DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Spencer Bayston stuns at the Brad Doty Classic, Eldora Speedway up next | DIRTRACKR Daily 7/14/21
Today is Wednesday, July 14th, two thousand and twenty one. This is DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Coming up we are talking Spencer Bayston's unexpected Outlaw win at the Brad Doty Classic, last night's USAC and World of Outlaws Late Model races, what to watch tonight, new podcast episodes and more.
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.
Right off the top today, if you would have told me yesterday we'd have a first time winner with the Outlaws last night and asked me to guess who it would be, I'm 100% sure I wouldn't have said Spencer Bayston. In his previous 49 Outlaw starts, Bayston had only two top five finishes and seven top ten finishes. To roll into a big race on the schedule, with 48 cars in attendance, and names like Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell in the field, and win your first ever Outlaw race was a huge accomplishment. Bayston has been driving the McGhee 11 in recent weeks following the team's split with Ian Madsen and they have had speed. They won the most recent All Star race, last weekend at Sharon Speedway. But last night was a big jump and something I'd guess most people weren't expecting. Bayston started third and took the lead on lap eight from Logan Schuchart following a caution for Cole Macedo. From there, he was able to hold off the field and drive away to his first Outlaw win and add his name to the presitigous list of Brad Doty Classic winners. Brad Sweet, Carson Macedo, Donny Schatz, and Schuchart were the rest of the top five. Kyle Larson had ignition issues early in the feature and finished 24th, out of the race. I do wonder what would have happened if Tyler Courtney hadn't gotten spun early on. He led laps four and five, but got spun after contact with Schuchart. He was fast all night, and eventually raced his way back to seventh. I have a hard time believing he wouldn't have been a factor. I know Attica is a track that Courtney and the All Star guys have gotten a bunch of laps on lately, but it was pretty incredible to see him, Eliason, and Bayston at the front of the Outlaw field. Cap Henry, Zeb Wise, and Hunter Schuerenberg also made the feature last night. It shows just how far Courtney continues to come in his early foray into full time winged competition. Donny Schatz had a nice 22nd to 4th run to get hard charger honors after needing to transfer from the night's B main. Brad Sweet extended his points lead to 142 now with his second place result, but we've had a change behind him. Macedo is now second with Gravel falling to third, six points behind the 41 team. Gravel was the most recent winner at Attica, but was never a factor last night, missing the dash and starting and finishing tenth. Starting tonight, the action moves over to Eldora for the $10,000 to win Jokers Wild. Sweet tops Schuchart and Schatz in win chances from the dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula. If you can't be at Eldora, watch live on DIRTVision.
If you are wondering today how Chase Elliott did last night in the USAC midget at Red Dirt Raceway, don't worry, you didn't miss much. The team had a tough night which started with not getting in a qualifying lap. That put Chase dead last in heat four to start and he was not able to move forward. In the night's semi, he spun and later finished 17th, not transferring to the night's feature. It sounded like they were struggling with some car issues, so hopefully they will have those resolved before they head to Solomon Valley tonight. In the night's feature we were treated to our fourth first time winner of 2021. Joining Emerson Axsom, Kyle Cummins, and Corey Day, Daison Pursley led the final eight laps to grab his first ever USAC national midget victory. He ripped the top late in the going and topped a hard charging Justin Grant, Zach Daum, Kevin Thomas Jr., and Chris Windom. Kaylee Bryson had an impressive run going, leading laps after starting second, but she was taken out of contention late, tangling with the lap car of Trey Gropp. Points leader Buddy Kofoid finished sixth. Mid America Midget Week continues tonight at Solomon Valley, before heading to Jefferson County on Friday and Saturday. You can watch live tonight on FloRacing.
