DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
Dirt racing news, results, discussion, analytics. Sprint cars, late models, modifieds, you name it. From national series, to top local shows. Brought to you five days a week. Email the show at info@dirtrackr.com.
Davenport takes USA Nats, Scelzi wins 360 Nats, Sheldon sweeps Ironman | DIRTRACKR Daily 8/9/21
Today is Monday, August 9th, two thousand and twenty one. This is DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Coming up we've got details on a big weekend of racing including wins for Jonathan Davenport, Sheldon Haudenschild, Gio Scelzi, and much 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.
Since there are so many big races from the weekend to talk about, we'll start with the highest paying race, the USA Nationals for the World of Outlaws Late Model Series at Cedar Lake Speedway. In Thursday's prelim feature that got moved to Friday because of rain, it was a fun race to the finish between Ashton Winger and Chase Junghans. Junghans led the first six laps before Winger took over on lap seven. Winger was in control until the white flag lap. Junghans got a big run down the backstretch and tried to muscle his way past Winger on the inside into turn three. Out of turn four, Winger was able to keep just enough momentum to beat the 18 back to the checkered but .107 seconds. Brandon Sheppard finished third, Jimmy Owens was fourth, and Nick Hoffman completed the top five driving for Scott Bloomquist. With the Saturday show of USA Nationals not a points race for the Outlaws, that prelim feature was the only points paying race of the week, and it wasn't a good one for Chris Madden. His 10th place finish behind BShepp's podium meant he gave up another 14 markers, so Sheppy's lead is now 102 with 34 races complete. Madden won't have another chance to close the gap until the Outlaws are back in action on August 19th at Orange County Fair. 102 points is effectively 51 positions, so Madden needs to get hot and quick to stay in this fight.
On Saturday night in the 100 lapper, with $50,000 on the line, it turned into a battle of attrition. We started the race with 27 cars, and at the end only 10 were still on the race track. Kyle Bronson ended up leading 85 laps, but he was one of the night's victims. With only eight laps left, he cut down a left rear tire and was out of the race. Through the feature, lots of cars ended up in the pit area, and some multiple times. Jimmy Owens was a victim, as was Cade Dillard, Ricky Weiss, and Brandon Sheppard. At the end though, it was Superman Jonathan Davenport grabbing his first Outlaw win of 2021 and second career USA Nationals triumph. He was just so methodical through the race, working his way up from his 11th starting spot and being in position to seize control of the feature when Bronson had his issues. Davenport led the final 12 laps and took down the $50,000 win. Defending race winner Brandon Overton was second, Ashton Winger third, Jason Feger hard charged from 23rd to finish fourth, and Brandon Sheppard recovered from a flat tire to finish fifth. As I said before, the Outlaws are off until August 19th when the start a four race swing through New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Up next for the world of super late models is the North South 100 this weekend with Lucas at Florence. That's a $50,000 to win show. The Summer Nationals are also back this coming weekend after a few weeks off. We'll have more on all of that later this week.
With the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series, this weekend was the final two races for the series until the Knoxville Nationals start. They took on the Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 in Pevely, Missouri for the Ironman 55 weekend. On Friday night, we had a caution right on the opening lap for Cale Thomas and Justin Peck, and then from there it went caution free. Logan Schuchart led the first six laps, but Sheldon Haudenschild took over the lead on lap seven and drove away to a dominating win. Brad Sweet tried to keep pace through lap traffic, but could never get close enough to challenge. Sheldon lapped all the way up to seventh place. Behind the 17, Sweet, David Gravel, Logan Schuchart, and Carson Macedo completed the top five. On Saturday night, we had seven lead changes among three drivers, but at the end of the 55 lapper it was again Sheldon Haudenschild celebrating in victory lane. Parker Price Miller was strong in the early going, leading 10 laps, but he cut down a tire on lap 16 and ended up crashing. The work area did their thing and with the help of another caution was able to get him back in the race after replacing the front end, right rear tire, and front wing. He finished 13th. The other driver to lead laps was David Gravel. He battled Sheldon through much of the race, but couldn't keep him at bay. Haudenschild took over the lead for good with 12 laps left and drove away to the $20,000 score. James McFadden hard charged from 12th to finish second, Brad Sweet was third, Logan Schuchart fourth, and Rico Abreu was fifth. The wins were the sixth and seventh of the season for Sheldon, and it was his second career Ironman 55 victory. In the standings, Sweet grew his lead a little more over Macedo and Gravel with two podium runs. Macedo is second 140 out, and Gravel is four more points back in third. We won't see any movement this week at Knoxville as the event is show up points only.
On Sunday, a lot of the Outlaw teams made the trip to Knoxville to run the 10th annual Capitani Classic. It was the final chance for teams to get on the track before Knoxville Nationals prelims start on Wednesday. 65 cars took part, so it was a stout field. In the 25 lap main event, Cory Eliason led the first 12 laps from the pole, but David Gravel grabbed the lead on lap 13 and drove way to the $8000 win. Eliason, Donny Schatz, Kerry Madsen, and Sheldon Haudenschild completed the top five. Interestingly, the last two Knoxville Nationals champions also won the Capitani Classic that year. Sweet did it in 2018, and Gravel did it in 2019. This could be a good omen for Gravel as he gets ready to defend is Nationals crown. Looking at tonight, there is more 410 racing coming up. The Front Row Challenge takes place at Southern Iowa Speedway and the winner will take down $21,000. Not everyone will make the trip from Knoxville, but they should have a nice field.
