DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Overton survives at Cherokee, Bloomquist update, new ride for Pearson Jr. | DIRTRACKR Daily 9/3/21
Today is Friday, September 3rd, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Coming up we are talking last night's World of Outlaws Late Model show at Cherokee, plus we have a Scott Bloomquist update, MARS results, details on Earl Pearson Jr's new ride, and we look ahead to a busy weekend of racing across the country.
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 World of Outlaws Late Model Series took to the Cherokee Speedway in South Carolina last night for the rescheduled $40,000 to win Rock Gault Memorial. I believe I saw it was the highest winner's share ever paid out by the race track. The field wasn't the biggest we've seen this season at 33, but it was packed with quality cars. Besides the Outlaw regulars, we got Brandon Overton, Kyle Larson, Jonathan Davenport, Tim McCreadie, Jimmy Owens, Josh Richards, and big name regional guys like Dale McDowell, Chris Ferguson and Ross Bailes. For the feature, it was no surprise to see Kyle Larson start on the pole. He won his heat race and snagged the feature pole in the redraw. Once green, he was strong out front early, and actually led through half way. But as laps ticked off the track got super locked down around the bottom, and you started to worry about tire issues. Just past half way, Jonathan Davenport, who had been running second to Larson finally had enough, and made a move into turn three to grab the lead. He muscled past Larson to lead lap 33. Once JD was through, Larson fell back quickly through the field. The other driver lurking in the top five was Brandon Overton. It was interesting to watch him, as he was a rare driver to actually get off the bottom and run the middle groove where there wasn't rubber. And he ended up making it work, grabbing the lead on the high side from JD on lap 49. Over that final 15 lap run though, the tire issues started. We had multiple cautions late for flat tires that took out drivers like Nick Hoffman, Tim McCreadie, Ryan Gustin, Chris Ferguson, and eventually Jonathan Davenport. Davenport admitted afterwards that they didn't anticipate the tire issues and probably cut their tire up too much. That's two weeks in a row that Davenport has been a victim of a flat tire while running up front. In the end, Overton survived the final laps and bagged the $40 grand, with Chris Madden finishing second, Jimmy Owens third, Trent Ivey fourth, and Larson in fifth. Watching the feature, I almost wonder if those laps that Overton was up out of the rubber maybe helped him save some tire for later in the race. Either way though, it was another big money victory for Big Sexy. He's now got four Outlaw wins this season to go along with four Lucas victories, and that incredible Dream sweep at Eldora. Chris Madden's second place finish did see him knock Brandon Sheppard's lead down a bit in the points standings, but probably not enough. BShepp was able to hard charge from 23rd to finish 10th and the margin is now 162. The southern swing for the series continues tonight at Lavonia Speedway in Georgia and closes out Saturday at Volunteer Speedway in Tennessee. Overton and Madden have won the two previous Lavonia stops for the Outlaws, while Zack Mitchell and Sheppard took the Volunteer wins in 2020. Don't expect Kyle Larson to be in the late model the next two nights. It sounds like the World 100 is his next event on dirt.
I've had some questions lately about Scott Bloomquist's future, and we are getting some of that answered next week. He's been sitting out due to issues with feeling in one of his legs, but according to the Bloomquist Twitter account, he is registered for next week's World 100s at Eldora. Nick Hoffman has been filling in, but it appears as though Hoffman's time with Team Zero is continuing, as he's going to be at Eldora in a Team Zero car as well. Hoffman has been fast, so it's great to see him keep getting rides.
Elsewhere in late model action last night, Brian Shirley picked up the $5000 MARS win at Farmer City after starting seventh. He slipped past leader McKay Wenger to grab the top spot with just six laps left and drove away to the win. Tanner English ended up second, Mike Spatola third, Wenger faded to fourth, and Josh Rice completed the top five. MARS is back at Farmer City tonight for another $5000 to win feature before they roll to Fairbury on Saturday for a $10,000 to win show.
On yesterday's show we talked about the departure of Earl Pearson Jr. from the Black Diamond Chassis team, and just one day later we are talking about Pearson's new ride. In a story posted to Dirt on Dirt from Kevin Kovac, it was revealed that Pearson will complete the Lucas season driving for Jason Papich. Papich and teammate Tony Toste are from California, but they keep their race cars in Missouri and have been regulars with the Lucas Oil MLRA Series. Papich is currently third in the MLRA points standings behind Tony Jackson Jr. and Garrett Alberson. Pearson will drive a Longhorn Chassis, and will make his debut with the team at Knoxville for the Late Model Knoxville Nationals in a few weeks. Pearson has no plans to race next week at Eldora for the World 100s, but there is talk of him teaming up with Papich to run the full Lucas schedule in 2022. For more details, check out the full story at dirtondirt.com.
