DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Tanner Thorson joins the winged migration, World of Outlaws feature at Volusia delayed to Friday | Daily 1-21-2022

Coming up we talk Thursday at Volusia, the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic, night one out in Vegas, and another non-wing driver headed to the winged side. Let's go.

Today is Friday, January 21st, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.

Well I thought we'd be opening the show today with a full rundown on last night's racing at Volusia for the World of Outlaws, but things didn't quite go to plan down in Florida. They got almost 50 super late models, around 40 602 late models, and north of 80 604 late models, which I think was more than they were expecting. In turn, the night's program started later than it probably should have, especially when the schedule included hot laps and qualifying for all cars. Add in some tough track conditions and some track work to try and save it, and you are left with a racing program that has been postponed until this afternoon. We got through heat races and B-Mains for all three divisions, so gates will open at 2:30PM today, and they will run the three features starting at 3PM. From there, they will start into Friday's action. I did not stay up that late to watch it, but it looks like the plug was finally pulled around 1:30AM ET. Brutal way to start the season, and a tough situation to be in for the fans and competitors, but these events don't always go like the organizers think they will. Having more cars than you thought is a good problem. But it isn't easy sometimes to keep these tracks together. I know on social media, and I'm sure at the track, officials were getting blasted, and I'm certainly not going to judge anyone for being upset. But remember that nobody on either side wants these situations to play out like this. I'm sure things will run much smoother through the weekend and when they come back for DIRTcar Nationals in a few weeks.

In qualifying for the Outlaws, Devin Moran and Kyle Hammer were the two group fast timers. Dale McDowell, Chris Madden, Moran, and Brandon Sheppard were the four heat race winners. Hudson O'Neal and Cade Dillard grabbed the two B-Main wins. For the feature this afternoon, McDowell will lead the field to green from the pole, with Moran to his outside. Madden, Sheppard, Dennis Erb Jr., Kyle Strickler, Josh Richards, Ricky Thornton Jr., Ryan Gustin, and Shane Clanton are the rest of your top ten starters. Kyle Larson starts 11th. Once today's afternoon racing is complete, I'll throw the results in the database and rerack the prediction formula so I can make Friday night picks. I'll do the same for Saturday and record the choices so you guys can laugh at me on Monday.

As for full time Outlaw drivers, the group that will chase the championship became clear yesterday, and by the time the program got underway we had 16 drivers that are going to start the season as Outlaws. It was almost hard to keep up with all the tweets coming out in the afternoon. I talked yesterday about Max Blair, Kyle Hammer, Gordy Gundaker, Tanner English, Jacob Ulrich, Josh Richards, Boom Briggs, and Brandon Sheppard. Those eight are being joined by Brent Larson, Dennis Erb Jr., Chris Madden, Ryan Gustin, and Tyler Bruening. All of those guys are returning to the series after being regulars last year. We've also added three more drivers in Chris Simpson, who will be a rookie, and past Outlaw regulars Shane Clanton and Morgan Bagley. So all of a sudden we have a stacked field to kick of 2022. Sheppard is still the guy to beat, but the group filled out nicely. We'll see who sticks through the whole year, but if you're series director Casey Shuman, I think you have to be pretty happy with that group.

Down to Australia, I had planned on doing a preview today for the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic, but because I'm stupid and clearly don't understand the time difference, it wasn't in my brain that overnight Thursday into Friday was the first night of racing. So I should have done the preview on yesterday's show, and now here I am on this Friday with the first night of racing complete. If you don't know, this race weekend is like the Australian version of the Knoxville Nationals. It's a really big deal. The Friday and Saturday shows are basically prelim nights, with racing culminating on Sunday. They are in the neighborhood of 80 cars and the field is stacked. The Friday field included Jamie Veal, Ian Madsen, Lachlan McHugh, Matthew Dumesny, and Carson Macedo, all names that us American fans will recognize. The Saturday group includes Robbie Farr, James McFadden, Jock Goodyer, and Marcus Dumesny. Very early this morning it was Lachlan McHugh who grabbed the opening night win. Ian Madsen finished second, Corey McCullagh was third, Carson Macedo fourth, and Jamie Veal completed the top five. McHugh picked up $10 grand and the all important points headed to Sunday. If you want to tune in through the weekend, DIRTVision has live coverage, and you can watch with your fast pass. The racing programs both days will start around 1AM ET here in the states. If you'd like to keep up all weekend, make sure you're following @SungoldStadium on Twitter. They had a ton of updates all night.

