DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Roth Motorsports hires James McFadden for full 2022 Outlaw run, Larson and Elliott racing at Merced | Daily 11-23-2021

Coming up we are talking a new driver for Roth Motorsports, the FloRacing late model schedule, last night's iRacing results and more. Let's go!

Today is Tuesday, November 23rd, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.

We are definitely at a point in the year where I'm not quite sure on a day-to-day basis what we are going to have to talk about on the show, as most tracks and series are done for the year racing. So like yesterday I start working through an idea, and then through the afternoon things start happening and all of a sudden you've got a full list of news items and topics to talk about. We had some driver news yesterday, a new schedule dropped and more, so let's dive into it.

After a successful first season as a full time World of Outlaws driver, James McFadden will sport new colors in 2022, as it was announced yesterday he will take the reins of the Roth Motorsports 83. Before this season, the future of the Roth car seemed to be secure with the addition of Aaron Reutzel. The three time and defending All Star champion started 2021 with a decent amount of success in the 83, picking up four wins before things went super sideways in July. If you might remember, Reutzel was busted between Ransomville and Weedsport with a chassis that had tubing that didn't meet the minimum thickness, and was subsequently suspended from the series. Reutzel and Roth parted ways, and Kasey Kahne ended up finishing the season in the 83. As for JMac, after missing the opening stretch of races as he waited on the birth of his first child in Australia, a strong season plus the loss of Reutzel paved the way for McFadden to win rookie of the year with the Outlaws. He ended the season with two wins, 20 top fives and 52 top tens in 72 appearances driving the Kasey Kahne Racing 9 as a teammate to Brad Sweet. For next season now, McFadden moves into the Roth 83, but don't think this means he's leaving or getting away from KKR. Whether they will admit it publicly or not, the 83 will continue to be a joint venture with KKR as it was to finish the season in 2021 with Kasey at the wheel. McFadden's crew will consist of his 2021 crew chief Justin Adams, plus crew guys Rob Beattie and Gary Patellaro who are long time KKR guys. And I'd bet pretty good money that when it's not on the road, the 83 will be housed out of the KKR shop in Mooresville, North Carolina. If you're Dennis Roth though, this isn't a bad move. It's not the first time a partnership like this has happened, and the 83 now gets a proven Outlaw winner plus the support of a championship winning organization like KKR. Seems like a win-win to me. This move does mean we lose the KKR 9 full time from the series, so it's a net loss in terms of cars. But I wouldn't be surprised if that car ran part time again with Kasey behind the wheel. I can't see him just hanging it up after running so many Outlaw shows in 2021. So looking at the Outlaw field for 2022, you can figure Brad Sweet, David Gravel, Carson Macedo, Donny Schatz, Logan Schuchart, Sheldon Haudenschild, and McFadden are all in. I'd also assume Kraig Kinser and Jason Sides will be back. I don't know anything specific about Brock Zearfoss or Wayne Johnson, but I haven't heard they aren't coming back. It was also an off year for Jacob Allen after some promising showings in 2020, and I have heard some unsubstantiated rumors about his future, but until we know otherwise, we'll count Jacob as back as well. That leaves us at 12 coming back, plus the addition of Spencer Bayston in the CJB five car. There is also talk of maybe another possible addition or two, but we'll have to wait and see what plays out.

If you're looking for some open wheel racing tonight, the USAC midgets are headed to Merced with only three races left in 2021. We've talked a bunch about the championship battle between Buddy Kofoid and Chris Windom, and things will get settled this week between Merced and Ventura. The gap is 18 right now, but that can be made up pretty quickly with the USAC format. At Merced in 2020, Buddy had finishes of 12th and second, while Windom was 15th and 17th. TMez and Tanner Thorson were the two winners those nights. The Merced races closed out the year last season, as Turkey night was scrapped because of covid. Justin Grant is coming off that win on Saturday night in the Hangtown 100 at Placerville, and he leads all drivers in average finish over the previous five races at 3.8. I really hope you're tuned into these races this week, as I think things will get very interesting. The midgets are always elbows out anyway, and with the title on the line, it will get ramped up a little bit more. And if you need additional reasons to tune in, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott are racing again, and Elliott is making his winged sprint car debut behind the wheel of the Tarlton 21. PJ Petersen posted a video just this morning of Chase making laps in the sprint car yesterday and he looked pretty damn sporty. If you're an east coaster, you'll have to stay up late for the west coast start time, but it will be worth it. If you can't get out to Merced tonight, watch live on FloRacing.

