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Brandon Overton does it again, wins 51st World 100 at Eldora Speedway | DIRTRACKR Daily 9/10/21
Today is Friday, September 10th, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Coming up we are talking about another incredible performance from Brandon Overton, plus Tusky 50 results, news from Tony Stewart Racing, and what to watch for this weekend with USAC, the World of Outlaws 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.
The 51st World 100 at Eldora is complete, and as many predicted, it was yet again Brandon Overton standing on the victory lane stage at the end of the night. He did the unthinkable and won his third straight crown jewel event at Eldora this season. The World 100 win after sweeping the Dream weekend earlier this season makes Overton just the fourth driver in history to win the Dream and the World in the same season. He joins Billy Moyer, Donnie Moran, and Jonathan Davenport on that list. Kyle Strickler and Ricky Thornton Jr. led the field to green, and it was RTJ who seized the lead early on. Behind him, several drivers were on the move, including Tim McCreadie, Jonathan Davenport, and Hudson O'Neal, who incredibly drove from 20th to 6th within the first 20 laps. Out front, third starting Overton started putting pressure on Thornton, and took the lead on lap 24. RTJ dropped down a few spots, with Dale McDowell settling into second. Past half way, Tyler Erb had issues which caused a caution, and on the restart, McDowell pounced. He took the lead from Overton on lap 59 and actually pulled away. But late in the going, it looked like the track started taking rubber and things changed quickly. Overton was able to run McDowell down in lap traffic and take the lead back on lap 70. From there, not a lot of position changes happened over the final laps. Overton went on to his first ever World 100 victory, with Tim McCreadie hard charging from 19th to finish second, McDowell was third, Hudson O'Neal went 20th to 4th, and Jonathan Davenport went 17th to 5th. It was yet another incredible performance for the driver they call Big Sexy. He was good throughout the hundred laps, and for him to fight back to the lead after losing it shows his determination. You could see how much the win meant for him in victory lane as he got choked up during his interview. Behind the top five, RTJ finished 8th after leading early, pole sitter Strickler was 10th, Kyle Larson finished 13th, and Outlaw points leader Brandon Sheppard was 18th. Hunt the Front's Joseph Joiner made his first ever World 100 feature start after winning the first B main from fourth. He ended up 21st. It seems like Eldora in a late model might be the kryptonite for Kyle Larson. He wasn't much of a factor over the two nights, even though nobody will look negatively upon him for his performances. It's a shame we won't get to see him for World 100 50. Starting tonight, things reset and we start all over again. The Friday program will again feature $10,000 to win prelims with points being earned to setup Saturday's heat races. Can Overton sweep the weekend again? We'll find out.
In sprint car action from last night, the Tuscarora 50 weekend got underway at Port Royal Speedway for the All Star Circuit of Champions. In the feature, we had a surprising pole sitter and early race leader in Lernerville regular AJ Flick. He led the opening eight circuits, which I believe I heard were his first ever laps led with the All Stars. He was chased by Bill Balog, who eventually got by to lead laps nine and ten. Unfortunately for the top two though, that battle dragged Brent Marks into the mix, and Marks was good. He slipped past both and grabbed the lead on lap 11, and never relinqueshed it the rest of the way. It was Marks first All Star win of 2021 after initially being a series full timer to start the season. Balog ended up second, Daryn Pittman third, Cory Eliason fourth, and Flick finished fifth. There was no Lance Dewease last night. Aaron Reutzel finished 8th, and local favorites Anthony Macri and Logan Wagner finished 11th and 14th. If Marks can keep up this pace, he'll certainly be a factor the next two nights, but I still think Dewease might be the favorite for the big money. Series points leader Tyler Courtney will also be looking to bounce back after finishing 20th and out of the race last night. Tonight's second prelim show pays $10,000 to the winner, with Saturday's Tuscarora 50 victor taking down a very nice $54,000. It should be a fun couple of nights.
One team we won't see at the Tusky this weekend is the Tony Stewart Racing 14 of Kerry Madsen. The team announced via Twitter yesterday that Donny Schatz's crew chief Steve Swenson is recovering from a leg infection, and normal 14 team crew chief Ricky Warner is out in California filling in. So with no crew chief for the 14, they are sitting the weekend out. The post said that Madsen would return to the seat of the 14 soon.
