DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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How many 4-Crown races can Courtney win? Sweet close to 3rd straight title | DIRTRACKR Daily 9/23/21
Today is Thursday, September 23rd, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Coming up we go deep on the dirt racing weekend, including what's coming for Lucas at Brownstown, a full 4-Crown preview for all divisions, plus what's upcoming for the IRA and King of the West sprint cars.
Before we get going, if you'd like a free and easy way to support what I'm doing subscribe and follow the show and leave me a review on iTunes or wherever you watch or listen. You can also follow @dirtrackr on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. And dirtrackr.com is home to a bunch of cool dirt racing content, including analytics, updated news and a lot more. Now let's dive in.
After getting rained out on Tuesday night and postponed to Wednesday, the FloRacing Night in America late model series proved yet again yesterday how snake bitten they've been this year. Overnight rain left Farmer City Raceway even more saturated and the organizers were forced to cancel. It's something like the eighth or ninth time a Flo late model event has been affected this season. So with Farmer City now off the schedule, just three nights remain for the series in 2021. They'll be back on October 7th at Tri County Racetrack, with 411 and Volunteer also still upcoming.
The focus for national super late model fans now shifts to Brownstown this weekend and the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. Tonight will be the remainder of the Indiana Icebreaker that was rescheduled from the spring. The event will resume with the first B main and then proceed through the rest of the program. Josh Richards and Brandon Sheppard are scheduled to start on the front row of the feature, with Kyle Bronson and Devin Moran on row two. This event was originally scheduled against the first Bristol dirt weekend, so Jonathan Davenport was not in attendance. It is my understanding that he will have to tag the rear of a B main tonight to participate per the Lucas rulebook. He's already in a big 375 point hole to Tim McCreadie in the standings, and he'll have a tall task tonight to dig out of that B main start and make something of the race. Looking ahead, Friday and Saturday are complete programs for the series, with Friday paying $10,000 to win and Saturday's 100 lapper paying $20,000 to win. McCreadie is the defending Jackson 100 winner, while Richards won the Friday night show in 2020. Josh Richards is someone we haven't talked much about this season, and unfortunately for him it's been because of his lackluster season. He does have two Lucas wins on the year, back at East Bay in January, and at Wheatland in May, but since that last win, it's been a very mediocre summer. Richards only has seven top fives and 18 top tens in 37 races this year, and his average finish is more than two positions worse in 2021 versus 2020. In his last 18 races, he only has five top ten finishes. Not what we've come to expect out of a driver that has dominated the Outlaw tour in the past and is a past Lucas champion. He's coming off an eighth place run at Knoxville and maybe Brownstown could be a place for him to get back on track. As for the Lucas championship, if Davenport and Hudson O'Neal are going to challenge McCreadie for the crown, they need to finish up front and do it quickly. Both are in big holes with not many races left. Looking elsewhere in the field, keep an eye on Tyler Erb this weekend. He's got five straight top six finishes, including those two wins at Knoxville, and will be looking to keep that momentum going. If you can't be at Brownstown this weekend, MAVTV Plus has live coverage of all three nights.
In the open wheel ranks, Eldora Speedway takes center stage this weekend with the 4-Crown Nationals on tap. Friday night's program features the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars, a full program for the USAC midgets, and qualifying for the Silver Crown cars. And yes, Friday will be one of those sucky streaming service nights where you'll be flipping back and forth between Flo and DIRTVision. The Outlaw portion of the night is obviously on DIRTVision, with the USAC racing on Flo. Saturday night at Eldora will be another full program for the USAC midgets, plus the USAC sprint cars, the feature for Silver Crown, and a full program for the All Stars. We talked on yesterday's show about Tyler Courtney's plan to run every race at Eldora, and so far he's the only one I know of doing that. In the three USAC divisions, we'll see Chris Windom, Logan Seavey, and Justin Grant in every race. So barring Windom, Seavey, and Grant finding a winged car to run with the Outlaws and All Stars, which I don't foresee, Courtney is the only one attempting all six features.
