DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Kyle Larson did it again, Dewease takes Weikert Memorial | DIRTRACKR Daily 6/1/21
It is Tuesday, June 1st, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
We've got a lot to cover from last night's racing, so let's just jump right into it.
When I was putting together yesterday's show I wondered to myself if we might see Larson at Lawrenceburg last night with the World of Outlaws, but I couldn't get a confirmation either way. I certainly thought it was possible given his past success there, which I mentioned yesterday. But obviously after winning NASCAR's longest race on Sunday night, there was a very good reason why he maybe wouldn't attend. But as cars started to unload yesterday at the Burg, there was the Silva 57 being rolled from the trailer. And just about 24 hours after the Coke 600 went green at Charlotte, Larson was back behind the wheel for hot laps. The main topic of Friday's show was Larson's incredible week up to that point, and it's both crazy and not so that just three days later we are talking about two more wins for Yung Money. Last night he started second, took the lead from pole sitter Aaron Reutzel on lap 11, held off Logan Schuchart in the closing stages, and picked up his first World of Outlaws win and third sprint car win of 2021. So in the span of nine days, Larson finished second on the road course at COTA in the Cup car, in the rain, third at Tri-City in a dirt late model, won a 410 show at Atomic, won the Coke 600 in the Cup car, and won the World of Outlaws race at Lawrenceburg. I am legitimately running out of words and ways to describe what this guy is doing. His 2020 season on dirt was something for the ages, and a season dirt fans will be talking about for a long time. But what we've seen so far in 2021 might be even more impressive. Last year he didn't have the weight of a full NASCAR campaign on his shoulders, he could just focus on dirt racing. But this season, especially with what he's done already, Larson is a legit championship contender in the Cup Series. And incredibly, it hasn't slowed him down a bit on the dirt. Larson is the modern day AJ Foyt or Mario Andretti, jumping from car to car, and surface to surface at will. There is no "get comfortable" time when he straps in. He just gets in and goes, and it's magical to watch. The FloRacing late models were supposed to be at Florence tomorrow, but have been rained out as of this morning. It's very possible that Larson would have been in attendance there and could have added a late model win to this recent insane run. And when the double Dreams happen next week at Eldora, Larson will no doubt be one of the favorites to pocket some big cash. Under what circumstances can a driver show up to a NASCAR Cup race, a dirt late model race, and a World of Outlaws sprint car race all in the same week and be the guy to beat at all of them? It's almost beyond reason.
As for the Outlaws, the big story of the night outside of Kyle Larson was probably Brad Sweet salvaging the race. He wrecked big right at the start of the first heat race and was forced to a backup car. There was no B main last night, but Sweet did start at the tail of the field for the feature. He grabbed hard charger, advancing 17 positions to finish 7th. A 12th place result after a late flat tire for David Gravel, and a ninth place run for Carson Macedo actually allowed Sweet to grow his points lead over both drivers. Gravel is now 66 points back and Macedo 90. Nights like that are how you win championships, which Sweet knows better than most. Logan Schuchart was good again, finishing second to Larson, while Buddy Kofoid had a nice top five in the SpeedLab 39. And shoutout to Australian Lachlan McHugh for getting a top ten finish in his first ever Outlaw appearance. The series is back Friday at River Cities and Saturday at Granite City.
Even though they lost the weekend to rain, the All Stars did get to race for $29,000 at Port Royal last night for the Bob Weikert Memorial. The event was pushed to yesterday because of that rain, but after the wait we were treated to a really fun feature. We saw three lead changes amongst three drivers, with Lance Dewease eventually coming out on top. He took over from early leader Hunter Schuerenberg on lap seven, fought off challenges from Anthony Macri past half way, and led the final ten laps en route to the $29 grand and the bull head trophy. Logan Wagner, Tyler Courtney, Danny Dietrich, and Mike Wagner were the rest of the top five finishers. Two drivers who I think had a real shot at the win last night were both victims of the outside wall. Early in the going Brent Marks had a slider attempt on Schuerenberg not stick and he hit the wall in between one and two. The damage from the hit knocked him from the race. It was a shame because he looked fast early on. And later, Anthony Macri had his night end when he hit the wall in turns three and four inside ten to go, shearing off the right rear tire and sending him spinning out of contention. He was running second at the time and trying to track down leader Dewease. This is really what Port Royal has become in recent seasons. Drivers can find speed on that top side, but the cushion is basically the guard rail, and if you miss it a little bit, the consequences can be big. It's a razor thin line between good speed and disaster. Even before he was taken out, Macri had made contact with the wall several times through the race, as did others. The win was Dewease's 42nd career All Star triumph and 13th at Port Royal. And he did it on crew chief Davey Brown's 87th birthday. Pretty cool. As for the All Star regulars, points leader Tyler Courtney led the way in third, with Schuerenberg sixth, Cory Eliason ninth, and Ian Madsen tenth. A 17th place finish for Justin Peck saw him fall to now 74 points behind Courtney in the standings. Madsen is third, Schuerenberg fourth, and Zeb Wise fifth. Courtney stayed hot with his eighth straight top eight finish, and seventh podium finish in his previous eight starts. And Schuerenberg continues to be fast, picking up his eighth top eight finish in his past nine starts. This recent run for Courtney has really cemented his place atop the series right now, and things don't let up for the All Stars coming up. They are back on Thursday to kick off another four race weekend, with Fairbury, Wilmot, Plymouth, and Angell Park hosting the series through Sunday. I have to be honest, I've been really impressed with Courtney, especially lately. He's obviously a talented driver, but I didn't expect him to find speed in the wing car so quickly. This All Star fight was wide open coming into 2021 with Reutzel leaving, and Courtney has come in and asserted himself over a strong group. I really thought this was Eliason's chance to take a step forward in his career, but he's really been a non-factor this season through 19 races. His best finish is a 3rd at Joliet, and his average feature finish is down more than three positions from 2020. He currently finds himself mired back in 6th, 156 points behind Courtney. And with other guys improving quickly, it will be very difficult for Eliason to climb out of this hole. I'll have more on the All Star weekend on Thursday.
