DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Leary, Pierce, Balog get Thursday wins; Outlaws, Lucas, PA Speedweek on tap | DIRTRACKR Daily 7/2/21
Today is Friday, July 2nd, two thousand and twenty one. This is DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Today we've got details on last night's racing for the USAC sprint cars, Summer Nationals, and IRA, and we get you ready for a busy weekend ahead for the Outlaws and Lucas.
Before we dive in, if you like what I'm doing here, please subscribe to the show, leave a review, and hit those follow and notification buttons depending on where you consume this. Make sure to follow @dirtrackr on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. And don't forget dirtrackr.com has a bunch more cool dirt racing stuff. Now, let's get going.
The USAC National Sprint Cars made a stop at Plymouth Speedway last night before they head to Lincoln Park for two nights, tonight and tomorrow. In a feature that went caution free, it was CJ Leary who led all 30 laps en route to his second win of 2021. Justin Grant tried to run him down late, but had to settle for second. Kevin Thomas Jr. finished third, Tanner Thorson fourth, and Brady Bacon hard charged from 13th to finish fifth. In Leary's last three USAC sprint car wins, he's led every single lap, back to Lawrenceburg in July of 2020. Robert Ballou's top ten streak was busted last night with an 11th place finish. He qualified 19th of 27 cars and was left trying to battle back all night. He transferred into the feature from the B main, and drove up from 19th, but came just one spot shy of his 16th straight top ten. As for points leader Brady Bacon, he continues to find ways to finish up front even when he doesn't start there. Four times this season he's started outside the top ten and all four times he's converted them into top five finishes. Making good nights out of what could be bad nights is how you win championships. With two nights at Putnamville on tap, he's got 58 points right now on Justin Grant in second. KTJ, Ballou, and Leary complete the top five. The sprint cars had four races at Lincoln Park in 2020, with Shane Cottle and Chase Stockon winning one each, and Brady Bacon bagging two wins. If you can't be there the next two nights, FloRacing has you covered with the live stream.
After running Beaver Dam on Wednesday night to start the week, the Summer Nationals trekked to Iowa last night to race at Davenport Speedway. We had a very nice 35 car field on hand and got to see some good racing. In the end it was Bobby Pierce celebrating his second win of the week and fourth of the season. Early leader Tony Jackson Jr. slipped up off the bottom in turn four on lap 11 and that was the opening that the Smooth Operator needed. He slipped by on the bottom and was never challenged again. Frank Heckenast Jr. ended up second after his troubles the night before at Beaver Dam. Brandon Sheppard drove from 13th to fininish third, Jackson faded to fourth, and Shannon Babb had an incredible 21st to 5th run that was good for the night's hard charger award. Pierce's closest competition in the points is Tanner English and Brian Shirley, and English was eighth last night, while Shirley was 12th. Week three for the Summer Nationals continues through the weekend with stops at the Dirt Oval at Route 66 tonight, Fayette County tomorrow, and Lincoln Speedway on Sunday. The modifieds are back on the card tonight, and we'll see if Nick Hoffman's insane season can continue. He actually spent last night working on Heckenast's car, which was pretty cool. DIRTVision has live streaming coverage all weekend with your fast pass.
In last night's IRA sprint car race at Plymouth Dirt Track, NASCAR driver Chase Briscoe started on the pole of the feature driving Paul May's 71M, but the night belonged to 10 time champion Bill Balog. He took over the lead in lap traffic from Briscoe and drove away to his fifth win of the season, and second in a row. Points contenders Jake Blackhurst and Jeremy Schultz finished second and third, with Jordan Goldesberry and Josh Schneiderman completing the top five. Briscoe suffered damage after he spun and collected Scotty Thiel. Thiel recovered to seventh, while Briscoe ended the night 19th. The IRA sprint cars go quiet now until July 23rd at Outagamie Speedway in Wisconson.