Before they head to Eldora, the USAC sprint cars and midgets were supposed to be at Gas City I-69 Speedway tonight for the James Dean Classic, but as of this morning that event has been cancelled because of rain. So those teams can get started on their Eldora prep early. The 4-Crown Nationals were not held at Eldora in 2020, so we've got to go back to 2019 for recent winners. With the midgets, Tyler Courtney has won the previous two trips to Eldora in 2019 and 2018. He'll be in the field this weekend looking to go three straight. As for the midget title fight, Buddy Kofoid currently holds a slight 10 point advantage over defending champion Chris Windom. Emerson Axsom was also neck deep in the battle, but has fallen to third, 95 points out after a tough Huset's weekend. Daison Pursley has been the hottest driver lately with a recent average finish of 4.4, and he's got seven straight top tens. Windom though is coming off back-to-back wins at Huset's, including the $20,000 to win finale. Kofoid is riding a streak of 11 straight top tens himself, and he'll need to keep up that consistency to hold Windom at bay down the stretch.
In the sprint car ranks, Brady Bacon has edged away from Kevin Thomas Jr. and Justin Grant in the standings, but there is time for those guys to run him down. The sprint cars have been at Eldora already this season, back in May. Tyler Courtney and Robert Ballou split those feature wins. Besides that win earlier this season, Sunshine has also won the sprint car portion of the 4-Crown the previous two runnings, in 2018 and 2019. I'd say he's definitely the guy to beat this weekend. I'd also keep an eye on Tanner Thorson on Saturday. He hasn't finished worse than 6th over his past eight races and has wins at Circle City and Huset's in that stretch.
For the Silver Crown competitors, this will be a pivotal weekend in the title fight, as only Eldora and Toledo remain on the schedule and the gap out front between championship leader Kody Swanson and second place Logan Seavey is only 16 points. Disaster struck for Swanson the last time out at Du Quoin when his car pulled up lame while leading near half way. He ended up 17th, which opened the door for Seavey. Those two will have a battle on their hands though, as 33 cars are on the initial entry list for the weekend, and the list is stacked. And stop me if you've heard this before, but Tyler Courtney is the most recent Silver Crown winner at Eldora, back from June this season. He led all 50 laps that day, topping Chris Windom. Basically if you're going to win at the 4-Crown this weekend in any car, you'll probably have to deal with Sunshine.
With the wing on though, Courtney will be looking for a bounceback after two straight tough weekends in Pennsylvania where he failed to finish in the top ten in any race. He's going to win the All Star championship, but an All Star win on Saturday night and a good showing the the Outlaws on Friday would be a boost. This will be the first and only appearance for the All Stars at Eldora this season and the Saturday night show will be wide open with no Outlaw regulars in the field. David Gravel and Brent Marks were Eldora winners in 2020, and neither will be in attendance on Saturday as Gravel will be at Lernerville and Marks has Selinsgrove on his schedule. Courtney will definitely be the one to watch, but expect Cory Eliason to be fast, Gio Scelzi will be the in the field, I wouldn't be surprised to see Aaron Reutzel, and guys like Spencer Bayston and Hunter Schuerenberg will be looking to rebound. Following Eldora, only two nights at Fremont are left this season for the All Stars.
