DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Brad Sweet leads Outlaws to Pevely, USA Nationals on tap for Saturday | DIRTRACKR Daily 8/6/21
Today is Friday, August 6th, two thousand and twenty one. This is DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Coming up we are talking DIRTVision, the 360 Knoxville Nationals, Eastern Midget week at Bridgeport, the Outlaws at Pevely, 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.
Last night with the World of Outlaws Late Models at Cedar Lake, they got through all the heat races and were into last chance showdowns when the rain came. Series and track officials were forced to postpone the remainder of the action to today. So they will complete the LCS's today and run the feature, and then jump into the Friday program which will set things up for the $50,000 to win USA Nationals feature on Saturday. Jonathan Davenport, Ashton Winger, Chase Junghans, Nick Hoffman, Boom Briggs, and Brandon Sheppard were the six heat race winners. They will make up the redraw for tonight's prelim feature. I don't have any reason to believe we aren't looking at the usual suspects for the race win tomorrow night. Davenport, Overton, Sheppard, and Madden will all be in the mix. I think some outside picks could include Cade Dillard, Nick Hoffman, Jimmy Mars, and Tyler Bruening. All four of those guys were fast last night. Don't forget that this weekend's racing at Cedar Lake is only available as pay per view through DIRTVision.
And actually, speaking of DIRTVision, can we all just chill out a little bit? In the last 48 hours there has been a ton of complaining about the Knoxville and Cedar Lake pay per view situation and people just completely unhinged about issues with the new website and apps. It was literally like three years ago that every event in dirt racing was single event buys. How quickly we seem to forget. Also, while it's not ideal to launch a new platform right before big events, can we be just a tick more understanding with site and app issues? It will take the crew there some time to work through some growing pains, but be patient. This will ultimately end up being a good move for the service and us as customers. Yes, I do pay just like you do. Follow the instructions they've provided to get yourself set up. If it doesn't work, calmly reach out to support. They will get back to you with help. Remember its humans on the other side of those emails and not some bot. Humans that are sitting in a cubicle in Concord, North Carolina working as quickly as they can to get you back up to speed. It wasn't all that long ago that I was part of that group, and it sucks to be in there working your ass off trying to make things as good as possible, only to be berated in emails. A little empathy goes a long way.
The 360 Knoxville Nationals got underway last night at Knoxville Raceway with the first of two prelim nights. 43 cars took part and in the feature it was Sam Hafertepe Jr. picking up his first ever win at the track. He started sixth, slipped by early leaders Garret Williamson and Matt Juhl, and led the final 14 laps en route to the win. Shane Golobic, Lynton Jeffrey, Williamson, and Juhl completed the top five. Remember that these prelims at Knoxville are all about passing points, and after night one Shane Golobic leads the way with 489 points. Hafertepe, Justin Henderson, Jeffrey, Juhl, Blake Hahn, Williamson, Jamie Ball, Brady Bacon, and Cory Eliason trail him in the top ten. It was cool seeing Hafertepe get a little choked up in victory lane last night talking about the win. I think it's easy to forget sometimes just how much winning at a place like Knoxville means to these guys. Looking at tonight's prelim field, it will be a murderer's row again with Tyler Courtney, Joey Saldana, Gio Scelzi, Daryn Pittman, Ian Madsen, and many more set to go. All of this sets up tomorrow night's $15,000 to win main event.
And then looking at Sunday, the 410 sprint cars take over for the Capitani Classic. A lot of guys will use that race as a final tune up before prelim nights start next week. The Outlaw full timers will be hustling from Pevely, Missouri after Saturday night's Ironman 55 main event. It's going to be a busy few days at Knoxville, so make sure you're tuned in.
