DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Larson chasing 3rd 2021 sprint car crown jewel, Bloomquist/Sommer parting | DIRTRACKR Daily 10/1/21
Today is Friday, October 1st, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Coming up we get you ready for a busy dirt racing weekend that includes the National Open at Williams Grove, races for Lucas and the Outlaw late models, USAC sprint cars in Indiana, and more. I've also got news from Scott Bloomquist and Ashton Winger.
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The final sprint car crown jewel weekend of the year is upon us with the National Open at Williams Grove getting underway tonight. We'll get two full programs for the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars versus the Pennsylvania Posse with tonight paying $10,000 to win and tomorrow paying a very nice $75,000 to win. On top of the usual suspects for the Posse and Outlaws, plenty of other big names are going to be in attendance trying to bag the big money. That includes Kyle Larson back in a sprint car with Paul Silva and the 57, Daryn Pittman behind the wheel of the Swindell Speedlab 39, Justin Peck in the pink Kramer Williamson tribute car, plus the debut of Spencer Bayston with CJB Motorsports, Gio Scelzi, and Justin Henderson driving for Bernie in the Indy Race Parts 71. So far in 2021 we've had four Outlaw races at the Grove and four different winners. Carson Macedo and Aaron Reutzel split the May weekend, with Sheldon Haudenschild and Brent Marks bagging wins in July. Donny Schatz is the defending National Open winner, while Brent Marks won the event in 2019 and Lance Dewease won it in 2018. I have 17 World of Outlaws races at Williams Grove in the dirtrackr.com analytics database, and Larson has the best average finish of any driver at the Grove in that span. His average is fifth, but he's only made four Outlaw appearances at the Grove since 2018, and he has no wins. Larson's three career sprint car wins at the Grove have come with the All Stars and in PA Speedweek competition. Behind Larson, David Gravel has an average of 5.6, Donny Schatz of 6th, Lance Dewease of about 7th, and Pittman is 7.6. The win prediction formula does favor Larson, but just barely over Gravel and Schatz. Central PA is a notoriously down area for series points leader Brad Sweet and Williams Grove is certainly part of that. He does not have a Grove win his career, and his best finish there is third. Over those 17 Williams Grove races in the database, Sweet's average finish is just a tick north of tenth. That's a big deal when you consider that Sweet's average finish with the Outlaws over his previous 268 races is 5.3. The Grove is definitely a problem for the Big Cat. If Gravel is going to make a really serious late charge for the Outlaw championship, he absolutely must make up big ground this weekend. Another driver to keep an eye on for the big money is Carson Macedo. He won at the Grove back in May like I mentioned, and the 41 with David Gravel in it the past few seasons always ran well there, so you know crew chief Philip Dietz has a good notebook. If he could get it done, this would be a massive victory for Macedo in his young career. If you can't be at the Grove, make sure to tune in both nights live on DIRTVision.
With things looking better and better for Tim McCreadie to wrap up his first ever series championship, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series is headed to Ohio and Pennsylvania this weekend. Tonight they are at Raceway 7 for $12 grand to win, before heading to PA tomorrow for the 33rd Annual Pittsburgher 100 and $20,000 to win. With Jonathan Davenport forced to sit out the Brownstown weekend with a positive covid test, he's now out of contention, and McCreadie leads Hudson O'Neal by 340 points with just six features remaining. If McCreadie stays as consistent as he's been so far this season, he'll cruise to the championship. Lucas hasn't raced at Raceway 7 since 2019 and Kyle Bronson will be looking to repeat his win from that event. He topped McCreadie and Josh Richards that year after Jimmy Owens dropped out late. As for the Pittsburgher 100, Ricky Thornton Jr. is the defending winner. He led the final 18 laps in 2020 and beat Richards and Earl Pearson Jr. for the $20,000 score. It's been a rough stretch for RTJ lately with Lucas, as he's finished outside the top ten in six of his last eight starts. Saturday's race could be a good opportunity for him to get back on track with that SSI Motorsports team. We'll also be keeping an eye on Tyler Erb to see if he can stay hot, as he's won three of the last six Lucas races, including last weekend at Brownstown and both Knoxville prelim nights. Both Lucas shows this weekend will be streamed live on MAVTV Plus.
It's been nearly a month since they last raced, but the World of Outlaws Late Models are back in action this weekend in the south with stops at Cherokee Speedway tonight, and Senoia Raceway tomorrow. As I talked about yesterday, Rocket Racing and Brandon Sheppard are headed for their fourth title in five seasons, and from here on out it's just about race wins for the rest of the Outlaw competitors. Brandon Overton has dominated Cherokee with the Outlaws in recent seasons, including the most recent race on September 2nd, plus wins in both 2020 and 2019. He's definitely going to be the one to beat tonight. As for Senoia, the Outlaws haven't been there since 2018 when Chris Madden was victorious. Sheppard was also a winner there in 2017. Senoia has gone through an ownership change this year and the track is being revitalized, so it's nice to see them rewarded with a national touring show. Other drivers that will be looking for their first Outlaw wins of 2021 this weekend including leading rookie Tyler Bruening, top five runner Ricky Weiss, and rookie Ryan Gustin. All have shown speed this season and are capable of winning. Both of these Outlaw nights will be available to watch on DIRTVision.