Out at the Dirt Track at Las Vegas last night, the Las Vegas Dirt Nationals got underway for the first of three nights. The event is being headlined by the Bandits Outlaw Sprint Series, and in that 20 lap feature, it was Chase Randall picking up the victory over Garen Linder and Jeremy McCune. Randall took the lead from Garet Williamson just past half way and held on to the end. Williamson finished 9th after cutting down a right rear tire. The field of sprint cars was light, and only 13 were in the feature last night. I'm a little surprised that more of the ASCS and California guys didn't get involved this weekend, especially with not much else going on right now. In the open modified divisions, USMTS regular and multi-time champion Rodney Sanders topped Brian Ruhlman. The event continues tonight and Saturday, and you can watch it live on XR+.

The non-wing world has already lost Tyler Courtney, Kevin Thomas Jr., and Chris Windom to the winged side, and now we've got yet another name headed that direction. Fresh off that Chili Bowl win last weekend, Tanner Thorson talked earlier in the week on the LoudPedal podcast with Dillon Welch and Tyler Burnett about possibly doing some winged racing in 2022. He mentioned starting the year at Bubba Raceway Park with USAC in the midget and sprint car, but also hitting up East Bay for some winged racing and then trying to figure things out from there. But yesterday, a release from the World of Outlaws points to much more winged racing than that. Thorson and his Reinbold-Underwood team are planning to run something like 50 races with the Outlaws this year, and depending on how it goes, possibly looking at going full time in 2023. That's a dramatic change from earlier in the week and Thorson talking about a winged schedule, to more than half the Outlaw slate. According to Brian Walker, Thorson has made 23 appearances with the Outlaws in his career. He has a best finish of second, which came at Chico back in 2015, where he drove up from 13th, and got beat by only Donny Schatz. But his winged starts have been light in recent years. He had no Outlaw appearances in 2020, and only one in 2021, a 16th at Lawrenceburg in May. He made one All Star start in 2020, a B-Main finish at Lincoln, and ran four races in 2021, two nights at Circle City, plus shows at Gas City and Kokomo. His best finish was 12th. As a team though, Reinbold-Underwood found success with the wing on early in 2021, grabbing wins at Arizona Speedway for the Wild Wing Shootout with Buddy Kofoid in the car. Thorson also has an incredible resource to lean on as he moves forward, as sprint car hall of famer Stevie Smith is his future father-in-law. With Thorson's style and attitude, I think this is a great addition to the winged ranks, and hopefully they can get it worked out to go full time in 2023. He'd be really fun to watch out on the road all season. But if you're a non-wing fan, this recent migration has to sting. Of the eight drivers with the most USAC sprint car wins in the last two years, four of them are now going winged racing. And the numbers are similar on the midget side. Three of the top five in USAC midget victories are now gone. There is still plenty of talent, with guys like Justin Grant, Brady Bacon, Buddy Kofoid, Emerson Axsom, CJ Leary, and Logan Seavey sticking around, but these are tough losses. Definitely some work to do if you're on that side of the sport.

There are seven shows on the streaming schedule today, and plenty of dirt racing to come this weekend. DIRTVision has the Sunshine Nationals and Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic continuing through Saturday. FloRacing has the WinterNationals from East Bay and superstocks from Paradise Valley in New Zealand, plus Flo 24/7. Speed Sport TV has IMCA racing from Central Arizona Speedway, and XR+ has more nights of the Las Vegas Dirt Nationals. To see the full daily streaming schedule through the weekend, 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 tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!