DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Kyle Bronson, Brent Marks cash in with big dirt racing wins | DIRTRACKR Daily 7/26/21
Today is Monday, July 26th, two thousand and twenty one. This is DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Coming up we'll get you up to speed on all the weekend's dirt racing action, including big money for Lucas, the Outlaws in Central PA, three races for the All Stars and a lot 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.
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series closed out the lucrative week at I-80 Speedway in Nebraska with the $53,000 to win Silver Dollar Nationals on Saturday night. I'm not sure late last week that we would have guessed that Chase Junghans and Kyle Bronson would be the ones battling for the win, but that's exactly what we got. In the 80 lap main event, Junghans led the first 47 laps from the outside pole, but fifth starting Bronson was looking for a big pay day. The 40b grabbed the lead on lap 48 and drove away to a massive 10 and a half second win, with Tim McCreadie finishing second, Earl Pearson Jr. third, Jimmy Owens fourth, and Junghans sliding to fifth. The win was Bronson's first series victory of the year and easily the biggest of his career. It was also the first crown jewel triumph for the driver from Florida. Behind the big win for Bronson, we had a big slipup for Jonathan Davenport in the chase for the championship. He suffered a mechanical failure early in the going and ended up 27th which lost him big ground in the title fight with McCreadie. What was a 45 point advantage for TMac after Thursday night's show, is now 150 points with the issues for Davenport. Certainly not what Superman was looking for on a big money night. The Lucas late models go quiet now for a few weeks, before they return to action on August 12th at Florence Speedway for the North South 100 weekend.
Another round of the infamous rivalry between the World of Outlaws and the Pennsylvania Posse is in the books with the completion of the weekend's Summer Nationals at Williams Grove. On Friday night the Posse's losing streak continued with a dominating win from Sheldon Haudenschild. He started on the pole and led all 25 laps en route to his first career victory at the Grove. The victory makes Jac and Sheldon the first father/son duo to win Outlaw races at Williams Grove. Lance Dewease hard charged from 17th to finish second, while James McFadden, Donny Schatz, and Brent Marks completed the top five. On Saturday night, I guess you could say the Posse winless streak was busted, as Brent Marks took down the $20,000 to win weekend finale. Marks started out the year as a full time member of the All Stars but has since pulled back to a pick and choose schedule and the Posse were definitely going to claim him this weekend. Donny Schatz led the first 20 laps from second but Marks was really good behind him. The 19 started fourth, took over the lead on lap 21, held off a late charge from Sheldon, and drove away to the $20,000 win. Sheldon, Schatz, Carson Macedo, and Dewease rounded out the top five. Weekend finishes of 8th and 11th weren't terrible for points leader Brad Sweet, but he did give up just a bit of ground to both Macedo and David Gravel, who finished ahead of him both nights. Headed to Ransomville and Weedsport this weekend, the gap to Macedo is 112, while Gravel is 138 behind.
The All Star Circuit of Champions is into a busy stretch with seven races in nine days happening across the midwest. They started the weekend with two shows at Lake Ozark Speedway in Missouri. On Friday night, Cap Henry started on the pole, led some laps early, then dropped back a few spots before he found the low side. He then rolled some hot bottom back to the lead on lap 18, held off Zeb Wise late and drove away to his second All Star win of 2021. Wise finished second, Christopher Bell hard charged from 14th to finish third, Tyler Courtney was fourth, and Gio Scelzi was fifth. In the Saturday night feature at Lake Ozark, Christopher Bell battled early with Cale Thomas, but took over for good on lap seven and led the rest of the way for his first sprint car win of 2021 and sixth career All Star victory. He did it behind the wheel of Swindell SpeedLab 39, which he's been sharing recently with Daryn Pittman. Henry, Courtney, Eliason, and Gio Scelzi completed the top five. On Sunday the All Stars headed to a new race track for them in Humboldt Speedway in Kansas. It looked like we might get the first Cory Eliason win of the season, but he faded late in the going and series points leader Tyler Courtney took advantage, leading the final four laps en route to his sixth win of 2021 and first since June 4th at Wilmot Raceway. Eliason ended up second, Zeb Wise third, Hunter Schuerenberg fourth, and Justin Peck completed the top five. Eliason is definitely back going in the right direction, with his average finish over the last five races being a series best 3.8. The problem is that Courtney has matched the pace, so Eliason hasn't been able to close down in the standings. Courtney heads to I-70 on Tuesday with a massive 258 point advantage. The All Stars have four races coming up, so stay tuned for those.