Even though their first year was racked by weather related postponements and cancellations, Ben Shelton, Michael Rigsby and the people at FloRacing are coming back in 2022 with the FloRacing Night in America late model series. Yesterday they released a 12 race schedule for 2022 that includes some new tracks plus more money for competitors. Each of the first 11 races will pay $1000 to start and $22,000 to win, with the final two nights at Senoia paying $10,000 and $53,000 respectively. As it was in 2021, the majority of the races will take place midweek to allow competitors to stay focused on their local tracks and series commitments. The schedule for next year looks like this: April 12th at Eldora, April 27th at Brownstown, May 11th at Spoon River, May 12th at Lincoln, May 18th at Marshalltown, June 1st at Tri-City, August 2nd at 34 Raceway, September 13th at Fairbury, September 28th at Atomic, October 6th at Tri-County, October 11th at 411, and the finale November 11th and 12th at Senoia. The November 11th, $10k to win show will be a non-points event. On top of the raised event purses, the points fund will pay out an additional $20 plus grand through the top 10, with the champion getting $30,000. The release doesn't specify, but I'm assuming that competitors will again be allowed to not run all the races and still remain eligible like they could in 2021. Jonathan Davenport was the champion in the inaugural season, holding off Kyle Larson in the standings. Race winners in the first season read like a who's who of dirt late model racing with names like Davenport, Moran, Larson, Pierce, Sheppard and Owens all claiming victories. This series was great for us race fans this season, adding in some midweek racing when normally there wouldn't have been any. I know some folks, like Lucas series director Rick Schwallie, aren't a fan of Rigsby and Shelton piggybacking off other events, but I think that's just the nature of the beast right now. It gives the racers some in between shows to make some additional money, and the series can take advantage of having big names around to race. If you'd like to see the full schedule for yourself, you can find it at floracing.com and dirtondirt.com.

The Xtreme DIRTcar Series announced a schedule alteration yesterday for the upcoming weekend in Tennessee. The Grinch 40 at Volunteer Speedway has been cancelled, and the event at I-75 Raceway has been moved from Sunday, December 5th, to Saturday December 4th. No reason was given for the cancellation of the event at Bulls Gap, but the track's future has been in question this year, as the current owners have been trying to sell it. Ross Bailes is the current series points leader after the first two rounds at Lancaster and Cherokee. The loss of Bulls Gap means there are now five races remaining for the offseason late model series, including the aforementioned I-75 date plus stops at Lake View, Cherokee, Lavonia, and Modoc. For more info, visit xtremedirtcar.com.

The iRacing World of Outlaws World Championship was in action last night for round number two. The series took on the virtual Kokomo Speedway, and for the second straight week we had a first time winner. Hayden Cardwell and defending champion Alex Bergeron were the talk of the series last season, and they started together on the front row. But Evan Seay, who had to transfer in from a B main, rolled some hot bottom and went from 18th to the lead by around half way. He stayed locked to the bottom all the way to the finish, and ended up winning by nearly two seconds over Cardwell. Even though he didn't get the win, it was a nice bounceback for Cardwell, who didn't even make the feature last week. James Edens, Bergeron, and Logan Rumsey completed the top five. Last week's winner Blake Matjoulis finished ninth after starting in the back. There was definitely some good racing last night, especially for the lead between Edens, Bergeron, Cardwell and then Seay. If you missed the action, you can rewatch last night's broadcast on the iRacing YouTube channel. Round three of ten is next Monday night at 9PM ET when the series takes on the Bristol Dirt.

There are to shows on the streaming schedule today, both happening on FloRacing. They've got the first night of USAC National midgets and 360 sprint cars from Merced Speedway, plus Flo 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 Tuesday. 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!