DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Carpenter tops Gateway Dirt Nationals, Windom going winged racing, Richards teaming with Boom | Daily 12-6-2021
Coming up we are talking a wild weekend at the Gateway Dirt Nationals, plus news from Josh Richards, Chris Windom, Premier Motorsports, and more. Let's go!
Today is Monday, December 6th, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Today I've got a jam packed show for you, so let's just dive right in.
The 2021 Gateway Dirt Nationals are complete, and what a weekend it turned into. We had a repeat winner with the late models, a midget sweep, a first time modified winner and plenty of wild moments. After I posted Friday's Daily show, it came out in the afternoon that the event had fined Thursday night prelim winner Tyler Carpenter for wearing non-SFI approved shoes during the feature. If you know what they are, he was literally wearing Hey Dudes in his car. An odd choice for sure, and he deserved the penalty. There is zero excuse for messing around with safety items. So that turned into a topic of conversation, and it was the theme of Carpenter's Saturday driver intro. In Friday night's second prelim feature, it was all Myles Moos out front. The Illinois driver started second and led every lap to take the win. Nick Hoffman and Austin Simpson finished second and third. As was the common thread all weekend, it paid to start up front with the late models and modifieds. And the same was true on Saturday night in the big late model show. The top three at the green flag were the same top three at the checkered. Tyler Carpenter took advantage of the pole position to earn the $30,000 victory, the truck series ride with Niece Motorsports, and his second consecutive Gateway triumph. Tanner English ended up second, and Hoffman completed the podium. Nobody from behind was ever really able to challenge Carpenter, and it seemed like every time he would catch the back of the field, the caution came out. So lap traffic was never a factor. Brandon Sheppard and Shannon Babb were two drivers who were able to move forward at various points in the 40 laps, but it was definitely tough sledding. I'm not a track expert, but I wonder if maybe a tad more banking around that track would make the top easier to run and give us two lanes of racing for the bigger cars. As for Carpenter, he seemed to be a polarizing figure through the event. There didn't seem to be much middle ground with race fans, but in the end he got the job done, and will now get to run the truck series race at Knoxville. He got out of his car on Thursday with a lot to say in victory lane, but on Saturday was visibly emotional after the win. Interesting turn around from two days before.
With the modifieds over the weekend, we saw plenty of action and bent sheet metal for sure. After Nick Hoffman kicked off the week by winning on Thursday, Texas driver Chase Allen put his mod in victory lane on Friday night, topping Jeff Larson and Tyler Peterson. It was a nice win, especially when you consider that the Friday field included names like Mike Harrison, Mike McKinney, and Ricky Thornton Jr. On Saturday for the $10,000 to win finale, Jordan Grabouski led the field to green, and he used the pole to shoot out to the early lead. His number 30 car was out front until half way when Tyler Peterson took over the top spot. Peterson was strong, and he wasn't really challenged the rest of the way, taking home the $10,000 check and the biggest win of his career. Michael Ledford and Nick Hoffman completed the podium. I know a lot of you have probably never heard of some of these guys, but it's not shocking to see someone like Tyler Peterson get the win. He bagged 20+ wins this season and was the WISSOTA National Champion. Definitely not a guy unfamiliar with winning.
In the midget portion of the weekend, it was all Jonathan Beason. After winning the opening night feature on Thursday, Beason backed it up on Friday with a dominating win over Zach Daum and Nick Hoffman. But his most impressive performance in the Dome was definitely the main event on Saturday. He got to the front quickly, and was again running away from the field when disaster struck on lap 12. He tangled with the lap car of Terry Babb and ended up going to the back. Over the next 18 laps, he got up on the wheel and worked his way all the way back to the front. With three laps to go, he was third behind Chris Windom and Zach Daum, and then second with two to go. Coming to the checkered though, Daum got upside in turn three which setup a one lap shootout for the win. Through the final two corners, Beason rolled the middle with Windom on the bottom, and beat the 89 back to the line for $10,000 and the weekend sweep. Definitely not a bad weekend for Beason, winning all three nights and taking home $16,000. Honestly, I think the midget races were probably the best of the weekend, and that would make sense. A track that small is much more conducive to good racing with the smaller cars. Going forward though, it sounds as if the midget portion of the event is going away. During the weekend, it was announced that the racing would continue inside the Dome for at least three more years, but only for the late models and modifieds. The narrative from the weekend was that something like 80 midgets were initially invited, but only 20 showed up. You can't really blame Cody Sommer for not wanting to pay that purse again next year with that few cars. It turned into an interesting discussion on Twitter, because the racing was good, but the field was light. It sounds like Nick Hoffman and others are lobbying Sommer to keep the midgets, but as of right now, they are off the schedule.
