DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Ian Madsen out of McGhee 11, Kyle Larson wins at Waynesfield | DIRTRACKR Daily 6/17/21
It is Thursday, June 17th, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Today on the show we'll get you up to speed on what happened yesterday across the country, including some driver changes, and we'll look ahead to tonight's racing for the Outlaws, All Stars, USAC, Lucas, and more. Let's jump in.
If you're a regular watcher or listener to this show, you've heard me talk plenty in the past about driver changes in dirt racing. Things can go south really quickly, and sometimes we're surprised by moves, and sometimes we aren't. Before yesterday's All Star action got underway at Waynesfield, it started to trickle out on social media that Ian Madsen was suddenly out of the McGhee 11 sprint. His name had been removed from the race car, and Spencer Bayston was listed on the night's draw sheet. This was a move that surprised me, and it sounds like quite a few other folks as well. Madsen was second in the All Star points standings behind Tyler Courtney following Tuesday's racing at Sharon, and had just picked up his first win of the season last Friday night at Attica. But just five days after that victory, Madsen was out and Bayston was in. Neither side has commented publicly on the departure, and there is no word on what's next for Madsen. According to reports on social yesterday, the team will move forward with Bayston behind the wheel, but we'll see how long it actually lasts. Bayston finished 15th last night in his debut with the team. I get that racing is always about what have you done for me lately, and no seat is ever really safe, but this one caught me off guard. Through 27 starts in 2021, Madsen had 11 top fives, 18 top tens, that win and was second to Courtney in the standings. It's hard to think that wasn't enough to keep a ride, especially in the first season together, but I'm not privy to what was happening inside the team, and I've never owned a sprint car, so I could be off base here. The All Stars are incredibly competitive this season, and Courtney is the only driver to really set himself apart. We've had 19 different winners in 28 races, just to give you an idea of how tough it's been. Madsen is a talented driver, and hopefully he finds a ride soon.
On to the racing last night. After not really getting a chance to compete for the win on Tuesday night at Sharon because of the track conditions, Kyle Larson made up for lost time last night at Waynesfield. He started on the outside pole, fought off a mid race charge from Rico Abreu, and led all but one lap en route to his second sprint car win of the week, and third with the All Stars this season. Rico, Courtney, Parker Price Miller, and Zeb Wise completed the top five. I'm not going to launch into any more superlatives today about Larson, but I do think we might be moving into a different phase of Larson's dominance. I've seen some negativity about him in recent days, including some comments on some of my own content, and I wonder if we aren't starting to see some Kyle Larson fatigue rising up from race fans. He's been winning a lot, and in incredible fashion, so it's hard to not talk about him. And for the most part, fans are interested to hear about him. Over the last 28 days, three of my top five most viewed YouTube videos had Kyle Larson on the thumbnail. But we might be getting to the New York Yankees, Jimmie Johnson, New England Patriots phase of Larson's winning where some people just don't want to hear it anymore. It's certainly an interesting dynamic to continue following. Larson is done racing dirt, at least for this week, with his focus now shifting to the NASCAR weekend at Nashville.
With three nights of Ohio Sprint Speedweek still to go, Tyler Courtney has taken over the weeklong points battle. He leads Danny Dietrich by 16 points headed to Muskingum County tonight. And with Madsen now out, Courtney's grip on the season long points lead grew even stronger last night. A sixth for Cory Eliason combined with a rough night for Hunter Schuerenberg means Eliason is now second, with Hunter Percent back to third, but the margin to Courtney is 212 points. If Courtney continues the pace he's been on over the last 17 races, he'll be impossible to run down. Action tonight gets underway at 6:15pm local for hot laps.
The Summer Nationals and Modified Nationals continued last night at Peoria Speedway for night number two, but even though it was a new day and a new track, the results were the same. The late model feature went caution free, and Ryan Unzicker was out front for most of the race, but Bobby Pierce never let him get too far away. With eight laps to go Pierce slipped by on the high side and drove away to his 29th career Hell Tour win. Reigning champion Brian Shirley finished second, Unzicker slipped to third, Tanner English was fourth, and Devin Moran fifth. It was a really fun race to watch, with the leaders in constant lap traffic through the 40 laps. You can watch the highlights on the DIRTcar YouTube channel, and the full race replay on DIRTVision. In the night's modified program, it was again all Nick Hoffman. He was quick time, won his heat race, started on the pole, and led all 25 laps en route to the win. Dave Wietholder was second, Ray Bollinger third, Allen Weisser fourth, and Tyler Nicely fifth. The first week of the Summer Nationals keeps rolling tonight at Kankakee County. You can watch live on DIRTVision.
Last night's USAC sprint car feature at Bridgeport Motorsports Park also went caution free, running only 8 minutes and 47 seconds from green flag to checkered flag. Shane Cottle started on the pole and led the first 16 laps, but Robert Ballou was on the move behind him from fifth. On lap 17, Ballou made his move, slipping by the Throttle into turn three on the bottom. From there, it was all the MadMan out front, with Ballou picking up his second win of the season and second in four starts. Cottle finished second, Chris Windom third, Brady Bacon hard charged from 14th to finish fourth, and Briggs Danner picked up his first ever USAC national sprint car top five with a fifth place run. Ballou continues to be the hottest driver in the series, and last night was his 13th straight top ten finish. The sprint cars continue Eastern Storm tonight at Selinsgrove Speedway. You can watch live on FloRacing.
In other racing last night, Emerson Axsom continued his solid 2021 season with a win in the POWRi Illinois Speed Week opener at Charleston Speedway. He topped Daison Pursley and Buddy Kofoid. Illinois Speed Week continues tonight at Lincoln Speedway with 600cc micros also on the card.
Looking towards other racing happening tonight, the big ones are the Lucas Oil Late Models at Magnolia, the World of Outlaws Late Models at Stateline, and the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars at 34 Raceway. Tonight kicks off a busy weekend for all three series. Lucas hasn't raced since Hudson O'Neal bagged the Show-Me 100 win at Lucas Oil Speedway on May 29th. Tim McCreadie leads the current points over O'Neal and Jonathan Davenport. Bobby Pierce and Jimmy Owens were winners at Magnolia in 2020.
The World of Outlaws Late Models have three Pennsylvania shows this weekend between Stateline, Thunder Mountain, and Selinsgrove. Chris Madden will continue to try and run down Brandon Sheppard for the champoinship, with the gap currently 46 points. Max Blair was the most recent Outlaw winner at Stateline in 2019 and should be one to watch tonight. After starting the season with Ross Bailes in the car, Big Frog Motorsports is back with the Outlaws this weekend, but this time with Florida's Mark Whitener behind the wheel. Whitener last drove for Big Frog back in 2015, and is making his first start outside of Volusia in the past two years.
As for the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars, they kick off a stretch of eight races in 10 days starting tonight at 34 Raceway. Brad Sweet will try and protect his shrinking advantage in the standings, but David Gravel has closed to 48 points back, and Carson Macedo is only another 12 points behind Gravel. Sweet hasn't won or finished on the podium in nine consecutive races. Parker Price Miller was the winner at 34 Raceway last season, but the dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula likes Donny Schatz tonight. He was the pole sitter in that race last season, and is still seeking win 300.
If you want to watch any of these races online, or find others, I've got you covered. There are 13 shows on the streaming services for today, including both World of Outlaws series on DIRTVision plus the Summer Nationals, the All Stars, USAC and more are on FloRacing, Lucas is on MAVTV Plus, and more. 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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