Eastern Midget Week kept rolling along last night with round number three at Bridgeport Motorsports Park in New Jersey. It was the first visit for the series to the track and the first time the USAC midgets have raced in the state of New Jersey in 32 years. Richie Murray putting all the stats in his post race releases. In the future, it was all Tanner Thorson. He started fourth, slipped by polesitter Emerson Axsom on lap five and drove away to a massive 8.4 second victory. He lapped all the way up to ninth place. Thomas Meseraull finished second, Buddy Kofoid third, Chris Windom fourth, and Axsom slipped to fifth at the end. The win for Thorson was his fifth of 2021, and 12th over his previous 48 feature starts. A 25% win percentage is pretty damn good. He leads all drivers back through last season in total wins and laps led. The main issue for Thorson right now and getting into this championship fight is his consistency. He's fourth in the standings, but 84 points behind third place Axsom. He certainly wins plenty, but he's got to find ways to get more top fives and more top tens. He's only got eight top fives this season in 21 starts, and 15 top tens. The top three in the points all have double digit top fives, and Kofoid has 19 top tens in 21 races. And Thorson's average finish is nearly two positions worse than Kofoid's. Nobody has passed more cars in features over these last 49 races, so we know he can start deep and get to the front. He's just got to find ways to avoid nights where finishes outside the top ten. Leaving Bridgeport, Buddy's lead over Windom is 19, and 47 over Axsom. Knowing that Kofoid is racing with broken bones and a cast on his right wrist makes his 7th to 3rd run last night very impressive. A 10th at Grandview and thirds at Action Track USA and Bridgeport are big finishes, and when we look back on this season they might be pivotal races if Kofoid hangs on to win the championship. Eastern Midget Week continues tonight at Bloomsburg Fair Raceway, and closes out Saturday night at Lanco's Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway.
Elsewhere this weekend for USAC, the Silver Crown Series takes on Selinsgrove Speedway on Sunday. Kody Swanson is the current series points leader over Justin Grant and Shane Cottle. Cottle was the winner at Selinsgrove in 2020, snagging the lead from CJ Leary with just two laps left. Through four races in 2021, we've had four different winners. Swanson won at Lucas Oil, Shane Cockrum took Williams Grove, Tyler Courtney won at Eldora, and Justin Grant is the most recent winner at Winchester.
Before things get underway at Knoxville in a big way next week, the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars are at the Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 tonight and tomorrow for the Ironman 55 weekend. Tonight's winner takes home $8000, while Saturday's winner of the 55 lapper will get $20,000. Brad Sweet swept the Pevely weekend back in April, and Kyle Larson was the Ironman 55 winner back in 2020. The only other driver to win at Pevely in the Outlaws last eight appearances is Sheldon Haudenschild. I have 11 Pevely races in the dirtrackr.com analytics database since 2018, and Kyle Larson leads the way in average finish sitting at 2.5. Sweet is second at 4.2, then Logan Schuchart at 6.4, and James McFadden, Sheldon Haudenschild, and Donny Schatz all right around 7.0. I would say that it's a pretty good chance that your winner will come from this group both nights, and the prediction formula likes Sweet. The Big Cat currently leads the series points standings by 120 over Carson Macedo and 136 over David Gravel. These two weekend races are the last full points events until River Cities on August 20th. The Knoxville Nationals is traditionally show up points only for the Outlaw teams. Joining the Outlaws this weekend will be the POWRi midgets for two full programs.
If you're looking for other racing this weekend don't forget to check out the USMTS modifieds. They were at 81 Speedway last night, with Humboldt on tap tonight and Lucas Oil Speedway on Saturday. The 305 Nationals are at the Belleville Highbanks this weekend. There should be a boatload of cars there and you can watch it on Flo. There is a bunch of other late model action, including the ALMS at Merritt for $33,000 to win, the Iron Man Series at Ponderosa and Brownstown, and lots of other local and regional racing. And West Virginia Motor Speedway is paying out a bunch of money this weekend between the FAST sprint cars, super late models, and sportmods for the World Race of Champions.
And before we get ready to wrap it up for the week, shoutout to past Conversations guest Clinton Boyles on his winged 410 win last night at Circle City Raceway. He rolled his 98 car out at the last minute and picked up the victory before he heads to Knoxville this week coming week as a crew member for Hunter Schuerenberg.
Looking at today and through the weekend, it's a packed streaming schedule across the board. There are 35 shows today, 47 on Saturday, and 14 more for Sunday. That includes the 360 Knoxville Nationals, USA Nationals, World of Outlaws at Pevely, the Capitani Classic, USAC midgets and Silver Crown Series, the 305 Nationals at Belleville, the USMTS modifieds, and a whole lot more. To keep up through the weekend, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, hope you have 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!