DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
Dirt racing news, results, discussion, analytics. Sprint cars, late models, modifieds, you name it. From national series, to top local shows. Brought to you five days a week. Email the show at info@dirtrackr.com.
Davenport sits out, Bayston on the move, tight Silver Crown points fight | DIRTRACKR Daily 9/27/21
Today is Monday, September 27th, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Coming up we dive head first into a very packed dirt racing weekend, including the 4-Crown at Eldora, Lucas at Brownstown, some big wins for two teenagers, a couple more champions were crowned and more.
Before we get going, if you'd like a free and easy way to support what I'm doing you can subscribe and follow the show and leave me a review on iTunes or wherever you watch or listen. That will ensure you don't miss future episodes, and it will help others find the show. 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 do this.
The day job kept me from doing a Friday episode, and so of course there was a bunch of news that happened on both Thursday and Friday. We'll get to all of it as we talk about these races.
We'll start first with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at Brownstown Speedway. This is a championship battle we've been watching play out all summer, but unfortunately for one contender, their shot at this thing is over. Back on Thursday it was announced that Jonathan Davenport would miss the weekend after he and two of his crew members tested positive for covid. The three absences took Davenport from third to fifth in the Lucas standings following the weekend, and he's now nearly 700 points behind McCreadie. That leaves just Hudson O'Neal with any shot of tracking down McCreadie. Back to Thursday night, the Lucas late models were in action for the remainder of the Indiana Icebreaker that was postponed from the spring. The event was pushed back because of rough track conditions, and unfortunately things weren't a whole lot better on Thursday night after the track got a bunch of rain earlier in the week. The track was again rough and it caught a bunch of drivers out. Billy Moyer Jr. got hit with a big dirt clod and ended up out in 23rd. Other drivers with tough finishes included Ricky Thornton Jr., Shane Clanton, Josh Richards, and others. Out front though, it was all Brandon Sheppard. He led all 50 laps en route to his first Lucas win of 2021. Steve Casebolt, Devin Moran, O'Neal and Jimmy Owens completed the top five. Friday and Saturday at Brownstown were the two nights of the Jackson 100, and Friday's feature was drama filled. The race turned into a nice battle between Josh Rice and Tyler Erb, with the two swapping the lead three times. Erb took over for good on lap 29 when Rice broke and was forced to the pit area. It was a sucky way for Rice to end up out of the fight. Erb led the final 12 laps and picked up his seventh win of 2021. When Erb emerged in victory lane, he was showered with boos from the fans in attendance who were upset with earlier race contact between Erb and local favorite Hudson O'Neal that left O'Neal spun out. O'Neal missed the bottom in turns three and four and Erb filled the gap. O'Neal later ended up 15th. I'm not sure I really blame Erb for the move. Just a tough deal for O'Neal I think. There was also some wild stuff between Devin Gilpin and Jimmy Owens. Following the caution for Josh Rice, Gilpin threw a slider at Owens into turn one, and Owens had to check up to not get into Gilpin. The two then made contact down the backstretch, with Owens catching air and wheelying. I'm not sure I've seen a late model do a wheelie before. Owens was upset though, and into turn three he wiped Gilpin out, and ended up over the banking himself. Gilpin finished 18th, with Owens 17th. Behind Erb, McCreadie finished second, BShepp third, Devin Moran fourth, and Tanner English was fifth. Over to Saturday, we were treated to a wild, nearly photo finish. Jimmy Owens led 95 of the 100 laps, but a late caution for Ricky Thornton Jr. spun gave Devin Moran a chance. He took the lead from Owens shortly after the restart and led five laps before Owens got the top rolling again and slipped back by. On the final lap, Moran tried a slider and briefly took the lead, but Owens powered past him down the backstretch. Coming to the checkered Moran had a run out onto the front straightaway, but Owens beat him to the line by 79 one thousandths of a second. It was Owens second Lucas win of the year. Moran settled for second, with Tanner English third, Earl Pearson Jr. fourth, and Mike Marlar was fifth. A 12th place finish for TMac saw his 13 race top ten streak busted, but he left the weekend with a 340 point advantage over O'Neal with just six features left in the season. It's only a matter of time now for McCreadie. This coming weekend, Lucas has two more races, Friday night at Raceway 7 in Ohio, and Saturday is the 33rd annual Pittsburgher 100.
