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.
Moran, O'Neal get late model wins, Paul Silva wins without Kyle Larson | DIRTRACKR Daily 8/27/21
Today is Friday, August 27th, two thousand and twenty one. This is DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Coming up we've got results from last night's races for Lucas, the Outlaws, All Stars and King of the West. We also look ahead to a busy weekend, including what to watch with the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars and championship battles at Knoxville.
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 three race weekend for the World of Outlaws Late Model Series at Davenport Speedway in Iowa kicked off last night. In the feature it was all Devin Moran out front. He started second and after a very brief battle with pole sitter Chris Madden through the opening two laps, set sail and never gave up the lead. Bobby Pierce chased him through much of the race, but Moran was good enough to keep him at bay. Pierce ended up second, Frank Heckenast Jr. was third, Shannon Babb fourth, and Nick Hoffman finished fifth. And yes, that was an Outlaw race top five, not a Summer Nationals race top five. Hoffman tweeted after the race that it was a Summer Nationals sweep. Since getting in Scott Bloomquist's car, Hoffman has been really impressive in some of these late model shows. His last three Outlaw finishes are 5th, 8th, and 5th. He was also 7th with Lucas at the North South 100, and finished third in the Topless 100 prelim night. I don't know what Bloomer's status is with his health right now, but there is definitely a case to be made for Hoffman to keep driving that zero machine. For Moran, it was his third Outlaw win of the season, and that goes along with wins with both Lucas and the Summer Nationals. His other two Outlaw wins were at Volusia during DIRTcar Nationals and on the dirt at Bristol. Unfortunately for Chris Madden, after sitting on the pole and leading that early lap, he faded to 10th at the end and gave up more ground to Brandon Sheppard who finished seventh. With two nights at Davenport still to go, the points lead for BShepp is now 164. We are down to 11 race nights left, so 164 points is 82 positions. That means on average Madden has to beat Sheppy by nearly seven and a half positions a night. I'd say this is just about over. The weekend continues with another $10 grand to win show tonight, and a $30,000 to win feature on Saturday.
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series also began a three race weekend of their own with the opener last night at Port Royal. And it was one small mistake from Jonathan Davenport in the early laps that ended up being the difference in the finish. After leading the opening lap from the pole, he picked up a big push into turn one and damn near hit the wall. That was all Hudson O'Neal needed to pounce. He slipped by Davenport, and led the rest of the way for the $10,000 win, which was his fifth Lucas win of the year. It was also his second series win in a row. Davenport ended up second, Ricky Thornton Jr. was third, Shane Clanton fourth, and Tim McCreadie recovered from getting damage in his heat race to finish fifth. We talked yesterday on the show about how close the Lucas points really are, and you saw both Davenport and O'Neal take sizeable chunks out of McCreadie's lead last night. Davenport went from 155 to 120 behind, and O'Neal is now only 170 back with his recent wins. This thing is far from over for all three drivers. As McCreadie said afterwards to Speed Sport's Kyle McFadden, he is definitely not winning in 2021 like he did in 2020, but he has been much more consistent. His average finish is eight tenths of a position better, and he's finish up front more often, with his top five percentage at 62.5%. He leads all drivers in top fives and top tens on the year. The fight continues tonight with a $15,000 to win race, and culminates on Saturday with the $30,000 to win weekend finale.
Last night was supposed to be the first of two prelim nights for the Smackdown at Kokomo, but the night was lost to rain. So now the USAC sprint car competitors will run the Friday night show as scheduled, and then run a double header on Saturday. They'll kick things off Saturday with hot laps at 3PM, run the full Thursday night program, take a 90 minute break, and then start into Saturday's regularly scheduled Smackdown finale. Tickets are still available for each day, and you can find more event information at usacracing.com.
