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World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series season preview, Brandon Sheppard wins at East Bay | Daily 2-10-2022
On this Thursay we'll get into last night's Lucas action at East Bay, go big on the upcoming World of Outlaws season, plus Short Track Super Series results and news from Xtreme DIRTcar. Let's go!
Today is Thursday, February 10th, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Speedweeks for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series continued last night with another round from East Bay Raceway Park. Monday at East Bay it was Dennis Erb Jr. getting the win, mother nature was victorious on Tuesday, and last night it was a battle of the Brandons early with Brandon Sheppard eventually pulling away for the victory. BShepp and Brandon Overton battled through much of the first half of the race out front, but Sheppard was eventually able to take control on lap 13 and wasn't really challenged down the stretch, winning at the line by more than two seconds. Ashton Winger had a nice race ending up second, Tyler Erb was third, Kyle Bronson hard charged from 16th to finish fourth, and Ricky Thornton Jr. was fifth. Overton finished 19th after pulling off late in the going. Near ten laps to go, RTJ tried to dive underneath him in turn one, and the two made contact, sending Overton around. When the caution was thrown though, officials said it was for debris, not Overton's spin. So somehow Overton got his position back. I'm not sure I agree with that call. In the end it didn't matter, with Overton bowing out, but calls like that are going to draw the ire of both fans and other competitors. Devin Moran had issues in the first ten laps, but managed to bounce back to finish 10th. He and Sheppard remain the only two with a top ten finish each Lucas night so far. I do have to give the Lucas officials some kudos though. On Monday they ran those two 26 car B-Mains which were brutal, and last night we had three 17 car Bs, which is an improvement. They must have listened to my Tuesday show! Probably not though. As for Sheppard, it's been a very strong start to 2022. He got those wins out at Vado, and has now won two of nine with Lucas. Nine top tens, six top fives and an average finish of 4.78. Pretty dang good for that Rocket squad. The other Outlaw teams are going to have their hands full yet again with that 1 car. As for win picks, I'm now 2 for 10, with the formula at 3 for 10. It had Sheppard, I had Overton. The picks will remain the same for tonight, as the formula is sticking with Sheppard, but I'm gonna rock with Overton again. I still think he finds a way to get some wins this week. One other note from last night, there was no Jimmy Owens in the field, but we still had 70 cars. Owens and the 20 team chose to sit out, but they do plan on being back tonight at East Bay. If you want to watch live, you can do that over on MAVTV Plus.
With the way things have already gone at Volusia to start 2022, it shouldn't be overly surprising that they decided to cancel Wednesday night's racing even though the weather was much better. Around 11:15 AM ET yesterday, officials at DIRTcar Nationals pulled the plug on the day, so we've now lost three nights to start the event. And the All Stars still can't catch a break. They are now 0-4 on the season, and will try again at East Bay on Monday and Tuesday coming up. After East Bay, we won't see the series again until April 8th and 9th at Attica when their season opens for real for real. So now the focus at Volusia shifts to the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series season opener along with three nights of UMP Modified action.