Also at Knoxville over the weekend was the remainder of the 360 Nationals. On Friday in the second prelim feature, Gio Scelzi made some nice moves in the last ten laps to drive from fourth to the lead. He grabbed the top spot from Carson McCarl with two to go and drove away to the win in the non stop race. Daryn Pittman was the high point man on night two and that setup Shane Golobic and Pittman on the front row of the Saturday night feature, with Sam Hafertepe and Gio Scelzi behind on row two. Some names that missed the big show included Matt Covington, Kyle Reinhardt, Colby Copeland, Michael Faccinto, Greg Wilson, Jeff Swindell, and JJ Hickle. Once green, Daryn Pittman charged to the lead and he was out front until lap 22 when things got good between him and Gio Scelzi. The veteran Pittman was on the bottom, and the young Scelzi was up top. The two swapped the lead multiple times late in the going, with Pittman leading at the white flag. Into turn one on the final lap, the lap car of Ian Madsen was on the bottom, so Pittman switched lanes to the top to try and not only avoid Madsen, but also slow Gio. But Scelzi's momentum was too good, and it allowed him to grab the lead down the backstretch and drive away to the win. It was a big score for Gio and the KCP team, and he was fired up afterwards. Pittman finished second, Justin Henderson third, Shane Golobic fourth, and Brooke Tatnell was fifth. We'll see if the good runs for Gio and Pittman will translate into success this week for the 410 Nationals.
In other open wheel action over the weekend, we had the conclusion of Eastern Midget Week for USAC. Friday night at Bloomsburg Fair, Alex Bright led early, but Thomas Meseraull looked to be the guy to beat. He got by Bright on lap eight and was strong out front until lap 20 when disaster struck. He tangled with a lap car in between one and two and spun from the lead. It looked like TMez just misjudged the speed of the lap car when he tried to pass him on the high side. That handed the lead to Tanner Thorson, who led the rest of the way for his second consecutive USAC midget victory and sixth of the year. Justin Grant, Cannon McIntosh, Bright, and Emerson Axsom were the rest of the top five. On Saturday night at Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway it was Justin Grant bagging his first series victory of the year. He got by Emerson Axsom on lap 23 and drove away to the win. What a wild little race track that is. We saw a bunch of sliders, and guys banging the boards. Don't forget this is the track where Logan Seavey made his famous wall pass a few years ago. Leaving the weekend, even with his injuries, Buddy Kofoid was able to keep pace with his competition and he maintains the points lead. Chris Windom is second 21 points back and Axsom is 35 back in third. Kofoid was supposed to compete this week at Knoxville with CJB, but he's going to sit out to heal, and Zeb Wise is taking his place. The USAC midgets are back next week at the Dirt Track at IMS for the BC39.
The USAC Silver Crown Series was at Selinsgrove on Sunday for round number five of the season and we were treated to our fifth different 2021 winner. CJ Leary led early, and tried to make a late run, but he couldn't top Logan Seavey. Seavey led 66 of the 75 laps en route to his first ever Silver Crown win. Leary settled for second, Jake Swanson was third, Shane Cockrum fourth, and Justin Grant completed the top five. The series heads to the pavement of Lucas Oil Raceway this week and we've got a tight points battle at the top. Only 34 points separate the top four, with Grant, Seavey, and Shane Cottle all within striking distance of leader Kody Swanson.
Other weekend open wheel winners included Brent Crews sweeping the POWRi midget features at Pevely, Briggs Danner with the USAC East Coast Sprint Cars at Bloomsburg, Cole Macedo in a 410 at Lernerville, Justin Sanders at Ocean, Anthony Macri at West Virginia, Devin Borden won Friday night at Williams Grove and Saturday at Port Royal, Nate Dussel took Fremont, Jadon Rogers grabbed two non-wing wins, Cory Haas at Lincoln, Carl Bowser at Sharon, Scotty Neitzel with the IRA at Wilmot, Mark Dobmeier with the NOSA sprints at Buffalo River, and Luke Cranston topped Jason Martin and Stu Snyder to bag the $7000 305 Nationals at Belleville. For more from the open wheel weekend, check out TJSlideways.com.
Other weekend late model winners included Rusty Schlenk bagging the 33 grand at Merritt with the ALMS, Mike Marlar and Hudson O'Neal took down Iron Man wins at Ponderosa and Brownstown, Devin Moran won the super late model show at West Virginia, Cory Hedgecock took the All Stars win at Smoky Mountain, Michael Norris won the RUSH show at Pittsburgh, and Devin Moran won Saturday at Wayne County. For more on the late model weekend, hit up dirtondirt.com.
There are four items on the streaming schedule today including the Front Row Challenge at Osky on FloRacing, modifieds at Willamette on Speed Sport, and outlaw karts at English Creek on the Cushion. 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!