DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Outlaws have advantage over Posse at Port Royal, Britten on Super DIRT Week pole, Swanson v. Seavey | Daily 10-8-2021
Today is Friday, October 8th, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Coming up we've got Super DIRT Week qualifying results and what to watch this weekend. We also preview action for the World of Outlaws, Lucas, All Stars, USAC 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 Apple Podcasts 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. Now let's do this.
Stop me if you've already heard me say this over the last several days, but Mat Williamson has won yet again. Super DIRT Week and it's satellite shows continued yesterday and last night, and Williamson rolled into Brewerton with his 358 modified and bagged the Hurricane Harvey 75 win. He started 11th in the feature, but couldn't be stopped by the competition. The victory for Money Mat is his fourth since winning the Outlaw 200 last week. The streak includes that win at Fulton, plus the Demon 100, the kickoff party at Weedsport, and last night's Brewerton triumph. Two of those were big block wins, and two were 358 wins. With the Salute to the Troops 150 coming up on Saturday and the Billy Whittaker Cars 200 on tap for Sunday, Williamson will definitely be one of a few guys to watch for as potential winners. During the day yesterday at Oswego, we got qualifying in for both the big blocks and 358s. Billy Dunn is on the pole for the 150 lap 358 race, with Williamson, Tim Sears Jr., Stewart Friesen, Billy Decker, and Rob Bellinger all locked into the first three rows. The rest of the field will be set by tonight's 20 lap qualifying heats and Saturday's last chance showdowns. As for the big blocks, Peter Britten will lead the field to green in Sunday's 200 lapper, with Jimmy Phelps, Max McLaughlin, Larry Wight, Friesen, and Pat Ward in tow. Mat Williamson just missed the locked in spots in seventh. Just like the 358 competitors, the big block drivers will run qualifying heats tonight and last chance showdowns tomorrow to complete the field. The DIRTcar Sportsman and Pro Stocks will also start their track time at Oswego today. DIRTVision has live coverage all weekend long, and of course we'll be back on Monday to recap the weekend. Drop me a comment below if you're a northeast fan and let me know who you're picking for the win.
If you're more of a fan of the Short Track Super Series modifieds, they are in action this weekend as well. They take on Afton Motorsports Park tonight and tomorrow for the Short Track SuperNationals. This is the final race of the season for the north region competitors. Matt Sheppard is currently the north region points leader, and he will be in attendance tonight and tomorrow. He shouldn't have a problem locking up the championship. You'll also see Billy Pauch Jr. this weekend, along with Max McLaughlin, Andy Bachetti, and more. FloRacing has the livestream for the event.
The 2021 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series season continues to edge closer to completion, and this weekend is the final two shows in Pennsylvania for the year with two nights at Port Royal on tap. With just seven features left, Brad Sweet's points lead over David Gravel is 128, with Carson Macedo 142 back in third. Barring a meltdown of epic proportions, Sweet is on his way to his third straight Outlaw championship. Central Pennsylvania has become a much friendlier place for the Outlaws in recent seasons, as the Posse contingent just haven't been able to match the speed of their Outlaw brethren. And Port Royal is a graphic illustration of that fact. The last four Outlaw races at the track have either been won by an outsider, namely Kyle Larson, or an Outlaw. Of drivers with more than one recent feature start at Port Royal, no Posse members reside in the top five of average finish. Based on past results, the dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula likes Donny Schatz this weekend, but just on the eyeball test, I'd be paying attention to Logan Schuchart and Carson Macedo. Schuchart is coming off back-to-back second place finishes at Williams Grove and he'll be hungry to win in his home state. And Macedo has been the big track master in 2021, including that National Open win last weekend. As for Posse drivers to watch, Anthony Macri is always good at Port Royal banging the boards, Logan Wagner won the Tusky 50 in that Zemco ride a few weeks ago with the All Stars, and you can't count out Lance Dewease if he's in attendance. Both tonight and tomorrow for the Outlaws will be show live on DIRTVision.
If you're a late model fan, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series is a good place to start this weekend. They were supposed to have three shows across Smoky Mountain, Dixie, and Rome, but tonight's race at Smoky Mountain has been cancelled because of weather. That leaves Saturday at Dixie for $15k to win, and Sunday at Rome for $10 grand to win. Tim McCreadie is on his way to his first ever Lucas championship and he's been the hottest driver with the series as of late, leading all drivers in average finish over the previous five and ten races. He was also a winner last weekend at Raceway 7. Tyler Erb leads all drivers with seven Lucas wins this year, so you know he'll be a threat, but keep an eye on both Hudson O'Neal and Earl Pearson Jr. O'Neal is coming off that Pittsburgher 100 victory and has really come into his own this season. And EPJ has been resurgent in recent weeks since partnering with Jason Papich. He's looking more and more like the driver we saw win four straight Lucas titles from 2005 through 2008. The entire Lucas weekend can be watched live on MAVTV Plus.