With the Outlaws, everyone is gunning for Brad Sweet and that KKR 49 team. They have now won three straight championships, and will remain the favorite in 2022 until someone can show the speed and consistency necessary to beat them. With Jacob Allen confirmed as a full timer, we are starting the year with 14 Outlaw teams prepared to contest the full slate of races. The drivers are Brad Sweet, David Gravel, Carson Macedo, Donny Schatz, Logan Schuchart, Sheldon Haudenschild, Kraig Kinser, Jason Sides, James McFadden, Brock Zearfoss, Spencer Bayston, Kasey Kahne, Noah Gass, and Allen. The rookie battle is between Bayston, Kahne, and Gass, but the fight will most likely be between Bayston and Kahne. Nothing against Gass and his group, but they are facing the toughest test of their racing journeys, and I think just finishing the season will be a feat in and of itself for that squad. The fight between Kahne and Bayston could be intriguing though. I have World of Outlaws races in the dirtrackr.com analytics database back through 2017, and over that span the two drivers have a very similar number of starts. Kahne has 70, with Bayston sitting at 74. Kahne has never won a World of Outlaws feature in his career, and in that 70 race stretch, he's got two top fives, 15 top tens, he's led 20 laps, and has an average finish of 13.7. In the 74 appearances for Bayston, he does have two victories, both of them last year, along with five top fives, 16 top tens, and an average finish of 14.9. So similar stats between the two, obviously those two wins look good for Bayston, but Kahne has the better average finish. It's really a tough call between the two, because I like Bayston's youth and those two victories show he's growing as a driver. But Kahne's experience and the weight of KKR behind him are tough things to ignore. And he'll have Brad Sweet and sort-of-teammate James McFadden to lean on. I think I'm going to give the slight edge here to Kahne, but it's basically a coin toss. As for the title race, I think things are going to be very close all year. Sweet is the easy favorite, but he'll have some chasers. If we were buying stock here, I'm going long on McFadden. I like his future as an Outlaw, but I don't think he's quite ready yet to contend, and he'll be adjusting to life as a Roth driver in 2022. I also think that on any given night, Sheldon Haudenschild is as good as anyone in the field, but he's just not consistent enough to really be a factor for the championship. 55 top tens in 78 races last year, with an average finish of 7.7 just isn't going to get it done. As an Outlaw driver, if you're average finish isn't at least in the fives, you just aren't going to win the title. That leaves us, I think, with five guys really battling it out in Sweet, Schatz, Gravel, Macedo, and Schuchart. Of this group, I could see any of them winning it if things go right, but let's go through them each. First up is Logan Schuchart. Logan is as talented as anyone in sprint car racing right now, but he's got to find the form he had in 2020 if he wants to break through. He led a ton of laps last year and grabbed seven wins, but his top five and top ten percentages were down, and his average finish slumped from 5.96 to 7.78. Both of his efficiency stats were down, and he wasn't passing as many cars. It will be an uphill battle for that 1S team this year. With Donny Schatz, 2021 was a battle at times, but that team was very good over the second half. Following the Jackson Nationals in June, Schatz was sixth in the points standings, and battled back to nearly get to third by season's end. Over the final 33 races, he had 32 top ten finishes, with 26 being top fives. If they can keep that pace up in 2022, the 10 time champ will be in the thick of it. As for David Gravel, we know he can win a lot. He's been victorious in over 15% of his starts back through 2017, which equates to 56 wins. Over that stretch, only Schatz has been in victory lane more often. But the question mark with Gravel is consistency. I like David a lot, he's an incredible talent, you obviously don't win that many races if you aren't. But he just hasn't been able to get over the hump just yet, and putting a full season together from start to finish is his issue. He's got to improve his average finish, which was nearly 6.5 last year, and top tens in 82% of races just isn't enough. Hopefully year two with the Big Game team will mean improvements, but as much as I like Gravel, I just can't pick him. We need to see more from him before I'll believe he's got a real chance at the championship. If anyone can knock Sweet off his perch right now though, the driver I'm most curious about is Carson Macedo. 2021 was year three on the road, and we've seen marked improvement from him over these first three seasons. He ended up third in the standings in 2021, but 11 wins and the same amount of top tens as the champion put everyone on notice I think. I'd like to see more top fives from him, and he needs to bump his efficiency numbers, but if he continues to grow, he could be a real challenger. Year two with Philip Dietz as his crew chief, added support from a new sponsor, I think a lot of things are lining up for a big season from him and that JJR 41 team. And that leaves us with Sweet. Clearly the favorite again this year, he's cemented his place at the top of the sprint car game right now. It's interesting though, even with the three titles, the big wins including Knoxville and the Kings Royal, I think Brad is still very driven. When you hear him talk, he's made some interesting comments about Donny Schatz and his past seasons, and I think Sweet wants to put together one of those insane years where he wins 25+ races and just flat dominates like we used to see from Donny and Steve Kinser. I think in his mind that would really seal his place as one of the greatest to ever do it. I wonder though if that's really possible in this day and age of sprint car racing. The field is so deep, it would be a feat to get to even 20 wins. Either way though, Sweet is still the guy right now. If you had a gun to my head though, I think just for fun, I might take Macedo as my championship pick right now.