Back from their west coast stretch, the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series was at Eldora on Friday night as part of the 4-Crown weekend, and then they took on Lernerville Speedway on Saturday. On Friday night at Eldora, Donny Schatz led early from the second starting position, but got held up in lap traffic late in the going and Logan Schuchart was able to get by him. Even with an engine that sounded like it was going sour, Schuchart was able to hold the field off in the closing laps and get his sixth Outlaw win of 2021. James McFadden, David Gravel, Donny Schatz, and Tyler Courtney completed the top five. The big story of the night though was not one, but two flat right rear tires for Brad Sweet. The tough luck pushed him down the order, and he finished 19th, which ended his 18 race top ten streak. That combined with podium finish for David Gravel saw Sweet's championship points lead cut down. Gravel would again gain ground on Saturday at Lernerville. After starting on the pole, but dropping back in the early laps, Gravel would march his way back forward, eventually taking the lead from Brad Sweet following a caution for AJ Flick. Gravel led the final 13 laps to bag his 10th win of the season. Sweet settled for second, with Schatz third, McFadden fourth, and Sheldon Haudenschild in fifth. Before the weekend, Sweet's lead was 156 points, but following the two nights, it's down to 120. With only nine race nights left though, I still think it's a tough task for Gravel. 120 points is 60 positions, so Gravel still needs to beat Sweet by nearly seven positions a night on average over these final weeks to get back to even. Not impossible, but this still feels like we are headed for three straight titles for Sweet. Big hat tip to Wayne Johnson this weekend. He started on the pole at Eldora, and was outside front row at Lernerville before grabbing finishes of 7th and 10th. For a driver that had just a single top ten result in 2020, this season has been a massive improvement for the pilot of the 2C. He's now get ten top tens this season, has led laps, and his average finish is nearly three positions better. Coming up this weekend, the final crown jewel event of the season looms with the National Open at Williams Grove on tap.
Following the Friday night show at Eldora, the All Stars took the Outlaws' place as the winged division at the 4-Crown on Saturday. We had more driver movement amongst the full time teams, with the Friday announcement that Spencer Bayston was departing the McGhee 11 for another opportunity. McGhee moved quickly to fill the seat, tapping Parker Price Miller for the future. It's been a tough season for that 11 car, that started out with Ian Madsen behind the wheel. But that pairing ended in June during Ohio Sprint Speedweek. Bayston then took over and the success came pretty quickly with wins at the Lou Blaney Memorial at Sharon, Brad Doty Classic at Attica with the Outlaws, and most recently at Attica on September 4th. In between, JJ Grasso and Cale Thomas have also been behind the wheel of the 11 when Bayston had other committments. McGhee told Speed Sport's Kyle McFadden that they were planning to run the full Outlaw schedule with Bayston next season, before he informed the team at Port Royal that he was leaving for another ride. He also said quote "I'm not trying to make it look like I shit-canned a driver for no reason because that's not the case. You know how these keyboard warriors are. I'm tired of looking like the revolving door. We have fast-as-shit stuff. I'm not trying to sound biased. We know we're one of the top cars" endquote. You can definitely understand his frustration, especially with the success they've had. Besides PPM, McGhee will field the 11 for Cole Duncan at upcoming races at Atomic, plus the All Star finale at Fremont. As for Bayston, there hasn't been an announcement yet on his future, but I'm guessing we'll hear something soon. On to Saturday night's feature, the field saw a whole bunch of the back of Rico Abreu's number 24. He started second and led all 30 laps en route to his 10th career All Star win in his 100th series start. In just his second night in the McGhee 11, PPM tried to challenge Rico late, but settled for second. Ayrton Gennetten capped a nice first ever weekend at Eldora with a third place result, after finishing eighth the night before with the Outlaws. Gennetten is working with Brian Brown's former crew chief Chad Morgan, and that has paid dividends for the young Missouri driver. Cap Henry and Zeb Wise completed the top five. The bad luck continued for Tyler Courtney who suffered a flat right rear tire late and couldn't get out of the work area in time. He finished 22nd. Courtney now has six straight finishes of 14th or worse in All Star competition. The series is off now until their final weekend at Fremont, October 8th and 9th.
