DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Lucas Late Models headed to All-Tech, Kenny Wallace's final dirt season, new look for Kerry Madsen | Daily 2-3-202

On the show today we'll get you ready for tonight's Lucas action at All-Tech, including the driver roster. We've also got news from Kenny Wallace, Kerry Madsen, Keith Kunz Motorsports and more. Let's roll!

Today is Thursday, February 3rd, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.

After having Wednesday night off, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series is right back at it tonight, moving over to All-Tech Raceway in Florida to continue Speedweeks. The late models will be at All-Tech through Saturday night, before heading to East Bay on Sunday. We are through the first five nights of the season, and Brandon Overton and Devin Moran each have two wins apiece, with Tim McCreadie the only other winner. All-Tech was the site of the Lucas opener in 2021, and Kyle Larson dominated the field that night. In 2020, All-Tech was also part of Speedweeks, and Jonathan Davenport was the victor that night, leading the final 31 laps and topping Mike Marlar and Brandon Sheppard. We'll have to see how the field shakes out, but I'm guessing we'll see a similar group of cars to what we had at Ocala earlier in the week. The tentative entry list at Dirt on Dirt has 43 cars, but is missing Davenport and Overton. JD's website has All-Tech on his schedule, and Overton's press release from Golden Isles said they'd be back at All-Tech as well, so we'll have to see if they show up tonight. Don't expect Larson to race this weekend, as he'll be out in California preparing for the Busch Clash with NASCAR. We talked on yesterday's show about the hot start for Moran, and he's got the orange spoiler as the Lucas points leader coming into tonight. Five straight top two finishes to start the season is why he's on top. BShepp is actually second in the standings right now, on the strength of five straight top nine results. He's got finishes of second, ninth, ninth, third, and fourth. He was also good out at Vado during the Wild West Shootout, and was a top ten runner in the Outlaw opener at Volusia. His consistency remains a big part of why that Rocket team is so hard to beat each year. Moran and Sheppard are the only two drivers to finish top ten all five Lucas nights. If you're a DIRTRACKR Plus subscriber, you may have already looked at this, but Mike Marlar, Moran, and Sheppard have the best average finish at All-Tech over the previous two races there. It's not been a good start for Marlar, and All-Tech may be a good place for him to bounce back. As for win picks for tonight, the dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula likes BShepp over Moran tonight. I'm going to go against the formula and ride with Moran. His past two finishes in Lake City were second and sixth, and I'm going to roll with the hot hand. The formula is currently 1 for 6 or just a little under 17%. I'm 2 for 6, or about 33% picking winners so far. If you can't be at All-Tech tonight, you can watch live again on MAVTV Plus.

When the UMP modifieds hit Volusia next week for DIRTcar Nationals, it will be the beginning of the final full season of racing for fan favorite Kenny Wallace. According to a DIRTcar release yesterday, Wallace will scale back his racing schedule starting in 2023, and plans on running various throwback paint schemes on his modified all season long. Wallace is famous for his NASCAR career, but in the years since he left the paved world, he's become a staple of dirt tracks, racking up UMP modified wins at DCN and during the Modified Nationals seasons every year in his black and white 36 cars. His big personality, famous Twitter account, and speed on the track have made him popular with both the paved and dirt fans. An interesting side note about Wallace, he's the only driver to win at Volusia on both it's paved and dirt configurations. Volusia was a paved half mile between 1989 and 1996, and Wallace's first career NASCAR win came at the Florida track in 1991. His modified will sport a similar black and green paint job at Volusia reminiscent of the car he won with in 1991 on the pavement. Wallace will be on track next week at DIRTcar Nationals, with racing set to start on Monday night.

If you're a Kerry Madsen fan, we got a look at this Roth Motorsports 83 car for the coming season yesterday on social media. PJ Petersen tweeted out a few photos from their shop as preparations are underway, and the car is very similar to recent Roth schemes we've seen between Daryn Pittman and Aaron Reutzel. Things are a little different though, including that Toyota logo on the wing side panel. Madsen and Roth are planning a sizeable west coast and big event schedule for the year, something like 40 or 50 races, as they work with Toyota and Speedway Engines to continue developing that new TRD 410 engine. Paul Baines is crew chiefing, and you'll definitely see them at some Outlaw shows, and probably events like the Kings Royal and Knoxville Nationals. James McFadden is piloting the other Roth car that will be out full time with the World of Outlaws. That 83 has a completely new look for the year. McFadden's Roth machine is being housed at the Kasey Kahne Racing shop in North Carolina, while Madsen's car with Baines is out in California. Roth is planning to debut Madsen during the spring World of Outlaws west coast swing.

Keith Kunz Motorsports continues to fill out their 2022 midget roster for the upcoming USAC National Midget season. Buddy Kofoid, Brenham Crouch, and Taylor Reimer are all set for full season runs, and they will be joined by 16 year old Bryant Wiedeman. The Kansas driver raced all season in 2021 with KKM, taking down the POWRi midget championship with three wins, and tacking on an additional 30 races with USAC. In those 30 races, he had three top fives and eight top tens, with a best finish of third, which came at Placerville late in the year. Wiedeman is definitely one to watch in the coming years. We talk a lot about young drivers like Ryan Timms and Brent Crews and Corey Day and others, and Wiedeman is in that same conversation. He outdueled Crews and the Chad Boat squad for that POWRi title last year, and could easily be in line for some USAC wins in 2022. With Chris Windom and Kevin Thomas Jr. out of the mix, there will be more opportunities for some other drivers to step up with USAC this season. I do think that Kofoid is the driver everyone is chasing this year, but things will be wide open behind him. We are about eight days away from the USAC midget opening weekend at Bubba Raceway Park.

I know we've been talking about the Xtreme Outlaw Series a lot this week, but the announcements just keep on coming for series drivers. Yesterday it was another midget commitment for the year. Already on the full time midget roster are Chxtad Boat entries Jade Avedisian, Dominic Gorden, and Jace Park, along with veteran Andrew Felker. They will be joined by Kyle Jones and the 7U midget squad in the chase for the championship. If you're a watcher of the Chili Bowl, you'll recognize Jones from his good runs and his epic mustache. He finished 9th on his prelim night a few weeks ago, and 13th in a Saturday B-Main. He made six USAC National Midget starts in 2021 in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska, with a best finish of sixth back in April at Port City Raceway. On top of the full Xtreme schedule, the team is also planning select starts with POWRi and USAC along the way. The 12 race Xtreme Outlaw midget schedule gets going April 1st at Farmer City Raceway in Illinois. There is still plenty of time to add more drivers and teams between now and then.

I've had some requests for DIRTRACKR merch, and while I'm not going all in with hats and shirts just yet, I did get a small run of decals made if you'd like one. They are one inch by five and a half inches, and are available to buy at dirtrackr.com/decal. $3 and I'll drop one in the mail for you, I'm covering postage and any taxes. Right now I'm only sending to buyers in the US, but that might change in the future if enough people, say in Canada or Australia, want them. So $3, dirtrackr.com/decal, I'll also link to the page in the YouTube video description. If you aren't interested in one, don't worry, I still love you. And you can keep watching and listening to the shows for free.

There are four shows on today's streaming schedule. FloRacing has crate late models from East Bay and Flo 24/7, while MAVTV Plus has the Lucas late models from All-Tech, and Racing America has DIRTcar Sportsman Modifieds from Lake View Motor Speedway. I saw earlier in the week this event being promoted as a Super DIRTcar Series event, but if you saw that, this is not an SDS show. Sportsman modifieds are the same basic cars as a big block modified, but they run the 602 crate engine. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.

That's it for the show today, 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 tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!