DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Dirt racing on hold for Christopher Bell, Outlaws head to Jacksonville | DIRTRACKR Daily 4/29/21
It is Thursday, April 29th, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Today we'll get you primed up for the World of Outlaws at Jacksonville, and then we've got news from Darrell Lanigan, Christopher Bell, and Eldora Speedway. Let's jump in.
Even though they had overnight rain, Jacksonville Speedway will be in action tonight with the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series. They tweeted out this morning that the day is going ahead as planned, and it looks like it will be a nice day for racing with temperatures getting into the 70s today. There have been three previous visits by the Outlaws to Jacksonville, with Christopher Bell, Joey Saldana, and Carson Macedo taking the three wins. This will be the Outlaws' first trip to the Illinois bullring since 2019. Tonight's show leads into a double header weekend at I-70 Motorsports Park in Missouri, which will be the series first appearance there in 35 years. Coming off the big Bristol weekend, Brad Sweet leads the points standings by 60 over David Gravel, with Carson Macedo, Sheldon Haudenschild, and Aaron Reutzel completing the top five. We've had seven different winners in 15 races so far, with Sweet leading the way with five victories. Gravel, Macedo, and Sheldon all have multiple wins, while Reutzel, Logan Schuchart, and James McFadden all have one win apiece. With the moisture overnight, Jacksonville will be fast tonight, which will be fun to watch, especially in qualifying. The track is a tight 1/4 mile bullring and sub 10 second laps will be possible. The last time the Outlaws raced there in 2019, Sheldon took quick time at 10.115 seconds. Carson Macedo enters tonight as the hottest series driver, with an average finish of 4.8 in his previous five races, will David Gravel is coming off that weekend sweep. Looking at a win prediction for tonight, the dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula has almost a near tossup between Brad Sweet and Carson Macedo. Sweet leads all drivers in recent seasons in average finish on 1/4 mile tracks at 3.9, while Macedo has the most 1/4 mile wins with 4. Both drivers being from California, they aren't strangers to tight, fast bullrings. If you can't be at Jacksonville tonight, DIRTVision will have live streaming coverage starting at 6:45 PM ET.
Last week we found out that Darrell Lanigan and his Viper Motorsports team had parted ways and that both parties were falling off the Outlaw tour, but that isn't going to stop the hall of famer. He ran last weekend at Richmond in a second car for Boom Briggs, and he's heading to Florence Speedway on Saturday for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series race. In a post at DirtonDirt.com yesterday from Kevin Kovac, it was revealed that Lanigan will run a special event, pick and choose schedule going forward and is partnering with Mississippi's Randy Thompson for a car and equipment. Lanigan has driven for Thompson before, and the car Thompson has is a Club 29 chassis built by Lanigan. Beyond this weekend, Lanigan told Kovac he's targeting the big events at Eldora, some World of Outlaws shows, and the Firecracker 100 at Eldora Speedway. Even though he's off the tour, Lanigan currently sits eighth in the Outlaw standings with one top five and four top tens in 12 starts in 2021. He only has two wins in his previous 92 races with his last win coming at Red River Valley Speedway in July of 2020. Besides Florence on Saturday, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series is also in action tomorrow at Ponderosa Speedway. We'll have more on the Lucas weekend tomorrow.
We've talked a lot in recent years about drivers crossing over from other disciplines to run dirt races, but one we won't see at a dirt track any time soon is Christopher Bell. He confirmed on a Toyota Racing video conference yesterday that he has sold his number 21 sprint car that he's campaigned in recent seasons and that his dirt racing is on hold as he focuses on full time NASCAR Cup Series competition with Joe Gibbs Racing. If you don't remember, Bell put together the sprint car a few years ago with Chad Boat to mess with when he had time, and it was a neat looking car featuring his traditional number 21, with backing from Mobil 1, TRD, and JBL. Bell did say that when he does return to the dirt track, he'd like to again partner up with Kevin and Jordan Swindell and their Swindell SpeedLab 39 machine, which is a car and a team Bell has competed with before. I had heard rumors about Bell not running dirt races this season and that his sprint car might have been sold. It's not a surprising move, as Bell is in his first season driving the number 20 for JGR and with an early season win at the Daytona road course is in the thick of the NASCAR championship chase. Bell has been a big focus for Toyota's driver development pipeline and has been invested heavily in by TRD and Gibbs, which is great as he is super talented, but there is pressure and expectations that come along with that, and I don't blame CBell one bit for wanting to focus his attention. The kid loves dirt racing, so I'm sure we'll see him again at the dirt track and events like the Chili Bowl.
Eldora Speedway made the move last night and put tickets on sale for the upcoming Let's Race Two weekend featuring the World of Outlaws and USAC sprint cars. All seating for the events will be reserved, and capacity is capped at 30%. Besides tickets, Eldora also has some camping sites and suites available for the two day show as well. Going forward, the track is hoping that the restrictions in Ohio continue to ease, so they are going to stagger on sale dates for upcoming events in hopes the situation continues to improve. Make sure to stay tuned to the track's website and social media for future news on their other 2021 events, including the two Dreams, two Kings Royals, and two World 100s. You can purchase tickets now at EldoraSpeedway.com.
Also yesterday, we found out that the two USAC shows at Eldora that weekend will pay $10,000 to the winners, which adds to the races with increased purses for the year. The Bubba finale was supposed to pay $10k to win, the four Pennsylvania shows last weekend payed $6000 to win, the upcoming Corn Belt Clash at Knoxville will pay $20k to the winner as will the USAC Nationals at Huset's. The Smackdown finale at Kokomo will pay $15k, and the Haubstadt Hustler will pay $12k to win. So some very nice money is on the line this season for the USAC National Sprint Car competitors. The two Eldora races are the next events on the schedule for that series.
The ASCS Warrior Region was supposed to be in action tonight at Lakeside Speedway live on RacinBoys, but heavy rain on Wednesday left the facility too soggy to race today, so the event has been cancelled. The Warrior Region is back in action May 21st at Tri-City Speedway. Ryan Timms currently leads the Warrior Region points after winning two of the first three races. For more info, visit ascsracing.com.
Later today I'm going to drop a bonus episode of Conversations in advance of tonight's and this weekend's World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series events. I talked to series regular Carson Macedo yesterday about his experience racing at Bristol, his Outlaw season with Jason Johnson Racing so far, and a bunch more. It's a solid about 30 minute chat to get you pumped up for the sprint car weekend. Check it out later in the podcast feed and on the DIRTRACKR YouTube channel.
There are two items on the streaming schedule for today. The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series is live on DIRTVision from Jacksonville Speedway and FloRacing 24/7 is going on all day. 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 Thursday. 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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