DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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NASCAR Trucks at Knoxville, Dynamite Mark Dobmeier wins return from injury | DIRTRACKR Daily 7/9/21
Today is Friday, July 9th, two thousand and twenty one. This is DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Today we start things off with a feel good story about Mark Dobmeier, we've got last night's Summer Nationals results, and we're talking NASCAR trucks at Knoxville and busy dirt racing weekend on tap.
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.
I'm going to kick off today's show with a cool story. On July 3rd last year, Mark Dobmeier was injured in a crash at the Cedar Lake Speedway with the World of Outlaws. He was battling for a transfer spot in a heat race and ended up flipping. His Buffalo Wild Wings sprint car came down hard on the frame and the impact broke Dobmeier's back. He had injuries to his L4 and L3 veterbrae, underwent surgery, and has been recovering over the past 12 months. In the time since, Dobmeier's car has returned to the track, most recently with Dominic Scelzi behind the wheel, but Dobmeier himself hadn't raced until last night. He returned to action at the River Cities Speedway for the NOSA sanctioned Wayne Anderson Cup and showed no ill effects from his injury. In the feature, Dobmeier started sixth, raced to third in the opening laps, moved up when early leader Tim Estenson flipped, and passed Jack Croaker on lap eight for the lead. He then went unchallenged the rest of the way to snag his 166th career NOSA win. It was an incredible way to return to the track after his injury and there were a lot of smiling faces in victory lane. When drivers get injured like that, you always wonder how it will be for them when they get back in the car, but Dobmeier was ready to race last night. Going forward, Dobmeier plans on racing weekly at River Cities on Friday nights and Huset's on Sundays. He'll also make some starts at Knoxville and with the World of Outlaws when they are close by. It's a great story, and congrats to Dobmeier. Brendan Mullen, Jade Hastings, Wade Nygaard, and Austin Pierce completed last night's NOSA top five.
The Summer Nationals and Modified Nationals took on the tight confines of the 1/5 mile Macon Speedway last night. We found out earlier in the day that the July 21st event at Randolph County Raceway in Missouri has been cancelled due to a scheduling conflict. I'm not quite sure what that means, but the event will not be rescheduled. That week of the Hell Tour will now open on July 22nd at Springfield. Over to the racing, Macon is known for a lot of action and wild races because of just how small it is and the ability to run anywhere on the track. Unfortunately in the 100 lap late model feature though, the track took rubber near half way and the last 50 laps turned into the dreaded freight train. Early leader Brian Shirley suffered a flat tire 23 laps deep and that handed the lead to Bobby Pierce, who was able to keep the field at bay, maneuver through lap traffic, and grab his third career Herald and Review 100 win and seventh Summer Nationals win of the season. Ryan Unzicker, Shannon Babb, Logan Martin, and Gordy Gundaker completed the top five. Myles Moos was actually fourth at the checkered flag, but was later DQ'd for being light at the scales. Trouble last night for both Tanner English and Shirley will see Pierce continue to extend the late model points lead. In the modified feature, there was no Nick Hoffman as he took the night off. That meant it was highly likely we'd see a third different winner this season, as Hoffman and Kenny Wallace were the only two with a win so far. The early part of the race was a three way battle out front between Drake Troutman, Ray Bollinger, and six time champion Mike Harrison. Inside ten to go Troutman faded which left Bollinger and Harrison to duke it out. Through the early laps, both Bollinger and Harrison were on the top, but late in the going, Harrison moved to the bottom and the switch paid off. Following a restart with five to go, Harrison cleared the 77 of Bollinger and drove away to his 53rd career Modified Nationals win. Bobby Stremme, Bollinger, Troutman, and Guy Taylor were the rest of the top five. As I talked about on yesterday's show, the championship is basically in the books for Hoffman, so from here on out it will be all about race wins on the modified side. Both series have a busy weekend on tap, with stops at Farmer City tonight, Highland on Saturday, and Haubstadt on Sunday. All three tracks should provide some great racing. Don't forget you can watch live all weekend long on DIRTVision.
Looking around the country, there is a ton of dirt racing to get into this weekend, but one race I'm super interested in is the NASCAR trucks at Knoxville. They held practice last night with series regular Chandler Smith atop the sheet. Donny Schatz was fourth quick, Brian Brown was ninth, Chase Briscoe was 13th, Kyle Strickler was 19th, Stewart Friesen was 22nd, Parker Price Miller was 26th, and Jessica Friesen was 36th. With as much experience as they have around Knoxville, Schatz and Brown could easily snag good finishes tonight. Schatz was only two tenths off the pace, with Brownie three tenths off. Not bad for two guys making their series debuts. I do think a series regular probably gets the win, as we've seen in the past that those guys with stock car experience usually prevail over the dirt guys in these races. There is weather in the area for the weekend, so we'll have to see if Mother Nature plays nice. Heat races are scheduled for 7PM ET, with the green flag set to drop shortly after 9PM ET tonight. You can watch live on Fox Sports One. Drop me a comment and let me know how you think the dirt guys will do.
