DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Dennis Erb Jr. breaks 7 year Lucas winless streak, Keith Kunz adding non-wing sprint car team | Daily 2-8-2022

Coming up we are talking Dennis Erb Jr's Monday win at East Bay, DIRTcar Nationals day two, plus news from Keith Kunz and XR. Let's go!

Today is Tuesday, February 8th, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.

I saw online somewhere yesterday where a commenter or tweeter said that Lucas Speedweeks don't officially start until they get to East Bay. It's an interesting thought, and it does seem like things have been building into this week. As some alluded to, we did have a big car count last night, with 70 late models showing up to race. At some point somebody is going to have to explain to me why we go some places in dirt racing with better payouts and get fewer cars, and go other places with smaller payouts and get more cars. Last night's show was a $5000 to win and $500 to start race, and we had 70 late models. Is it just because guys can race all week at the same track? More money has been available elsewhere between Golden Isles, Bubba, and All-Tech so far, but East Bay gets the most cars. You won't often hear me be super critical of sanctioning bodies, because I think for the most part the major players do a nice job at something that is really difficult. But I don't understand Lucas running two 26 car B-Mains last night. If you're a driver starting near the back of one of those races, I don't see the point in racing. 26 cars go for ten laps, and two guys transfer. That is insanely tough sledding. In the first B, Cody Overton and Deshawn Gingerich were both plus nine, and nowhere near a transfer. In the second B-Main, Larry Greer somehow picked up 13 spots in 10 laps, and only finished 13th. If you are't starting top five in those races, you're night is effectively over. I don't see why you wouldn't run more alphabet races, or add a third B-Main.

In the night's feature Brandon Overton led the field to green from the pole, and was out front for the first 18 laps. Second starting Dennis Erb Jr. actually faded a bit at the start, but then was able to get things rolling, and he drove back through the field, taking the lead from Big Sexy on lap 19. It seems like we haven't seen a lot of guys just run down and pass Overton lately, and the speed we saw from Erb last night hasn't been really present so far during Speedweeks. He had just three top tens through the first seven nights, and no top fives. But last night was his night, leading the final 12 laps en route to his first Lucas victory in seven years, back to 2015. Hudson O'Neal ended up second, Tim McCreadie was third from 11th, Shane Clanton hard charged from 19th to finish fourth, and Story Scott completed the top five. Overton tried to buck the trend of everyone on the bottom late in the race, and he moved up to make something happen, but he got bit. He popped the wall late in the race in turn one and was done. He was scored 25th. Ashton Winger was also racey last night, running in the top five, but also was a victim of the top side, spinning out late in turn one. He finished 15th.

As for win picks last night, Dennis Erb Jr. wasn't on my radar, or the formula's. We both had Brandon Sheppard, who went 17th to ninth in the feature. The formula is staying with Sheppard tonight, with last night's race results added to the mix. I think I'm going Overton tonight. He looked pretty good last night, and you know they'll make some changes to that Longhorn and get it dialed for tonight. Something to keep an eye on today for all these Florida races is the weather. There are rain chances through the day, and it's very possible we could see more cancellations. If things do get going, you can watch again live on MAVTV Plus.

Across the state, DIRTcar Nationals was scheduled to have UMP modifieds and the All Star Circuit of Champions opener tonight, but the racing has again been cancelled. The Monday program was lost to a saturated facility, and with rain in the forecast today, officials pulled the plug yet again. There has been a lot of talk about the race track surface since that opening Outlaw late model opener back in January, and the question marks are still there headed into this week. I've seen some tweets from a few drivers about what they are seeing, and I think those reservations will remain until we see cars on track and no problems. I know they've been working hard to get things squared away, we'll just have to wait and see if that work has paid off. Like I mentioned yesterday, we should have a healthy field of modifieds, and a very solid group of sprint cars. We did lose a sprint car team yesterday though from the week. The Swindell SpeedLab 39 was supposed to be at Volusia for the All Star and Outlaw shows with Christopher Bell behind the wheel, but they tweeted yesterday that they are not coming due to quote unforeseen circumstances. I don't know what that means, and it doesn't really matter, it's a shame though that we won't get to see them. There will be plenty of other really good cars there though, with a lot of the All Star teams coming and the full time Outlaw guys racing. If things get going tomorrow with the sprint cars and modifieds, it's going to be one of those crappy streaming nights, with the modifieds on DIRTVision, and the All Stars on FloRacing. It's another year and still no agreement between the various parties to avoid these situations. It's a big L for the viewers for sure when these nights happen. But just know at this point you've been warned. Hopefully we'll get to see some racing on Wednesday.

Over to a couple of news items from yesterday. It seems like we've been talking about Keith Kunz Motorsports a lot lately as they make driver announcements for 2022, and things kept busy with them yesterday. For the first time in nearly a decade, KKM will field a car with the USAC National Sprint Car Series. They last did so in 2013 with Christopher Bell, and the team has had a ton of success in the past with that series, including a bunch of wins from current KKM employee Jay Drake. Kunz told USAC's Richie Murray that they started on this plan last year, with hopes of getting Daison Pursley some sprint car experience, but obviously that plan changed with Daison's injuries late last year. The team has pushed forward though, and they hope to run the full schedule, they just aren't sure about drivers just yet. Buddy Kofoid will start the season in the car in Florida, and then from there they will work on a schedule. Buddy is already committed to the full midget schedule, and a sizeable winged sprint car schedule with the new team owned by Bernie Stuebgen and Brenham Crouch's father Leighton, so they are trying to figure out what he can do. Kunz is hopeful for a run at the owner's championship though. In the past two years, Kofoid has made five national sprint car appearances with USAC, finishing in the top ten in every race, which was three nights at Kokomo in 2020 and two at Bubba in 2021. Four of those were top five results as well. If Buddy isn't able to run all the races, I'm sure there are plenty of young drivers that would be clawing at a chance to run a KKM prepared sprint car. The sprint car season for USAC starts on February 17th down in Ocala, Florida.

The other news item from yesterday involves the Bristol Dirt Nationals. The XR event is adding a co-sanction from the Iron-Man late models owned by Chris Tilley to the super late model portion of the races. The dual XR Super Series/Iron-Man shows will take place March 25th and 26th, and April 1st and 2nd. Each race is $50,000 to win and $2500 to start. The co-sanction should help bolster the car count for the races, especially on weekends where the World of Outlaws are also racing. The first weekend is up against the Rock Gault Memorial at Cherokee, and the second is up against the Illini 100 at Farmer City. With so much cash on the line, you should see some pretty big names in attendance. Besides Chris Ferguson, who has announced he's running the full XR slate, I'm assuming we'll see guys like Jonathan Davenport, Jimmy Owens, and Scott Bloomquist. To see more on the event and the news, check out racexr.com.

It's a nice little Tuesday on the streaming services with five shows today. DIRTVision has the DIRTcar Nationals from Volusia, FloRacing has the All Star portion of DCN plus Flo 24/7, MAVTV Plus has the Lucas Late Models from East Bay, and Speed Sport has modifieds and stock cars from North Florida Speedway. 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 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!