Indiana Sprint Week for the USAC National Sprint Cars is underway, but we did only get two of three shows completed over the weekend. The Friday night opener at Gas City was rained out and pushed to tonight. The Saturday night show at Kokomo was also affected by rain, but went official after 18 laps were scored in the feature. Kevin Thomas Jr. led the first eight circuits, but third starting Justin Grant was quickly after him, taking the lead on lap nine and holding on until the lap 18 caution for rain. Grant picked up the win, with Brady Bacon second, KTJ slipping to third, CJ Leary was fourth, and Tanner Thorson completed the top five. On Sunday at Lawrenceburg, we had a really fun battle for the win between Jake Swanson, Tanner Thorson, and Logan Seavey. Swanson ended up leading the most laps, but he had to settle for second because Seavey slipped past him to lead lap 24 and he drove away to the win. Behind Seavey and Swanson, Thorson finished third, Bacon fourth, and KTJ was fifth. Justin Grant started 19th, suffered a flat tire, but recovered to an 8th place finish. In the season long championship battle, he now trails points leader Bacon by 73. With two nights complete, Bacon also leads the sprint week points by nine over KTJ. There is still a ton of racing left, so anything can and will happen in the standings. The action continues tonight with the makeup feature at Gas City. You can watch that live on FloRacing.
With the Summer Nationals over the weekend, the Bobby Pierce/Ashton Winger show continued to roll along with both drivers adding more wins to their 2021 resumes. Pierce won Friday night at Tri-City and Sunday at Richmond to push his win total to 11 for the year. He continues to pull away in the points standings. And on Saturday at Clarksville, Ashton Winger picked up his fourth win of the year and continues to show big improvement. With the modifieds, Nick Hoffman and Mike Harrison split the weekend, with Harrison winning Friday at Tri-City, and Hoffman taking Saturday at Clarksville and Sunday at Richmond. Hoffman's Sunday win pushed him to 17 on the season and 55 for his career, which is now the most wins in Modified Nationals history. This week of racing closes out tonight at Lake Cumberland. You can watch live on DIRTVision.
Sprint Week for the ASCS got underway over the weekend, and they got three shows complete after the opening night rainout at Riverside. Friday night at Batesville it was Dale Howard winning over Ryan Timms and Dylan Westbrook, Saturday at I-30 it was Matt Covington taking the victory with JJ Hickle second and Westbrook third, and last night's makeup show at Riverside was a wild affair that took about an hour and a half to complete 30 laps. We had multiple red flags, drivers mad, and a last lap, last corner crash. Jeff Swindell led much of the race but got passed late by Matt Covington. Then on the final lap, Swindell threw a desparation move at Covington and actually cleared him, but then caught the wall. The contact forced him back down into Covington and also collected Blake Hahn. After a lengthy delay for cleanup, Ryan Timms inherited the lead on the restart and drove away to the win over Dylan Westbrook and a nice recovery for JJ Hickle in third, who was turned over earlier in the night. ASCS Sprint Week is off tonight but returns tomorrow at Creek County Speedway for night four.
On Sunday at Weedsport Speedway, Stewart Friesen started fifth, battled past early leader Max McLaughlin just before half way, and drove away to his fourth Super DIRTcar Series win of the season. McLaughlin, Tim Sears Jr., Erick Rudolph, and Chris Hile completed the Hall of Fame 100 top five. The win extended Friesen's points lead over Matt Sheppard, who finished outside the top ten in 12th. The Super DIRTcar Series big block modifieds are back this Thursday, July 29th at Orange County Fair Speedway.
There are three shows on the streaming schedule today, with Flo 24/7 happening over on FloRacing along with USAC sprint week action at Gas City. And DIRTVision has the Summer Nationals from Lake Cumberland Speedway. 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 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!