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Jonathan Davenport wins Bulls Gap, FloRacing championship, Trophy Cup at Tulare starts tonight | Daily 10-21-2021

Coming up Jonathan Davenport is a FloRacing champion, and we talk Trophy Cup and the Keith Kunz Giveback Classic, let's do this.

Today is Thursday, October 21st, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.

We talked yesterday on the show about the points situation with the FloRacing Night in America late models between Jonathan Davenport and Kyle Larson, but last night at Bulls Gap, Davenport just ended it. He started fourth, made a big move to second on the first lap, and then bided his time behind leader Ross Bailes. Coming to 13 laps to go, Superman threw a big slider at Bailes' 79 and was able to hold him off coming to the line. From there, the 49 machine drove away through lap traffic to bag the $10,000 victory. In doing so, Davenport not only became the first driver to win multiple series races, but he also locked up the championship with one race remaining and earn an additional $20 grand. Larson did just about everything he could, as he started fifth behind JD, and ended up finishing second, after he used some big moves to get by guys like Hudson O'Neal and Bailes. But Davenport was too good through lap traffic late in the going for Larson to be able to mount a challenge. So now, even if Larson were to win next week at Tri-County, Davenport has done enough to clinch the title. Behind Davenport and Larson, Ricky Weiss finished third, O'Neal was fourth, and Cory Hedgecock was fifth. Early leader Bailes faded to sixth at the end. So the only race left for the Flo Late Models this season is one week from today at Tri County for $10,000 to win. If you didn't watch last night, you can see replays of the action over at Flo.

Through the various super late model events this season in which we've gotten to see Larson, this little rivalry between he and Davenport that's developed has been fun to watch. I don't have specific knowledge, but on the surface it seems like there's a ton of respect there between the two of them, and they genuinely seem to have a good time racing each other. They are both in probably fairly equally prepared Longhorn Chassis, so you get to see a pretty level comparison between the two when they are on track together. Last night's show at Volunteer was a nice example of it, with Larson trying to track him down late, and even in their post race interviews they refer to each other. Davenport made mention of looking at the scoreboard and seeing the six rising through the field. And I think that's been one of the cooler aspects of this Flo series this season, is it's given us the opportunity to watch a heavyweight like Davenport get challenged by an all timer like Larson. This is just something we haven't gotten to witness, maybe ever. Really good stuff from both guys, and hopefully we'll get to see it a few more times this season.

For late model fans, Lucas is obviously now done for the year, and the Outlaws remain quiet until World Finals, but there is still plenty of money on the line this weekend. All-Tech in Florida has a nice $26,000 to win crate show, supers will be battling for $25,000 to win up at Bedford in Pennsylvania, Whynot in Mississippi has a $15,000 to win super race, and there is also an Iron Man race at I-75, a Southern All Stars show at Senoia, and a $10,000 to win race at Cherokee. Several of them will be available on the streaming services, which you can find on the dirtrackr.com streaming schedule through the weekend.

Out west at Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, California, the Trophy Cup gets underway starting tonight. The three day event for 360 sprint cars has drawn a massive field, and they will battle it out for over $200,000 in prize money through Saturday night. The event was not run in 2020 for obvious reasons, which makes Rico Abreu the defending Trophy Cup winner from back in 2019. This will be the 27th edition of the Trophy Cup, with past winners also including Jac Haudenschild, Shane Golobic, Kyle Larson, Jason Meyers, Brad Sweet, and all three Kaedings. Tonight and Friday are full programs with drivers earning points to help setup Saturday's action. Saturday will feature D Mains for those cars lower than 48th in the standings, with cars higher slotted into heat races, and then a subsequent C Main, B Main, and then the feature. The driver with the most points following Saturday's A main will receive the winner's share of the points purse. At last check there are 107 entries expected and the list is deep, with it including not only California's best, but guys from all over the country. The local contingent includes names like Kyle Hirst, Justin Sanders, Michael Faccinto, Kalib Henry, Colby Copeland, Justyn Cox, Shane Golobic, Chase Johnson, the Carrick brothers, Dominic Scelzi, Tim and Bud Keading, Corey Day, Mitchell Moles, DJ Netto, and others. But a group of more nationally known racers is coming into challenge for the big money, and that list includes Justin Peck, Anthony Macri, Buddy Kofoid, Carson and Austin McCarl, Tyler Courtney, Rico Abreu, Cory Eliason, Cole Macedo and more. And yes, I know that Kofoid, and Rico and Eliason and Macedo are all from California, but they aren't local or regional guys anymore. This thing is shaping up to be a dog fight with all the talent, and there are going to be some potent combinations to fight with. Courtney is in a Roth car along with Moles, Kofoid is in the Works 57 with Paul Silva on the wrenches, Eliason is in his Rudeen machine and Macri is in a Tiner Hirst ride. As for possible winners, you certainly can't rule out Rico. I'm also excited to see Kofoid and Silva together, but this might be a good year for the locals. Sanders and Scelzi have been stout all season and some of the young talent like Corey Day will be looking to show out. Grandstands open today at 3:30 local time with qualifying at 4:45. If you can't be at Tulare, The Cushion has live streams, but they are a bit pricey. A three day pass to watch is $97, while individual buys of Thursday and Friday will set you back $32 bucks a piece, and Saturday is $40. They do mention that a portion of the price is going to the Make a Wish Foundation. To keep up all weekend, follow at trophy underscore underscore cup on Twitter and hit up trophycup.org.

Elsewhere tonight, the Keith Kunz Giveback Classic kicks off at Port City Raceway. The 600cc micro event will award the winner their choice of either $15,000 or a ride with Keith Kunz at the 2022 Chili Bowl. It was at this event last season that Brian Carber was the winner, and he chose the money over the ride, but that wasn't good enough for his fans and the community. They put together a GoFundMe and got Carber a ride with Kunz anyway. Carber went on to finish 12th on his prelim night and 12th in a C main in the Kunz midget. This year the field is deep again, with more than 60 cars expected. They are splitting the competitors into prelim nights Thursday and Friday, with Saturday crowning the champion. Besides a whole host of young talent, the field also includes heavy hitters like Christopher Bell, Tanner Thorson, Daison Pursley and Cannon McIntosh. Keep an eye too on names like Brent Crews, Bryant Wiedeman, Brenham Crouch and Gavan Boschele. Hot laps get underway tonight at 6pm local and if you can't be at Port City, you can watch the livestream with your subscription to MAVTV Plus.

On the streaming schedule today is night one of the Trophy Cup on the Cushion, night one of the Keith Kunz Giveback Classic at Port City on MAVTV Plus, and there 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 Thursday. 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!