DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
Dirt racing news, results, discussion, analytics. Sprint cars, late models, modifieds, you name it. From national series, to top local shows. Brought to you five days a week. Email the show at info@dirtrackr.com.
Sheppard sweeps Wild West weekend, Chili Bowl starts today | Daily 1-10-2022
Coming up we are talking day one at the Chili Bowl, plus the weekend late model action between Vado and Talladega. Let's go.
Today is Monday, January 10th, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
The first day of the Chili Bowl is upon us and cars are already on track. The early part of today is the normal Monday hot lap sessions for all drivers, and then we'll get into the first prelim night later this evening. There were a lot of tweets this morning about the early 7AM start time inside the Expo. But there is an insane number of cars to get through today. The event also announced a change to the Saturday schedule later in the week, with the morning starting off with two Q mains. Yep, there are so many entries that the alphabet soup is starting Saturday morning with Qs. After hot laps are done this afternoon, the draw opens at 3PM central time for prelim action with heat races scheduled for 6. It looks like we are probably in the neighborhood of 70 cars for tonight's show, with the field highlighted by guys like Tyler Courtney, David Gravel, Cannon McIntosh, Nick Hoffman, Mitchel Moles, Tanner Carrick, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman and Chase Briscoe. We'll have heat races, D and C mains, qualifiers, B Mains, and the feature tonight. The VIROC race is also part of tonight's program, so even though it isn't their prelim night, we will see Bell and Larson and Kofoid and Grant and Rico and other tonight. If you're looking for a winner tonight, Cannon Mac is a good place to start. He's won the week's first prelim night two years in a row now, with last year coming in his family's car, and the year before driving for Keith Kunz. Sunshine hasn't won a prelim night since 2017, but he has finished second two years in a row, so he'll be high on that list as well. I'd also keep an eye on Moles and Jerry Coons Jr. Coons is always in his prelim night feature, and has a lots of upfront finishes. If you are going to do pool picks for the week, remember that today is the final day to submit them. They have to be in before hot laps start this evening. And don't forget to check out DIRTRACKR Plus if you need help with your research. A month is only $4.99 and there are plenty of added stats and tools to help make your picks. Every night this week, the drivers are going for two locked in spots in Saturday's feature. If you win or finish second, you are in the big show. So things should be wild with so few spots and so many drivers trying to get them. FloRacing is your home for the Chili Bowl all week, until later on Saturday. If you need a Flo subscription, click the link below in the description, or at dirtrackr.com to buy. Those are affiliate links and help me out. I've got Brendon Bauman in the building all week getting photos, so we should have some cool stuff to share on the shows and on social media, so stay tuned for that. And if you want even more Chili Bowl content, check out the episode of DIRTRACKR Conversations that dropped yesterday. We did a full preview of the week with Michael Tyre and Travis Ashwood of the Passing Points Podcast. It's over an hour of Chili Bowl talk, including favorites, dark horses, young drivers, the NASCAR and IndyCar connections, and a whole lot more. You can find that episode on the YouTube channel and in the podcast feed, and also in the Passing Points Podcast feed. I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to a really great week of racing.
One team we are missing this week from Chili Bowl though, is Petry Motorsports. They fielded four entries at the Expo in 2021, and Emerson Axsom and Kevin Thomas Jr. were full time USAC midget drivers for the team this last year, but they are not in attendance. Axsom has moved on to Clauson Marshall, and KTJ is running as a teammate to Ben Worth in a Timms-Alexander Spike. There is nothing official from the team, but lots of rumors swirling about a shutdown. If that's true, it's a shame, because they have been a staple of midget racing.
Over to late models...
Out at Vado Speedway Park in New Mexico, the Wild West Shootout got underway over the weekend. They had full programs on Saturday and Sunday, and now teams will get a break until racing resumes on Wednesday. Back to Saturday night, Bobby Pierce led early from the pole, but Brandon Sheppard was on the move behind him. BShepp took the lead on lap 13 of the 40 lapper and never looked back, driving away to the opening night victory in a caution free affair. Pierce, Mike Marlar, Stormy Scott, and Earl Pearson Jr. completed the top five. The entertainment didn't stop though at the checkered flag. In his post race interview, Sheppard called out Stormy Scott's crew for taking photos of the B5, which is a new Rocket Chassis. Nothing like a little espionage to start the late model season off right. And Sheppard is normally very even keeled and measured in his comments, but I liked the fire from him. Maybe some upgrades to that Rocket piece along with a fired up BShepp could spell trouble for the late model competition this season once he's back behind the wheel of the Rocket house car.
On Sunday night, things weren't quite as clean and tidy. There were several cautions through the 40 laps, and the racing out front was wild. Even in the first ten laps we had a great battle for the lead between Garrett Alberson, Tyler Erb, and Mike Marlar. Alberson was able to get away though and take control through the middle part of the race. He made some insane moves through traffic, threading the needle a few times to try and stay clear of the guys behind him. Inside ten laps to go, the battle out front got good again. Sheppard, who started tenth, worked his way to second and was able to reel Alberson in. Those two battling then allowed Erb to close up and we had three way fight for the win. Sheppard grabbed the lead with two laps to go when Alberson got tight, and then into three coming to the checkered Erb made his move, throwing a massive slider at the B5. It didn't quite work out though, and Sheppard was able to cross him back over and beat him back to the line for the victory. Erb ended up second, Alberson third, Marlar fourth, and Jake Timm was fifth. So with two nights complete and two wins for Sheppard, one of those bonuses from Penske Shocks is still alive. Remember that all six wins is an extra $300,000, five wins is $100K, and four wins is $25 grand. Wednesday's race will be another $5000 to win show for the late models and action will again be live on Flo.
One driver to keep an eye on this week between the Wild West Shootout and Chili Bowl is Donny Schatz. He finished 10th and 11th over the weekend in the late model, and now today he's in Tulsa for the Chili Bowl practice sessions. His prelim night is Tuesday, then he'll be back to Vado for Wednesday.
At the Talladega Short Track over the weekend, the $1500 bounty on Michael Page didn't work, as he ended up leading all 50 laps for his sixth straight Ice Bowl victory. He survived to early incidents and topped Christian Hanger and Chase Oliver for the win.
There are three shows on the streaming schedule today. DIRTVision has the iRacing World of Outlaws World Championship from Cedar Lake, and FloRacing has night one of the Chili Bowl 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 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 tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!