Looking at Volusia specifically tonight, Sweet, Schatz, Macedo, and McFadden lead the way in average finish there lately. The dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula favored Sweet with the All Stars, but it likes Schatz with the Outlaws. I'm picking Macedo, and his ever improving game on 1/2 mile race tracks. The field of cars should be pretty strong though, and it sounds like Kyle Larson might be in attendance in the Silva 57. I don't know if I'd pick Larson to win though. His track record at Volusia isn't great, and he hasn't been here since 2020. If you want to watch today, make sure you hustle home from work. World of Outlaws hot laps are scheduled for 4:45PM ET. You can watch it live on DIRTVision with your fast pass.
Over at All-Tech Raceway in Florida last night, the Short Track Super Series kicked off their 2022 season and the Sunshine Swing. And what a race we got. Mike Maresca led early from the pole, with Matt Sheppard chasing him through lap traffic. Things got interesting though on lap 11 when Maresca tangled with the lap car of LJ Lombardo and ended up in the turn three wall. That let Sheppard by for the lead, but the battle was on. Maresca's car seemed okay, and those two went to war through traffic, swapping the lead. That battle though allowed Billy Pauch Jr. to close up on them, and as we approached five to go, Pauch got to second, and then to the lead with four to go. But Sheppard's spot out front was saved by a caution for Stewart Friesen in the wall. And unfortunately under that yellow, we lost Maresca from the race. He had slowly been backing up, and I wonder if he had started feeling ill effects from that contact. On the final restart, Sheppard was able to get away and take the $4000 win. Pauch finished second, Marc Johnson third, Erick Rudolph fourth, and Larry Wight completed the top five after an early spin. If you didn't watch last night, jump over to Flo and watch the feature replay. Really good stuff. The Short Track Super Series is back at it tonight at All-Tech.
It's not been an easy season so far for the offseason Xtreme DIRTcar Series for late models. We had yet another schedule change announced yesterday. Modoc Speedway in South Carolina has shifted to new owners and been renamed Little River Speedway, and facility upgrades at the track that are ongoing will not be complete in time for the series trip on February 26th. So that race has been cancelled, and in it's place a second date that weekend at Lavonia Speedway in Georgia has been added. So drivers will now take on Lavonia on both February 25th and 26th, with both nights being full $5000 to win programs. So there are still five races left this season for the Xtreme DIRTcar Series, now two nights at Lavonia, Lake View Motor Speedway on March 24th, and a co-sanction with the World of Outlaws at Cherokee Speedway on March 25th and 26th. Ross Bailes is the current series points leader by eight points over Carson Ferguson, with Ben Watkins also very much in the mix. With that March weekend at Cherokee scheduled up against the first XR weekend at Bristol, it will be interesting to see what choices are made by some of these guys. We will obviously have the Outlaw regulars at Cherokee, but from there, who chooses to go to Bristol and try for big cash, and who heads south with the Outlaws. Both of those nights at Bristol are $50k to win and $2500 to start, while the Outlaw nights are $10k and $20k. The Thursday Xtreme Lake View show adds another $5k to that weekend. For more info on the Xtreme DIRTcar Series, visit xtremedirtcar.com.
I feel like at some point this Xtreme Outlaw vs. Xtreme DIRTcar thing is going to get confusing. It's already difficult to keep up with some of this stuff, so I wish they had made some different name choices for these series at World Racing Group. I'll try and help you keep it straight, but remember Xtreme DIRTcar is late models, Xtreme Outlaw is midgets and non-wing sprint cars.
There are six shows on the streaming schedule today. DIRTVision has the World of Outlaws from DIRTcar Nationals, MAVTV Plus has more Lucas Late Models from East Bay, FloRacing has the Short Track Super Series from All-Tech and Flo 24/7, XR has racing from Las Vegas, and Speed Sport has another night from Hendry County. 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!