DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Donny Schatz wins cowboy-up feature at Volusia, new sponsor for Outlaw late models | Daily 2-11-2022

Coming up we are talking a wild night for the Outlaws at Volusia, another Lucas victory for BShepp, big sponsor news, and more. Let's go!

Today is Friday, February 11th, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.

Last night at Volusia we actually got to see some racing, but not all of what was scheduled got completed. The surface of the race track was yet again an issue, and really all anyone has been talking about lately. We were treated to a pretty entertaining feature, but when you look at most of the news stories posted in the last 12 hours, most of them are pretty heavily focused on the track conditions. Even with not racing Wednesday and an extra day for things to improve, the track was still very heavy last night. It rutted up pretty quickly and the entire World of Outlaws program was affected by it. Officials at the track decided to run the entire Outlaw show uninterrupted, with the hope being to run the modifieds in one straight shot afterwards. But not long into the modified portion of the evening, the rest of the night was sacked because of the surface. Officials hope to complete that racing on Saturday, with a full program on the schedule for tonight. With the Outlaws, several drivers did not mince words in interviews, including most notably Kasey Kahne after his heat race. James McFadden and Logan Schuchart were also quick to point out the cowboy up surface. Following heat races, they attempted some track work to make the surface better for the dash, B, and feature, but it was basically to no avail. The low to middle sides were pretty rough, but the top wasn't terrible. As for the actual racing itself, the story of the night leading into the feature was Aaron Reutzel. He was quick time in qualifying, won the first heat, and won the dash from the pole. It was a great start to the year for Reutzel and his new team with that Toyota horsepower. In the feature though, Donny Schatz started on the outside of the front row, and used that top side to quickly take the lead. He was untouched out front until a late caution closed up sixth starting Kyle Larson right to Schatz's tail tank. On the restart, Larson made a move low into turn one, and was actually able to clear Schatz, but the 15 was able to use the crossover and get back to Larson's inside. Into three, Schatz muscled his way clear of the 57, and that was all she wrote. Schatz officially led all 25 laps en route to the opening night victory. Larson finished second, Reutzel third, David Gravel fourth, and Anthony Macri completed the top five. The move from Schatz to get back by Larson showed he's not quite ready yet to just roll over for these guys. I liked the aggression, because I think that's something that has hurt Donny in recent years. Some of these younger guys are just more okay with making big, aggressive moves, and that just hasn't been how Donny races. But we might be seeing a change. During most of the 25 laps, Schatz used the smoother high side to make ground, but when necessary, drove low into the rough stuff to beat Larson. His quote afterwards in victory lane was priceless. He said quote "I'd rather land on the other side of the fence than run second" unquote. A mindset like that could spell trouble for his Outlaw rivals. I'm not going to turn this into overreaction Friday after one win and say Schatz is the guy, but he did look very good in the opener. Other notable finishes last night included Logan Schuchart going 16th to 7th, Sheldon Haudenschild hard charged from 20th to 10th after needing to transfer in from the LCS. Carson Macedo was 13th, and Brad Sweet was 16th after slowing late in the going because his car had collected so much dirt. Hopefully another day will do the track some good, but don't expect massive improvements. These guys will need to buck up and be prepared for a fight all weekend long. Track conditions like this aren't uncommon in some parts of the country, they just don't usually happen on half mile race tracks. Looking towards tonight, the formula is again picking Schatz after a correct selection last night. I whiffed with Macedo, but I'm going Larson tonight after what I saw on Thursday. I didn't think he'd really be a factor this weekend, but last night he was pretty fast. The Outlaws are back tonight and tomorrow for full shows at Volusia. You can watch live on DIRTVision.

