DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Larson vs. Davenport vs. Sheppard, other weekend sprint car observations | DIRTRACKR Daily 5/25/21

It is Tuesday, May 25th, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.

Today on the show we'll look at tonight's racing between the Flo Late Models and Short Track Super Series and talk about who you'll see and what to watch for. I also jumped into some other racing I missed this weekend and have some thoughts. Let's jump in.

Strap in, because starting today, there is dirt racing to watch somewhere in the country every day this week. First up, the FloRacing Night in America Late Model Series is back in action tonight after a two week break. The series was supposed to race last Wednesday at Marshalltown, but that event was rained out. Three races have been completed so far of 10, and we've had three different winners. Jonathan Davenport won the opener at Tyler County, Devin Moran won the second race at Atomic, and Kyle Larson is the most recent winner back on May 12th at Brownstown. Davenport currently leads the points standings over Moran, Tyler Erb, Mike Marlar, and Hudson O'Neal and Larson are in a tie for fifth. Tonight the series heads to Tri-City Speedway in Illinois for what will be round number four. Tri-City is a 3/8 mile track that hosts a lot of late model racing through the season, and is a regular stop for series like the Summer Nationals, Lucas, MARS, and we had an MLRA weekend there in 2020 as well. Recent late model winners at the track include Billy Moyer and Mason Oberkramer during that MLRA weekend, Tyler Erb was the Lucas winner in July of 2020, and Bobby Pierce won the Summer Nationals show last season. As for who we might see tonight, you can expect that Davenport and Moran will be in attendance, along with Trevor and Gordy Gundaker, Hudson O'Neal, Boom Briggs, Mike Marlar, Brandon Sheppard will be in his own B5, and Kyle Larson is back behind the wheel of the Rumley 6. And since we are in their backyard, we should see names like Shannon Babb, Bobby Pierce, and Frank Heckenast Jr. The one driver I'm a little surprised I haven't heard of being there is Tyler Erb. Tri-City has been a good track to him in recent years, and he's currently third in points. But remember a driver only has to race seven of ten nights to be eligible for the championship. We've seen some great racing from this series through the first three nights, and I wouldn't expect anything different tonight on a racy Illinois dirt track. If you can't attend, watch live on FloRacing.

If you're looking for a little modified fix tonight, the Short Track Super Series continues their run of Tuesday night races, with the south region in action at New Egypt Speedway for $5000 to win. Mike Mahaney currently leads the south region points after four events, and there have been different winners in each race so far this season. Matt Sheppard won at Georgetown, Andy Bachetti at Selinsgrove, Mat Williamson at Port Royal, and Stewart Friesen won on April 27th at Delaware. Other drivers expected to race tonight include Tyler Dippel, Max McLaughlin, Anthony Perrego, Billy Pauch Jr., Ryan Godown, and Dominick Buffalino. Sportsman and 4 cylinders join the modifieds on the card for tonight, with hot laps starting at 6PM ET and racing at 7. If you aren't nearby, watch the action live also on FloRacing.

I don't know about you, but I try and watch as much dirt racing each week as I can find time for. The big problem for me is that I work the weekends with my NASCAR job, so watching live dirt racing most weeks isn't really an option. The on demand option for watching races has been game changing I think. It's the main reason why the Monday episodes of the show don't usually get posted until the afternoon, because I spend the morning watching all the stuff I missed on Saturday and Sunday. I watch the races from all the big national and regional series, and fill in with any smaller stuff that looks interesting. The other great thing about the on demand stuff is that I can fast forward through anything I don't want to watch. This morning I jumped back in and got caught up on some of the sprint car stuff I missed from the weekend, including some of the California shows and the FAST series race at West Virginia. The revamped West Virginia Motor Speedway is a wild joint. It's a 5/8, but it feels like a very big 5/8. The sprint cars were hauling the mail around that place on Saturday night. What was really neat about that race is we had a interesting mix of both Ohio and Pennsylvania drivers. That track is almost neutral ground between the two regions, and it was fun to see Anthony Macri and Danny Dietrich mix it up with Cale Conley, and Cole Duncan, and Lee Jacobs, and Gary Taylor. In the end, Macri cruised to a 12 second victory and $10,000. Out in California, between the King of the West race at Petaluma and the USAC CRA show at Perris, nobody made any friends on Saturday night. There was a big pile up right at the drop of the green in the King of the West race when pole sitter Justin Sanders and outside front row starter Andy Forsberg came together. Forsberg was done for the night, and the crash collected Dominic Scelzi, Kyle Offill, Tim Kaeding, and Michael Sellers. Kaeding made his displeasure with Sanders known under the caution flag. Sanders survived though and held off Bud Kaeding in the closing laps for his first series win of the season. Dominic Scelzi maintains the points lead over DJ Netto and Bud Kaeding. At Perris in the USAC CRA race, Brody Roa survived an early spin, and came back through the field to win the 70th Salute to Indy. There were multiple incidents in the race, including a big pile up into turn three that collected basically the entire top five, including leader Damion Gardner. Austin Williams and Roa were the benefactors of that crash, but Williams didn't make it another full green flag lap. Roa's slider attempt into turn three on the restart didn't quite clear Williams and the two made contact, sending Williams into the outside wall. Williams was done for the night, Roa went on to the win. Even with the issues, Damion Gardner still leads the CRA points over Austin Williams and Roa. This is one big benefit of the expanding streaming services, the ability to go find good racing every weekend. And even if you don't catch it live, roll back through the on demand sections and see what's available. Odds are you missed some good racing while you were out and about or watching other stuff. In recent years, is there racing you've discovered through the streaming services or elsewhere online that was really enjoyable that you weren't expecting? Let me know in the comments. I've become a really big fan of the California sprint car stuff lately. The tight bullrings out there provide really great racing, and those guys aren't afraid to throw elbows. It's so satisfying to watch and I like the mix of some of the up and comers like Justin Sanders against the veterans like the Kaedings, Andy Forsberg, and others.

There are four items on the streaming schedule today, all over on FloRacing. Besides Flo 24/7, there is Short Track Super Series action from New Egypt Speedway, FloRacing Night in America Late Models at Tri-City Speedway, and IMCA racing from Jackson Motorplex. 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 Tuesday. 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!