DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Aaron Reutzel has new ride, Earl Pearson Jr. splits with Black Diamond | DIRTRACKR Daily 9/2/21
Today is Thursday, September 2nd, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Coming up we've got details on Aaron Reutzel's new ride, Earl Pearson Jr. is out at Black Diamond, we look ahead to tonight's racing for the World of Outlaws and MARS Late Models 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.
As of this week, Aaron Reutzel's 30 day suspension from the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series is officially over, and it didn't take him long to secure a new ride. It was announced yesterday that he will pilot the Ridge & Son number eight starting this weekend. The car was previously the number 83 and driven by Lynton Jeffrey at Knoxville and around the midwest. According to a release, team owner Brian Ridge said Jeffrey pushed for the team to hire Reutzel after his contract ended following the final 2021 race at Knoxville. The team will pick and choose their schedule going forward, and noted sprint car wrench turner Tyler Swank will serve as Reutzel's crew chief. The new pairing will be in action on Friday and Saturday at Attica Raceway Park with the All Star Circuit of Champions, a series Reutzel knows all too well having won the previous three championships. Reutzel says the plan is to do about 80 races a year, including weekly shows at Knoxville. Reutzel has five sprint car wins in 2021 so far, all in the Roth 83, before he was replaced by Kasey Kahne following the chassis tube thickness issues at the end of July. In the Ridge 83, Jeffrey had made 10 Outlaw starts and four All Star starts this season, with a best finish of 10th during Hard Knox Friday night at the Knoxville Nationals. With Reutzel's ability, I figured it wouldn't be long before we saw him back on track. It's just a shame it had to go down like this, because I think he could have turned into a serious contender with the Outlaws in the coming years. If you want more details about Reutzel's penalty and suspension from the World of Outlaws, go check out the show I did about it on August 5th.
In other driver news from yesterday, it was announced that following the weekend's Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series events at Portsmouth and Tyler County, Earl Pearson Jr. and the Black Diamond Chassis house car team will part ways. EPJ joined the team in 2017 and has been a regular with Lucas in recent seasons. Their best year together was 2018 when they won five races and finished fourth in the final standings. It's been a struggle lately though, with just a single win over the previous 79 Lucas shows, and only 21 top ten finishes. Pearson currently sits 11th in the Lucas standings, more than 300 points outside the top ten. Their last Lucas win together came in July of 2020 at Florence when Pearson led the final two laps, topping Josh Rice and Zach Dohm. The Ronnie and Terry Stuckey owned team does plan to return to a national series next year with a new driver, but for now they will focus on their sons racing and possible enter some big shows through the end of the season.
Looking at tonight, it's a good day to be a dirt late model fan with both the World of Outlaws Late Model Series and MARS Late Models in action. The Outlaws are in the south for three races this weekend before they will go quiet for the World 100 week. They kick things off tonight at Cherokee Speedway for the rescheduled Rock Gault Memorial which pays a very nice $40,000 to the winner. The event was originally scheduled to happen back in March, but was lost to weather. Jimmy Owens and Brandon Sheppard grabbed split field prelim wins at Cherokee in the spring. With big money on the line, big names are expected to be in attendance tonight, including Brandon Overton and Jonathan Davenport. Overton is probably the driver to watch tonight, as he has two previous Outlaw wins at Cherokee, and has been at or near the top of the sport this season. Davenport should certainly be fast as well, and I'd pay attention to Chris Madden. These tracks are right in his wheel house, and he could easily snag a bounce back win. Brandon Sheppard enters as the Outlaw points leader by 178 over Madden, with Tyler Bruening the leading rookie in third, Dennis Erb Jr fourth, and Ricky Weiss fifth. As we've discussed, BShepp is most likely on his way to another championship and is currently just two wins short of Josh Richards for most all time wins with the series. For more information about tonight, visit worldofoutlaws.com or cherokeespeedwaysc.com.
With MARS, they are racing the next three nights with nice money up for grabs. Tonight and tomorrow they take on Farmer City for $5000 to win shows, and Satuday they head to Fairbury for a $10,000 to win night. Brian Shirley leads all drivers in MARS wins this season, and is the current series points leader. He'll be in attendance all weekend looking for more. I'd also expect to see Shannon Babb, Jason Feger, Bobby Pierce, Tanner English, and more this weekend. Both tracks always put on good racing, so don't sleep on these shows. You can find more series and event details at marsracingseries.com.
We had a little indoor dirt racing last night at the Southern Illinois Center at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds in Illinois, and when the dust settled it was a big night for Daniel Robinson. He bagged an outlaw non-wing win in the micro, and won the USAC Midwest Regional Midget race, topping Joe B. Miller, Jerry Coons Jr., Rylan Gray, and Chett Gehrke. Last night's event was a special, non-points race. Chett Gehrke is the current series points leader over Bryan Stanfill and Chance Crum.
It's been a while since I did one, but I dropped a new Conversations episode early this morning. Hannah Newhouse spent the summer pit reporting on DIRTVision for the World of Outlaws Late Model Series and she jumped in to talk about her experience and break down the racing she got to see. If you're a NASCAR fan at all, you may have heard her on MRN Radio or the Door Bumper Clear podcast in the past. It's a solid 30 plus minute show, with a ton of good stuff, especially for the late model fans. You can find that episode in the podcast feed or on the YouTube Channel.
There are seven shows on the streaming schedule today. DIRTVision has the World of Outlaws Late Models at Cherokee, FloRacing has MARS Late Models, the final night of the Nebraska Dirt Crown and the Showdown 75 at Chatham. And Speed Sport has weekly action from Halvor Lines and the opening night of the RaceSaver Nationals from Eagle Raceway. 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 Thursday. 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!