DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Tire drama for the Outlaws at Black Hills, Devin Moran bags $43,000 | DIRTRACKR Daily 8/30/21
Today is Monday, August 30th, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Coming up we dive into everything from the past dirt racing weekend, including wins for Devin Moran, Tim McCreadie, and Justin Grant, tire drama with the Outlaws at Black Hills, and more.
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There was a ton of dirt racing over the weekend, and we'll kick things off with the World of Outlaws Late Model Series at Davenport Speedway. After Devin Moran won the Thursday show, Friday night it was all Brandon Sheppard out front. He led 40 laps en route to his seventh series win of 2021. The track took rubber pretty quickly in the feature, and it forced everyone to the top. I think the last pass I saw in the top ten was Moran throwing a slider at Jason Feger with 25 still to go. From there, the top ten didn't change all the way to the checkered. Sheppard caught Spencer Dierks and the tail of the field, and just rode the rest of the way. Surprisingly, there were no tire issues. It was kind of wild to see the track take rubber that early on. Sheppard was followed to the line by Bobby Pierce, Moran, Feger, and Chris Madden. On Saturday night the track was a lot better, but we still saw a dominant performance from one driver. After battling briefly early in the going with BShepp, Devin Moran took over for good on lap 6 and the rest of the way for the $30,000 score. It was an impressive win for Moran, especially considering he was losing his power steering down the stretch. Behind the leader though, we did have late drama between Chris Madden and Bobby Pierce. The two were battling in the top five, and Pierce just wiped Madden out into turn three with five to go. Pierce basically said afterwards it wasn't intentional, but that he was trying to get the best run into turn three running the top. Madden was on the bottom in the corners, but swinging out wide onto the straightaways. I don't know if Pierce thought Madden was going to dive low earlier, but Pierce looked like he never lifted. Madden was not pleased, showing his displeasure right after the incident, but not wrecklessly. But then right after the checkered, Madden cleaned Pierce out into turn one, basically using the 32 as his brake pedal. It's hard to really blame Madden for being upset. For Moran, he bagged two of three wins at Davenport, taking home over $43,000. It was his fourth Outlaw win of 2021, and he's only made 11 appearances. Brian Shirley hard charged from 15th to finish second, Boom Briggs was third, Sheppy fourth, and Pierce ended up fifth. As I said back on Friday, I think this championship battle is basically over, and with three strong runs, including the Friday win, Sheppy's lead over Smoky is now 178. Behind the leaders, Tyler Bruening about has rookie of the year sewed up as well. The Outlaws are back this week for three more races, Thursday at Cherokee, Friday at Lavonia, and Saturday at Volunteer.
The rival Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series was also in action this weekend, but they lost their big money show on Saturday night to rain. Hudson O'Neal took the Thursday win at Port Royal, and Friday night it was points leader Tim McCreadie who came out on top. Pole sitter Jonathan Davenport led lap one, but from there it was all TMac. Davenport challenged him a few times, but would later suffer a flat right rear, and finish 14th. At the finish McCreadie took the win over Jimmy Owens, Tyler Erb, Shane Clanton, and O'Neal. After losing ground to both his chasers on Thursday, McCreadie leaves Port Royal with a 210 point advantage over JD, with O'Neal third 225 back. Davenport did get 10 points for going quick time on the night, but McCreadie was the other quick timer, so the points gained there were a wash. 15 race nights remain for Lucas in 2021, although I don't know which are full points. There may be one or two in there that don't count. You're probably looking at a 30 or 35 position difference right now between TMac and Superman, so this isn't over yet, but those extra 90 points will help McCreadie's cause. Lucas is back this weekend for a Saturday show at Portsmouth, and the Hillbilly Hundred on Sunday at Tyler County.
