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Dave Blaney gets first Outlaw win since 97, Sheldon Haudenschild thoughts | DIRTRACKR Daily 5/24/21
It is Monday, May 24th, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
A bunch of the national series were in action this weekend and we'll get you updated on what went down, plus I have some thoughts on Sheldon Haudenschild. Let's jump in.
It was a wild World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series weekend, and if you haven't watched the features, definitely go check them out. As good as he was, we probably should have seen a complete sweep for Sheldon Haudenschild, but on both Friday and Saturday night he had issues late in the going which led to others getting the wins. On Friday night at Attica, coming to two to go, Sheldon had a big lead but tangled with the lap car of DJ Foos, who had a left rear wheel come off. Both drivers were unable to finish the race, and the issues for Haudenschild handed the lead to David Gravel who held off Donny Schatz on a green white checkered finish to get his fourth win of 2020. Brent Marks went fourth to the win in the B-Main, and drove up from 19th to finish third in the feature, Carson Macedo and Brad Sweet rounded out the top five. And Saturday night at Sharon Speedway, Sheldon had another massive lead, lapping into the top ten, but a late caution for a flat for Aaron Reutzel re-racked the field. On the restart, the veteran Dave Blaney was on Sheldon's tailtank, and on the white flag lap, Sheldon made a mistake on the top which allowed Blaney to sneak by on the bottom and grab the win. It was Blaney's first Outlaw win since Southern New Mexico Speedway on October 21st, 1997. A span of nearly 24 years. Sheldon finished second, Carson Macedo third, David Gravel fourth, and Brad Sweet was fifth. We've seen things like this happen to Sheldon so many times in the past, that it feels like we almost expect it now. If Sheldon is leading late, the chances that he wins seem almost seem even with the chances that something crazy happens and he doesn't win. The Friday night deal with Foos was just complete bad luck. The wheel came off Foos' car right in front of Sheldon, and he had nowhere to go to avoid the spinning number 16. Saturday at Sharon, Sheldon was playing with fire the entire race. The cushion was basically the outside wall, and a bunch of times through the 35 lap main event Sheldon made contact with it, sometimes harder than others. The only time it really bit him though was on the white flag lap. He hit it hard enough to kill his momentum, and that was all Blaney needed. The aggressive nature of his driving style, and the ferocity with which he attacks the race track is why he's so fun to watch, but it's also his downfall in many situations. Sometimes he's going to win spectacularly like he did at Pevely in 2019 where he lapped up to fifth place and beat Donny by more than 10 seconds. And other times he's going to hit the wall late and get passed by Dave Blaney. The question is, does Sheldon learn how to tame the beast as he gets older and find a way to win a championship? Or does he continue to drive like he does now, winning and losing spectacularly along the way, and maybe never win a title? This question is why we watch.
Leaving the Ohio weekend, Sweet's points lead has eroded just a little bit more. The Big Cat picked up two fifth place runs, but he was topped both nights by his nearest rivals in Gravel and Macedo. Gravel won Friday and was fourth Saturday, and Macedo was fourth Friday and third Saturday. So headed to Terre Haute Sweet leads Gravel by 56 points, and Macedo by 86, with Donny Schatz now fourth and Sheldon Haudenschild fifth. Two finishes outside the top 15 have seen Aaron Reutzel tumble from fourth to sixth. The Outlaws are back in action on Friday night.
I said back on Friday that if Chris Madden was going to keep pace with the Rocket team and Brandon Sheppard for the World of Outlaws Late Model Series championship, he'd have to find a way to run well over the weekend at Port Royal, and he did that and more. Friday night was a complete sweep of the night for Smokey and his 44 team. They were fast time in qualifying, won their heat, sat on the pole, and led all 40 laps en route to the win. Brandon Overton was second, BShepp third, Rick Eckert fourth, and Tyler Bruening was strong again, finishing fifth. Kyle Strickler was 21st in his first outing in a Bloomquist car. Things for Madden went well again on Saturday night, with him going quick time and grabbing the heat race win. The only difference was the redraw. Madden started second next to Brandon Overton, and Overton used the pole to seize the early lead. Later, past half way, Overton got held up in lap traffic and Madden capitalized on the opportunity, sliding by Overton to take the lead in turns one and two. Overton tried to fight the 44, but ended up half spun in turn three causing a caution. From that point, Madden was able to drive away to the weekend sweep, leading the final 22 laps. Rick Eckert, Dan Stone, Overton, and Ryan Gustin completed the top five. A 14th place finish for Sheppard on Saturday night allowed Madden to close even more, and the gap between the top two is now 26 points with 19 races complete. Those two have separated themselves from the rest of the field, and the championship battle we were hoping for is materializing. Madden's three race win streak is the longest such streak we've seen since BShepp won four in a row in July of 2020. The fight continues June 4th and 5th when the Outlaws head to Circle City and Plymouth.