With the Outlaws, we've been talking about Brad Sweet continuing to slowly stretch away from his competition and with 11 features left, his lead over David Gravel is 156, with Carson Macedo another 28 points back in third. If all goes according to plan, we are looking at a third straight championship for the Big Cat. He's currently riding a streak of 18 straight top ten finishes, and over his last 37 appearances has only finished outside the top ten twice, both 11th place results. Behind Sweet, Macedo and James McFadden are also both riding sizeable top ten streaks. Macedo has 10 straight and McFadden 16 straight. Looking at Eldora specifically, Donny Schatz has the best average finish of the full timers at the track back through 2018, currently sitting at 5.2. Sweet trails at 7.36, Macedo at 7.47, and Schuchart at 7.67. The dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula favors Sweet just slightly over Schatz for Friday night. After Friday, the Outlaws head to Lernerville on Saturday for the Commonwealth Clash, and that could be a big opportunity for Sweet to start putting the closing touches on this title run. Over the last seven races at Lernerville, Sweet's average finish is 2.57, which includes three wins and his worst finish being sixth. He also won the most recent visit to Lernerville for the Outlaws back in July. As you might expect, he's a sizeable favorite from the formula. Following this weekend, the Outlaws travel to Williams Grove next weekend for the National Open, which is the final crown jewel of the season.
Besides at Eldora and with the Outlaws, there is other 410 sprint car action to check out this weekend...
The IRA Sprint Car Series closes out their 2021 season this weekend with stops at Dodge County Fairgrounds on Friday night and Plymouth Dirt Track on Saturday night. Scotty Thiel has won two of the last three races, at Outagamie Speedway on September 10th and most recently at Wilmot on September 18th. But Thiel hasn't run full time this season, so he's not in the championship chase. Out front in the standings, Jake Blackhurst leads Scotty Neitzel by 108 points on the strength of three wins, 14 top fives, and 21 top tens in 26 appearances. Blackhurst and Neitzel have very similar stats, but Neitzel has missed two features, which explains the gap. IRA awards points through the night, in qualifying, heats, B mains and the feature, but the max available I believe is 90 for one night. Blackhurst would basically have to not show up to the final two nights for Neitzel to win. Besides the regular cast of characters, expect 10 time champion Bill Balog to be in attendance on Friday. He's running full time with the All Stars this season, but they aren't racing until Saturday night, so he'll be in the field and a serious contender for the win. Both race nights will be streamed on Flo if you can't be at the track.
Out in California this weekend the NARC King of the West Sprint Cars are back in action at Keller Auto Speedway in Hanford. Five races remain in their schedule, with three of those being at Hanford. So this track will obviously have a huge effect on who wins the 2021 championship. This weekend's race was originally scheduled to be at Santa Maria Raceway, but was moved when Santa Maria ceased operations earlier this summer. Justin Sanders is the most recent winner with the series, back at Silver Dollar Speedway during the Louie Vermeil Classic. In the race for the title, Dominic Scelzi leads the way with a 65 point lead over Tim Kaeding. Second through fourth are tight though, with Kaeding, his brother Bud and DJ Netto all separated by only three points. The way the King of the West points work, Scelzi's lead is actually pretty substantial. A win is worth four more points than second, but from there, it's one point through the field, so Scelzi's lead is effectively 65 positions. That's pretty safe with only five races left. Scelzi leads all drivers with five series wins this season, while Sanders has four, Tim Kaeding two, and Billy Aton, Sean Becker, Mitchell Faccinto, and DJ Netto all have one each. Joining the 410s on the card for Saturday night are non-wing cars, stock cars, and sport compacts. If you can't be at Hanford, FloRacing has the live stream.
A quick note before we shut it down, this is the last episode of the week because of the day job. So there will be no Friday episode. I'll be back on Monday to break down everything from the dirt racing weekend. Let me know where you're headed this weeked, what you're going to be watching, and who you think is going to grab some wins. It should be a great weekend for some racing, and those hot temperatures seems to be starting to subside around the country, so it will be a good weekend to get out to the track. If you can't get out there...
There are six shows on the streaming schedule for today with plenty more coming for the weekend. For tonight specifically, FloRacing has the opening night of the Super Bee 100 and Flo 24/7. MAVTV Plus has the Lucas Indiana Icebreaker from Brownstown, RacinDirt has Mod Mania from Tri-City and the opening night of the Fall Jamboree at Deer Creek Speedway, and Speed Sport has weekly action from Dubuque. To see the fully daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, hope you have a good Thursday 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!