DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Gravel gets gator at DCN; BShepp, Moran get Lucas wins... Overton can't close; Xtreme Outlaws debut | Daily 2-14-2022
On tap today, we've got a big show for you covering the weekend racing for the Outlaws, Lucas, and USAC. We'll also get into tonight's racing for the All Stars and DIRTcar Nationals. Let's go!
Today is Monday, February 14th, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Don't forget today is Valentine's Day if you have a significant other. There is still time to grab some flowers and some very expensive jewelry. Anyways, dirt racing...
I want to start this first segment about the World of Outlaws weekend by shouting out the track crew at Volusia. World Racing Group and the track have taken quite a beating lately about the condition of the surface, and last Thursday night's Outlaw opener wasn't the start to the weekend they had hoped for. But Friday and Saturday the track was massively better, and looked much more like the Volusia we've grown accustomed to. Too often the community gets incredibly vocal about the bad stuff, and forgets to be vocal for the good stuff. So I want to be vocal about the improvement. Hopefully things are good to go for the rest of the event, and we'll be in for some good racing tonight and through Saturday with new series coming in.
Back to Friday night, it was interesting that it appeared as though the Thursday track scared some guys off, or maybe they had mechanical issues from the night before. We lost three cars from Thursday to Friday, in Alan Gilbertson, Kevin Thomas Jr., and Sam Hafertepe, but did gain Tim Shaffer. KTJ raced both nights over at Bubba, so this may have been his plan all along, but I was a little surprised to see those other guys bail. I know that both Brian Brown and Gio Scelzi basically packed it in on Thursday night to save equipment, so the need for self preservation may have just been too strong. It's a shame, because we had a great race track, and an amazing feature. David Gravel sat on the pole and led most of the race, but things got wild inside ten to go. We ended up with a three car battle between Gravel, Brad Sweet, and Sheldon Haudenschild, with each leading laps and some wild moves through lap traffic. There was one move from Sweet on Bill Rose that had me closing my eyes. Gravel led at the white flag and looked like he had control. But out of four coming to the checkered, Gravel got a little sideways on the high side with the lap car of Brian Brown just in front of him, and Sheldon was able to drag race him back to the line on the bottom side and snag the win by 44 thousandths of a second. It was a fantastic finish, and a great final corner for the 17. We didn't find out until after the race that Gravel ran the second half of the feature with no right front shock. It was one hell of a drive on only three shocks. So Sheldon your winner, Gravel second, Sweet ended up third, Carson Macedo hard charged from 16th to finish fourth, and Jacob Allen completed the top five.
On Saturday, I think the big story that had everyone talking was Kasey Kahne's wild crash right at the start of the night's B-Main. He started seventh in that race, and into turn one he climbed the right rear of Jason Sides' car, and ended up going hard into the turn one fence. The car was destroyed, but Kahne did get out under his own power and walk away. I could be mistaken, but I think I heard he ended up going to the hospital for evaluation. Hopefully he'll be good to go especially with the Outlaws now off for nearly two weeks. It was a stark reminder of how dangerous this racing still is, but also good to see that newer catch fencing at Volusia do it's job, along with Kahne's safety equipment. It wasn't that many days ago we were talking about safety on this show, and we need to constantly be pushing for more and better. In the night's feature, David Gravel wasn't going to allow there to be a repeat of the night before. He started on the pole, led every lap, and was never really challenged. He took the victory and the big gator championship for the week. It was actually Gravel's first ever Outlaw win at Volusia, which is almost hard to believe. Behind him, Kraig Kinser was fast all night and ran second in the early going, but he lost a right rear tire and hit the outside wall in turn four, which ended his night. Brent Marks went on to finish second, with James McFadden third, Sheldon fourth, and Sweet fifth. So headed to Magnolia and the Rev coming up, Gravel leads the very early points standings over Donny Schatz, Sheldon, McFadden, and Sweet. Looking at some other drivers, I thought we'd see more from Kyle Larson over the weekend after that second place run on Thursday. But he lost a tire on Friday and finished 12th, and was 17th on Saturday. I'm not sure when we'll see him again on dirt, so we'll keep you posted. Even though he didn't quite get the feature finishes, I was impressed with Alex Bowman, who was making his Outlaw debut at Volusia. He was fast all weekend, and looked good on a seriously fast and difficult race track. It was also a quiet weekend for guys like Brian Brown, Kerry Madsen, Spencer Bayston, and Justin Peck. Tyler Courtney did pick up a couple of top tens, but was never a real factor. In the win picks department, the formula had Schatz all weekend, and went 1 for 3. I picked Macedo, Larson, and Sweet and ended up 0-3. So now the Outlaw teams get some days off to reset, and we'll see them next on February 25th and 26th.
