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McCreadie survives contact with Moran to win at Bubba, new look for Donny Schatz | Daily 2-1-2022
Today we are talking last night's wild Lucas finish at Ocala, new paint for Donny Schatz, plus news from Terre Haute, the Xtreme Outlaws and more. Let's go!
Today is Tuesday, February 1st, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
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Speedweeks for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series continued last night at Bubba Raceway Park and we had a wild end to the 40 lap feature. Brandon Sheppard led the field to green, but second starting Tim McCreadie was quickly to the lead at the start. McCreadie officially led all 40 laps, but through the race was never able to get away from second running Devin Moran. Cautions kept McCreadie out of a ton of lap traffic, but Moran stalked him throughout. Things got good though with just a few laps to go. Moran got rolling on the top and was able to reel the 39 in. Coming to the white, McCreadie didn't get a good drive off of four on the bottom, and Moran had good momentum into turn one from the top side. He threw a big slider at TMac and cleared, but McCreadie had to get on the brakes to keep from running into him. Down the backstretch, Moran was able to get away, and had a decent advantage into three. Moran again went high, with McCreadie on the bottom, but both drivers screwed up. TMac actually missed the bottom and slid up on exit, while Moran got over the cushion in four and actually got pretty sideways. The two cars met on corner exit and made pretty big contact. McCreadie was able to take the hit and keep rolling, and he beat Moran back to the line for the victory. Moran settled for second, Sheppard was third, Mark Whitener fourth, and Ricky Thornton Jr. completed the top five. Afterwards, both drivers admitted they screwed up, and they are good with each other. No fireworks. Moran told Michael Rigsby that he should have went low into three, which was his first mistake. In the end not going low, and then the mistake in four let the win slip away from the Ohio driver. There was definitely no ill intention from either guy, just a racing deal for sure. Neither of those guys race that way, and it's pretty clear what happened if you watch the replay. I don't know about you, but I love watching McCreadie get interviewed. He's become sort of grizzled and is just so matter of fact in his answers. He's very much a throwback driver. The victory was his first of the season, and with four Lucas nights complete, he's second in the standings to Moran. As for Devin, he and Wylie continue to have that Longhorn tuned up. They won the opener last Thursday, and haven't finished worse than second. He was also in line for a good finish at Volusia in the Outlaw opener before he caught the infield wall during the feature and finished 22nd. Last night was also a nice bounceback for Ricky Thornton Jr., Kyle Bronson, and Ashton Winger, who all picked up top tens after disappointing weekends at Golden Isles. A couple of guys still looking for some speed down south include Brian Shirley and Josh Richards. Shirley didn't transfer from a B-Main at Volusia, and his best finish so far through the four Lucas races is 23rd on Saturday at Golden Isles. Richards hard charged from 21st to seventh on the opening night at Golden Isles, but had multiple incidents at Volusia and finished 19th, and has finishes of 27th, 26th, and 20th over the last three races. Hopefully things go a little better for them tonight. Looking ahead, the series will be back at Bubba tonight, they'll take Wednesday off, then move over to All-Tech starting on Thursday. The dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula was victorious last night picking McCreadie. It likes him again for the win tonight. I just missed by choosing Moran, so both me and the formula have one win and five misses so far. I'm gonna pick Moran again tonight, just because that nine car is on a rail right now. If you want to watch, the action is again live on MAVTV Plus.
I've been showing you some of the paint schemes for different drivers as they've been released, and yesterday it was Donny Schatz and TSR dropping their 2022 scheme for the Outlaw season. Last year it was silver for Schatz and the 15, but this year brings yellow, black and red with Advance Auto Parts on the wing and Ford Performance on the side. It's very much reminiscent of the past ParkerStore and Armor All schemes we've seen on Schatz's rides. It's definitely a departure from the last few years, but I like it. I think it will stand out nicely in the field. We are about nine days out from the Outlaw opener at Volusia during DIRTcar Nationals.