Over at East Bay last night, the car count swelled to 75, but there has been a notable absence. We haven't seen Josh Richards at all, even though his car owner Boom Briggs was in attendance last night. But according to Dirt on Dirt, it was for good reason. Richards and his wife Andrea escaped a fire in their camper while en route to the race track on Wednesday. The camper was destroyed, but Richards was able to save his dually pickup. Neither he nor Andrea were injured. After regrouping Thursday, Richards is expected to race tonight and tomorrow at East Bay. That's certainly good news. In the racing program last night, we had an interesting moment in the first heat race. Garrett Smith started on the pole and won the heat after going quick time, but following the race, was DQ'd for the remainder of the evening for apparently having a spoiler that was too large. That's quite the ballsy move when it comes to cheating. Max Blair was promoted to the heat race win. In the feature, Brandon Overton led through half way from a front row starting position, but he again would finish way down the order. Brian Shirley, and then Brandon Sheppard got by for the lead, and after fading through the field, Overton ended up parking the 76, and finished 22nd. Out front, the second half was dominated by the Rocket one, but Sheppard almost threw it away coming to the white. He got the wall out of turn four, and Earl Pearson Jr. nearly stole the win. But BShepp was able to rebound and beat the 46 back to the line for his second consecutive win and third Lucas victory of the year. EPJ was second, Kyle Bronson third, Devin Moran fourth, and Hudson O'Neal finished fifth. It was yet another strong showing from the Rocket house car, and they have taken the Lucas points lead with two nights at East Bay still to come. The dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula had Sheppy last night, so it's now correctly picked wins in 41.7% of races this year. I'm now two for 12, or 16.7%. The formula is going for Sheppard again, and I'm gonna ride with Overton. Probably stupid, but he's still been fast even with the issues. You can watch the next two nights from East Bay live on MAVTV Plus.

Elsewhere in the late model world, we had big news from the World of Outlaws just today. Following the departure of Morton Buildings as the series title sponsor, World Racing Group announced that CASE Construction Equipment has come on board in a multi-year deal to be the title sponsor for the late model series, and a major sponsor of both the sprint car series and the Super DIRTcar Series. The new logo is already floating around, and CASE will be heavily featured when the series heads to Volusia next week. Definitely a big pickup for the series, and nice to see some fresh blood come into the sport. The in between period where Morton was clearly out and this deal wasn't done just yet was a little awkward, especially with no acknowledgement from the series, but definitely good news for the late model crowd. For more details, visit worldofoutlaws.com.

At All-Tech Raceway last night, the Short Track Super Series was back for night two of the Sunshine Swing. Billy Pauch Jr. was quickly to the lead on the opening lap, but his time out front was short lived, because Larry Wight was coming. By lap four, Wight was securely out front and he never surrendered the lead. Erick Rudolph kept him honest through lap traffic but wasn't able to make a move. In the end, it was Wight picking up his first ever Short Track Super Series victory. Rudolph settled for second, Pauch was third, Danny Johnson fourth, and Danny Creeden was fifth. Wight snagged $5000 for his efforts, and will try again tonight and tomorrow to bring home more cash. You can catch both nights of the Short Track Super Series live on FloRacing.

Another series that is kicking off their 2022 season this weekend down in Florida is the USAC National Midgets. They race tonight and tomorrow night at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, and they did get on track last night for a practice night. 24 cars officially took time, with Thomas Meseraull clocking the fastest lap over Emerson Axsom and Logan Seavey. TMez did pick up one of the opening night wins at Bubba last year, so no surprise he was fast last night. When it comes to drivers to watch for the weekend, definitely keep an eye on TMez, along with Buddy Kofoid, Justin Grant, and Axsom. Those four have the best average finish at the track in the past two years of active drivers, and TMez and Kofoid both have wins. Chris Windom and Tanner Thorson were winners in 2020, but you won't see Windom this weekend as he is focusing on winged sprint car racing this season. Thorson wouldn't be a bad pick either. In the championship hunt, Kofoid should be the favorite, with him taking the title last season and his nearest rival now gone in Windom. You know that Grant and Seavey and Thorson will all be challengers for sure, but Kofoid was tough to beat last season. I am curious to watch the progression of Axsom this season as he moves over to Clauson Marshall. We know he's running the full USAC sprint car schedule, and I'm going to assume that means the full midget slate as well. He finished fourth in the standings last year with two wins, and if he continues to make strides, I could see him challenging for this championship. We've never done midget win picks on this show before, but in the spirit of tracking all year, we are adding them to the mix. So the formula likes Kofoid tonight, and I'm going to agree. Remember you can watch every USAC race live on FloRacing all season long.

And speaking of streaming, there are nine shows on the schedule today. DIRTVision has more World of Outlaws action from DIRTcar Nationals, FloRacing has the Short Track Super Series from All-Tech, USAC midgets from Ocala, and sprintcars and midgets from Western Springs. MAVTV Plus has the Lucas Late Models from East Bay, Speed Sport has the USCS and racing from Hendry County, and XR has the Workin Man Nationals from Las Vegas. 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 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!