After losing the Thursday night prelim to rain, the USAC National Sprint Cars had three races in two days at Kokomo for the Smackdown. Friday night we had four lead changes among four different leaders, with Tanner Thorson, CJ Leary, and Kyle Cummins all taking turns out front. But in the end it was Justin Grant who bagged the win, leading the final two laps. Grant lurked in the top five for much of the feature, but got into the fight late. He and Kyle Cummins went at it for a few laps late, but Grant came out on top. Chris Windom hard charged from 10th to finish second, Cummins was third, Leary fourth, and Thorson fifth. On Saturday, they ran the Thursday prelim as an afternoon matinee. In the feature, Justin Grant started fourth, but was leading at the end of lap one with an incredible drive out of four. His time out front was short lived though, as Logan Seavey took over on lap 11. The Baldwin five was good, but a caution with five to go for Emerson Axsom spun around gave Kevin Thomas Jr. the opening he needed. KTJ was good on the bottom in one and two and he used that to his advantage. He led the final five en route to his sixth USAC sprint car win of 2021. Seavey finished second, Brady Bacon third, Grant fourth, and CJ leary fifth. In the Smackdown finale on Saturday night, Tanner Thorson started on the pole thanks to a nice run through the King of the Hill. He was out front for 16 laps, but Justin Grant ran him down in lap traffic, and after brief battle took over the lead for good. Thorson made some moves on him following a restart with two to go, but JG held him off to take the $15,000 Smackdown win. It was Grant's seventh win of the year and he's right in the thick of the title fight with leader Bacon and KTJ. Thorson, Thomas, Bacon, and Seavey completed the Smackdown top five. With big money looming at Huset's Speedway coming up in 10 days, this battle for the championship is getting good. Thomas trails Bacon by 44, with Grant only seven more back in third. The USAC Nationals get underway at Huset's on September 10th. I don't know about you, but I really enjoy the racing at Kokomo. It's kind of a weird shape, but I think it lends itself to great racing. You can make time tip toeing around the bottom, but guys can also run right around the top if they have big balls. I say that because the cushion there can be really treacherous. You also get big slide jobs there. Fun weekend with USAC.
The World of Outlaws Sprint Cars had two midwest shows, Friday at I-80 and Sunday at Black Hills before they trek west. Friday night at I-80, Carson Macedo led early from the pole but Donny Schatz grabbed the lead on lap 11 in lap traffic and drove away to his first ever career series win at I-80 in a non stop feature. Sheldon Haudenschild, Macedo, James McFadden, and David Gravel were the rest of the top five. Both Macedo and Gravel gained ground on Sweet in the standings, with Sweet down in 9th. On Sunday at Black Hills, I saw there were some complaints about car count, but if you watched or listened to this show last Friday, I told you that it would be that way. There just aren't a lot of 410s in that part of the country, and several of the guys in the field were running 360s. Unfortunately though, the feature turned into a bit of a mess with tire problems. Things got weird with 14 to go when Carson Macedo was the first to blow a tire. He would later cut another and finish seventh. Kasey Kahne also ended up in the infield, while Brad Sweet and James McFadden were also victims. McFadden survived the first cut tire, but appeared to lose another with two laps left, and he went for a big ride in turn three, destroying his race car. He did walk away. Earlier on DIRTVision, you could see and hear KKR crew chief Justin Adams just furious with officials. I don't know if there was debris somewhere, or what, but it was a tough night for some. Out front, Sheldon Haudenschild was completely on another planet. He led all 25 laps and had a big lead for most of the race. He took the victory over Schatz, Gravel, Logan Schuchart, and Sweet. It was Sheldon's eighth win of the year, and this is now a career best for wins in a season. Looking at some other guys, it's been a tough start to the Roth stretch for Kasey Kahne. Since finishing eighth in the Knoxville Nationals, he doesn't have a top ten result yet. As for Logan Schuchart, he's been a little more consistent as of late, but he hasn't won since the big Jackson Nationals victory on June 27th. His average finish is a full two positions worse this season than 2020, and for a guy who we thought might contend for the championship, he's had some rough stretches. Headed now for three nights at Skagit Speedway in Washington, Brad Sweet's lead over David Gravel is 120, with Macedo 160 back in third. With 19 races to go, Gravel needs to average a finish a tick more than three spots better a night than Sweet. Not impossible certainly, but definitely difficult. The Skagit Nationals start Friday.
