DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Brad Sweet sweeps Cedar Lake, McCreadie extends Lucas points lead | DIRTRACKR Daily 7/5/21
Today is Monday, July 5th, two thousand and twenty one. This is DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Today we'll go around the country and talk about the racing weekend for the World of Outlaws, Lucas, USAC, Summer Nationals, and more. Plus, why this was a pivotal weekend for Brad Sweet and why his Outlaw competition is in trouble.
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 World of Outlaws Sprint Cars were at Cedar Lake Speedway in Wisconsin over the weekend for two shows, and when the season is over, this might turn out to have been a pivotal weekend in the championship hunt for Brad Sweet and his rivals. Both nights Carson Macedo sat on the pole and led the majority of the laps, but late in the going, he couldn't match pace with Sweet. On Friday night, Macedo led 33 of 35 laps, but a late caution for an exploded left rear on Logan Schuchart's car opened the door for Sweet. He threw a slider into turn three coming to the white that ended up being the race winning move. Macedo ended up second, with Aaron Reutzel third, Sheldon Haudenschild fourth, and Jason Sides picked up his first top five finish since 2017. It was a good result for Sides who's missed a bunch of races this season following that trailer incident in between Eldora and Lincoln. Under that same caution for Schuchart, David Gravel was also forced to the work area with a flat right rear. He ended up 12th. On Saturday it was a similar tune with a similar outcome. Macedo started from the pole, led the most laps, and again finished second. He and Sweet battled through the middle third of the race, with the NAPA 49 taking over for good on lap 21. The Saturday win was Sweet's fifth in a row at Cedar Lake. Macedo, Gio Scelzi, Schuchart, and Gravel completed the top five. The weekend sweep for Sweet now sees his points lead over Gravel grow to nearly triple digits, with 94 points between them. A 12th and a 5th for Gravel lost him 34 points on the weekend, and he's got four finishes outside the top ten in his previous 15 starts. Over that same span, Sweet has been rolling with 14 top tens and three wins. If my math is correct, there should be something like 35 Outlaw races left on the schedule that pay full points. Some of the big shows, like the Knoxville Nationals are show up points only, so there are less opportunities for Gravel and Macedo to make ground. Gravel needs to top Sweet by 47 positions right now to pull even in the points, and Macedo 64. As races continue to tick off, that's going to become more difficult. Especially with the way Sweet has been racing this year. He's actually not qualifying as well this season as he has the previous two, giving up nearly half a position from 2020, and three quarters of a spot from 2019. But it hasn't mattered because suddenly Sweet is passing a ton of cars, which isn't something he's done in past years. He was outside the top five in feature plus minus in both 2018 and 2019 and fourth in 2020. This year he's second and poised to smash his recent seasons. He's currently +89, which is good for second best behind Logan Schuchart. Like we've seen in past seasons with Donny Schatz, a Brad Sweet that passes a lot of cars is a dangerous proposition. He's becoming that driver that can start anywhere in a field and find his way to the front. Looking ahead, the Month of Money looms. The Outlaws are at Wilmot on Saturday night this week, before the Brad Doty Classic and double Kings Royals get here next week. Following that, we've got the Silver Cup at Lernerville, Summer Nationals at Williams Grove, the Ironman 55, and Knoxville coming.
With the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series we've had off weeks, weather related cancellations, and only got to see one race weekend in June, but the summer schedule for the series kicked off in earnest last Friday and Saturday night. The two Ohio shows kicked off a busy month that has 13 race nights on the schedule. Friday night at Portsmouth, Tim McCreadie led early from the pole, but Jonathan Davenport ran him down from fourth and took the lead on lap nine. JD went unchallenged the rest of the way to bag his third straight Lucas win and series best fifth of 2021. Kyle Bronson, McCreadie, Spencer Hughes, and Tyler Erb completed the top five. And Saturday night at Muskingum County, after losing out the night before, Tim McCreadie wouldn't be denied. He started second and led all 50 laps to bag his third win of the year. He was followed by Kyle Bronson, Spencer Hughes, Davenport, and Gregg Satterlee. It ended up being a very good weekend for both Bronson and Hughes. Bronson's pair of second place runs were his best finishes since he finished second on January 28th at East Bay. He's now got three straight top five finishes and five top tens in his past six races. Spencer Hughes recently took over the reigns of the PCC Motorsports car after the departure of Kyle Strickler. He bagged two top fives over the weekend which was an impressive showing for the 20 year old driver who is backed by crew members that are 18 years old and 19 years old. Looking at the Lucas standings, Davenport continues his march towards the front, and with a win and fourth in Ohio has pulled even with Hudson O'Neal for second place. The problem for them is McCreadie's win and a third saw him stretch away from the pair even more. He leads them both by 160 which is 10 points gained on Davenport, and 130 gained on O'Neal. Hudson's weekend included a 14th place finish Friday and an eighth on Saturday. Lucas gets a couple of days off, but the series rolls through the south coming up later this week with stops at Cherokee in South Carolina and Smoky Mountain in Tennessee.