The other four features at Eldora as part of the 4-Crown weekend were of the USAC variety. On Friday night in the midget show, Tyler Courtney snuck by Chris Windom on lap 12 and led the rest of the way in a non-stop feature. It was Courtney's first USAC midget win of 2021 after just missing out on the series championship in 2020. Logan Seavey, Windom, Buddy Kofoid, and Spencer Bayston completed the top five. If you might remember, Kofoid entered the weekend with a slight 10 point advantage over Windom in the standings, but a pair of weekend fourth place finishes for Kofoid weren't enough. Why you might ask? Because Windom was very good on Saturday night. He went fourth to the lead on lap one and never looked back, grabbing his first career USAC midget win at Eldora. Bayston and Seavey tried to mount charges in the closing stages, but couldn't make moves. Seavey ended up second, Bayston third, Kofoid fourth, and Sunshine was fifth. The third on Friday and the Saturday win pushed Windom into the series points lead with Kofoid now two points back in second. This is going to be a really fun battle to watch play out with still 11 nights to go. In Saturday night's sprint car feature, Tyler Courtney bagged his second win at 4-Crown. Sunshine battled with Seavey through the middle stages after Windom led early. Courtney was banging the boards and finally took over for good on lap 22, and he drove away to his second non-wing win of the season, both coming at Eldora. Seavey, Windom, Justin Grant, and Isaac Chapple were the rest of the top five. Brady Bacon continues to lead the USAC sprint points by a healthy 71 markers over Kevin Thomas Jr. The other championship battle with USAC that has been very close is with the Silver Crown Series. Kody Swanson came into Eldora with a 16 point advantage over Logan Seavey, but following Seavey's dominating win on Saturday night, the gap is just one point. Tyler Courtney sat on the pole, and led the opening lap, but it was all Seavey out front from there. He earned his second series win of 2021, with Matt Westfall hard charging from 14th to finish second, Shane Cottle was third, Brady Bacon fourth, and Swanson ended up fifth. Just one race remains to settle the championship now, with the Silver Crown cars headed to Toledo on October 10th. The fact that the finale is on an asphalt track should bode well for Swanson. This fight will definitely go down to the final lap though.
In other weekend sprint car action, we had big wins for two teenagers. Corey Day grabbed his first ever 410 win out in California with the King of the West Series. At Keller Auto Speedway on Saturday night he battled with Tim Kaeding early, and then drove away to the victory. The 15 year old driver has been very impressive this season, and has the backing of former World of Outlaws champion Jason Meyers. In South Dakota on Sunday, 15 year old Ryan Timms topped Brooke Tatnell and Justin Henderson in the season finale at Huset's. Timms has been running a bunch of 360 stuff and midgets this season. Henderson was crowned the Huset's 410 track champion. And with the IRA, the Friday night show was rained out, while Noah Gass took the victory in the season finale at the Plymouth Dirt Track. Jake Blackhurst is your 2021 IRA sprint car champion.
In other weekend late model action, what an outing for Hunt the Front's Joseph Joiner. He led the final 65 laps and held off Matt Henderson and Cade Dillard to score the $50,000 win at the Super Bee 100 crate race. It was the biggest win of Joiner's career. That should be a fun video on the Hunt the Front YouTube channel.
The only thing on the streaming schedule today is FloRacing 24/7. 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 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!