DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Donny Schatz gaining momentum, Kody Swanson & Kevin Thomas Jr improved | DIRTRACKR Daily 8/17/21
Today is Tuesday, August 17th, two thousand and twenty one. This is DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Coming up we've got details on tonight's Super DIRTcar Series race at Brewerton, plus a bunch of stats and numbers for your Tuesday.
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.
For your day today, I've got a bunch of different numbers and stats to ponder as you are driving around or working or chasing after your kids. First, I talked a bunch earlier in the season about the parity in the dirt late model world, and into August that has still reigned somewhat. Even with the success we've seen from guys like Jonathan Davenport and Brandon Overton, nobody is doing this season what they did in 2020. Brandon Sheppard and Tim McCreadie have cemented themselves as the two championship favorites between the Outlaws and Lucas, with plenty of racing still to come, but they have done it more by consistent finishes than they have by winning. Sheppard has five wins in 35 races in 2021, versus 14 in 40 last season. And McCreadie has three wins versus seven last in 2020. But both drivers have finished towards the front in a lot of races, and both have perfect 100% top five efficiencies. That consistency from each has allowed Sheppard to creep away from Madden, and McCreadie to stretch the lead over JD and Hudson O'Neal. I think both would have to have epic meltdowns, or their rivals would have to get white hot to lose these championships.
After missing out on the Silver Crown Series championship in 2020, Kody Swanson is back with a vengeance this season. He didn't participate in the race at Williams Grove but is still leading the championship standings over Logan Seavey and Justin Grant. In his five starts, he has two wins, both on the pavement of Lucas Oil Raceway, a second on the pavement at Winchester, and dirt finishes of third at Eldora and sixth at Selinsgrove. Over the weekend at Lucas Oil Raceway he led all 100 laps en route to the $50,000 Hoosier Classic victory. He leads all drivers in most statistical categories, including wins, top fives, top tens, laps led and top ten efficiency.
In USAC National Sprint Car competition this year, Kevin Thomas Jr. is a completely different driver. In 27 starts last season he had zero wins, five top fives, 14 top tens and an average feature finish of 10.6. Through 26 races in 2021 he has four wins, 17 top fives, 23 top tens, and an average finish of 5.2. That's an insane jump from one season to the next. He's qualifying better, starting features better, passing way more cars, and has led way more laps. The massive improvements have made him a serious challenger for the championship as he currently trails points leader Brady Bacon by only 56 markers. He's currently riding a streak of 15 straight top ten finishes. The changes he and his team made in the offseason have paid big dividends. We'll see if it continues this weekend at Paragon.
Currently fourth in the World of Outlaws points standings, 258 points behind leader Brad Sweet, Donny Schatz is probably not going to fight his way back into this championship hunt. But that doesn't mean he won't be a factor in a lot of races going forward. His current moving five race and ten race average finishes are in the mid fours, which is towards the top of the series. And since Eldora on July 18th, has been on one of his best runs of the season, with ten straight top ten finishes. That includes that second place result in the Knoxville Nationals on Saturday night, which was one of his most impressive races of the year. He started fifth, led 14 laps, and had a shot late in the race to stop Kyle Larson. That will certainly inject some confidence and momentum into the TSR 15 bunch. A lot of his numbers show a team that is not quite what they've been in recent years, but don't think that Schatz is done just yet. The competition with the Outlaws is as tough as it's been in a long time, but when Donny gets hot, look out. The series is headed to his native North Dakota this weekend, including a stop at River Cities. In his past five starts their, he has three wins and hasn't finished worse than 4th. This upcoming run through North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska could be coming at a good time for that team.
After taking several weeks off to allow teams to compete at the Knoxville Nationals, the All Star Circuit of Champions is back this weekend at I-96 and Plymouth, and there is no reason to expect points leader Tyler Courtney to slow down. He's been red hot since the opening weekend in May, with only one series finish outside the top ten. In that span he's picked up seven All Star wins, plus the Kings Royal win at Eldora and last weekend made his first ever Knoxville Nationals feature start. I'm honestly kind of surprised that fact didn't get more pub. Getting collected in a crash with Brian Brown ended his hopes of a good run at Knoxville, but that team is poised for an epic run to the finish and they all but have the 2021 All Star title in hand.
As is always the case, if you'd like to see more stats and analytics like the ones I've just shared, you can hit up dirtrackr.com/analytics. I have 749 races in the database for the Outlaws, All Stars, Lucas, USAC and Chili Bowl and there are something like 4000 pages of info to peruse, including full results, driver pages, race results by track, yearly stats and a bunch more.
The Super DIRTcar Series continues their 2021 season tonight at Brewerton Speedway in New York for the Demon 100. $10k goes to the winner and there is a guaranteed start in the Super DIRT Week feature on the line as well. Stewart Friesen has won three of the last four series races, including last week at Orange County Fair, and he leads the current points standings by 75 over Matt Sheppard. Peter Britten, Mat Williamson and Mike Mahaney round out the top five. Friesen has been the guy to beat this season with six wins, nine top fives, and ten top tens in 11 starts. Nobody else has been able to match that torrid pace so far. Sheppard, Britten, Williamson, and Tim Fuller are the other drivers with wins this season. So far in 2021, 132 cars have made a Super DIRTcar Series appearance with 17 having been at every race. That's pretty damn good to be this deep in the season and have that many cars at every race. Mat Williamson is the most recent winner at Brewerton back in 2019. He topped Chris Hile and Larry Wight that season. Matt Sheppard also has recent series wins at the track as well. With good money and that Super DIRT Week spot on the line there should be a strong field of cars at the track tonight. Grandstands are set to open at 5PM ET with hot laps at 6:30. For more details, visit superdirtcarseries.com.
There are four shows on today's streaming schedule. DIRTVision has the Super DIRTcar Series at Brewerton and weekly action from Millbridge, Speed Sport has sprint cars and dwarfs from Cottage Grove, and there is FloRacing 24/7. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Tomorrow on the show we'll get you ready for the BC39 on the dirt track at Indy for the USAC national midgets. The entry list is massive and includes some series talent.
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!