DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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David Gravel leads Outlaws to Texas, Longhorn Chassis merges with Loenbro, late model races on tap | Daily 3-4-2022
Coming up we talk Outlaws in Texas, lots of weekend late model racing coming up, changes at Longhorn Chassis and more. Let's go!
Today is Friday, March 4th, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
We'll kick things off today with the upcoming World of Outlaws weekend in Texas. They take on Cotton Bowl Speedway tonight and tomorrow. These are the first two races we've had since DIRTcar Nationals ended, as the trip through the south last weekend was lost to weather. Following these two nights in Texas, next up for the Outlaws is a couple weeks out west for the traditional spring west coast swing. With just the three nights in Florida complete so far, David Gravel leads Donny Schatz in the standings by 14 points. Sheldon Haudenschild is 16 back in third, with James McFadden and Brad Sweet completing the top five. Gravel, Schatz, and Sheldon were the three drivers to get wins at Volusia. Gravel is also the only driver to finish top five all three nights so far. Schatz, Gravel, Sheldon, and McFadden all finished top ten all three nights for DCN. The Outlaws have appeared at Cotton Bowl four times in the past, with Sweet winning twice, Sheldon once and Gravel once. Sheldon and Sweet split the Cotton Bowl weekend a year ago. I have three of those races in the dirtrackr.com analytics database, and Sweet leads the way in average finish, with Gravel second and Sheldon third of those drivers with multiple starts. Sweet has also been the top qualifier at the Texas race track, averaging just a tick more than second place in time trials in the previous three appearances. Cotton Bowl winners have an average feature start of third. Volusia is certainly it's own beast, but it's in the rear view now, and this weekend at Cotton Bowl we'll get into the real meat of the types of tracks we'll see regularly with the Outlaws all season. If you want some win predictions, the dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula favors David Gravel. I'm actually a little surprised by that, especially with Sweet's past success there. But Gravel has been very good as of late, coming out of Florida hot, and he's got the second longest top ten streak with the Outlaws right now at 11 straight races. I'm going to ride with Sweet on this one. Those two past wins are hard to overlook, and nobody has more wins on 3/8 mile race tracks in the past five years than Brad Sweet. I think he'll be hungry to get that first win out of the way after not getting it done down in Florida. I thought hard about Schatz on this one, as his 3/8 mile average finish is the best in the series since 2017, but he hasn't finished better than fifth in those previous four trips to Cotton Bowl. So far this year, the win predictor has been correct 24% of the races, while I'm an abysmal 12% correct. Hopefully we can start to turn that around this weekend. It looks like it should be a pretty nice weekend down in Texas, so if you're near Paige, which is about 45 minutes outside of Austin, head out to the race track. If not, DIRTVision has you covered with the livestream.
On the late model side of things, the two national series aren't in action this weekend, but plenty of the big drivers will be. Across the south and southeast there is some solid money available with two $10,000 to win Spring Nationals shows, a $12,000 to win race at Smoky Mountain, $10k to win at Cherokee on Sunday, and two Comp Cams races at Boothill, where the winners will take home a combined $15k. We'll have to see who ends up going where, but you should see Jonathan Davenport at Smoky Mountain on Saturday, and Cherokee on Sunday. Jimmy Owens is also headed to Smoky Mountain, as is Mike Marlar, Dale McDowell, Ricky Weiss, and possibly Hudson O'Neal and Brandon Overton. The unfortunate thing about Smoky Mountain, is it appears as though that race is not being streamed anywhere. That's one I would have expected to be on Flo, but it's not anywhere that I can find. The Spring Nationals shows at Swainsboro and Senoia should draw guys like Cody Overton, Ross Bailes, and Cla Knight among others. And at the two Comp Cams shows down in Louisiana, we should get guys like Logan Martin, Morgan Bagley, Cade Dillard, Tony Jackson Jr. and plenty more. And then on Sunday, with no other races scheduled against it, I'd guess the field will be tough at Cherokee for the Southern All Stars show. I already mentioned Davenport, but the track has tweeted about Chris Madden, Chris Ferguson, Carson Ferguson, Brandon and Cody Overton, Ross Bailes, and Kenny Collins, who grabbed the Xtreme DIRTcar win last weekend. Both of the Spring Nationals races, both the Comp Cams nights, and Cherokee on Sunday will be streamed live on Flo. So if you can't get out the track, there will be plenty of late model racing to watch over the next three days. If you don't have a Flo subscription, click the link below in the video description on YouTube to get one.