In some late model team news from yesterday, Scott Bloomquist Racing announced that following the conclusion of the 2021 season, Bloomquist and business partner Cody Sommer will part ways following a three year partnership. Sommer is known for his work getting events like the Gateway Dirt Nationals off the ground and for briefly running Mansfield Motor Speedway as a dirt track and holding events like the Dirt Million. Sommer partnered with Bloomquist in 2019 and Sommer was named team president. The release from the team says they are parting quote cordially and mutually unquote. Bloomquist is not retiring and the team plans on continuing to operate in the future. Bloomer still has races left on his schedule this season, including the upcoming Lucas events at Smoky Mountain, Dixie, and Rome. Nick Hoffman is also still scheduled to make some appearances for SBR. There was nothing in the release about the future for Sommer. And speaking of Sommer, there are still plenty of question marks surrounding the Gateway Dirt Nationals. The event did not happen in 2020, and I'd say 2021 is still in question. Cody tweeted back on September 14th that the event was going to happen and that there'd be news in the next ten days, but those ten days have come and gone with no updates. The event's Twitter account hasn't had any updates in several months, but I noticed this morning the avatar and header photo have been changed to include event dates of December 2nd through the 4th. When I checked the website yesterday, it also hadn't been updated this year, but also as of this morning it now shows a black page with coming soon and the 2021 dates. So we'll have to wait and see what happens. To see for yourself, go to @GatewayDirt on Twitter and GatewayDirt.com.
Also, just this morning it was announced that Ashton Winger has a new late model ride. Effective immediately he will take over from GR Smith in the Brodnax-Shaker Motorsports entry. Smith has been the team's driver and helping manage the team as a partner, and he told Dirt on Dirt's Kevin Kovac that following the double Worlds at Eldora he decided to reduce his driving commitment. Winger has been racing in his family owned car this season, and was very good with the Summer Nationals earlier this year, picking up multiple wins. He's also got two Outlaw wins on his resume. According to Kovac and the team, Winger's first race with the team will be the Lucas show at Smoky Mountain coming up, but that a decision on 2022 is still in the works. For more details and quotes, visit dirtondirt.com.
Back on the Wednesday Daily show we went through Brady Bacon's 2021 season to date and his pursuit of his fourth career USAC National Sprint Car championship continues this weekend with stops at Terre Haute and Lawrenceburg. He currently leads Kevin Thomas Jr. by 71 points and Justin Grant by 112. Only seven nights and three weekends remain on the 2021 schedule for the USAC sprint cars, and this weekend's show are the final in the midwest for the year. Following Terre Haute and Lawrenceburg, the series heads west for stops at Perris Auto Speedway and Arizona Speedway in November. Tonight at Terre Haute, besides the championship chasers, Chris Windom will definitely be one to keep an eye on. He's won three of the last five series trips to the track and has seven total wins at Terre Haute in his career which is the most of any active driver, and second all time. Interestingly though, Windom has been winless over his last 24 races, going back to Terre Haute in May. He's had plenty of good runs since that last win, but this could be a good night for him to bust that streak. Other drivers with recent wins include Justin Grant and Logan Seavey, who was victorious in July during Indiana Sprint Week. Seavey is also the most recent winner at Lawrenceburg, where the series will travel to on Saturday for $10,000 to win. Bacon has a win at the Burg in 2021 as well, and he's won two of the last four trips there, so it could be a good opportunity for him to extend that championship lead. Your interesting USAC sprint car stat of the day involves the start position for series winners in 2021. We've had more winners from sixth than we have from second (six wins versus five wins), and we've had no winners start seventh, but two start 11th. If you can't be at Terre Haute or the Burg this weekend, watch live on Flo.
If you're looking for some midget action this weekend, the POWRi National Midgets are headed to Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex in Missouri for two shows. We're down to the final seven nights of their season, and the championship chase has turned into a fight between two youngsters from two of midget racing's top teams. Bryant Wiedeman driving for Keith Kunz and Pete Willoughby is the points leader with Brent Crews of Chad Boat Industries 90 points back in second. Wiedeman has a win, 13 top fives and 21 top tens in 24 features, while Crews has four wins, 15 top fives, and 19 top tens in the same number of races. This will be a fun battle to the finish between two of open wheel racing's future stars. Following this weekend at Sweet Springs, the series has races left at Port City, I-44 Riverside, and Caney Valley. All of the POWRi National Midget races can be watched on MAVTV Plus. If you weren't aware, the POWRi rules are a bit different then USAC, and if you want a place to see some of these younger drivers and future talent, POWRi is a great series to check out. The age requirement is more relaxed, so drivers can get some experience in a midget with POWRi and race at some great tracks across the midwest. A lot of the drivers you are seeing today in USAC and in winged racing spent time in POWRi including Justin Peck, Logan Seavey, Buddy Kofoid, Tanner Thorson, Spencer Bayston, Carson Macedo and more.
There are 27 shows on the streaming schedule today, with most of the streaming services having something today. The rundown includes the National Open, Lucas Late Models, World of Outlaws Late Models, USAC sprint cars at Terre Haute and whole bunch more. To see the full daily streaming schedule through the weekend, 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!