The Pennsylvania Speedweek show at Hagerstown Speedway was rained out last night. That leaves three shows left to decide the champion. Tonight the sprint cars head to Williams Grove, Saturday they go to Port Royal, and the week closes out on Sunday at Selinsgrove. Last night's rainout means Kyle Larson is done for the week, so the spotlight will be on the locals and who can take down the championship. Danny Dietrich currently leads Brent Marks in the standings. Tonight's race is on DIRTVision, Saturday is on Flo, and Sunday is on Sprintcarunlimited.tv.
Last night's Super DIRTcar Series race at Land of Legends was also lost to rain. That event will now be run on Tuesday, July 20th. The next race on the scheduel for the big blocks is Tuesday, July 6th at Ransomville Speedway. For more, check out superdirtcarseries.com.
Looking ahead to the weekend, the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars are at Cedar Lake Speedway for two shows, and the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series is in Ohio for two nights. With the Outlaws, Brad Sweet is the current points leader by 60 over David Gravel, and it was Sweet bagging a Cedar Lake sweep in 2020. He's actually won the last three appearances there, and four of the last six. Sheldon Haudenschild and Kerry Madsen have the two other recent wins. According to the dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula, Sweet is the favorite for the weekend, and that should come as no surprise given his past history there. Madsen though has been on fire as of late driving the Tony Stewart Racing 14, and bagged two of the three wins last weekend at Jackson Motorplex. He's the hottest driver in the series right now with an average finish of 3.4 over his last five races. He's got 12 straight top eight finishes and is really gelling with crew chief Ricky Warner. With the IRA racing last night at Plymouth, I'd imagine a bunch of those guys will head to Cedar Lake for the next two nights, so car counts should be healthy. If you can't be at Cedar Lake, watch live on DIRTVision.
For Lucas, they've only raced twice in the last five weeks because of the Dreams and Eldora and three race nights lost to rain. Tim McCreadie continues to lead the standings over Hudson O'Neal and Jonathan Davenport, and as we've talked about, it's basically those three racing for the championship right now. McCreadie has been on a roll since the end of January, ripping off 16 straight top ten finishes and bagging two wins. Hudson O'Neal has kept it tight, while Jonathan Davenport has raced his way back into contention after early season struggles. JD leads all drivers with four Lucas wins in 2021, while McCreadie has the most top fives and top tens. The series takes on Portsmouth tonight where Brandon Sheppard, Hudson O'Neal, and Jimmy Owens were winners in 2020. Tyler Erb was the winner at Muskingum County last year, where the series heads on Saturday. The comparison between McCreadie and O'Neal this season is an interesting one, as O'Neal actually has a better average finish, but being able to throw out races early in the year in Florida has tipped the scales towards McCreadie. O'Neal has one more win than TMac, buttrails in top fives and top tens. Hudson has had to work a lot harder for his finishes versus McCreadie with an average feature start that's nearly five positions worse. He's risen to the occasion though, as he leads the series in feature plus minus at plus 105. To keep the fight close though, O'Neal will need to continue improving on his consistency. MAVTV Plus has live streaming coverage of Lucas both nights.
Drop me a comment below or on social and let me know what you're looking forward to this weekend. Are you headed to the track? What's on your schedule to watch? What battles are you excited to see? Let me know.
As of the recording of this show there are 33 races on the streaming schedule for tonight. DIRTVision, FloRacing, MAVTV Plus, RacinDirt, Fast Four, and several more have things to check out. That includes the World of Outlaws, Lucas, USAC, Pennsylvania Speedweek, northeast modifieds, IMCA, and more. To see the full daily streaming schedule through the weekend, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, hope everyone has a good Friday and a good weekend. If you have thoughts about the topics on today's show, leave them in the comments below or tweet at me.
Thanks everybody for tuning in, I'm headed to Road America for a little NASCAR road course action this weekend. I'll see you Monday for more DIRTRACKR Daily!