DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Jonathan Davenport wins 50th World 100, Logan Wagner takes Tuscarora 50 | DIRTRACKR Daily 9/13/21
Today is Monday, September 13th, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Coming up we are talking World 100, Tusky 50, Gold Cup, USAC Nationals, and more, so come along with me, won't you.
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At Eldora Speedway over the weekend the World 100 party kept rolling along with two more nights of racing and another chance at a globe trophy. The Friday night prelim features went to Brandon Overton and Gregg Satterlee. Overton dominated the first race, leading all 25 laps from the pole and topping Jimmy Owens and Kyle Bronson. The second race, Bobby Pierce tried to track Satterlee down late, but came up short. Satterlee took the $10,000 win over Pierce and Brandon Sheppard. Friday's action, just like the earlier prelim night, set the heat race lineups for Saturday's 50th World 100, and once the early Saturday action was complete, we had a few notables not make the big race. Jimmy Owens missed his heat race transfer by one spot, and then couldn't get it done in a B main. Tyler Erb was also missing from the 50th World 100 field, after his missed transfers by one spot in both his B main and the second scramble. For the 100 lapper, Scott Bloomquist led the field to green from the pole thanks to his heat race six win. He was joined on the front row by Bobby Pierce. Those two battled early, but Bloomer was able to wrestle control of the race early on. He led the first 17 laps before Wednesday night prelim winner Johnny Scott took over on lap 18. Behind Scott, Brandon Overton was lurking, and he began to pressure the New Mexico driver. Things came to a head on lap 27 when Scott slipped up in turn two and made contact with the lap car of Michael Norris. That let Overton slip by to take the lead, but the move was negated when Norris slowed to a stop. On the restart Scott maintained the lead, and he kept it for a while, but eventually Overton worked past him on lap 42. Unlike Thursday night though, this race would not belong to Overton. Following a restart just past half way, Jonathan Davenport slipped by the 76 and began to stretch away. JD later survived a late restart with eight laps to go to bag the victory in the 50th World 100. Mike Marlar had an incredible drive from 26th to finish second, Overton was third, Tim McCreadie fourth, and Chris Ferguson rounded out the top five. The win was Davenport's fourth career World 100 triumph, and he joins Billy Moyer, Bloomquist, and Donnie Moran as drivers with at least four World victories. I believe I saw this was the sixth win for Davenport this year that paid at least $20,000 to win. That's a pretty damn good run he's had so far in 2021. So no weekend sweep for Brandon Overton, but still an incredible stretch of races at Eldora this season. It will be very, very difficult for anyone to top what he did between the Dream and World ever again. Obviously the pandemic created a unique situation this year, but still amazing stuff. For dirt late model fans, we aren't done yet this season. We still have some champions to crown, plus big money still out there at events like the Late Model Knoxville Nationals and the Dirt Track World Championship. Lucas is at Knoxville this week, the Outlaws are back next week, and the FloRacing Night in America Series starts back up again tonight actually at Fairbury. So stay tuned...
The other big money that was on the line this week was for the sprint cars at Port Royal Speedway. The Tuscarora 50 for the All Star Circuit of Champions continued Friday night and Saturday night. In the final tuneup before the big money show back on Friday night, it was Daryn Pittman who led every lap en route to his first victory of the season. He's been running a part time schedule with Swindell SpeedLab as of late, and looked very strong. It was his 10th career All Star win and his first series win in over six years. He topped Lucas Wolfe, Gio Scelzi, Logan Wagner, and Brian Brown. On Saturday night with $54,000 going to the winner, we had drama in the feature for Lance Dewease. He took over the lead from Rico Abreu on lap 12 and appeared to be very strong, but as laps ticked off, Dewease's car kept getting dirtier and dirtier, and it wasn't the Port Royal surface on his car, it was oil. A loose hose caused oil to leak out of the engine and all over Dewease and the car. At the half way break he got out to clean off his steering wheel and get more tearoffs as his crew frantically worked to refill the oil and solve the issue. Once rolling again, he was able to maintain the lead, but his lack of clear vision cost him late. With just a few laps left, he got tentative working lap traffic and Logan Wagner pounced. Wagner led the final two laps en route to his first career Tusky 50 victory. Dewease had to settle for second with Anthony Macri third, Dylan Cisney fourth, and Brent Marks in fifth. Dewease tweeted afterward that everything from his helmet to his neck restraint was destroyed by the oil. It's unfortunate for him, because I think he definitely had the car to beat. Leaving the weekend, we are down to our final five All Star races of the season. Series points leader Tyler Courtney had a brutal weekend, finishing 20th, 14th, and 25th, but his points lead is still a very sizeable 276 over Cory Eliason. The All Stars are back in Pennsylvania this weekend, with the Dirt Classic qualifier at Williams Grove on Friday, and the $20,000 to win Dirt Classic at Lincoln on Saturday.