Across the state at East Bay, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series closed out their portion of Speedweeks over the weekend with two more races. Brandon Sheppard came into Friday having won two straight features, and after a great battle with Chase Junghans and Brandon Overton, just went ahead and made it three straight. He led a total of 39 of the 50 laps, and in the end topped Overton, Ashton Winger, Devin Moran, and Tim McCreadie for the victory. I think Overton may have had a shot at him, but a late crash in front of the leaders left Overton with damage, and he couldn't do anything with the Rocket one one the final restart. On Saturday night, through half way it looked like BShepp was just going to cruise to win number four. At one point he was like four seconds in front of the rest of the field. But a caution closed everyone back up together, and Devin Moran was able to get by for the lead on lap 34. Sheppard then tagged the outside wall and fell back, which then led to him getting caught up in a crash with Garrett Alberson and Stormy Scott that ended his night. It was a tough end to a great week for the Rocket house car. Out front, Moran led the final 17 laps to earn his third Lucas victory of the season. He beat Tyler Erb, Mark Whitener, Tanner English and Overton. Afterwards, Moran was emotional talking to Michael Rigsby, as his brother Wylie, who has been such a big part of that team, is set to depart that group coming up. Wylie is coming off the road to, I believe start his own business, and Devin will definitely miss him. It will be interesting to, to see how that affects the performance of that nine car and who they get to replace Wylie. Through these opening Lucas nights, Devin had 12 top tens in 12 races, three wins, and an average finish of 3.33. The other big takeaway I had from the week was about Brandon Overton. He literally led laps every single night at East Bay, but couldn't find his way to a victory. He had mechanical issues, got caught up in incidents, or just flat faded at the end. I picked him to win four of the five nights, because I figured he'd get it done eventually, but to no avail. Leaving East Bay, Sheppard leads the Lucas standings over Moran, McCreadie, Erb, and Ricky Thornton Jr. The series gets about the next month off now, returning to racing on March 11th at 411 Motor Speedway.
Another series that kicked off their 2022 season over the weekend was the USAC National Midgets. They took on Bubba Raceway Park on Friday and Saturday, and the weekend turned into a sweep for Justin Grant. The opening victories could bode well for Grant and his pursuit of the championship this season. Three of the past four champions won the season opener at Bubba. On Friday night, Cannon McIntosh led the opening lap from the pole, and then it was JG. Emerson Axsom and Tanner Thorson tried to challenge him in lap traffic near half way, but the 2 was just too strong. Grant took the victory, with Thorson second, Brenham Crouch third, Thomas Meseraull fourth from 13th, and Buddy Kofoid completing the top five. Axsom was in line for a podium finish, but flipped in turn three coming to the checkered. He was alright, but finished 12th. The Saturday feature was delayed mid race by rain, but they did end up getting all the laps complete. Young Jade Avedisian was again impressive, starting from the pole and leading the first 18 laps. Her inexperience just caught her out when she got held up in lap traffic. Grant was able to take advantage and muscle by her to lead lap 19. Kofoid was also able to get by her before she could clear Hayden Reinbold. JG held off Buddy in the closing laps for the victory. So Grant first, Kofoid second, Avedisian third, Axsom fourth, and Mitchel Moles in fifth. TMez ended up flipping twice on the night. He crashed early, then got back in the car to try and salvage a finish, but broke an axle late and flipped again. Grant leaves the weekend with a nine point advantage over Kofoid in the standings. Both me and the win predictor whiffed on both nights. It had Kofoid Friday and Saturday, I had Kofoid and Thorson. The formula is now 6 for 18, while I'm 2 for 18. The midgets go quiet now until the middle of March.
