DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Wild Stat Wednesday, Friesen takes Short Track Super Series win | DIRTRACKR Daily 4/28/21
It is Wednesday, April 28th, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Today on the show we've got results from last night's Short Track Super Series race at Delaware International, we dive into a bunch of wild and random dirt racing stats, there are new podcast episodes and more, so let's jump in.
We had some rare Tuesday night racing last night as the Short Track Super Series modifieds took on Delaware International Speedway for 50 laps and $5500 to win. Anthony Perrego sat on the pole, but Matt Sheppard rolled the top side to grab the lead at the start. Behind him, Mike Mahaney, Perrego, Billy Pauch Jr. and others battled it out. Sheppard led most of the race, and by a wide margin at times. But a caution with 12 to go for a slowing Ryan Riddle bunched the field back up and gave Stewart Friesen the opportunity he needed. He restarted third, was quickly past Perrego for second, and on the heels of Sheppard for the lead. Friesen, who started ninth, finally worked past Sheppard down the backstretch with eight laps to go, and he drove away to the win. Sheppard finished second, Mike Mahaney third, Perrego fourth, and Craig Von Dohren was fifth. The Short Track Super Series South Region now goes quiet until May 25th at New Egypt. The North Region is back in action on May 11th at Accord Speedway.
As you'll know if you are a regular listener or watcher of this show, I spend a lot of time digging through the numbers in the analytics section of dirtrackr.com. I feel like it helps me better understand what's happening on track when I have a grasp on the stats for each driver and series. Every race season is certainly unique, with different storylines and different paths for how things play out. There hasn't been a lack of topics in 2021 for sure, and along the way I've run into some wild and weird stats. Today I'm going to throw a bunch of them at you to ponder as you work, drive around, or hang out on this Wednesday.
First up are a couple for World of Outlaws points leader Brad Sweet. Through 15 Outlaw nights so far this season, Brad Sweet only has one heat race win. In the previous two seasons, Sweet has won a little more than 31% of the heats he's appeared in, so we would have expected him to have won four or five at this point. He has finished second six times, so that's equated to seven dash appearances, but even that is off his 2020 pace. It hasn't mattered though, as he's outpacing both 2020 and 2019 in terms of wins, with five already. Also for Sweet, since finishing 24th at Knoxville back on August 13th of 2020, Sweet hasn't finished worse than 11th in 39 races. He has 28 top five finishes in that stretch as well.
This opening 11 race stretch for the World of Outlaws Late Models has felt very weird with Brandon Sheppard not running how we expect, and the full time Outlaws in general just having a difficult go of it. I mentioned before that Kyle Strickler and Chris Madden are the only two full timers with a win this season. When you look at the stats, they show how weird things have been. Bobby Pierce currently leads all drivers with the most laps led at 86. And he's done it in only six appearances with the Outlaws. 72 of those laps for Pierce came in his Illini 100 win at Farmer City on April 3rd. What's even crazier, is that along with no wins so far, Brandon Sheppard hasn't actually officially led a single lap with the Outlaws. He has the feature win at Cherokee, but that was an unofficial split field win, and he only led the final two laps. Sheppard led 452 laps in 40 races in 2020, and an incredible 713 in 41 races in 2019.
Through 10 All Star Circuit of Champions races so far this season, Donny Schatz is the only driver with multiple wins, and he's not a full timer with the series. We also haven't had a repeat hard charger yet, with Kyle Reinhardt, Brent Marks, Anthony Macri, Lucas Wolfe, Aaron Reutzel, Donny Schatz, Kerry Madsen, Logan Schuchart, Gio Scelzi, and DJ Foos all having one apiece.
Across the main national series in 2021, it hasn't paid to start on the pole. Between Lucas, the two Outlaw series, the All Stars, and the USAC sprint cars and midgets, there have been 61 races this season, and only seven winners have come from the pole. Lucas, the Outlaw late models, and USAC midgets have one each, and the USAC sprint cars haven't had a winner from the pole yet.
In 2020, Jimmy Owens went one stretch where he had 15 top five finishes in 16 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series races, which included six wins. Since Brownstown in September of 2020 though, a stretch of, you guessed it, 16 races, Owens has just two top fives. One at All Tech in the 2021 opener, and one at Bubba on February 2nd.
Timmy Buckwalter has gone quick time overall or quick time in his group three times this season, which is just one less time than the entire top five in USAC sprint car points combined.
And finally today, defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott has more USAC midget heat race wins in 2021 than current series points leader Buddy Kofoid. If you'd like to see and find more weird and wild numbers, visit dirtrackr.com/analytics.
If you're in the market for more dirt racing podcasts this week, there are a bunch to check out. Open Red has Matt Yocum, LoudPedal has Hunter Schuerenberg, there's another new episode of Dirt on Dirt's Dirt Reporters, the Dirt Nerds are talking Bristol, Forward Bite has Lenny Batycki and Ben Watkins, the Dirt from Knoxville has Austin McCarl, Passing Points has Jarrett Martin, Midwest Autosports has Blake Nimee, Track Talk has Jack Lehner, Addison Bowman, and Mandee Pauch, and there are new episodes of Quicktime and Wednesdays with Wayne. To see the full list of podcast shows and episodes, visit dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
And speaking of podcasts, I dropped a new conversations episode yesterday. This one features USAC National Sprint Car rookie Paul Nienhiser. Paul has been a winged sprint car guy since he was 15, but this year got an opportunity with KO Motorsports to go racing with USAC and jumped on it. We talked about his transition, leaning on teammate Chase Stockon, the World of Outlaws upcoming trip to Jacksonville where he is very familiar, and a lot more. I even asked him about dirt racing championships... You can find that episode in the podcast feed or youtube.com/dirtrackr.
Thanks to everyone that chimed in yesterday about dirt racing championships and whether they matter to you or not. If you haven't watched or listened to yesterday's show, jump over, check it out, and let me know your thoughts. It's an interesting topic to think about for sure.
The only thing on the streaming schedule for today is FloRacing 24/7. 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 Wednesday. 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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Thanks for tuning in, I'll see you tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!