Because of weather we didn't get both Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series shows in this weekend, but we did get to see them Friday night at 300 Raceway. Kyle Bronson dominated the feature leading 47 laps, but under a late caution he suffered a flat tire and was forced to fix it. That handed the lead to Mike Marlar who drove away over the final three laps to grab his first win of the year. Tyler Erb, Bronson, Tim McCreadie, and Ricky Thornton Jr. were the rest of the top five. It was a wild race that had a ton of cautions and only seven cars were running at the end of the feature because of rough track conditions. Also, Chad Simpson and Bobby Pierce were penalized post race for not meeting weight requirements. They crossed the line third and fourth, but were scored 22nd and 23rd for the rules infractions. There was no change among the top three in the standings, but McCreadie did grow his lead over O'Neal to now 65 points. Davenport is 165 points back after he dropped out early and finished 11th. Saturday's show at 34 Raceway was lost to rain, but the event will be made up on July 15th. A big week is on tap for Lucas now, with the 29th annual Show Me 100 coming up on Saturday night. Thursday and Friday at Lucas Oil Speedway pay $6000 to win each, while Saturday's main event is $30 grand to win. With the Outlaws off, we should have a very stout field of drivers. We'll have more on that later in the week.
Over to the All Star Circuit of Champions, we've seen a shakeup at the top of their points standings following four races in Indiana. Ian Madsen had gone eight straight races finishing in the top ten, and that carried him to the top of the points chase with the recent issues for Justin Peck. But after the four Indiana nights, Tyler Courtney has jumped to the lead, with Peck second and Madsen back to third. After dominating Thursday night at Circle City in the track's debut, Courtney came back on Friday night and won again, battling Rico Abreu near the mid point of the feature, but eventually leading the final 16 laps en route to the $10,000 win. Abreu was second, Hunter Schuerenberg was third, Scotty Thiel fourth, and Zeb Wise finished fifth. Saturday night at Gas City turned into a fun battle between Cap Henry and Rico Abreu, with Henry eventually coming out on top to grab his first All Star win of 2021. Abreu was second, Bill Balog third, Kerry Madsen fourth, and Justin Peck was fifth. Courtney was the night's hard charger, driving up from 17th to finish 8th. On Sunday night for the weekend finale at Kokomo Speedway, $26,000 was on the line for the winner as part of the Rayce Rudeen Foundation race. We saw a wild 40 lap race that included multiple cautions, an open red for fence repair, and no less than seven official lead changes between Tyler Courtney, Brady Bacon, Kerry Madsen and Zeb Wise. Just before half way Bacon was leading under caution, but throttle linkage issues caused him to spin during the yellow which is something you don't normally see. He was forced to the work area and later finished 16th. That handed the lead to Kerry Madsen who was then challenged by seventh starting Zeb Wise. Those two battled hard for the next 15 laps, but things went sideways for Madsen on lap 35. The lap car of Cap Henry had issues into turn one and Madsen was collected, with the 14 ending up turned over and out of the race. It was heartbreak for Madsen who looked to be in control. Over the final six laps, Zeb Wise drove away from the field to collect the $26 grand and his first ever All Star win. Courtney was second, Abreu third, Cole Macedo went 22nd to 4th, and Scott Thiel was fifth. Weekend finishes of 10th, 16th, 17th, and 24th are why Ian Madsen has dropped down the order. On the other side, it looks like we've seen the switch flip for two drivers. Since finishing 14th at Sharon, Tyler Courtney has finishes of 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 1st, 1st, 8th, and second. He now leads Justin Peck by 44 points with Pennsylvania coming up this weekend. The other driver that's come alive recently is Hunter Schuerenberg. He's finished 8th or better in seven of his last eight starts and he trails only Courtney in recent average finish. Williams Grove and Port Royal are next on the docket for the All Stars.
Other weekend open wheel winners included Lance Dewease getting win 100 at Williams Grove on Friday night, Buddy Kofoid was a POWRi midget winner at Charleston, Justin Sanders stayed winning in California with a 360 victory at Ocean on Friday and the King of the West win on Saturday at Petaluma. Brian Brown won a pair of Knoxville features on Saturday night, and set a new 410 track record. Logan Seavey was a non-wing winner at Lincoln Park and Kokomo, Chase Dietz won at Lincoln, Mike Wagner at Port Royal, and Justin Henderson won the Sunday show at Huset's. For more, visit tjslideways.com.
In other weekend late model action, Brian Shirley swept the MARS weekend between Kankakee and Shadyhill, Ross Bailes won at Modoc, Devin Gilpin was an Iron Man winner at Lake Cumberland, Ashton Winger won at Senoia in Southern All Star action, Max Blair took the ULMS show at Wayne County, and Josh Rice was the winner at Florence. For more from the late model weekend, check out dirtondirt.com.
There is one item on the streaming schedule today. It is FloRacing 24/7. To see the full daily streaming schedule, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, hope everyone has a good Monday. 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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