weekend. Let's jump in.
The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series was in action over the weekend for just the one show at Lake Ozark Speedway and the Jason Johnson Classic. We were supposed to get two shows, but Friday at US 36 Raceway was cancelled due to weather. With so much rain across the southeast the previous three days, we lost a ton of racing to cancellations and postponements. With so much moisture in the race track on Saturday, you knew that Lake Ozark was going to be a challenge for the Outlaw competitors, and it turned into a cowboy up slug fest. One of the track's victims for the night was Jacob Allen in the feature. A few laps before he nearly turned it over in between one and two, but made a big save to keep it rolling. Then, not much later while battling Carson Macedo for position, the ruts into turn one caught Jacob out again, and this time he couldn't save it. Macedo did a hell of a job to not get collected, as he was right on the tail tank of Allen. Under that caution for Jacob, series officials chopped the feature down to 30 laps because of the track conditions. Out front, it was all Brad Sweet. He grabbed the lead right at the start, and pulled away late in lap traffic to take his third Outlaw win of the season. Sheldon Haudenschild tried to challenge near the mid point of the race, but he had to settle for second. James McFadden was third, Logan Schuchart fourth, and Carson Macedo was fifth. After the race, Sweet got pretty emotional in victory lane about Jason Johnson, and he brought Jax Johnson up with him to do the wing dance. It was a pretty neat scene, and Sweet talked about how it was one of the biggest wins of his career. Check out the video on Twitter @WorldofOutlaws. As for some numbers, Sweet now has six straight podium finishes including back-to-back wins. He's finished top five in 12 of his last 14 Outlaw races. This recent run has him leading the points standings by 32 now over Logan Schuchart. Logan is still the only Outlaw driver to finish top 10 in every race this season. His current top ten streak is 12 races, going back to Kokomo in October of 2020. The other driver that has been super hot lately is Sheldon Haudenschild. He started this season with one top ten in his first four starts, but since then has five straight top fives, including two wins. His average finish is 2.8, and he's climbed up to fourth in the standings. So your World of Outlaws top ten looks like this: Brad Sweet leads Logan Schuchart by 32, David Gravel is third, Sheldon Haudenschild fourth, Donny Schatz fifth, Carson Macedo sixth, Aaron Reutzel seventh, Cory Eliason eighth, Brent Marks ninth, and Kraig Kinser is tenth. The Outlaws are back Friday night at the Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 in Pevely, Missouri.
The World of Outlaws Late Model Series was also in action this weekend for the Rock Gault Memorial at Cherokee Speedway in South Carolina. Friday night's program was for show-up points only, with the field split into two $5000 to win features. Jimmy Owens survived a wild 25 laps to win the night's first race over Jonathan Davenport and Trent Ivey. Owens battled Chris Madden and Kyle Strickler early in the race, and then there were a bunch of tire issues late in the going, with both Madden and Strickler being victims. The night's second feature was dominated from the pole by Dale McDowell, but late in the race, sixth starting Brandon Sheppard tracked him down and took the lead with two to go. Sheppard held on for the $5000 score over McDowell, and Brandon Overton. Unfortunately, Saturday's $40,000 to win show was postponed because of rain. Track and series officials hope to announce a make up date soon. The World of Outlaws Late Model Series' 2021 season continues this week at Farmer City Raceway for the Illini 100 weekend starting on Thursday.
We got to see a little history with the POWRi National Midget League over the weekend thanks to Buddy Kofoid. Following his opening weekend sweep at Monarch Motor Speedway the week before, Kofoid won both nights of POWRi action at I-44 Riverside Speedway to open the Turnpike Challenge on Friday night and Saturday night to become the first driver to ever win the first three, and then the first four events of the POWRi midget season. On Friday night Kofoid topped Daison Pursley and Jake Neuman after starting second. And on Saturday he won over Brenham Crouch and Emerson Axsom from the third starting position. Kofoid was going for five in a row yesterday at Port City, but after battling with Jake Neuman for much of the race, Kofoid got trapped in lap traffic late and finished third. Neuman put on a serious performance to get the win with Emerson Axsom sliding in to finish second. If you missed any of the weekend POWRi shows and want to watch them, they are available free on the MAVTV Facebook page.
Other weekend open wheel winners include Jim Siegel getting his first Lincoln win in Pennsylvania in a few years, Dylan Cisney won at Port Royal, and Justin Peck won Friday night at Williams Grove to make it two straight weeks with a Central PA win. This momentum that Peck is building could pay dividends when the All Star season starts back up again this weekend. Out in California Justin Sanders won Friday at Ocean, Dominic Scelzi swept the weekend at Tulare, Max Adams won in the non wing car at Tulare, and Tanner Carrick grabbed the Sprint Car Challenge Tour opener at Placerville. DJ Foos won at Attica and TJ Michael won the FAST series race at Waynesfield, both in Ohio. For more weekend open wheel winners, visit tjslideways.com.
Other weekend late model winners include Max Blair at Williams Grove, Josh Rice at Florence, Joseph Joiner in Southern All Star action at Tri-County, and Jeff Rine at Port Royal. For more weekend late model results, checkout dirtondirt.com.
We had two first time winners with the USMTS modifieds over the weekend with Carlos Ahumada Jr. winning Friday night in the King of America prelim feature, and then Saturday it was Brooks Strength who took down the $20,000 in the tenth running of the King of America at Humboldt Speedway. The USMTS is back this weekend for two nights at Hamilton County Speedway in Iowa for the Spring Challenge.
The only thing on the streaming schedule today is FloRacing 24/7. To see the full daily schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Don't forget also, with the rain in Bristol through the weekend, we didn't get to see either the NASCAR Trucks or Cup cars on the dirt. Those races are scheduled for today, with the trucks first at noon ET on Fox Sports 1, and the Cup cars at 4PM ET On FOX.
I'll be dropping a new DIRTRACKR Conversations episode later today, with this one featuring sprint car and midget racer Chance Crum. You might remember Chance got an opportunity at the Chili Bowl this season with Clauson Marshall and their Tony Elliott Foundation supported car. He finished 15th on his prelim night, and ended a very respectable 14th in a Saturday C-Main in just his second attempt at the Chili Bowl. Chance joins me to talk about his career in the Northwest, racing sprint cars in California, his pending move from Washington to Indianapolis, his digital media background and work, and a lot more. Find that episode where you get podcasts or the DIRTRACKR YouTube channel.
And over the weekend, since I got the weekend off and wasn't at Bristol, I made a few additions to the analytics section of dirtrackr.com. I previously had heat race wins and dash wins available on the individual driver pages, but I didn't have those win lists on the main stat pages. But as of this weekend, they are available now. If the series has dashes and heat wins, those lists are now available on the main stat breakdown page and the individual year pages. You might notice a few other small changes as well, as I'm trying to make that section a little easier to navigate. To dive into the stats and analytics project, visit dirtrackr.com/analytics.
That's it for the show today, hope everyone has a good Monday. Make sure to stay locked in all week, as there will be a ton to talk about, including some mid-week racing on Wednesday.
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