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.
Kyle Larson vs. Jonathan Davenport heads to Volunteer, Zeb Wise's All Star sophomore gains | Daily 10-20-2021
Coming up we are talking FloRacing Late Models, including a points update between Kyle Larson and Jonathan Davenport. We also talk Zeb Wise's sophomore All Star season, dirt racing championship battles and more.
Today is Wednesday, October 20th, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
With just two races remaining on their 2021 calendar, the FloRacing Night in America Late Models are back in action tonight at Volunteer Speedway in Tennessee for $10 grand to win. Jonathan Davenport has stretched away from Kyle Larson in the points standings with the two separated by 96 points currently. Something important to remember here though is I believe they are still planning on awarding the title based on a driver's seven best finishes. So far, Davenport has competed in every race, while Larson is down one, having missed the Atomic show. JD has points based on six finishes, and Larson only five. So in these final two weeks, Larson will get credited for both races, while Davenport will end up dropping his lowest finish, which right now is 7th at Fairbury. Larson will end up gaining some ground, just based on the fact that he hasn't competed in as many races as the 49 has. If you look at their current average finishes for the season, Larson is at 4.0, while Davenport is at 2.83. So based on that Superman is still ahead of Larson, but these final two races will be pivotal in decided the champion. Jimmy Owens is the most recent winner with series, back last week at 411 Motor Speedway, and we are still yet to have a repeat winner with the Flo Late Models during this first season. So far, Davenport, Devin Moran, Larson, Bobby Pierce, Brandon Sheppard, and Owens have been race winners through the six completed races. We should see all of those drivers tonight, except Sheppard and Moran. A post at FloRacing.com says there are currently 24 drivers on the preliminary entry list, with names like Ricky Weiss, Kyle Strickler, Cory Hedgecock, Shane Clanton, Hudson O'Neal, Ross Bailes, and Mike Marlar all expected to join the fun. Volunteer is a high banked 4/10 mile race track that is situated just off Interstate 81 between Knoxville and the Virginia border. It can provide some wild racing, and the World of Outlaws stop there regularly, including most recently back on September 4th. Brandon Sheppard topped Chris Madden and Michael Chilton that night. Following tonight's racing, the season will end next Thursday night at Tri-County Racetrack in North Carolina for the $10,000 to win finale. As you probably expected, you can watch the series live on FloRacing.
In the days since the All Star season wrapped up, we've talked about both champion Tyler Courtney's year and what Justin Peck was able to accomplish in his first full campaign. Today I want to throw the spotlight on young Zeb Wise. It's a little wild to think that at still only 18 years old, Wise has already completed two full seasons with the All Star Circuit of Champions. He ran in 2020 for Sam McGhee in the 11 machine, before splitting off to start his own team this season, partnering with long time sprint car wrench Wayne Priddy. It was definitely an up and down season for Wise and Priddy, that included two big wins, but also some bad luck and torn up race cars. Even so, Wise did make gains this season as a driver and the future is very bright for the young gun from Indiana. In 44 starts a year ago, he had no wins, three top fives, and 19 top tens, with an average feature finish of 12.48. This season, all of those numbers improved, with 2 wins, 16 top fives, and 23 top tens in 48 appearances. Those two wins came at Attica in September, and the big $26,000 payday at Kokomo in May for the Rayce Rudeen Foundation show. Wise led 143 laps this season after leading none the year before, and showed often that he has the talent to compete for wins regularly. With a solid qualifying average, and feature start average, plus a bunch of dash appearances, Wise did well this year in setting himself up for success. But going forward, he must improve how he races come feature time. He finished better than he started in only 19 of 48 races, had efficiency numbers in the 60s, and had a negative feature plus/minus for the year. At only 18 years of age, Wise still has plenty of seat time to still get and experience to gain, so this is obviously not a big knock against him, but features are where he needs to focus going forward. He's finished top five in the All Stars points the past two years, but if he's going to really become a title contender in 2022 and beyond, he must minimize the bad nights and crashes and really focus on going forward, or at least maintaining in features. If you'd like to check out Zeb's driver profile, you can find him in the All Star portion of the dirtrackr.com analytics section.
As seasons are winding down across the country, I wanted to double back and run through the big series and see where we stand today with championship battles. We've currently crowned champions with the All Stars in Tyler Courtney, Lucas in Tim McCreadie, the USAC Silver Crown Series in Kody Swanson, and the IRA sprint cars in Jake Blackhurst. We know Brandon Sheppard will be the World of Outlaws Late Model champion when he shows up at World Finals, and we know that Bryant Wiedeman will easily lock up the POWRi midget championship. The World of Outlaws Sprint Car title is still technically in play, although I do think that Brad Sweet will eventually top David Gravel. The USAC Sprint Car Series is still in doubt with Kevin Thomas Jr. chasing Brady Bacon. The USAC midgets are completely wide open with Buddy Kofoid currently trailing Chris Windom by only 13 points. The ASCS National Tour will be decided this weekend between Blake Hahn and JJ Hickle, and even though they are separated by 52 points, I think anything could happen at the Short Track Nationals. Dominic Scelzi leads the King of the West standings by 72 over Tim Kaeding, and I don't see any reason why he wouldn't be able to lock down that series in the coming weeks. Matt Sheppard has already bagged the Short Track Super Series north region title, and is on his way to the Super DIRTcar Series championship as well. He leads the SDS points by 161 with only World Finals left. Mike Mahaney leads the Short Track Super Series south region with just the final two nights at Georgetown left, but Sheppard and Perrego could still be alive there if Mahaney stumbles. You can check on a lot of the series standings any time by clicking on points in the nav bar at dirtrackr.com.
If you're in the market for other dirt racing audio this week, Winged Nation has Tyler Courtney, Roger Crockett, and Matt Campbell. Open Red has engine builder Michael Newman, LoudPedal has Cole Macedo, the Rigsby Report has Kevin Kovac, the Dirt from Knoxville has Davey Heskin and Wade Aunger, Passing Points has part two of their interview with Kelly Westphal, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Nerds, the Dirt Reporters, and Wednesdays with Wayne. To see all the dirt racing podcasts and their newest episodes, hit up dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
There are three shows on the streaming schedule for today. DIRTVision has micros from Millbridge Speedway, and FloRacing has their late model series live from Volunteer Speedway plus Flo 24/7. To see the full daily streaming schedule, along 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!