As for Buddy Kofoid, he and the Keith Kunz sprint car squad had a little trouble yesterday at Bubba. It looked like he maybe blew a tire in a test session and crashed. Kunz posted to his Facebook account that Buddy was okay, and they will try and get the car repaired today.
Other weekend winners included Mike Maresca with the Short Track Super Series on Friday, Nick Hoffman grabbed another gator championship with the UMP mods at Volusia, Michael Pickens swept the sprint cars and midgets in New Zealand at Western Springs, and Terry McCarl and Mark Ruel Jr. were weekend USCS sprint car winners.
Looking ahead, there is plenty more racing to come this week, starting tonight at both East Bay and Volusia. First, after losing the first four nights of their season to rain, the All Star Circuit of Champions head to Tampa tonight to start two nights at East Bay. I would imagine that we'll see quite a few of the non-Outlaw guys that were at Volusia head over there. We'll see Cory Eliason, Tyler Courtney, Justin Peck, Brent Marks, Danny Dietrich, Gio Scelzi, Terry McCarl, Aaron Reutzel, and Wayne Johson for sure. This race had 36 cars in 2021, and I would guess we'll probably be in the high 20s or low 30s again. The last three All Star races at East Bay have been won by Donny Schatz, Kyle Larson, and Aaron Reutzel. We won't see Schatz the next two nights, and if there is also no Larson which is sounds like there won't be, Reutzel is the favorite from the dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula. I'm going to go Reutzel as well. He showed some good speed at Volusia with that Toyota power. If you aren't nearby, you can watch the racing live tonight over on Flo.
At Volusia tonight, we are in for a busy program as the event switches out divisions. We'll see DIRTcar Late Models for a full program, practice for the Super DIRTcar Series, and the debut of the Xtreme Outlaw sprint cars. The late model competitors will race for $7000 to win tonight, with the sprint cars going for $5000. There is usually a pretty strong group of late models for DCN, and I don't expect any different this year. As for the sprint cars, we know we've got a solid group of full timers, and I'd imagine with USAC on tap for this coming weekend, a few of those guys will come down early to hit Volusia. According to a series release the final list of full timers grew pretty substantially, and includes Anthony Nicholson, Chad Boespflug, Chase Stockon, Cole Bodine, Dallas Hewitt, Dennis Gile, Jason McDougal, Kory Schudy, Kyle Shipley, Landon Simon, Mario Clouser, Mitchel Moles, Shane Cockrum, Wesley Smith, and Zach Daum. We could also see Alex Bright, Brady Bacon, Briggs Danner, Carson Short, CJ Leary, Jake Swanson, Justin Grant, Logan Seavey, Matt Westfall, Robert Ballou, Shane Cottle, and TMez. We didn't know yet what the Xtreme Outlaw format would look like, but they finally dropped it yesterday. Here is the breakdown. Drivers will draw for heats, then group qualify to set the lineups. Heat races will have a four car invert, with drivers earning points in both qualifying and the heats. The top 16 in points following heats will go to the feature, with 17th on back headed to the B. We'll have either four or six cars transfer depending on field size. For the feature, the high point man will draw for an invert of either 0, 4 or 6, with 7th on back set by points and the B main transfers. It's definitely a more complicated format than I would have liked to see. Passing points haven't really been part of the WRG group of series, but not a surprising development. Hopefully things continue to go well with the track at Volusia, and we get to see some great racing. If you aren't headed out to DCN, watch all the racing live on DIRTVision.
Over the weekend I turned the new ASCS portion of the analytics section live. I've got the first 15 races from the 2021 season entered, and will be adding more quickly over the next few days. The ASCS National Tour becomes the ninth series and event we are tracking in the database, joining both World of Outlaws series, the All Stars, Lucas, the Chili Bowl, and the three USAC national divisions. And between the weekend's races and the ASCS, we have now pushed across 1000 total races' worth of data. So plenty of results, stats, driver pages and more to look through. Remember that a lot of stuff is free on the site, but if you want even more tools and analysis, grab a subscription to DIRTRACKR Plus. To see all of this, visit dirtrackr.com/analytics.
There are three shows on the streaming schedule today. DIRTVision has the DIRTcar Nationals from Volusia, and FloRacing has the All Stars from East Bay and Flo 24/7. 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 Monday. 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!