DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Brady Bacon's insane consistency keeping him atop USAC Sprint Car battle | DIRTRACKR Daily 9/29/21
Today is Wednesday, September 29th, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Coming up we break down how Brady Bacon is probably on his way to a fourth USAC championship even though he's qualifying and starting worse than last season. I've also got news from the ASCS and new dirt racing podcast episodes.
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.
When you do a podcast or show like mine, it's easy to get caught up in wanting the episodes to be viewed and downloaded as much as possible on a daily basis. I put a bunch of work and time into them, and the hope is that people see the value in what you're doing and tune in everyday. But that can obviously become a trap. Over the past year and a half and now 415 episodes, I've learned that certain things and certain topics are going to move the needle. Two that come to mind are driver and team changes, and almost anything involving Kyle Larson. Talking about those two things will almost certainly guarantee views and downloads. But as easy as it is to get caught up in this death spiral of chasing views, I'm not going to play that game. I'm going to talk about the things that I find interesting and hopefully keep providing insights and context to the dirt racing that we all watch on regular basis. And in saying that, I know that when I inform you that I want to talk about Brady Bacon today and his sprint car season to date, a lot of you will probably turn this show off. Because on the flip side of driver changes and Kyle Larson, I know that when I talk about USAC, or modifieds, or go deeper on some late model stuff, those shows don't do as well. But I don't care, it's my show. And if you do turn me off, no big deal, have a good rest of your day. I'll catch you on the next one.
So, Brady Bacon. There are currently three USAC sprint car weekends left in 2021 and seven nights of racing, and Bacon is the current series points leader by 71 over Kevin Thomas Jr. Bacon is currently chasing his fourth sprint car title, and second in a row. He's previously won it in 2014, 2016, and 2020. I've mentioned in the past the complete 180 that KTJ has done this season after a tough year in 2020, and he is currently tied with Justin Grant for the most wins this season with seven. Bacon hasn't won nearly as often this season as he did last, but he's still managed to outpace his competition in the standings, including the resurgent KTJ. The beauty of building out the analytics section at dirtrackr.com is we are able to spot trends and compare drivers much easier then was possible in the past. The kind of numbers and stats available on the site are things you cannot find anywhere else, and using these numbers we can start to understand where Bacon is besting his fellow sprint car competitors. When looking at Bacon's driver page, a few things stand out right away about his 2021 season. First are his top five and top ten percentages. Through 36 starts, the Macho Man has managed 29 top fives, good for better than 80%, and 34 top tens which is more than 94%. Consistency is key to winning championships, and 34 top tens in 36 starts is outrageously consistent. Those numbers are better than any other driver leading the points in one of the national dirt racing series in the dirtrackr.com analytics database. That includes both World of Outlaws series, Lucas, the All Stars, and the other USAC series. Brandon Sheppard is running away with the World of Outlaws Late Model Series championship and currently has 26 straight top tens, and even his stats don't match Bacon's. Two of the more advanced stats I put together are top five and top ten value finishes. This is when a driver finishes top five or top ten when they start outside the top ten. Bacon's numbers here are also off the charts. This season, he's started outside the top ten seven times, and he's converted all seven into top ten finishes, and five of seven into top fives. That's insane. Even when things earlier in the night don't go his way, he's been able to make chicken salad out of chicken you-know-what. And I think that's really the story of Bacon's 2021 season. Coming from behind. When you compare 2021 and 2020, Bacon is actually qualifying a position and a half worse this season and is starting features more than half a position further back, but it hasn't mattered. His average feature finish is somehow a spot and a half better this year. So qualifying worse, starting worse, but finishing better. I don't know if we can equate that to Bacon continuing to improve as a driver, or if he and crew chief Matt Hummel just seem to find ways to make the right adjustments come feature time, but whatever it is, it's working. Bacon leads all drivers this season in feature plus/minus at +114 and he's got the most hard chargers with six. This ability to come from behind is a bad sign for guys like KTJ here down the stretch, because even if Bacon has issues, he can fight back from them. He hasn't won a USAC sprint car feature since Bloomington at the end of July, but in the 11 races since he also hasn't finished worse than 8th. With seven nights left, 71 points isn't a super big margin, but if he continues racing like he's been, it will be very difficult for Thomas or Grant to catch him. I still don't understand why he doesn't get more recognition nationally, but we won't open that can of worms again. If you'd like to see more numbers like these, visit dirtrackr.com/analytics.
The Short Track Nationals were supposed to be at I-30 Speedway this weekend in Arkansas, but a poor forecast has forced track and ASCS officials to postpone the weekend. The big event for 360 sprint cars will now take place October 21st through October 23rd. The ASCS National Tour was originally scheduled to close out their 2021 season at Devil's Bowl on October 15th and 16th, but these rescheduled races at I-30 will now be the season ending nights. So still four race nights left, the order is just reversed. Devil's Bowl on the 15th and 16th, I-30 on the 22nd and 23rd. Blake Hahn currently leads the national tour standings by 60 points over JJ Hickle, so this championship isn't quite wrapped up just yet. For more details on the announcement, visit ascsracing.com.
It's Wednesday, so that means new dirt racing podcast episode day. Winged Nation has David Gravel and Brian Brown, LoudPedal has Chris Windom, the Rigsby Report has Jimmy Mars, Passing Points has Spencer Bayston, and there are new episodes of Stick Signals, the Dirt Reporters, the Dirt Nerds, and Wednesdays with Wayne. To see the full list of shows and episodes, hit up dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
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 Wednesday. 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!