At Grandview Speedway last night, the All Star Circuit of Champions kicked off a four race swing through Pennsylvania, and at the end it was Tyler Courtney celebrating win number eight on the year. He started third, slipped past early leader Zeb Wise right before half way, survived a last corner challenge by Anthony Macri, and snagged the victory. Macri finished second, Justin Peck third, Wise slipped to fourth, and Cory Eliason was fifth. It was Courtney's 17th straight top ten result, and 30th in his last 31 races. Just incredible to watch Courtney's very rapid rise in the winged ranks this season. His points lead is back to 306 over Cory Eliason. Behind the top two, the rest of the full time drivers have settled out their positions, with only 5th and 6th a close battle right now between Wise and Bill Balog. The All Stars Pennsylvania weekend continues tonight at Williams Grove, tomorrow at Lincoln, and Sunday at BAPS Motor Speedway.
In other winged sprint car action last night, the NARC King of the West Series started their own four race weekend with a stop at Merced Speedway. As rumored, Justin Sanders was in attendance driving the Works Limited 57 machine with Paul Silva crew chiefing. This car isn't the same exact one that Paul Silva owns, that Kyle Larson normally drives, but you wouldn't know it by looking at it. It's still white with the same 57 numbers on it. Larson has driven this car in the past, as has Rico Abreu recently. But as sprint car drivers across the country have come to realize, when a white 57 shows up, it's going to be tough to beat. And that was true last night. After battling for much of the feature with Dominic Scelzi, Sanders took control late and with rubber down held off Scelzi to take the win. Colby Copeland finished third, Tim Kaeding fourth, and Shane Golobic was fifth. Unfortunately for several leaders, the 78 of Mark Barroso was a complete weapon last night as a lap car. I think at various points through the race he'd made contact with just about every car in the top five. One of those cars who was affected was DJ Netto, who was in a tight points battle with Scelzi, but finished 10th and gave up quite a bit of ground. The King of the West cars continue a busy weekend tonight at Ocean before traveling to Stockton on Saturday and Petaluma on Sunday. For more details, visit narc410.com.
The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series season continues tonight at I-80 Speedway and Sunday at Black Hills Speedway. These two races are the last in the midwest before the Outlaws head to the west coast for the traditional fall swing. The series hasn't been at Black Hills since 2019 when Carson Macedo was victorious over Shane Stewart and David Gravel. They did go to I-80 in 2020, almost exactly one year ago. Brad Sweet was the winner that night over Macedo and Logan Schuchart. Sweet will be hoping for more of that tonight as he looks to extend his points lead over Gravel and Macedo and edge closer to his third straight Outlaw championship. Even with his good runs lately, Brad Sweet hasn't been the hottest driver lately. That honor belongs to Donny Schatz. Schatz has 13 straight top ten finishes, and his average finish over the last five races and last ten races are both series bests at 2.8 and 4.3 respectively. He could certainly be a factor this weekend at both tracks. I-80 should draw a nice field of cars, but expect Sunday at Black Hills to be light. There aren't a ton of sprint cars out that direction, and in 2019 that race only drew 18 total. For event details on the weekend, visit worldofoutlaws.com.
One local track to keep an eye on this weekend is Knoxville. Their Saturday night program is the regular season finale for their weekly sprint car divisions. Tyler Groenendyk is in line to clinch the pro sprint championship just by showing up to the track. The 360 and 410 divisions are in question though. Ryan Giles leads the 360s but both Clint Garner and Jamie Ball have a mathematical chance. And with the 410 division, even though he doesn't have a win in 2021, Davey Heskin's consistency sees him atop the championship. But both Justin Henderson and Brian Brown have a chance on Saturday night to dethrone him. If that's not enough to get you there on Saturday, it's also $1 Busch Light night. Following this weekend, the only thing left on Knoxville's 2021 schedule is the three day Late Model Knoxville Nationals for the Lucas competitors. If you can't be at Knoxville, you can also watch the action live on DIRTVision.
The streaming schedule is jam packed again this weekend with 38 shows today, 52 tomorrow, and another 17 on Sunday. That includes the World of Outlaws, USAC, Lucas, the All Stars, the ASCS, King of the West, plus a ton of local and regional action from across the country. To see the full daily streaming 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!