Saturday's Knoxville program includes weekly 410 winged sprint cars along with the Corn Belt Clash for USAC and POWRi WAR non-wing sprint cars. Tyler Courtney and Brady Bacon were non-wing winners at Knoxville in 2020, while Brian Brown leads the 410 Knoxville points with two wins so far. The USAC race pays $20,000 to the winner and is the richest one day show on the sprint car schedule. Bacon is the series points leader right now by 54 over Justin Grant and is the winningest USAC driver at Knoxville with four victories. He's won the past two Corn Belt Clash races, in 2020 and 2019. I'd keep an eye on Kevin Thomas Jr. as well, his average finish over the past five races is 2.6, which is a series best, and he's got recent wins at Lincoln Park and Bloomsburg Fair Raceway. Keep in mind this is one of those weird streaming nights. If you want to watch the full program tomorrow, you'll need both FloRacing and DIRTVision. Flo holds the USAC rights and DIRTVision streams Knoxville weekly, so you'll be flipping back and forth. Sucky I know, but that's just the world we live in right now.
Elsewhere for USAC this weekend, the national midgets will hit up Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex on Sunday for $6000 to win. The event kicks off Mid-America Midget Week which will see five races in four states over seven days. The midgets haven't raced since Kokomo on June 12th, which closed out Indiana Midget Week. Chris Windom was the winner that night, and he currently trails Buddy Kofoid by 47 points in the national midget standings. Kofoid leads all drivers with four wins in 2021, but Emerson Axsom has been the hottest driver lately with the series. He has an average finish of 5th over his last five starts which leads all drivers. Mid-America Midget Week will also have stops at Red Dirt Raceway, Solomon Valley Raceway, and Jefferson County Speedway through next Saturday night. If you can't attend, FloRacing will have the live stream.
For winged sprint car fans, both the All Stars and World of Outlaws race this weekend. The Outlaws have one show at Wilmot on Saturday, before they head to Ohio next week. David Gravel is the defending Wilmot winner and has four wins in six starts at the track. Donny Schatz and Brent Marks have recent Wilmot wins as well. Gravel will be hoping to parlay his Wilmot prowess into a win and try and close the gap back up on Brad Sweet who leads the standings right now by 94 points. The dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula does favor Gravel over Carson Macedo for the win tomorrow. You can watch the show live on DIRTVision.
As for the All Stars, the story of the season has been all Tyler Courtney. With five wins and a points lead of 256 right now, he'll be tough to track down for the championship. The series is at Stateline Speedway tonight in New York, before heading to Sharon Speedway in Ohio for Saturday and Sunday. Dale Blaney won at Stateline in 2019, while Danny Dietrich and Justin Peck have Sharon wins already in 2021. The All Stars are back in action after Ohio Sprint Speedweek, and Courtney rounded out the stretch with six top tens in seven starts, and his average finish over the final five was 3.8. Cory Eliason, Hunter Schuerenberg, Zeb Wise, Bill Balog, and Cap Henry will all need to start making some big moves if they hope to track Courtney down. You can watch the All Stars live all weekend long on Flo.
For late model fans, both the World of Outlaws and Lucas have races over the next few days. The Outlaws are headed to Jackson Motorplex for two shows, including $10k to win tonight, and $20k to win tomorrow. Ricky Thornton Jr. and Ricky Weiss were Jackson winners in 2020, and Weiss will be hoping to match that success as he is winless so far in 2021 and looking to claw out of a 274 point hole in the standings. All eyes though will be focused on Brandon Sheppard and Chris Madden as the two duke it out for the championship lead. BShepp enters with a 58 points advantage over Smoky. Madden has two more wins, but trails Sheppard because of early season struggles at Volusia when he wasn't yet a full time member of the series. Sheppard is the win favorite from the analytics prediction formula, and you can watch live both nights on DIRTVision.
With Lucas, the championship fight is currently between three drivers, with Tim McCreadie out front, and Jonathan Davenport and Hudson O'Neal tied for second. JD had won three straight races before McCreadie stopped his run last Saturday night at Muskingum County. I still wonder about O'Neal's ability to stay consistent enough to keep himself in the fight, so this feels right now like it's going to come down to TMac and Superman. I'm going to keep that position until O'Neal proves me wrong. The Lucas late models are headed to Smoky Mountain for two nights after the Thursday Cherokee show was cancelled. Brandon Overton was the Smoky Mountain winner in 2020 and will be in attendance looking to repeat. It also sounds like we'll see Ross Bailes, Dale McDowell, Spencer Hughes, Chris Ferguson, and Kyle Larson. Larson will race both nights in the Rumley six before heading to Atlanta on Sunday for the Cup race. MAVTV Plus has live coverage both nights.
Elsewhere, the ASCS National tour is at Gallatin Speedway for two nights with Blake Hahn, Matt Covington, and JJ Hickle locked in a tight points battle. And Bud Kaeding leads DJ Netto and Dominic Scelzi in the King of the West standings as they take on Petaluma on Saturday night. If you're headed to the track this weekend, drop me a comment or tweet and let me know where your going and what you'll be watching.
As of me recording this, there are 27 shows on the streaming schedule for today, with a lot more to come this weekend. That includes both World of Outlaws series, Lucas, the All Stars, USAC, the ASCS, and a ton of local and regional racing. 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 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'll see you tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!