Big shoutout to Nick Hoffman for his performances at the Dome over the three days. He competed in every division, and never finished off the podium in a feature. He won Thursday in the modified and finished second in the midget. Friday he was second in the late model and third in the midget. And he was third in all three features on Saturday night. He catches hell for quote unquote cherry picking all the modified wins during the season, but he's shown incredible versatility this season between the mod, Bloomquist late model, and the midget. I also hope you saw the drone crash the other night. The live feeds from the drone cameras has been a fun addition to these broadcasts, but it was only a matter of time until the crash happened, especially when you consider how close they are being flown to the racing. The drone went down and ended up on the deck of Gordy Gundaker's late model. I'd imagine neither were worse for the wear, but a funny moment none the less. Drop me a comment below, let me know your overall thoughts on the weekend. I think the tight confines of the Dome create some entertaining races, but I wish things were just a tad racier for the big cars. Let me know what you think.
Another news item to come out of the Dome this weekend is that Chris Windom will be focusing on winged racing in 2022. He's been a mainstay of the non-wing world for a long time, winning championships in all three USAC divisions, and a ton of races. But going forward he will put the wing on and try and match the success of Tyler Courtney. You have to think that what Sunshine did this season was a bit of a wake up call for some of the veteran non-wing guys. He took down some serious cash, plus the All Star title, and it feels like he's just getting started. I would not be surprised if we saw more of this type of migration, but USAC and it's races have been trying to up the ante with prize money. There aren't any details about who Windom will be racing with or where, so we'll keep you posted as we know more.
It was just a few weeks ago that we were talking about Josh Richards splitting with Clint Bowyer Racing, and over the weekend we found out where Josh will be racing in 2022. He's going to partner up with Boom Briggs next season, and the plan is for both to run a national touring series. According to Kevin Kovac at Dirt on Dirt, they haven't made a decision yet on which series, but we will know more when they get funding secured for the two cars. Richards ran for Briggs at the Duel in the Desert in Las Vegas a few weeks ago and nearly won the $50,000 race. I think this could turn into a very good move for both Josh and Boom. Josh gets to stay on a tour behind the wheel of Rocket cars, and Briggs gets Josh's championship winning experience, which should elevate the whole program. And the duo would be a welcome addition to either Lucas or the Outlaws. I'm guessing it won't be too long before we know the direction they are going.
In some regional driver news, it came out over the weekend that Pennsylvania driver Matt Campbell has parted ways with the Premier Motorsports sprint car team. Campbell jumped behind the wheel of the 21 following the departure of long time driver Brian Montieth. There is no indication from either side about what's next, but this isn't a suprising move. The pairing didn't produce a ton of results around Central PA this season.
With the Xtreme DIRTcar Series on Saturday, local favorite Cory Hedgecock used lap traffic late in the going to get by series points leader Ross Bailes and score the win at I-75. Bailes had to settle for second, with Carson Ferguson third, Ben Watkins fourth, and Eli Beets fifth. I hadn't seen racing from I-75 before, but a big wide race track, with some banking led to a good race. With still four races left, Bailes maintains the points lead by eight over Ferguson. The series returns to action at Lake View Motor Speedway in January.
There are two shows on the streaming schedule today. DIRTVision has the iRacing World of Outlaws World Championship from Eldora and Flo has 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 Monday. 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!