Announced yesterday, the Terre Haute Action Track in Indiana will have new promoters this season, as Scott Ronk and Bernie Stuebgen are taking over the famed half mile. Ronk owns Chalk Stix and Schroeder Torsion Bars, and Stuebgen is Indy Race Parts and those familiar 71 sprint cars. The duo is already planning improvements for the facility including a new guardrail system all the way around like you'll find at Knoxville, plus restroom and concession updates. Ronk and Bernie are taking over from Track Enterprises. I haven't seen a full schedule for the track yet, but USAC will be there four times this year, once with the Silver Crown cars, and three appearances by the sprint cars. You can find more on the announcement at usacracing.com.
The Xtreme Outlaw sprint car opener is getting closer, and the series tweeted out yesterday that Logan Seavey will begin his season with them at Volusia coming up. Seavey is driving the Baldwin five again this year, and he was formidable in 2021 in that car, picking up four wins and 20 top tens in 30 USAC starts. I'm guessing we'll see quite a few of the USAC guys come over to Volusia before they go to Bubba the next weekend for the USAC opener. So far the full time sprint car field will include Chad Boespflug, Jason McDougal, Chase Stockon, Landon Simon, Shane Cockrum, Zach Daum, and Mario Clouser. It also sounds like we could be adding Kory Schudy to that list soon. Schudy was the 2021 USAC MWRA champion and he and his Jon Sawyer Racing team are eyeing a full time run with the Xtreme Outlaws. Schudy has made six USAC National Sprint Car appearances over the last two years, with a best finish of 14th which has happened twice, at 34 Raceway in 2020, and last year at Bubba Raceway Park in February. The addition of Schudy would make it eight full timers so far. To keep tabs on the new non-wing series from World Racing Group, make sure you're following @Xtreme_Outlaw on Twitter and @xtremeoutlaw on Instagram. The season opens February 14th at Volusia.
The All Stars get their season started this coming weekend at Senoia Raceway in Georgia, and we'll get into that in a few days, but the series did announce yesterday they have moved Saturday's program up. The drivers meeting will start at 3:30 PM ET, with hot laps at 4:30. It's supposed to be chilly when the sun goes down, so I'm sure that's the reason for the move.
The 10 race iRacing World of Outlaws World Championship and the $10,000 were on the line last night at the virtual Dirt Track at Charlotte. Cameron Merriman entered the night's feature with a 15 point advantage over Alex Bergeron for the title, and things were going his way come feature time. Merriman was able to lock down a front row starting position, while Bergeron was back in ninth. The way things worked out, if Merriman finished fifth or better, no matter what anyone else did, he'd win the championship. Once green, we had a three way battle for the lead between Merriman, Blake Matjoulis, and Hayden Cardwell. But following an early caution, Merriman threw a slider at Matjoulis and was able to take control. Past half way, Bergeron tried to get into the fight, working his way to fourth, but right before ten laps to go, he caught the wall and and it ended his move forward. Out front, unlike the previous two races where mistakes ended his late bids for the wins, Merriman held on for the duration. The win in the finale was his first of the season, and it was a good time to do it. It secured him the championship and the $10 grand. Behind Merriman in the race, Cardwell finished second, Matjoulis third, Bergeron fourth, and Evan Seay completed the top five. James Edens, the other championship contender, finished sixth. This was season five for the World of Outlaws on iRacing, and Merriman is the first American to win the championship. The inaugural title was won by Australian Tim Ryan, and the last three were won by Bergeron, who is Canadian. So that's it, the 2021-2022 iRacing World of Outlaws season is complete. Great racing through the 10 rounds, and congrats to Cameron Merriman on the title.
There are two shows on today's streaming schedule. MAVTV Plus has night two of the Lucas late models from Bubba Raceway Park, and there is FloRacing 24/7. To see the full daily streaming schedule with those links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, have a good Tuesday. 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!