In USAC competition, the sprint cars took on Lincoln Park Speedway on Friday and Saturday nights. CJ Leary kicked off the weekend with a win on Thursday at Plymouth, and he kept the party going on Friday. Brady Bacon and Jake Swanson battled for most of the 30 laps at the front, but Leary was on the move behind them from his 11th starting position. He slipped past Bacon with seven to go to get into second and was after Swanson for the lead. The two traded passes for several laps before Leary finally took over for good with two to go. The win for Leary was his second in a row on third on the season. Swanson, Shane Cottle, Kevin Thomas Jr., and Bacon were the rest of the top five. On Saturday night, we had a similar story with a different outcome. Justin Grant and Bacon took turns leading the first 35 laps, but Kevin Thomas Jr. was in a hard charging kind of mood. He rolled some hot bottom from 14th, grabbed the lead on lap 35 and drove away to his fourth win of 2021. Grant, Bacon, Leary, and Cottle completed the top five. For KTJ, 2021 has been a drastic improvement over 2020. He went winless last season and had an average finish of 10.6, with only five top fives and 14 top tens. This year he already has four wins, 12 top fives, and 16 top tens. His performances have kept him in the thick of the championship chase, and he currently sits third only 73 points behind Bacon. Justin Grant maintains second, 54 points out. One driver who would like to have his 2020 pace back is Chris Windom. He's finished 12th or worse in four of his past five races, including an 18th on Saturday night. The USAC sprint cars are back this Saturday night at Knoxville for the Corn Belt Clash.
Bobby Pierce and Brandon Sheppard split the Summer Nationals weekend, with Pierce taking Friday night at the Dirt Oval at Route 66 and Sheppard going back to back, Saturday at Fayette County and Sunday at Lincoln. Pierce now has five wins in twelve races and leads the overall Summer Nationals points. Sheppard's strong week included those two wins and an extra $2000 for topping the week three points standings. Brian Shirley was actually in position for the win yesterday at Lincoln, but broke a rear end just before half way, which gave the lead to Sheppard. In modified competition, Nick Hoffman won two of the three weekend races, Friday at Joliet and Sunday at Lincoln. He now has nine wins on the year. Saturday night at Fayette County it was crowd favorite and 2012 series champion Kenny Wallace who bagged the $3000 score. It was Herm's eighth career Modified Nationals win. The competitors have today off, before the Summer Nationals continue tomorrow for the week four opener at Knox County Fair Raceway in Illinois.
Pennsylvania Speedweek wrapped up yesterday at Selinsgrove Speedway, where Brent Marks was the race winner and Danny Dietrich was crowned champion. Dietrich finished second to Lance Dewease on Friday at Williams Grove and second to Marks yesterday, and that was enough to win him the title. Dietrich ended the week without a race win. The Saturday show at Port Royal was lost to rain.
Other weekend open wheel winners included DJ Netto in the Sprint Car Challenge Tour show at Stockton, Australian Lachlan McHugh got his first American win on Saturday night at Waynesfield topping Lee Jacobs and Cap Henry, Justin Henderson won the 410 show at Knoxville and Cory Eliason was the 360 winner, Logan Seavey won the 410 show Saturday at Kokomo, and Cale Thomas bagged a 410 win at Wayne County.
In other weekend late model racing, Dona Marcoullier won $10k at Tri City in Michigan, Billy Moyer Jr. was an MLRA winner at 300 Raceway, Ross Bailes bagged an Ultimate Southeast show at Lavonia, Carson Ferguson was an All Star winner at Mountain Motorsports Park, Devin Gilpin won at Brownstown, and Zack Dohm won the Beckley USA 100 on Sunday and $20,000 after flat tires ended the runs of Tyler Erb, Tim McCreadie, and Jonathan Davenport.
And with the Short Track Super Series last night, Stewart Friesen won the Firecracker 50 at Fonda over Billy Decker and Matt Sheppard.
The only thing on the streaming schedule for today is FloRacing 24/7. 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 Monday. 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'll see you tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!