DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Daryn Pittman joining Swindell SpeedLab, Outlaws at Kokomo and Haubstadt | DIRTRACKR Daily 4/9/21
It is Friday, April 9th, two thousand and twenty one and you are tuned into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Today we preview the Outlaws at Kokomo and Haudstadt, USAC Midgets at Port City, Daryn Pittman has a new ride, and we look at other open wheel racing happening this weekend. Let's jump in.
Two Indiana short tracks are on the card this weekend for the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series. Tonight the Outlaws head to Kokomo, with Tri-State in Haubstadt on tap for tomorrow. Both tracks provide great racing, and we saw that last year especially at Kokomo with Sheldon Haudenschild beating Donny Schatz after a fun battle all race long. Brad Sweet enters the weekend as the points leader by 46 over Logan Schuchart, and so far he's been the main story of 2021 with the Outlaws. He's won four in a row, along with five total for the season, plus 10 top fives in 11 races. His sweep last weekend at Pevely along with two wins the weekend before made him the first driver since Donny Schatz in 2017 to win four in a row with the series. He'll be looking to push that streak out even more this weekend. Behind Sweet, Sheldon has been on fire in recent weeks, with seven straight top five finishes, including two wins. He's climbed to third in the standings behind Sweet and Schuchart. As for Logan, he's been rock solid through the first 11 races, picking up a win, eight top fives, and 11 top tens. The driver of the Shark Racing 1S has finished top ten in 14 straight Outlaw races, back to Kokomo in 2020. David Gravel and Carson Macedo round out the top five, and both already have wins this season as well. One driver who will be looking to shake off a run of subpar finishes is Donny Schatz. He is still seeking career win 300 and we thought he might get it last weekend at Pevely. He led the first 17 laps on Friday night, but suffered a mechanical failure and ended up with a DNF in 20th. He has three straight finishes outside the top ten, and four in 11 races this year. The tough run of races has seen him slide back to sixth in the standings.
Besides the full slate of Outlaws, we should have really good car counts for the two nights. The All Stars are off this weekend, and a number of their full timers are expected to race including Justin Peck, Tyler Courtney, Zeb Wise, Cory Eliason, Hunter Schuerenberg, Bill Balog, and Ian Madsen. A number of non-wing regulars should be in attendance as well with a wing on, including CJ Leary driving Alex Bowman's 55, Clinton Boyles, Paul Nienhiser, and Robert Ballou. Looking at win predictions for the weekend, even with his run of recent success, Sweet isn't favored tonight at Kokomo. The dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula actually likes Sheldon Haudenschild over Sweet. As we said earlier, Sheldon won at Kokomo last season and is on his own good run right now. With as well as Schatz ran at Kokomo last season, he could also be one to watch tonight. His winless streak is up to 18 races, and he's going to be hungry. As for tomorrow at Haubstadt, Brad Sweet is a big time favorite over Sheldon and Carson Macedo, with Sweet's win chances more than double his closest competitor. He's got four finishes of 6th or better in recent seasons there, and has been very good on 1/4 mile tracks with an average finish lately of 3.8 and three wins. If we are going to see an outsider win though, Haubstadt seems to be a good place for it. Two of the past four wins have come from outsiders, including Christopher Bell in 2019, and Carson Short last season. If you can't be at Kokomo tonight or Haubstadt tomorrow, watch live on DIRTVision.
After two months off following Florida, the USAC National Midgets are back this weekend for two nights at Port City Raceway in Oklahoma. The Brady and XiaXianna Bacon promoted T-Town Midget Showdown takes place tonight and tomorrow at the track recently purchased by Shane Stewart and Kevin Rudeen. A bunch of money is on the line, with Saturday's winner taking home over $7000. Tyler Courtney and Justin Grant split the wins at Port City in 2020, but only Grant is in the field this weekend. As of Tuesday, there were 42 cars on the pre-entry list and the field is stacked for the two night show. Buddy Kofoid and 2020 champion Chris Windom are tied atop the standings with the two Florida nights complete. Kofoid is the hottest driver with the series, with an average finish of 3.8 over his previous five starts. He's also won three of his last six USAC midget races, back to Arizona Speedway in November of 2020. Kofoid also recently became the first driver to ever win the first four POWRi midget races to start a season, with wins at Monarch Motor Speedway and I-44 Riverside Speedway. Tanner Thorson, Thomas Meseraull, and Daison Pursely round out the top five. Thorson will be in his new Reinbold-Underwood ride after recently switching over to that team from Dave Mac Motorsports. One driver we won't see at Port City this weekend is Kaylee Bryson. She's normally apart of the Keith Kunz Motorsports team, and is coming off a win last weekend in her pavement late model debut. The racing should be wide open all weekend, and I think there are probably easily six or eight guys who could win either night, including Kofoid, Windom, Thorson, TMez, Cannon McIntosh, Justin Grant, or even a guy like Daison Pursley. Logan Seavey and Kevin Thomas Jr. are also in the field. If you can't be at Port City, FloRacing has you covered with the live stream.
There is plenty of other open wheel racing happening this weekend as well. The ASCS National Tour is in action on Saturday at Boothill Speedway in Louisiana. JJ Hickle swept the opening weekend a few weeks ago at Devil's Bowl and will be looking to continue his hot streak. Matt Covington and Scott Bogucki also picked up top five finishes both nights that weekend. That race can be watched live on FloRacing and RacinBoys. More weekly tracks continue to be in action as well, with Attica, Port Royal, Williams Grove, Lincoln, Keller Auto Speedway, St Francois in Missouri, and BAPS all running 410s. There is also non-wing action at Bloomington, Kokomo with the Outlaws, Lawrenceburg, Lincoln Park, and more. To see the full weekend open wheel schedule, check out the calendar at tjslideways.com.
We had an interesting ride announcement yesterday with Kevin and Jordan Swindell announcing that Daryn Pittman will pilot the Swindell SpeedLab number 39 sprint car for their limited schedule this season. Pittman had hoped to step away from full time competition this season after departing the World of Outlaws, but the business opportunity he was hoping for never materialized. So we knew he was working on putting together some rides for the season. He's run in California a bit so far, including in 360 sprint car action. I know he also has some races planned with Jason Meyers out there. As for the SpeedLab ride, they've had several drivers in recent years drive that car, including Christopher Bell, Spencer Bayston, and Sammy Swindell. They even picked up an All Star win at Lincoln last season with Bayston driving. They have good stuff that is capable of winning, and I've got to think that Pittman's talent and experience will only elevate that program. According to a post from Speed Sport, the team plans on debuting at Eldora on May 7th with the rest of their schedule still TBD.
There are 18 shows on the streaming schedule for today. DIRTVision has four shows, the late models at Bristol, the sprint cars at Kokomo, and weekly racing from Attica and Williams Grove. FloRacing has the USAC midgets from Port City, weekly action from Ocean Speedway, King of the Highbanks from Marshalltown, and street stocks from Beachlands in New Zealand. There is also ASCS non-wing racing on RacinBoys, weekly racing from Humboldt on RacinDirt, MLRA late models on MAVTV Plus, and a bunch more on The Cushion and Speed Sport TV. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight. Stay tuned there through the weekend, as there are nearly 60 shows on the docket through the weekend.
That's it for the show today, hope everyone has a good Friday and a good weekend. If you have thoughts about the topics on today's show, leave them in the comments below or tweet at me.
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