For the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series, it was two nights at the Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, California over the weekend for the Gold Cup Race of Champions. On Friday night, we were treated to one hell of a battle in the first half of the race for the lead. Watching series regulars Sheldon Haudenschild and Brad Sweet duke it out with local favorite Colby Copeland was worth the price of admission. Unfortunately for those three though, David Gravel was lurking. He started fifth, took control on lap 17, and led the final 19 laps to score his ninth Outlaw win of 2021. Copeland ended up second, Sweet third, Haudenschild fourth, and Kraig Kinser completed the top five. On Saturday night in the finale, Kasey Kahne led the field to the green from pole looking for his first ever World of Outlaws feature win, but his time out front was short lived. He led the first eight, before local Tanner Carrick took over on lap nine. Carrick was able to maintain the lead through half way, but things got spicy out front after that. The 89T was under fire from both Brad Sweet and Logan Schuchart, with each of the full timers grabbing the lead at various points. Unfortunately for Carrick though, under a caution at lap 25, he was sent to the work area because the tail tank had come loose on his machine and was not able to make it back out before the green flag waved. In that situation his team was given no guaranteed time in the work area because the race was past half way. The local fans were none too pleased with Carrick being stopped in the first place, but it's an easy call to make for Outlaw officials. You can't race with a loose tail tank. Once green, Sweet and Schuchart battled for a few laps, before the 1S took over for good on lap 28. He drove away to the Gold Cup win and his second victory in three races. James McFadden snuck by Sweet late to finish second, Sweet was third, Donny Schatz fourth, and Kasey Kahne ended up fifth. I was a tick disappointed with the fields each night, but there were some mitigating circumstances. I thought we'd see Corey Day, but I forgot he isn't old enough yet to race with the Outlaws. Shane Golobic was off racing with USAC as his car owner Matt Wood promoted that Huset's event. And I heard that maybe Justin Sanders was under the weather. Hopefully he feels better soon. With 12 race nights now remaining in 2021, Sweet has extended his points lead to 140 over David Gravel and 188 over Carson Macedo. On average, Gravel will need to beat Sweet by nearly six positions a night to pull even. I just don't see that happening at this point. The World of Outlaws west coast swing continues Saturday at Keller Auto Speedway.
At Huset's Speedway in South Dakota, both the USAC sprint cars and midgets were in town for the inuagural USAC Nationals. Besides there being big money on the line through the weekend, we also have two incredibly tight points battles to keep an eye on. The weekend started off for the midgets with Thomas Meseraull winning on a green white checkered finish on Friday night. Kevin Thomas Jr. led much of the feature, but suffered a flat tire late. TMez then slipped by Chris Windom in that final run to the checkered and picked up his third win of the year. Windom, Shane Golobic, Buddy Kofoid, and Daison Pursley completed the top five. Emerson Axsom had mechanical trouble and finished 24th, which was a big hit in the standings. On Saturday night, after getting beat the night before, Chris Windom wouldn't be denied. He started sixth, took the lead from Daison Pursley on lap 22 and drove away to the victory. Pursley finished second, Kofoid third, Logan Seavey fourth, and Golobic was fifth. An 11th place result for Axsom saw him drop even further behind Kofoid and Windom in the standings heading into Sunday's finale. Over to the final day, the competitors we were racing for $20,000, but they had to survive 100 laps to get it done. Chase Randall led the field to green and was out front for the first 13 laps before Cannon McIntosh took over. It's been a disappointing season for Cannon Mac, and unfortunately for him that trend continued on Sunday. He shredded a right rear tire right before half way and it effectively ended his race. Once past the halfway break, Chase Randall took back over again and was good out front for quite a while. Inside 20 to go, Chris Windom started pressuring Randall for the top spot, and then disaster for the youngster from Texas. He led lap 85, and then into turn one he cut down the right rear tire and ended up flipping. Big disappointment for him after leading 49 laps. Once green again, Windom was able to drive away to the victory and bag the $20,000 winner's share. Kofoid finished second, Pursley third, Tanner Thorson fourth, and Kevin Thomas Jr. was fifth. Leaving the weekend the points are still very tight at the top, but Axsom has lost touch with the top two. He's now third 94 points behind Kofoid, and that was after entering the weekend just nine points back. Windom though has kept it close, and he trails by only 10 points. The midget championship battle continues in a few weeks.
With the USAC sprint cars, Tanner Thorson kicked off the weekend with a dominating win on Friday, leading all 25 laps and topping TMez, Brady Bacon, Robert Ballou, and Kevin Thomas Jr. Remember that Justin Grant and KTJ are trying to keep pace with Bacon in the standings. On Saturday night, Charles Davis Jr. led early from the pole, but CJ Leary took over on lap three and was never really challenged out front again. It was Leary's fourth win of the year and he topped Thorson, Davis, Jake Swanson, and KTJ. In the $20,000 to win finale on Sunday, we had some great racing in the early going with Chris Windom and Logan Seavey trading the lead officially five times in the first nine laps. Windom though was able to seize control of the race on lap nine, but CJ Leary was lurking. Right before half way, Leary slipped by him on the bottom and led the rest of the way to score the big money. Windom tried late to get back by, but a timely caution saved Leary's lead. Brady Bacon ended up second, Windom third, Thorson fourth, and KTJ was fifth. With Bacon grabbing three top six finishes through the three nights, he did what he needed to do to maintain the points lead. He leaves the weekend with a 56 point advantage on Thomas with Grant slipping to 95 points back. The sprint cars are back on Friday at Circle City.
Other open wheel winners this weekend included Chris Andrews at Attica, Scott Bogucki and Blake Hahn won with the ASCS at I-80, Jake Neuman was a MOWA winner at Jacksonville, Brent Crews won the POWRi show, Scotty Thiel was an IRA winner at Outagamie, Cole Duncan won at Atomic, Brooke Tatnell at Cedar Lake, Cole Macedo at Fremont, and Andy Forsberg won the 360 finale at Silver Dollar. For more from the open wheel weekend, visit tjslideways.com.
With the Super DIRTcar Series, Matt Sheppard won the Saturday show at Weedsport over Max McLaughlin and Tim Fuller. The Sunday show was lost to rain.
In other weekend late model action, Jason Covert won the super late model show at Port Royal and won again Saturday at Lincoln, Jared Miley won at Raceway 7, and Justin Kay was an IMCA winner at Lee County. To see more from the late model weekend, visit dirtondirt.com.
There are two shows on the streaming schedule today, both on FloRacing. Besides Flo 24/7, they also have the return of the FloRacing Night in American late model series. To see the full list of shows 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!