DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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All Stars debut at Circle City, Bloomquist joins Tony Stewart's SRX | DIRTRACKR Daily 5/20/21
It is Thursday, May 20th, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
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Today on the show we get you ready for the All Stars debut at Circle City Raceway, have a bunch of Silver Crown ride announcements, and more. Let's jump in.
The All Star Circuit of Champions kick off a busy four race weekend tonight, and we get to see the debut of the new Circle City Raceway just outside Indianapolis. If you don't know the story of Circle City Raceway, jump back to the conversations episode I did with track General Manager Jonathan Byrd back in December of 2020. The 1/4 mile track has been built at the Marion County Fairgrounds and is southeast of downtown Indianapolis. Their debut season starts tonight with the All Stars, and includes appearances by the World of Outlaws Late Models, USAC, ASCS, Summer Nationals, and more throughout 2021. The All Stars will be at Circle City tonight and tomorrow night, before heading to Gas City I-69 on Saturday and Kokomo on Sunday. The four race swing has been dubbed the Indiana Invasion, and features two $6000 to win shows, one $10,000 to win show, and Sunday's Rayce Rudeen Foundation finale paying $26,000 to win. There is also a $26,000 points fund on the line for the next four nights as well. Ian Madsen enters tonight as the series points leader thanks to his recent consistency. He's had seven straight finishes of 8th or better and leads all full time drivers in average finish in 2021. He's yet to score a win in the Sam McGhee number 11, but he does lead all drivers in top five and top ten finishes. Behind him, Tyler Courtney has moved into second on the strength of three straight top two results, including his first series win last Friday night at I-96. A 17th at Tri City nearly three weeks ago, and a 24th at Joliet last weekend have pushed Justin Peck down to third after he'd led the points standings early on. Zeb Wise and Hunter Schuerenberg complete the top five. Looking at some predictions for tonight, it's hard to get a solid idea on who we should be watching. There are obviously no previous appearances by the series here, and Aaron Reutzel leads the All Stars in recent seasons in average finish on 1/4 mile tracks. Reutzel is off on his rookie run with the Outlaws, so we need to look elsewhere. We also haven't had any 1/4 mile tracks on the schedule so far in 2021, so that leaves us with past 1/4 mile races and recent results this season. The prediction formula has Ian Madsen by a wide margin over Tyler Courtney, but that is going to be solely based on results this season. I'd look at Justin Peck to see if he can rebound, we also know that Kerry Madsen will be in attendance back in the TSR 14, and Gio Scelzi and Rico Abreu are racing through the weekend with the All Stars. Any one of those could win tonight. And right before recording this episode, Jeremy Elliott posted that Zach Hampton will be in attendance, partnering up with Mark Coldren, who recently parted ways with Lucas Wolfe. The equipment will be Hampton's, but will sport Coldren's number 07. If things go well this weekend, the partnership could continue. Joining the All Stars tonight on the card are the All Star TQ midgets. If you can't be at Circle City tonight, watch all the action live on FloRacing.
We had a trio of Silver Crown driver announcements yesterday for the upcoming season opener at Terre Haute. First, Robert Ballou will jump behind the wheel of the Bill Rose Racing number 66 next Thursday night. It will be his first Silver Crown appearance in nearly four years. Ballou is currently fourth in the USAC national sprint car points standings and is coming off a win at Eldora a few weeks ago during the Let's Race Two weekend. He seems rejuvenated this season after his recovery from recent injuries, and has been fast. Ballou has 13 career Silver Crown starts. Bill Rose has 59 career appearances in the Silver Crown Series as a driver and car owner.
Joining Ballou at Terre Haute will be Tyler Courtney behind the wheel of Chris Dyson's number 9 with Sean Michael turning the wrenches. Courtney couldn't commit to a full Silver Crown season because of his foray into full time winged sprint car competition, so he's piecing together rides when he's free. Dyson and Michael had hoped to run the dirt events with Buddy Kofoid, but Kofoid's other commitments have limited his availability. Courtney will certainly be a threat for the win, as he has two past Silver Crown wins on his resume, and crew chief Michael won with Kyle Larson last season twice fielding his own car. Courtney joined Ballou as the other USAC sprint car winner at Eldora a few weeks ago, and Sunshine is coming off his first career All Star Circuit of Champions win last Friday night at I-96 Speedway.
The third driver that's picked up a ride at Terre Haute is California's Chase Johnson. He'll make his series debut behind the wheel of the Goodnight Racing 17, which was piloted by Chris Windom in 2020. Johnson is a sprint car and midget competitor on the west coast, having won with the USAC west coast sprint cars, Western States midgets, and most recently with the USAC CRA sprint car series. He also has plenty of experience with a wing on as well. While Johnson will be a rookie in the Crown car, he does have past experience at Terre Haute, in both a USAC national sprint car and an MSCS event. The Sumar Classic at Terre Haute also features DIRTcar Modifieds, and if you can't be there, watch the action live on FloRacing on May 27th.
Tony Stewart and Ray Evernham's SRX series announced a few more drivers yesterday that will appear through their first season, and a little more dirt flavor has been added. Besides past names like Kody Swanson, Bobby Santos, and Brian Brown being added, we know that Scott Bloomquist will join the new venture when they head to Knoxville Raceway on June 19th. Bloomquist has pulled back to a pick and choose schedule with his late model after starting the season full time with the World of Outlaws. If you don't know, the SRX will race six times in 2021, with races live on CBS and will feature an All Star group of full timers which includes names like Tony Stewart, Bill Elliott, Helio Castroneves, and more. They will race on a wide variety of tracks, including on the dirt at Knoxville and Eldora. It's sort of a new school IROC series, with the cars, which sort of resemble stock cars, being designed by Evernham. For more on the SRX, visit srxracing.com.
There are four shows on the streaming schedule for today. The All Stars are at Circle City Raceway live on FloRacing, and there is IMCA action from Kossuth County and WISSOTA racing from Grand Rapids. 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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