In some late model news that became official yesterday, Longhorn Chassis and Loenbro Motorsports are merging into one entity. There had been rumblings of this in recent days, but we got an official release within the last 24 hours confirming the move. Longhorn Chassis, maker of dirt late model chassis was founded by Justin Labonte, who is the son of NASCAR Cup champion Terry Labonte. Longhorn has become one of the "it" cars in late model racing, especially in recent years. Drivers like Brandon Overton, Tim McCreadie, Jonathan Davenport, and others have driven them to much success. Loenbro Motorsports is owned by Steve Arpin, who had his own NASCAR career, with Loenbro being involved in things like rally cross and getting more heavily involved in dirt modifieds lately. They've even been selling what they call Longhorn Modifieds by Loenbro. Drivers like Tyler Nicely, Will Krup, and Mike McKinney have been piloting these cars. The move is effective immediately, and a big part of Longhorn Chassis is staying put as the new company's lead engineer. Kevin Rumley has been instrumental in the development of the late models, even as he's worked with drivers like Jonathan Davenport, and more recently with Kyle Larson as he's made his move into dirt late models. Right now, I don't have specific knowledge on the situation, but I don't see any reason why things wouldn't be business as usual for Longhorn customers and Loenbro customers alike. Hopefully this means that things are going well, and the future is bright for the two merged builders.
If you want to check out some other sprint car racing over the next few days, Lincoln is back on Saturday for week two and Port Royal opens on Sunday. Freddie Rahmer topped Brent Marks and Anthony Macri in the opener at Lincoln last week, which was a nice start for Rahmer, who is looking for another track title at Lincoln. About an hour and a half away on Sunday, Port Royal opens their 2022 season, and Logan Wagner will begin his quest for a fifth track championship there. It's basically Wagner and the Zemco car and then everyone else at Port, so we'll see if anyone can mount a serious charge. I'm sure if he wanted to, Macri could try and knock Wagner off the top step, but I think we'll continue to see Macri travel more and more outside of Central PA, which means no chasing these track championships. Both of these shows can be watch live on FloRacing if you aren't nearby.
Other open wheel racing to check out this weekend includes the USCS Sprint Cars at Hattiesburg Speedway for two nights. Through six events so far this season, Davie Franek is leading the points standings over Danny Smith and Chris Martin. Franek, Mark Ruel Jr., and Terry McCarl each have a win apiece, while Mark Smith has three. Out in California, the new promoter group at Silver Dollar Speedway has their first event, with two nights of 360 sprint cars and dwarfs on tap. You've heard me mention it a few times already, but Brad Sweet, Kyle Larson, and Colby Copeland have come together to take over operating the facility, with plenty of improvements coming up. Here's to a strong first weekend for them. And if you're near I-30 Speedway in Arkansas, the ASCS Elite Non-Wing Series is in action tonight and tomorrow for the Wingless Short Track Nationals. $1000 to win tonight, and $5000 to win on Saturday night. Keith Martin topped Chris Morgan and Justin Zimmerman last season in this race.
Two series you won't see in action this weekend as originally scheduled are the USAC/CRA sprint cars and the USAC Western States Midgets. They were supposed to race at Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare and Keller Auto Speedway in Hanford, but the weekend has been dropped because of impending weather. Officials are trying to reschedule the races for the future. The sprint cars will return on March 26th at Perris with the Outlaws, and the Western States midgets will open 2022 at Placerville on March 26th with the Sprint Car Challenge Tour.
The streaming services are busy this weekend, with 11 shows today and more to come this weekend. That includes the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars on DIRTVision, plenty of late model racing on Flo and weekly racing from Lincoln and Port Royal, the USMTS on RacinDirt and a lot more. 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!