DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Fast Outlaw start for Jacob Allen, Toyota sponsoring Xtreme Midgets, Flo adds late model cash | Daily 3-8-2022

Coming up we've got news from Lucas, FloRacing, and the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets, and then we talk about Jacob Allen's start to the season. Let's go!

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

We'll start you off with the main news items from the last 24 hours. First...

If you're interested in the business of dirt racing, we had a little sponsorship news yesterday with the announcement that the new Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series has signed Toyota as the series presenting sponsor. Toyota has been a big player in midget racing for a long time with their engines and development program through teams like Keith Kunz Motorsports. This move is a no-brainer fit for them given their place in the sport. Besides midget racing, Toyota has expanded into the sprint car world in the last few seasons as they continue to develop their 410 engine with drivers like Kerry Madsen and Aaron Reutzel leading the charge. We are still about three weeks away from the series debut for the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets. They will open April 1st and 2nd at Farmer City Raceway as part of the Illini 100 weekend with the World of Outlaws Late Model Series. You can find more series information at xtremeoutlawseries.com.

I mentioned this very briefly on yesterday's show, but if you where hoping to see the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series this weekend at 411 Motor Speedway in Tennessee, that event has been cancelled because of forecasted precipitation and cold temperatures for the coming days. That means we'll have to wait another week to see that series in action, as they don't race again until March 18th at Atomic and March 19th at Brownstown. The Lucas late models have 12 races complete, with all of those happening during Florida and Georgia Speedweeks. Brandon Sheppard is the current series points leader over Devin Moran and Tim McCreadie. Sheppard also leads all drivers with four victories this season. For more info on the series and this announcement, find your way to lucasdirt.com.

Sticking with late models, I'm not sure about you, but I'm starting to lose track of all the places and series and races where there is more money on the line this season than maybe ever before. In an announcement yesterday, it was revealed that the FloRacing Night in America Series has added more money to their championship payout, after already pumping up their race purses. The 2022 champion was set to earn $30,000, but if they maintain perfect attendance through the 12 race schedule, they will get an additional $45 grand, to make it a total of $75,000 for the title. If they don't make it to every race, the payout remains at $30k. This is on top of the races all paying at least $22,000 to win and $1000 to start. The 2022 Flo season opens April 12th at Eldora. Jonathan Davenport is the defending series champion. As a side note, the series organizers have made it easier to follow the action this year with a new website. Keep up with the FloRacing Night in America Series at floseries.com. As someone who spent a lot of time googling information on this series last year, this is a nice addition.

Over to today's main show topic, Jacob Allen. On Twitter yesterday, Tomy, who follows dirtrackr and runs lightning sprints up in Canada asked me about Jacob and his start to 2022 with the World of Outlaws. He wanted to know if this was maybe Jacob's best start to a season in his career. Instead of replying on Twitter, I wanted to save this question for today's show because I think it's an interesting topic to dive into with all the question marks that surrounded that team coming into this season. All through the offseason there were rumors that maybe Jacob wouldn't run the full Outlaw schedule alongside Logan Schuchart with Shark Racing, but ultimately those rumors didn't come to fruition. Jacob is again back as a full time Outlaw member, but something definitely feels different. He admittedly took time off from social media through the winter, and unlike the previous few seasons, his car does not feature Drydene sponsorship like the other Shark car. This season, Jacob is running the Bobby Allen throwback scheme all year with sponsorship from Pell's Tire Service, which is a long time partner of Shark Racing. 2021 was a disappointing season for the 1A squad, especially after what they'd accomplished the year before. 2020 was Jacob's best year to date with the Outlaws. He earned his first series victory, had his best average finish and was top ten in a third of the features. But last year came with no wins, his average finish was nearly a full position worse, and he was in B-Mains a lot more often. While his teammate has become a perennial contender for wins and the championship, Jacob has progressed much more slowly, even struggling at times to just make features as he approaches nearly a decade on tour. But like I said earlier, something feels different in 2022, and the very early numbers show it. I went back and compared the first five races from each of Jacob's nine seasons to see if there is a difference, and the stats point to an improving driver. From 2014 to 2019, he never raced in all five features to start the year, and his average finishes were between 18th and 25th. Over the past three years though, Jacob has made all five races, and his average finishes are 17.4, 12.8, and 12.8. 2022 really closely resembles the start he got in 2021 in terms of finishes and average finish, but his performances earlier in the night have dramatically improved. His qualifying average is 6.8 which is more than an eight position gain over the first five last season, and nearly a six position gain over his full 2021 year. Only Kerry Madsen and Brad Sweet have better qualifying averages so far, and he's already matched his quick time total from a year ago. In heat races, Jacob leads the series in wins so far with three, and only trails Sweet in heat race average finish. That's more heat wins than he had in 79 races a year ago. Through these opening five nights, no driver has been in all five dashes, but two have been in four of five. They are David Gravel and Jacob Allen. This success earlier in the night has led to a dramatically improved feature start average, which is almost four positions better than the 2021 year. If you look at the features themselves, Jacob was 23rd in the opener after starting eighth, but I believe he pulled off early because of the track conditions. He then was 5th and 12th to close out Volusia, and 8th at Cotton Bowl last Friday night. He started 4th on Saturday, but that opening lap contact with Cory Eliason left him with damage, and he finished 16th. He's still definitely got some work to do come feature time, as he's not getting the finishes you'd expect from those good starting positions. But he is showing signs of big improvement. You can't do well with the Outlaws if you can't qualify and get through heat races, and through these first few races, Jacob is doing what he needs to do early in the night to set himself up for success. These next couple of weeks out west could be a big telltale of what's to come for the 1A this season, as Jacob isn't typically strong in California. If he's able to find some more top tens, we could be on the cusp of a career season for Jacob. On the flip side though, it's obviously very early, with five races being a very small sample size. Anything can still happen, but I'm definitely encouraged by what we've seen from Jacob so far. The Outlaws are at Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, California on Friday and Saturday.

There are two shows on the streaming schedule for today. DIRTVision has outlaw karts from Millbridge and there is FloRacing 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 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!