Looking ahead to the weekend, there is no lack of racing to watch across the country. The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series begins their trek down the west coast with three shows at Skagit Speedway in Washington. Logan Schuchart swept the weekend the last time the Outlaws were there back in 2019. We'll definitely be keeping an eye on what those championship challengers can get done over the next three nights. Brad Sweet currently has 120 on David Gravel and 160 on Carson Macedo. Both Gravel and Macedo need to keep taking chunks out of Sweet's advantage to make this fight tough down the stretch. The hottest driver with the series right now is unquestionably Donny Schatz. He has 15 straight top ten finishes, an average finish of 2.4 over his last five races, and 3.5 over his last ten. He's also won two of the last five features, and hasn't finished worse than 4th in nearly a month. We'll have to wait and see what car counts look like for the three nights. Back in 2019 we had 19 and 21 cars, which doesn't bode super well for the weekend. There aren't a lot of 410s in that part of the country, with 360 racing the main focus. There is nice money on the line, with the Sunday finale paying $25,000 to win, but it will depend on if any guys tow up from California. It could be a tough sell though, especially with the 410 King of the West Series at Silver Dollar Speedway for the Louie Vermeil Classic and two nights of $5000 to win shows. As usual, you can find event details at worldofoutlaws.com and the racing will be live on DIRTVision.
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series takes on Portsmouth Raceway Park on Saturday and Tyler County Speedway on Sunday for the Hillbilly Hundred. Portsmouth pays $15 grand to win, and the Hillbilly Hundred is $30,000 to win. The battle for the championship continues with Davenport and Hudson O'Neal trying to track down Tim McCreadie. Davenport has the most recent win at Portsmouth, while Josh Richards is the defending Hillbilly Hundred winner, back from 2019. JD needs to shake off the bad luck he's had in his recent starts with these flat tires, and O'Neal needs to keep the consistency going to stay in the fight. Both race nights will be live on MAVTV Plus.
Elsewhere this weekend, USAC has the Silver Crown Series at Du Quoin on Saturday and national midgets at Angell Park on Sunday. Keep an eye on the Saturday weather though, things don't look super great for Du Quoin. Kody Swanson is the current Silver Crown points leader over Logan Seavey, evne though he's missed a show. According the series, the last time a driver won the Silver Crown championship and missed a race was Jimmy Sills in 1994. Weather for Sunday at Angell Park doesn't look like it will be a problem, and that's good because we want to see that good championship battle continue to play out between Buddy Kofoid, Emerson Axsom, and Chris Windom. The three drivers are only separated by 41 points, and Axsom has been hot lately with nine straight top five finishes. Kofoid has been dealing with injuries in recent weeks because of a pavement late model crash, so hopefully he'll be closer to 100 percent this weekend. Both races can be watched live on Flo.
In other winged sprint car competition, the All Star Circuit of Champions is headed to Attica Raceway Park for two nights. Ian Madsen and Justin Peck were All Star winners at Attica earlier this season. Aaron Reutzel will be in attendance in his new ride, and Tyler Courtney will look to extend his points lead over Cory Eliason. The IRA Sprint Cars have three shows at Dodge County, Plymouth Dirt Track, and 141 Speedway. Jake Blackhurst leads the series standings over Scotty Neitzel and Jeremy Schultz with only eight race nights left in 2021. And the ASCS National Tour will be at Lake Ozark Speedway in Missouri on Saturday and Sunday as their season edges closer to conclusion. The title fight there is close as well, with Blake Hahn currently leading Matt Covington by 34 and JJ Hickle by 52.
If you're a modified fan, keep an eye on the USMTS and Super DIRTcar Series this weekend. The Super DIRTcar Series is at Lebanon Valley for $25,000 to win on Saturday, along with competitors gunning for another guaranteed starting spot in the feature at Super DIRT Week. Stewart Friesen is the series points leader, and Matt Sheppard is the most recent winner at the track. The USMTS has three races, tonight at Mississippi Thunder, Saturday at Deer Creek, and Sunday at Fayette County. Those are all $10,000 to win shows, and we've got a nice points fight to watch as well, with Dereck Ramirez currently leading Jake O'Neil by only 21 points, and defending champion Rodney Sanders third, 45 points out. All three nights are live on RacinDirt and you can find links on the streaming schedule.
And speaking of the watch tonight page, it's again a packed streaming schedule for this Friday and the weekend ahead. Today there are 36 shows across the various services, with another 89 coming for Saturday and Sunday. That includes both Outlaw series, the All Stars, Lucas, USAC, MARS, the IRA, USMTS, events like the RaceSaver Nationals and a ton of local and regional racing. To see the full daily streaming schedule through the weekend, 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!