For late model fans, the Spring Nationals were at 411 Motor Speedway last night for $10 K to win and fans were treated to a strong field and some good racing. Randy Weaver led early from the pole, but near half way third starting Jimmy Owens worked his way past the 85 and held on over the final half of the feature to grab the win. Weaver, Ashton Winger, Dale McDowell, and Mike Marlar completed the top five. Other notables included Ricky Weiss finishing 7th, Hudson O'Neal tenth off his Show-Me 100 victory, Cory Hedgecock was 12th, and Tyler Erb was 20th. The top five result for McDowell was good enough to see him clinch the 2021 Spring Nationals championship and he took down an additional $10 grand for winning the title. Spring Nationals winners this season included Owens twice, Tyler Millwood, Randy Weaver, Tanner English, McDowell, David Payne, Brandon Overton, and Jonathan Davenport. With the series concluded for the year, we now look to the Southern Nationals, with that schedule kicking off July 16th at Beckley Motorsports Park in West Virginia. For more info, visit southernnationalsseries.com.
In New York last night, the Super DIRTcar Series was at Lebanon Valley for the $13,500-to-win Mr. DIRT Track that was also another Super DIRT Week qualifier event. Kevin Root sat on the pole, but outside front row starter Stewart Friesen was quickly to the lead at the start of the 100 lapper. Behind the leaders, 10th starting Matt Sheppard was on the move, and he methodically picked his way towards the lead. He got by second place running Mat Williamson inside 40 to go and was after Friesen for the lead. It wasn't too long later that Sheppard slipped by the Halmar 44 on the bottom and that was all she wrote. Sheppard drove away over the final laps, survived the fog that descended on the track, and picked up his first Super DIRTcar Series win of 2021. Friesen ended up losing the engine in his race car and wound up 18th. Mat Williamson, Marc Johnson, Chris Hile, and Brett Haas completed the top five. Erick Rudolph had a nice 21st to 6th run to earn the night's hard charger award. Through this early part of the season, Friesen, Demetrios Drellos, Tim Fuller, and Sheppard have all locked themselves into the 200 at Super DIRT Week. Leaving the night, Friesen maintains the points lead over Sheppard. The big blocks of the Super DIRTcar Series go quiet now until June 22nd at Albany-Saratoga.
Huset's Speedway had another good field of 410 sprint cars last night as they ran the second of two weekend NOSA shows in South Dakota. Both Carson and Austin McCarl were in attendance, as was Gio Scelzi, Tim Kaeding, Matt Juhl, Parker Price Miller and others. In the night's feature, Justin Henderson led much of the going, but following a late restart, Parker Price Miller rolled the bottom to sneak past Henderson who was on the top side. PPM led the final nine laps to get his first sprint car win of 2021, with Kaeding finishing second, Henderson slipping to third, Brooke Tatnell fourth, and Gio Scelzi rounding out the top five. PPM had a rough go of it earlier in the season trying to run the full Outlaw schedule with his own team. He's since dropped off the tour and joined up with Guy Forbrook and we've seen him at some of these midwest shows in recent weeks. It was a nice win over a stout field of 410s. Tad Pospisil won the night's Tri-State Late Model feature.
While the All Stars were at Port Royal last night, not far away was the Hank Gentzler Memorial over at Lincoln Speedway for $5000 to win. Freddie Rahmer started third and took the lead from Ryan Smith only a few laps in. He went unchallenged the rest of the way to grab the win over Smith, Chad Trout, Brandon Rahmer, and Tyler Ross. The race was supposed to have been run on Saturday night, but was pushed back due to rain. Sucks that it had to run up against a big event like the Weikert at Port, but you understand the circumstances. I believe with the win, Rahmer should take over the Lincoln track points lead from Alan Krimes.
There are two items on the streaming schedule for today, FloRacing 24/7 and the Short Track Super Series live from Penn Can Speedway. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Later today I'm going to drop the next episode of DIRTRACKR Conversations. I thought it would be fun to do an Open Red reunion now that both me and Ross have moved on from World Racing Group. If you don't know what I'm talking about, Ross Wece used to do video work for WRG and the Outlaws and me and him co-hosted the Open Red podcast from 2016 to 2020, recording 190 episodes along the way with a who's who of sprint car racing, including every World of Outlaws champion in the series' 40+ year history. I jumped on with him late last week and we talked about his new role with Stewart Haas Racing, transitioning to the NASCAR world, we talked Open Red of course, his take on what's happened across dirt racing so far in 2021, and a lot more. You can find that episode in the podcast feed and the DIRTRACKR YouTube channel.
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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