Another championship battle that is over before the final races is with the All Star Circuit of Champions. Tyler Courtney has already locked up the title before this weekend's final two races of the year at Fremont Speedway. Sunshine has limped to the finish though, with some rough results over the past month. He hasn't had a top ten finish since September 4th at Attica, and is on a streak of seven finishes outside the top ten in his past eight races. And Fremont might not be a great place for Sunshine to flip the script. In his last three appearances there, he's finished 11th, 12th, and sixth in a B Main. Behind Courtney in the standings, we most likely won't see any changes, with Cory Eliason, Hunter Schuerenberg, Zeb Wise, and Bill Balog completing the top five. If you want some win picks for the next two nights, I'd definitely point to the really experienced Ohio guys. Cole Duncan and Cap Henry each have wins in the past three All Star races at Fremont if that gives you any indication. As they are the series sponsor, watch Sunshine get his crown this weekend live on FloRacing.
In other open wheel competition, the USAC midgets close out their midwest calendar this weekend, although we've already lost tonight's show at Wayne County to rain. That leaves just Saturday at Haubstadt on the schedule before the series heads west in November. Currently Chris Windom leads Buddy Kofoid by just two points in the standings, so Haubstadt should be exciting for those two. Kyle Cummins and Thomas Meseraull are the two most recent winners at Haubstadt in the midget, and you know Cummins will be a factor on Saturday at a track he's had a ton of success at in his career.
With the USAC Silver Crown Series, 2021 comes down to Sunday at Toledo for the championship. Kody Swanson has just a one point lead over Logan Seavey entering the final race. With Swanson's overall Silver Crown prowess and his experience and past success on pavement tracks, I believe he has the advantage this weekend. Seavey is obviously much more of a dirt racer, but he has had some decent pavement finishes this season, including most recently finishing 8th at Lucas Oil Raceway back on August 14th. He'll need to do better than that though if he's going to steal this title from Swanson. Kody hasn't finished worse than 4th in any of his seven feature appearances at Toledo. If you'd like to tune in, all of USAC's races are live on Flo, and the Silver Crown finale is a day show on Sunday at Toledo with racing beginning at 2pm.
Out in California, all eyes will be on Keller Auto Speedway this weekend. Tonight is the Cotton Classic featuring the 360 Sprint Car Challenge Tour and Kings of Thunder 410s. Saturday is the Morrie Williams Memorial featuring the King of the West Sprint Cars. Ryan Robinson is trying to hold off Colby Copeland for the Sprint Car Challenge Tour championship, and Dominic Scelzi looks like he's on his way to the King of the West title. Both of those nights will be live on Flo as well.
If you're looking for other late model action, the Butterball Memorial at Richmond Raceway is paying $20,000 to win and should draw some big names including Mike Marlar, Zach Dohm, and Josh Rice. The FALS Frenzy is happening at Fairbury and you can expect to see Brandon Sheppard, Bobby Pierce, Dennis Erb jr., Brian Shirley, and others there. And West Virginia Motor Speedway's Iron-Man racefest is drawing Devin Moran, Ashton Winger, Kyle Strickler, and more. So don't sleep on those events this weekend either.
So now that you're up to speed on what and who to watch this weekend, let me know where you're headed and what you'll be tuning into this weekend. Things are definitely getting a little quieter as we get closer to the end of the year, but there is still plenty to check out.
A quick sidenote about dirtrackr.com. If you're a regular visitor there, you'll probably start to notice some small changes. I'm working on some small design tweaks as I've got some exciting stuff coming in the next few weeks. If you're a participant in some of the dirt racing pools or do things like fantasy racing or Dirt Draft, or if you are just a stat geek like me, stay tuned. Some big changes are coming to the analytics section of the site. I'll have more on this as I get closer to completing the work.
After a fairly quiet week on the streaming services, things ramp up in a big way today. Most of the services have something going on, including the World of Outlaws and Super DIRT Week on DIRTVision, FloRacing has the All Stars and Short Track Super Series, the USRA Nationals continue, and there is plenty of local and regional racing. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight. That will be a good place to check through the weekend as well if you're looking for something to watch.
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!