DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Carpenter takes wild 1st night of Gateway Dirt Nationals, Axsom joins Clauson Marshall for USAC run | Daily 12-3-2021

Coming up we are talking about the wild first night in the Dome, including comments from both Ricky Thornton Jr. and Tyler Carpenter, there is news from Emerson Axsom, and we look ahead to the Xtreme DIRTcar weekend. Let's do this.

Today is Friday, December 3rd, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.

I gotta be honest, I've paid attention a bit to Gateway in the past, but haven't watched it super closely. It's a bit of a curiousity running late models inside a dome, so I've certainly checked in on winners, but haven't sat and watched a bunch of the racing. After last night, I certainly understand the appeal, and I'm almost wondering why more promoters don't try stuff like this. Last night was like WWE for late models inside a football stadium. Racing late models on such a small track has to even out the competition a bit, as things like aero are minimized. And in the end, you get bare knuckle brawls for races and guys like Tyler Carpenter earning wins, making friends along the way, and then spouting off about it in post race interviews. Last night was quite the opening night for the Gateway Dirt Nationals in St. Louis. I'll come back to the late models in a minute, but let's talk about the other happenings last night. As I talked about yesterday, last night and tonight are split field prelim nights for the late models and modifieds, and we were treated to some pretty good racing. With the midgets, I'm still unclear as to how many cars are actually in the building to race for the weekend. We had 19 take time last night, and I don't know if we have a new batch for tonight, or if the same guys will just race again for $3000. There are some solid names in the field, like Chris Windom, Jake Neuman, Zach Daum, Shane Cottle, Jonathan Beason and others, but no Bell or Larson, no Keith Kunz teams, or several of the other big midget organizations. It didn't matter a whole lot though, as we still had an entertaining feature. Nick Hoffman led early from the pole, but ended up second on the night in a rare midget appearance. Before half way, Karter Sarff got the top rolling and showed the leaders the line, and Jonathan Beason used it to get by Hoffman for the lead on lap nine. He drove away to the win. Hoffman, Neuman, Sarff, and Daum completed the top five. In the modified portion of the night, it was all Nick Hoffman. He led every lap en route to this 40th win of the year. Peyton Taylor, Tyler Nicely, Jordan Grabouski and Dean Hoffman were the rest of the top five. The top four of Hoffman, Taylor, Nicely, and Grabouski are all now locked into Saturday's main event.

Now, back to the late models. Carpenter and Scott Bloomquist started on the front row of the feature together, and we had fireworks pretty quickly after the green flag. Bloomer tried to go low on Carpenter into three on the first lap and pounded the inside jersey barrier, causing a caution and ending his night. It was a shame, because Bloomer looked fast early in the night. From there it was Carpenter out front with Ricky Thornton Jr. and Brandon Sheppard in tow. Sheppard is driving Donny Schatz's late model this weekend. Things got wild near half way when the front runners caught lap traffic. With two cars racing side by side, Carpenter couldn't find a way through, and decided to just muscle his way past. He made contact with Jayme Zidar, who then collected Thornton and Sheppard. Both the 15 and the 20RT were done for the night. Post wreck, RTJ had some choice words in his interview ith Blake Anderson about Carpenter's moves, including a few F bombs and some other stuff you shouldn't say on a broadcast. The fireworks weren't done yet though. Carpenter ended up leading the rest of the way for the $5000 victory, and in victory lane, his interview turned into several viral video moments. He called out Gordy Gundaker, talked about how he came to win and not make friends, mentioned keyboard warriors, and had some choice words of his own. Carpenter certainly has a colorful recent past history, and last night will just add to that reputation. Behind the winner, Bob Gardner, Tanner English, Kyle Hammer, and Shannon Babb completed the top five. Just like with the modifieds, the top four move on to Saturday's main event. All the rooting and gauging definitely had a cost last night though, as the 25 lap feature took about 40 minutes to actually complete thanks to two red flag periods. With still two more nights left to go, if Thursday's racing was any indication, we might be in for a wild weekend in the dome.

It didn't seem like there was a huge crowd inside the building last night, but after all the craziness we witnessed, I'm sure plenty of eyes will be on this event through Saturday. Drop me a comment and let me know what you thought of the action last night. Is this the kind of thing you hope for, or do all the antics take away from the actual racing? Let me know what you think.

If late model action from the Dome just isn't enough this weekend, don't forget the Xtreme DIRTcar Series is back in action on Saturday at I-75 Raceway in Tennessee. Ross Bailes and Chris Madden won the first two rounds of the winter late model series, and Bailes is the current series points leader by three over Carson Ferguson and Ben Watkins. Following this Saturday's race, four more events remain to settle the championship, with two races in January, and two in February. Chris Madden has won this championship the past two years, but it appears as though he's not going to go for a third straight, so the door is open for a new champion. Also expected to race on Saturday are plenty of regional names like Daulton Wilson, Tim Vance, Ray Cook, and Corey Hedgecock. Hedgecock might be the one to watch here, as he already has two wins at I-75 in 2021. Hot laps are scheduled for 1:30, so there's a decent chance you could catch this race on DIRTVision in the afternoon and early evening, and then jump over to Flo to see the finale from the Dome. For more on the series, visit xtremedirtcar.com.

In some driver news from yesterday, Clauson Marshall Newman Racing announced that Emerson Axsom is joining the team for 2022 to compete full time with the USAC National Sprint Cars. The team also announced that Axsom will run select events in a CMR midget and winged sprint car. Axsom spent 2021 driving full time in a midget for Petry Motorsports, and ended the season fourth in the standings behind Buddy Kofoid, Chris Windom, and Justin Grant. In 40 USAC midget appearances this year, he had two wins, 20 top fives, and 28 top tens with an average finish of 7.83. Besides the midget schedule, Axsom made 10 starts in the sprint car for Clauson Marshall after the team parted ways with Cole Bodine over the summer. In seven USAC starts, Axsom had a best finish of seventh, and led laps at Lawrenceburg until a late flat tire ended his chance at a first career win. I know we talk about young drivers in dirt racing a lot, and Axsom is definitely one to watch in this current crop of talented youngsters. Both in the release and on Twitter, team owner Tim Clauson talked about Axsom taking advantage of a short, few race deal and turning it into a full time opportunity with the team. As a wise man once told me, when you get a chance to shine, you better shine. And Axsom has done just that. With the speed we saw from him late in the year, race wins should very much be on the table for this team. I think it's interesting here too that the release mentioned possible winged starts. We don't know officially what Tyler Courtney's plans are for next season, but a Sunshine/Axsom two car squad at some events could be a potent combination.

There are four shows on the streaming schedule today, with just a few more coming for the weekend. Today, FloRacing has Flo 24/7 and night two from the Gateway Dirt Nationals. Speed Sport also has a pair of shows, one from Hendry County and one from Kern County. 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 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 in a few days for more DIRTRACKR Daily!