DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Carson Macedo's rapid improvement, Hell Tour and Super DIRTcar Series on tap | DIRTRACKR Daily 7/6/21

Today is Tuesday, July 6th, two thousand and twenty one. This is DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.

Today we get you prepped for tonight's Summer Nationals and Super DIRTcar Series races and we dive into the marked improvement of Carson Macedo with the World of Outlaws.

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.

Week four for the Summer Nationals kicks off tonight at the Knox County Fair Raceway in Illinois. The series had Monday off before competitors take to Knox County for the first time ever. The 1/2 mile track at the Knox County Fairgrounds is located in Knoxville, Illinois which is about a 40 minute ride up I-74 from Peoria. The fair was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic, so it will be interesting to see how tonight's racing is since the track hasn't hosted anything since 2019. Following tonight, the Hell Tour will head to Spoon River, Macon, Farmer City, Highland, and Haubstadt through Sunday. Bobby Pierce leads all drivers so far with five wins, while Brandon Sheppard has two, Brian Shirley has two, and Devin Moran, Tanner English, and Shannon Babb all have one each. Pierce is the current points leader by 35 over Tanner English. Shirley, Ashton Winger, and Jason Feger complete the top five. There have been 128 cars so far that have attempted a Summer Nationals race. On the modified side, Nick Hoffman has won nine of ten races, with Kenny Wallace the other winner. Hoffman currently leads Kyle Hammer in the standings by 293 points. Tommy Sheppard Jr., Tyler Nicely, and John Demoss round out the top five. Tonight's modified race has been bumped to $2000 to win, while the late model show is $5000 to win. If you can't head to the track tonight, DIRTVision has live coverage.

Also tonight on DIRTVision, the Super DIRTcar Series heads to Ransomville Speedway for the $7500 to win Ransomville Summer Nationals. It's been a rough few weeks for the big block competitors, with races in Canada cancelled or postponed and several nights lost to weather. There hasn't been a completed race since Mr. Dirt Track at Lebanon Valley back on May 31st. Matt Sheppard was the winner that night. Stewart Friesen leads the series standings on the strength of three wins and five top fives in six starts. Sheppard and Mat Williamson trail him, and they both have one win each. Tim Fuller is the only other driver with an official win this season, while Mike Maresca and Max McLaughlin picked up wins at DIRTcar Nationals, but those events don't count towards the standings. The Super DIRTcar Series hasn't raced at Ransomville since 2018, with stops in 2019 and 2020 both cancelled. One for rain, the other for COVID. Stewart Friesen is the most recent winner, topping Mat Williamson and Brett Hearn a few seasons ago. Tonight's race kicks off a string of Tuesday shows for the series, with Albany Saratoga on tap for next week, and Canandaigua coming on July 20th. Let's hope we can get some good luck rolling and get some of these races completed.

With the two races over the weekend for the World of Outlaws at Cedar Lake, we've now got 40 races in the books this season. I talked yesterday on the show about Brad Sweet's sweep of the two nights, and his incredible ability this season to pass cars during features. I know there is still a ton of racing to happen yet in 2021, but I feel already like we are headed for a third straight Sweet championship. We'll continue to keep an eye on things obviously, but I think Sweet's consistency is just too hard to overcome right now, and he'll be incredibly motivated over the next five or six weeks. Sweet and his chances are a topic for another day though. When we start looking ahead to future seasons though and who could be contenders, I'm really high on Carson Macedo. I've talked about Macedo some here and there on this show, and he's a past Conversations guest. Just on the eye test, he's incredibly talented behind the wheel and his level of aggression is really high. I know that young drivers like Macedo rub some fans and other competitors wrong at times with their choices on the track, but it's hard to deny that those aggressive moves often pay big dividends. Like most drivers, Macedo will mellow with age and experience, but you can't deny that he's exciting to watch. Beyond just what you see on track though, Macedo's stats show a driver in his third full time Outlaw season who continues to make really big strides. From year one to year two, Macedo's average finish improved by a full position, from 9.76 to 8.72. He didn't win as often, but his consistency was much improved, going from a top ten percentage of about 62% to nearly 78%. That type of improvement is what you'd hope from a driver on his second run through the Outlaw schedule. But this season he's taken an even bigger jump. Under the watchful eye of crew chief Philip Dietz, Macedo has blossomed this season into a legit title contender behind Sweet and David Gravel. We are somewhere near half way through the season, and he's already bested several stats, including laps led with 130, wins with five, and heat and dash wins. His average finish in 2021 is over two positions better than it was in 2020, he's qualifying nearly three spots higher and starting features nearly five spots better. Those are all dramatic improvements. Sweet is the only driver with more top five finishes this year, and Macedo only trails Sweet in top tens by two. Over the past five races, Sweet and Macedo have identical average finishes, currently sitting at 3.2. Macedo has had some missteps so far this year, including a few crashes and some rough finishes, but that's to be expected from a young, aggressive driver. Going forward though, he'll be a threat everywhere the series goes, including at the Knoxville Nationals. The JJR 41 is no stranger to victory lane at Knoxville with Gravel and Johnson, and Macedo swept the Knoxville races a few weeks ago. He'll be on a short list of favorites to win the 60th edition of that event. In future seasons, if Macedo can keep making improvements, he could follow in the footsteps of his mentor Jason Meyers and fellow Californian Sweet as drivers from the state to win Outlaw championships. Guys like Sweet and Gravel certainly aren't going anywhere, but Macedo has asserted himself this season in the conversation and will be one to watch going forward.

Before we close out today, I had one quick observation. You know when you see a driver running second make a last lap, last corner desparation move to try and win, but it normally fails? Some big slide job attempt, or they run a line hoping for a miracle and that it sticks? That's what DJ Netto did on Saturday night with the Sprint Car Challenge Tour at Stockton, only it worked. Colby Copeland led much of that feature, and looked to be headed to victory on the final lap before Netto struck. Through three and four with Copeland rolling the bottom, Netto sent it on the high side and it actually stuck. He got big momentum off the corner and easily beat Copeland back to the line for the win. He said after the race that he'd tried the higher line a few times to no avail before that, but on the final lap just drove it in as hard as he could and it stuck. I'm sure that Copeland was just as surprised as the rest of us to see the 88N flash past him. If you'd like to watch that feature, you can find it on the schedule at FloRacing.

There are four shows on the streaming schedule for today. DIRTVision has the Summer Nationals at Knox County Fair and the Super DIRTcar Series from Ransomville. There is also FloRacing 24/7 and IMCA action from Independence on Speed Sport. 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.

Thanks everybody for tuning in, I'll see you tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!