At Huset's Speedway starting tonight is a big three race weekend for the USAC sprint cars and midgets. The USAC Nationals at the South Dakota track will the midgets first appearance there since 1996, and the sprint cars are back for the first time since 2016. Big money is on the line all weekend, with Friday and Saturday paying $5000 to win for both divisions, and Sunday's finale paying $20,000 to each winner. Both series have hot points battles with Justin Grant and Kevin Thomas Jr. trying to track down defending champion Brady Bacon for the sprint car title, and Chris Windom and Emerson Axsom hot on the heels of Buddy Kofoid for the midget crown. Axsom is only nine points behind Kofoid entering the weekend. With the sprint cars, only Grant and KTJ have won races over the previous five events, so if the pattern continues, Thomas is due. Grant currently leads all drivers with seven wins, to Thomas' six. With the midgets, Tanner Thorson has been on fire as of late, winning three of the last five shows. He has the most USAC midget wins this year with seven. The track was open for practice last night with Brady Bacon going quick time in the sprint car, and California's Mitchell Moles going quick in the midget. Tickets are still available for the weekend and can be bought online at usacnationals.com. If you can't be there, Flo has the live stream.
Out in California, the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series west coast swing continues tonight and tomorrow with stops at the Silver Dollar Speedway for the Gold Cup Race of Champions. Daryn Pittman is the most recent winner at the track, from back in 2019, but Brad Sweet and Carson Macedo were winners that year as well, and both will be hoping to duplicate that success. The driver points haven't changed a whole lot in recent weeks, with Sweet out front of Gravel and Macedo, and neither challenger really able to make up ground on the NAPA 49 team. The loss of the Placerville race means only 14 race nights remain in 2021, and those guys are quickly running out of time to chase down Sweet. Looking at some series stats, Sweet leads all drivers in average finish over the previous five races at 3.6. Donny Schatz and Gravel follow at 3.8, while Logan Schuchart and James McFadden are both in the fours. The Outlaws will take on a talented group of California regulars for the two nights, including Justin Sanders and Dominic Scelzi who have both been very good this season. Tim and Bud Kaeding will also both be fast, as will Shane Golobic and Colby Copeland. I'm also excited to see what young Corey Day can do driving the Tarlton Racing 21. Hot laps are scheduled for tonight at 6PM Pacific Time with opening ceremonies at 7. If you can't attend, watch live on DIRTVision.
Elsewhere this weekend, the Super DIRTcar Series big block modifieds take on Weedsport Speedway in New York for two nights. Saturday is a $7500 to win race, while Sunday is $10,000 to win. Matt Sheppard enters the weekend as the series points leader over Peter Britten by 89 points, with Billy Decker and Mat Williamson effectively tied for third 104 back. Mike Mahaney is fifth, with Max McLaughlin, Erick Rudolph, Jimmy Phelps, Chris Hile, and Larry Wight completing the top five. The series has already made two stops at Weedsport in 2021, with Williamson winning back on May 30th, and Stewart Friesen taking the Hall of Fame 100 on July 25th. Besides the big cash, the Sunday show will also award another driver a guaranteed spot in the Super DIRT Week feature coming up next month. So far Friesen, Demetrios Drellos, Tim Fuller, Sheppard, McLaughlin, Hile, and Andy Bachetti have all already punched their Super DIRT Week tickets. If you can't be at Weedsport either day, you can watch live on DIRTVision.
We've talked about the close points battles with USAC, but another open wheel series with a close battle is the ASCS National Tour. With just ten race nights left in the season, the top three are separated by only 61 points, with Blake Hahn leading Matt Covington and JJ Hickle. The series is headed to I-80 Speedway tonight and tomorrow, and all three drivers will look to make moves towards winning the championship. Hahn and young Ryan Timms lead the series with five wins each. If you can't get there this weekend, both nights will be live on Flo.
There are 28 shows on the streaming schedule for this Friday. That includes night three of the World 100s, the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars at Silver Dollar, the All Stars at Port Royal, USAC at Huset's, and a whole lot more. To see the full daily streaming schedule through the weekend with links to watch, 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!