DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Could Earl Pearson Jr. and Josh Richards be back on top in 2022, update on Daison Pursley | Daily 12-16-2021

Coming up we've got news from World Racing Group's new non-wing series, an update on Daison Pursley, and we talk about two late model drivers that could be resurgent in 2022. Let's do this.

Today is Thursday, December 16th, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.

The newly formed Xtreme Outlaw Series from World Racing Group has added another full time team to the mix along with Landon Simon on the sprint car side. Announced yesterday, KO Motorsports will campaign two cars with the series full time in 2022 with drivers Chase Stockon and Jason McDougal. The release also mentioned that Davey Jones will crew chief, which is news in and of itself, as Jones had been with Kevin Thomas Jr. in 2021. But with KTJ moving over to the winged side, it left the opportunity for Jones to move elsehwere. If you're KO, that's a big hire. KTJ was resurgent in 2021, and was in the championship fight all the way to the finish. He led all drivers with nine USAC sprint car wins this year. I would not be surprised to see Jones provide a significant bump to KO in 2022. As for the drivers, in the past two seasons, Stockon has made 64 USAC sprint car starts, which isn't quite full time, but definitely a majority of the events. He's got two wins, 18 top fives, and 37 top tens in that stretch. Those wins came at Lincoln Park and Haubstadt in 2020, and Stockon was crowned the 2020 Indiana Sprint Week champion. McDougal made 19 USAC sprint car starts this year, with two top fives and seven top tens. His best finish was fifth, which happened twice, one at Gas City and the other at Terre Haute. KO is a solid addition to the Xtreme lineup for next season, and I'm sure we are just getting started with announcements for this new series. On the Dirt from Knoxville podcast, series director Casey Shuman told Eric and Ben that he should have the schedule finished this weekend, so hopefully we'll get to see that soon. If you missed it from PRI, and want to know more about the Xtreme Outlaw Series, check out the bonus episode I did from Sunday night.

I've had a few folks ask for updates on Daison Pursley, and outside of his mom's Facebook posts, there isn't much information available. After his crash in the USAC midget race at Arizona Speedway, Pursley suffered a spinal cord injury and was initially in the hospital out there. He has since been moved to a rehab center in Atlanta where his recovery continues. In a recent post to the GoFundMe page for his family, it was shared that he's regaining feeling and movement, but that there is still some weakness and numbness in his arms and legs. It sounds like the road to recovery will be long, but things are progressing. If you'd like to see the updates or contribute, you can search for Driven for Daison at gofundme.com.

As we start to turn our attention to 2022, the picture of who is racing where becomes more clear by the day, and I think we can start taking a look at drivers to watch in the coming year. For today's show I wanted to focus on a couple of late model guys who've been a bit down and out lately, but who I think could be serious factors next season. The first is Josh Richards. We know the past season was not at all what anyone expected for Richards and that Clint Bowyer Racing team. Two wins, eight top fives, and 22 top tens in 45 races led to an eighth place finish in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series standings. That along with an average feature finish of 11.3 is the type of performance you don't expect from a driver like Richards, who should be competing for championships every year, regardless of the series he races with. But the down season led to Richards and CBR parting ways, and in recent weeks it was announced that Richards is returning full time to the World of Outlaws Late Model Series, partnering up with Boom Briggs. He'll be a welcome addition back to the Outlaws, especially when some were left wondering if Richards even had a future in the sport. But in looking at his stats and numbers in 2021, I think there are some bright spots in a tough season, and hope for the future. The biggest issue for Richards in 2021 appeared to be action early in the night. Less quick times, worse qualifying performances, and and a worse average heat race finish set him up for much lower starting positions come feature time. His average feature start was more than four positions worse from 2020 to 2021. That's a tough hole to climb out of on a nightly basis, but Richards did everything he could in those features to maximize his finishes. He topped the series in races with a positive plus minus at 30, and he was third in feature plus minus. While his average start was four positions down, his average finish was only two positions down. So he was able to make up for some of the poor performances early in the night, just not all of it. And I think that positive plus minus is something to hang his hat on for 2022. He and Boom will have some speed together, I think, and we got a preview in the Duel in the Desert event in Vegas where Richards ended up second to eventual winner Bobby Pierce driving in a Briggs car. If he can get things straightened out early in the night, that ability to pass cars come feature time will pay dividends.

The other driver I want to spotlight is Earl Pearson Jr. After a couple of tough seasons in the Black Diamond house car, Pearson departed the team late in 2021, and finished out the Lucas schedule driving for Jason Papich. At the time of the announcement, the team was talking about a full Lucas run in 2022, and if that is still in the cards, they could be a team to reckon with next year. Over the final 11 races, EPJ had probably his best stretch in several seasons behind the wheel. He didn't get a victory, but had five top five runs, nine top tens, and a worst finish of 12th. His best finish was a second in the Pittsburgher 100, and his average finish over the last 10 races was a whopping six positions better than his total average finish for the season. That was quite the turnaround for a guy who looked like maybe he was on his way out. EPJ was back to looking like the driver that won series championships and big races like the World and the Dirt Track World Championship. Going forward, with some time to continue improving the team this offseason, I would not be surprised if they turned a full time run with Lucas into a top five championship effort. If they could take that average finish we saw over the last ten and do that over a full season, EPJ would have finished a close second in the standings to champion Tim McCreadie in 2021. So those are two drivers I definitely think could have big turnarounds in 2022. If you want to see more stats and analysis, head over to dirtrackr.com/analytics.

The only thing on the streaming schedule today 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 in a few days for more DIRTRACKR Daily!