With the All Star Circuit of Champions over the weekend, they lost the Friday night show at Williams Grove to rain, but did race Saturday at Lincoln and Sunday at BAPS. In the Saturday show at Lincoln, things were not good early, with two big crashes that wiped out like eight or nine cars, including Hunter Schuerenberg, Brent Marks, Chase Dietz, Cap Henry, and Devon Borden. After 35 minutes we only had one official lap complete. There was just no give and take early on. Once we got rolling, Zeb Wise kept Cory Eliason honest out front until about half way, but then the 26 stretched away and ended up leading all 35 laps. It was Eliason's second All Star win of the year, and second in four races. Parker Price Miller ended up second in the Swindell SpeedLab 39, Justin Peck was third in the Kramer Williamson tribute car, Wise ended up fourth, and Gerard McIntyre completed the top five. If you didn't watch, or didn't notice, I really liked the FloRacing camera position in turn three there at Lincoln. As guys drove down the backstretch, you could really see them setting up for corner entry and the suspension working. Good stuff. On Sunday at BAPS, there was more awful luck for Zeb Wise, who has wrecked several cars already this season. He crashed the car in hot laps, ripping open the tail tank which caused a big fire. He was okay, but done for the night. It was yet another illustration though of dirt tracks needing to keep pushing for safety improvements. Only one of the three guys that were first to the car had firesuits on. Zeb was actually pulled from the car by one of them, but he was only wearing a tshirt and jeans. I love the effort and commitment there, but these tracks really need to be better prepared. That fire stuff is just too scary. In the feature, Freddie Rahmer led early from the pole, but Hunter Schuerenberg was fast from fourth. He took the lead on lap 13 and quickly stretched away. Late in the going though, 10th starting Danny Dietrich had marched his way forward, and he was able to run down Schuerenberg from a long ways back. He took the lead with a slider into three coming to two to go, and he drove away to the win. Schuerenberg ended up second, with Ryan Smith third, Rahmer fourth, and Anthony Macri fifth. With two nights at Attica coming up this week, Tyler Courtney's series points lead is still 302 after he picked up his 18th and 19th consecutive top tens.
Elsewhere this weekend, Brian Brown won the final 2021 410 show at Knoxville on Saturday night. Davey Heskin was crowned the track champion. Justin Henderson was in the fight for the title, but got taken out after early contact with Sawyer Phillips. They were battling for the lead. Clint Garner bagged the Knoxville 360 championship.
With the King of the West Sprint Cars, Mitchell Faccinto, Dominic Scelzi, and Justin Sanders picked up weekend wins. Scelzi's points lead is now 11 over Colby Copeland. DJ Netto tumbled to 9th, after starting the week in second. Shane Golobic, Sanders, and the Kaedings are all still very much in contention for the series championship.
Other weekend open wheel winners included Trey Jacobs at Attica, Sye Lynch at Lernerville, Ayrton Gennetten with MOWA at Tri-City, Andy Forsberg in a 360 at Marysville, Anthony Macri at Selinsgrove, Jac Haudenschild won the 410 race at Wayne County, and Jack Dover was the Sunday winner at Huset's. For more, check out tjslideways.com.
Other weekend late model winners included Dona Marcoullier at Winston Speedway, Josh Rice in Iron Man action at MRP, Michael Chilton bagged $10 grand at Lake Cumberland, Ashton Winger was a Southern All Stars winner at Senoia, and Chub Frank was a RUSH winner at Sharon. For more from the late model weekend, hit up dirtondirt.com.
There are three shows on the streaming schedule today. Dirt Track Digest has weekly racing from Mohawk International, and FloRacing has the Nebraska Dirt Crown from Jefferson County Speedway and Flo 24/7. 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!