DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
Dirt racing news, results, discussion, analytics. Sprint cars, late models, modifieds, you name it. From national series, to top local shows. Brought to you five days a week. Email the show at info@dirtrackr.com.
Chris Madden's title chances, Kasey Kahne joining Roth Motorsports | DIRTRACKR Daily 5/5/21
It is Wednesday, May 5th, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Today we recap list night's big block action at Bridgeport, there is news from Roth Motorsports and the IRA sprint car series, and then we take a look at the World of Outlaws Late Model Series points battle and weigh in on Chris Madden's chances. Let's jump in.
The Super DIRTcar Series was in action last night at Bridgeport Motorsports Park in New Jersey for the King of the Big Blocks. Stewart Friesen entered the night on the strength of three straight series wins, and he led the points standings over Mike Mahaney. Following the night's feature redraw, Jimmy Phelps and Larry Wight led the field to green from the front row. Phelps led the early going, but behind him Tim Fuller was on the move early and often from his 13th starting spot, getting into the top five within a matter of a few laps of the start. Phelps lost the lead to fifth starting Max McLaughlin on a restart with 66 laps to go, and Mad Max wound up leading the second most laps on the night. He didn't lead the most because Fuller was coming. By lap 58, Fuller had moved past McLaughlin and that was all she wrote. Fuller drove away to the $10,000 win, managing his tires like the seasoned veteran he is, and punching his ticket into the feature at Super DIRT Week. Stewart Friesen finished second, McLaughlin third, Peter Britten drove up from 20th to finish fourth, and Jimmy Phelps was fifth. Leaving the night, Friesen extended his points lead over Mahaney, with McLaughlin third, Matt Sheppard fourth, and Tim Sears Jr. fifth. The big blocks are back in action on May 30th at Weedsport Speedway.
With one race complete on the season, the NARC/King of the West Sprint Cars will be back in action on Saturday, May 15th at Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, California for the Peter Murphy Classic. And when they do, former NASCAR driver and World of Outlaws team owner Kasey Kahne will be in the field. The series announced yesterday that Kahne will pilot the 83 for Roth Motorsports in the event. Kahne has driven for Roth in the past, including picking up a Dirt Cup win together at Skagit Speedway in the early 2000s. This won't be Kahne's first appearance in a 410 this season, as he filled the seat for driver James McFadden through the opening World of Outlaws stretch until McFadden could travel from Australia to begin his rookie Outlaw run. In six starts, Kahne had four top tens, including a fifth on March 12th at Magnolia Motor Speedway. DJ Netto currently leads the King of the West points standings following his win in the season opener at the Stockton Dirt Track. For more info on the series, visit narc410.com.
When fans head to Wisconsin later this summer to see the NASCAR Cup Series on the road course at Road America, they will also have the chance to check out some 410 sprint cars that weekend. Road America announced yesterday they have partnered with nearby Plymouth Dirt Track to host the IRA Sprint Car Series on Thursday, July 1st in conjuction with the NASCAR weekend. Plymouth Dirt Track is only five miles from the historic 4 mile road course, and the partnership adds to an already busy few days of racing. Scotty Thiel currently leads the IRA points standings over a talented field of regulars, and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a few big additions to the show that night. The release mentioned Chase Briscoe adding himself to the night's entry list. To grab some tickets for the night, hit up the ticket section of market.myracepass.com.
The 2021 dirt late model season has been wild to this point, with both national series championships completely wide open. We've talked a bit on this show about what's possible for Lucas, with Tim McCreadie currently leading Hudson O'Neal, and Jonathan Davenport's rise to third. We've also talked about the unusual season we are seeing from the normally dominant Brandon Sheppard with the World of Outlaws. Sheppard has now officially led laps with the Outlaws, but still doesn't have an official win through 15 races. His best finish of the year happened on Friday night at Boone Speedway in the first Twin Hawk feature where he ended up second to Cade Dillard after leading most of the race. With the struggles for early points leader Kyle Strickler, and guys like Cade Dillard and Ricky Weiss down the order, Sheppard's five top fives and ten top tens are good enough to see him lead the series points standings currently. But it's almost inexplicable to think a driver could be leading a national tour championship chase 15 races into a season and not have a win. Sheppard has been better as of late, with two podiums at Boone and recent top five runs at both Bristol and Farmer City. But his championship lead seems tenous at best, especially with Chris Madden hot on his heels. I bring all of this up, because this feels like the best opportunity somebody like Madden has had to win the Outlaw championship in several years. Sheppard absolutely dominated the series in both 2020 and 2019, was just barely beat out by Mike Marlar in 2018, and was the champion in 2017, a season in which he also dominated. But with his lack of wins so far, and his nightly struggles to get podiums and top fives, the door is wide open. Madden hasn't run full time with the Outlaws since 2018, a season in which he racked up eight wins and eventually finished third behind Marlar and Sheppard. He was also full time in 2017, where he had a front row seat to Sheppard's 18 wins and 37 top fives in 43 races, ending up second to Sheppard for the title at year's end. We know Madden is capable of the wins and the consistency necessary to win an Outlaw title, and there has to be some little bit of motivation there knowing he's trailed the Rocket 1 so many times in the past. Combine that with the lack of speed from BShepp and we just might be in for a dog fight. Madden didn't have a great start to the Outlaw season, ending his night in B Mains during two of the first three nights at Volusia, but things turned around on February 11th. An eighth place run that night kicked off a stretch where Madden has finished top ten in 10 of 12 races, including a win at Smoky Mountain and second place finishes at Bristol and Richmond. Following the win at Smoky Mountain, Madden officially declared as a full time driver and he's been on the hunt for the lead since. Leaving Boone last weekend, Madden did give up 10 points to Sheppard, with the gap currently sitting at 56, but that isn't a big lead by any stretch. With the Outlaw points breakdown, that's only about 28 positions separating the two. It's a gap that could easily be erased in a few races, or if bad luck were to strike. When the season started I thought we might see somebody take a step and bring the fight to the Rocket house car, I just don't think we expected it to be Chris Madden. No matter who it is though, it looks like things are just starting to get good. We'll have more on the upcoming Outlaw shows in Wisconsin later in the week.
There are a bunch of new podcast episodes this week if you are looking for other dirt racing audio. Winged Nation has shows with Brent Marks, and Brad Sweet and Sam Hafertepe Jr. Open Red has two episodes featuring World of Outlaws Series Director Carlton Reimers. Loudpedal has Logan Wagner, Stick Signals has Ryan Gustin, The Rigsby Report has Cody Sommer, SuaveTalk has Devin Moran, Forward Bite has Cla Knight, the Dirt from Knoxville has Nate Mills, Ohio Dirt has Tyler Courtney, Passing Points has Daryn Pittman, Midwest Autosports has Carson Short and there is a new episode of the Dirt Nerds. To see the full list of shows and episodes, visit dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
The streaming schedule has three shows on it today. DIRTVision has DIRTcar eSports action from Cedar Lake Speedway which you can watch for free. FloRacing has Flo 24/7 and California IMCA Speedweek continues at Antioch Speedway with modifieds, sportmods, and stock cars. 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.
You can find DIRTRACKR Daily where you get podcasts, plus YouTube and Facebook. If you like what I'm doing, please subscribe and leave a review.
You can email the show at info@dirtrackr.com. I do check those every day.
You can follow dirtrackr on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and tiktok. at D I R T R A C K R
And you can checkout the website for all kinds of cool dirt racing stuff by visiting dirtrackr.com.
Thanks for tuning in, I'll see you tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!