DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Brad Doty Classic tonight, Chase Elliott back in a USAC midget | DIRTRACKR Daily 7/13/21
Today is Tuesday, July 13th, two thousand and twenty one. This is DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
On the show today we are talking the Brad Doty Classic, Chase Elliott back in a midget, the World of Outlaws late models at Gondik Law, and some more event and driver news.
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 Month of Money is here and the World of Outlaws get serious with five races in five nights this week. Action gets underway tonight at Attica Raceway Park for the Brad Doty Classic before switching to Eldora on Wednesday for double Kings Royals. We've been talking a lot lately about the points and Brad Sweet stretching out his advantage, but the focus this week will very much be on the racing itself with so much money and prestige on the line. Kyle Larson is the defending Brad Doty Classic winner, while Donny Schatz was the winner in 2018. Tonight's race is a standard $10,000 to win purse, but this is a race that a lot of guys want to win. You've seen guys get choked up in victory lane at the Doty, and it's not difficult to understand why. Brad is a legend of the sport and has done a ton to stay involved and advance things, including the promotion of this event and his time in the TV booth. Sweet enters tonight red hot and on the strength of three straight series wins but Attica hasn't been kind to him in recent years. He did finish fifth at Attica earlier this year, but has finishes of 23rd and 17th in the past two Dotys. The dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula heavily favors Kyle Larson for tonight. As of me recording this, I haven't seen confirmation anywhere online that Larson is racing this week, but with so much racing happening and money to win, I have a hard time imagining him sitting on the sidelines this week. If for some reason he doesn't race, Donny Schatz is next in line in win chances. Schatz has had a ton of success at Attica and in the Doty. The field should be very strong tonight, with the full time Outlaws, plenty of Ohio regulars, guys like Tyler Courtney and Cory Eliason from the All Stars, and many others coming in to join a busy week. That includes Christopher Bell who will race tonight in the Swindell SpeedLab 39. David Gravel was the winner at Attica earlier in 2021, and he'll be looking to repeat to get some momentum going again following a rough weekend at Wilmot. I'm working this morning on a conversations episode to do a full Attica and Kings Royal preview, so stay tuned for that later. Drop me a comment below and let me know who you are picking for the wins tonight and this week. If you can't be at Attica tonight, watch live on DIRTVision.
The USAC National Midgets are in action tonight at Red Dirt Raceway in Oklahoma to kick off Mid America Midget Week. The week was supposed to start Sunday at Sweet Springs in Missouri, but that event was lost to rain. That leaves tonight at Red Dirt, tomorrow at Soloman Valley, and Friday and Saturday at Jefferson County left for the week. Buddy Kofoid enters as the points leader over Chris Windom and Emerson Axsom, with Windom being the most recent winner with the series, back on June 12th at Kokomo to close out Indiana Midget Week. Joining the field for the next two nights is defending NASCAR Cup champion Chase Elliott. Elliott hasn't been in a midget since the USAC events at Bubba Raceway Park back in February. He finished 18th and 14th those two nights, including a heat race win. He was also an F main runner at Chili Bowl back in January. He'll be driving for Chase Briscoe and Paul May in the two races this week, which is the same car he drove at Chili Bowl. He raced for Chad Boat in the USAC shows at Bubba. Chase will follow the two midget starts up with an appearance with SRX at Nashville on Saturday before the Cup race in Loudon, New Hampshire on Sunday. Looking at tonight, Tanner Thorson is the most recent winner at Red Dirt, back in July of 2020. He led all but one lap in that race, topping Tyler Courtney, Jerry Coons Jr., Kofoid, and Windom. Emerson Axsom was the hottest driver with the series to close out Indiana Midget Week, with an average finish of 5th over the last five races. Kofoid leads all drivers with four wins on the year. Don't forget you can watch all the USAC races live on Flo.
Elsewhere tonight, the World of Outlaws Late Model Series continues their northern swing with a stop at Gondik Law Speedway in Wisconsin. The track is located about two and a half hours north of Minneapolis, up I-35 right on Lake Superior. Brandon Sheppard was the winner at Gondik Law in 2020, leading all 50 laps and topping Cade Dillard and Jimmy Owens. Sheppard will be looking to repeat that performance tonight, as he continues to be locked in a tight battle for the championship with Chris Madden. Both drivers left Jackson Motorplex last weekend with top five finishes, so no big changes happened in the standings. Gondik Law is a 3/8 mile track, which sets up perfectly for both drivers. Madden has five recent wins on 3/8 tracks, while Sheppard has 11. I would not be surprised to see those two drivers battling for the win tonight. In the battle for rookie of the year, Tyler Bruening has been really impressive in his first season with the Outlaws. He currently sits third in the standings on the strength of five top five and 15 top ten finishes. Ryan Gustin is trying to track him down in the standings, but Gustin has struggled lately with four finishes outside the top ten in his past five races. He currently sits 116 points behind Bruening. The weather looks good for today, with temperatures in the low 80s. If you can't attend, watch live on DIRTVision.
Two racing programs we were supposed to see tonight have been cancelled because of poor weather. The Super DIRTcar Series Horsepower 100, which was already delayed once at Albany Saratoga, has been cancelled tonight and will not be rescheduled. The series will make a stop at the track later in the season for a $10,000 to win Super DIRT Week qualifier. Next up on the schedule for the big blocks is next Tuesday night at Land of Legends. We've also lost tonight's Summer Nationals races at Lake Cumberland Speedway in Kentucky because of wet weather. Officials are working to find a replacement date if possible. So week five will now start tomorrow at Circle City Raceway in Indianapolis.
On the flip side, after the Smoky Mountain weekend for Lucas was lost to rain, series officials announced yesterday they will make up that $20,000 to win race on Friday, October 8th. The reschedule creates a three race weekend now with Dixie Speedway on Saturday and Rome Speedway on Sunday. For more on that announcement, check out lucasdirt.com.
The Western Sprint Tour in Oregon got underway last night for 360 sprint cars. If you don't know about it, they are going to race five times this week with stops at Coos Bay, Willamette, Sunset, and two nights at Cottage Grove. In the opener last night at Coos Bay, California's Corey Day went fifth to the win, topping Justyn Cox, Colby Copeland, Tanner Holmes, and Tyler Thompson. If you can't attend any of these speedweek races but would like to watch, streams are available through Speed Sport and will be on the streaming schedule on dirtrackr.com.
And speaking of Corey Day, he's taking over the driving duties of the Tarlton 21 out in California for the next two race weekends, replacing Austin McCarl. The 15 year old will be in the seat at Ocean Speedway this weekend for the Howard Kaeding Classic, and next weekend for the King of the West shows at Tulare and Santa Maria. Day has been impressive this season in open wheel competition, both on the west coast and elsewhere. He competed during Indiana Midget Week for Clauson Marshall and racked up five top ten finishes, plus a win at Circle City on June 9th. That win at Circle City made him the youngest USAC midget winner in history. We talked about Day on this show the day after that win, and how he's definitely one to watch going forward. The opportunity to race the Tarlton 21 is a good chance to see him shine, especially against the tough competition in California sprint car racing. Both nights at Ocean this weekend will be live on FloRacing.
There are six items on the streaming schedule for today. DIRTVision has the Brad Doty Classic and the World of Outlaws Late Models from Gondik Law. FloRacing has USAC Midgets and Flo 24/7. Speed Sport has night two of the Western Sprint Tour and IMCA racing from Shelby County. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, hope you have 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!