I said on the show yesterday that I thought we could see a Chris Madden/Brandon Sheppard showdown last night at Gondik Law, and in the closing laps that's exactly what we got to see. Dennis Erb Jr. kept his strong recent string of races going by starting on the front row and leading the first 23 laps. But Brandon Sheppard took over on lap 24 and looked to be on his way to an easy third win of the season. Several late cautions kept the field tight though and gave Madden chances. On the white flag lap he tried a slider in turns one and two that couldn't clear Sheppy, and then coming to the checkered he tried to power off the bottom, but the Rocket one was too good on the top, and BShepp beat him back to the line. Madden ended up second, Erb third, Tyler Bruening was fourth, and James Giossi completed the top five. It was a great run for Madden, who now has 14 straight top ten finishes, but Sheppard has been just a tick better. Over the last ten races, Sheppard's average finish is 3.9, while Madden's is 4.5. That small difference is why Madden can't seem to cut any more into Sheppard's points lead, which is now 68 after Gondik Law. At this point, Madden has got to start finding ways to finish ahead of the Rocket house car every single night out, even if it's only one position. 68 points is about 34 positions, and now that we are past half way on the schedule, Madden is going to start running out of race nights. The tough season for Cade Dillard continued last night as he was forced to sit out of the race dealing with illness. Jimmy Mars renumbered his car to 97 last night to help with Dillard's series status. The Outlaws are now off until Friday at River Cities.
After losing the Tuesday night show to rain, the Summer Nationals are back in action tonight to start week five. The series takes on Circle City Raceway in Indianapolis for the first time ever. Bobby Pierce continues to lead the late model standings over Tanner English and Brian Shirley, while Nick Hoffman has locked up the modified championship with 12 wins so far. Pierce leads the way with seven late model wins. Brian Shirley, Brandon Sheppard and Shannon Babb all have two, while Devin Moran, Tanner English, and Ashton Winger all have one each. Mike Harrison and Kenny Wallace are the only other drivers with modified wins. I'm excited for this show tonight, as I think the new Circle City track is really racey. We've seen some fantastic shows there so far between the All Stars and USAC, and the World of Outlaws late model show there back in June. Several guys that will be in attendance tonight ran that Outlaw show, so it will be interesting to see how that knowledge pays off. Pierce and Ryan Unzicker are two guys on that list to keep an eye on. If you can't attend Circle City tonight, watch live on DIRTVision.
If you aren't interested in Eldora, the USAC midgets, or Summer Nationals, the Short Track Super Series is also in action tonight. The north region takes on the Bloomsburg Fair Raceway for 50 laps and $5000 to win. Matt Sheppard and Anthony Perrego are tied atop the north region points standings right now with Stewart Friesen, Mike Mahaney, and Andy Bachetti in tow. This will be the series' first trip to Bloomsburg, and the field should be stout with names like Billy Pauch Jr., Ryan Watt, Mat Williamson, and Tyler Dippel all also planning to race. Crate 602 Sportsman are also on the card with hot laps starting at 6 PM ET and racing at 7. If you can't be there, FloRacing has the live stream.
In Western Sprint Tour action last night at Willamette Speedway, we had the same top five as the night before, just in a different order. Colby Copeland grabbed the win over Justyn Cox, Tanner Holmes, Corey Day, and Tyler Thompson. Cox will be looking to break through tonight at Sunset after back-to-back second place finishes to open the week.
Every week on Wednesday I point out new dirt racing podcast episodes, and this week is no different. Winged Nation has Brad Sweet, Mark Dobmeier and Brad Doty. Open Red has Cole Macedo, LoudPedal has Kevin Olson and Stevie Reeves, Forward Bite has Chuck Atkins and Michael Brown, the Dirt from Knoxville has Steve Post, Ohio Dirt has David Gravel, Passing Points has Kevin Thomas Jr., and there are new episodesof Stick Signals, the Dirt Reporters, the Dirt Nerds, Wednesdays with Wayne, and the Midwest Autosports Podcast. To check out a full list of the shows and recent episodes, visit dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
And if you missed it yesterday, I dropped a new conversations episode. My good friend Blake Anderson hopped on to talk all things sprint cars this week in Ohio, including win picks and dark horses for the Kings Royal, what Kyle Larson's chances are, potential car counts, we talked some All Stars, and more. If don't know Blake, he's the voice of the All Star Circuit of Champions and is super knowledgeable about not only sprint cars, but dirt racing in general. You can find that episode on the YouTube channel and the podcast feed.
There are nine shows on the streaming schedule today. DIRTVision has the Summer Nationals at Circle City and the Jokers Wild from Eldora. FloRacing has Flo 24/7 plus the USAC midgets, weekly racing from Action Track USA, and the Short Track Super Series at Bloomsburg Fair. RacinDirt has the USMTS at Casino Speedway, and Speed Sport has weekly action at Buena Vista and night three of the Western Sprint Tour. 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 Wednesday. 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!