DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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PRI Show opens, Chili Bowl entries cross 200, Summer Nationals schedule released | Daily 12-9-2021

Coming up we are talking Chili Bowl entries, the Summer Nationals schedule, a little driver news, and more. Cue those horns...

Today is Thursday, December 9th, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.

The PRI Show in Indianapolis opens today, and if you don't know what that is, it's the motorsports industry's big yearly trade show. Racing series and parts manufacturers and all sorts of other racing related businesses come together to make things happen for the next season. It used to be where we'd see a lot of schedules released, but those announcements have started happening earlier and earlier. It also wasn't uncommon to see driver and team news come out of the event, but some of that has faded in recent years as well. Even so, the potential for breaking news is still there, so keep an eye on social media today and your favorite reporters because odds are something could happen. I know Matt Weaver from Racing America is there. FloRacing and Dirt on Dirt have folks on site, and Speed Sport is always a good follow for news. If anything does come out of today, we'll definitely talk about it on tomorrow's show. We will get the USAC sprint car and midget schedule today for sure, with those announcements happening at 10AM and 1PM.

It's been a bit since I gave an update on Chili Bowl entries, but as of today we are up to 230 drivers on the list with still a little more than a month to go. Chad Boat's team released a seven car lineup for the event that includes Dillon Welch, Dominic Gordon, Michael Faccinto, Ryan Timms, Brent Crews, Chase Johnson, and Chris Windom. Both Timms and Crews will be Chili Bowl rookies, and I'm guessing they had to go through the approval process as they are both younger than 16. RMS Racing has a stacked lineup including Justin Grant, TMez, plus names like Justin Peck, Spencer Bayston, Brad Sweet, David Gravel, and Nick Hoffman. Logan Seavey and Sammy Swindell are back in the Swindell entries, Daryn Pittman will race in his own 21 like in years past, and the full slate of Matt Wood entries are on the list including Shane Golobic, Mitchel Moles, Colby Copeland, Ryan Bernal, and Zeb Wise. There are obviously still many more to come. Kyle Larson isn't on the list yet, and neither is Christopher Bell. Also missing are the Keith Kunz entries, and I saw where Brian Walker tweeted Kunz could bring as many as 13 cars to Tulsa. That team will be busy. According to Bryan Hulbert we are ahead of the pace of last year with entries, and the record for the event is 365 cars. That might be in play this season. You can see the full updated list of Chili Bowl entries at chilibowl.com.

The schedule dominoes continue to fall, and yesterday we got to see the 2022 Summer Nationals and Modified Nationals calendar of events. After two seasons of a little bit different schedule layout that included some off days and chances to race elsewhere, the traditional Summer Nationals slate is back with nearly 30 events spread out over six weeks of racing. Along with the breaks being gone, so is the points format. For 2022, the series will again count all races towards the $25,000 championship. Weekly points bonuses will be awarded to the driver with the most points at the end of each week. The season will open at Kankakee on June 14th and close out at Merritt on July 23rd for the late models. The traditional Fairbury event in July will be the finale for the modifieds. In between are some new tracks like Wayne County in Ohio, Quincy Raceways is back as Adams County Speedway, and all your favorite regular stops at places like Peoria, Highland, Macon, Farmer City, and a lot more. Except for a $20,000 to win show at Pevely, all races pay either $5000 or $10,000 to win. There are still seven TBA dates on the schedule, so we'll have to wait and see for those events, but hopefully the traditionalists will be happy with the return to the old style Summer Nationals format. Bobby Pierce and Nick Hoffman are the reigning series champions. And as has been the case, the full Summer Nationals season can be watched live on DIRTVision. If you'd like to see the schedule, find it at dirtcarsummernationals.com.

The Summer Nationals schedule going back to the old format is an interesting strategy move in this wild world of late model racing right now. The series tried to play nice last year and it left some dates and days open, along with drivers not needing to hit all the events, so guys could go race elsewhere. But in 2022 that won't be the case. They've drawn a line in the sand, and if you want to race for the championship, you've got to be at probably most, if not all the events. So Lucas, the Outlaws, the XR series, FloRacing, Summer Nationals, plus all of the regional series and special events. It's a great time to be a dirt late model team with so many options to race. But as I mentioned on Tuesday's show, I think there is real potential that the full timers list for all these starts to get erroded. There will just be too many chances to race elsewhere for more money. I'm still conflicted on whether I think that's a good thing or not.

In some driver news from yesterday, it came out that Skyler Gee and Mark Coldren have parted ways. Coldren started 2021 with Lucas Wolfe behind the wheel of the 07 sprint car, and ended up with a few drivers in the seat through the season, including Gee. Gee said on Twitter he's got a new venture coming and that it would be announced at PRI. Gee made 37 All Star appearances in 2021, with a best finish of third, which he achieved twice; in June at Attica and in September at Attica. Also, after finishing second in the ASCS Sooner Region points this season, young Brandon Anderson is going full time with the national tour. The 18 year old from Oklahoma picked up three wins, 13 top fives, and 15 top tens in 23 races with the Sooner Region, and will hit the road with his 55B machine. The National Tour was ultra competitive in 2021 with a solid mix of veteran and young talent battling it out all season, so this will be a stiff challenge for Anderson.

Speaking of the ASCS, later today I've got a new conversations episode for you. Terry Mattox is only 26 years old, but he's the new owner of the ASCS along with his other series and event involvement. We talk schedules, learning from Emmett Hahn, starting a racing series as a teenager, mentoring future young promoters, and flagging the Chili Bowl. That episode will be available this afternoon or evening in the podcast feed and the YouTube channel.

There are two items on the streaming schedule today, both on FloRacing. They have USAC live from PRI and 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 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 in a few days for more DIRTRACKR Daily!