DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Busy weekend ahead for World of Outlaws, Lucas Late Models, ASCS; Grant, Stockon busted for tires | Daily 3-18-2022
Coming up we are talking Outlaws in California, Lucas back in action, the ASCS opener, penalties for Justin Grant and Chase Stockon and more. Let's go!
Today is Friday, March 18th, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
I wanted to start off today by giving you guys some kudos. The comment section lately on these videos has been pretty dang good. There are probably two or three comments that I'm going to turn into show topics here in the coming days. There are a few I haven't responded to just because I think they deserve more than a few sentences. Super thoughtful, some great questions. So nice work team, keep them coming.
Quick sidenote, if you are new here, the dirtrackr universe includes more than just these shows. You can get these episodes on both YouTube and podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify. You can follow dirtrackr on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. There is also dirtrackr.com. Up to the minute news and stories from all the big series and news websites available right on the front page. All of that is automated, you do not have to wait for me to update the site as things come out. There you will also find the ever growing analytics section that includes the premium Plus stats and analysis. As of this moment, 1043 races worth of data are available from nine series and events. You can also see the streaming schedule, dirt racing podcasts, more YouTube channels, track info, and more. Everything you need to go deeper as a dirt racing fan. And if you have ideas, thoughts, questions, concerns, whatever, you can drop me an email at info@dirtrackr.com. Now, let's get into what you came here for today...
The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series west coast swing continues tonight and tomorrow with stops at Merced Speedway and Ocean Speedway. This will be the Outlaws first appearance at Merced since 2014, and their first trip to Ocean since 2016. I'm pretty excited for tonight at Merced. The track is run by Doug Lockwood, who spent time as the race director for the Outlaws, and he's worked for several years to try and make this race night happen. Big improvements and changes have come to Merced, and hopefully the fans support tonight's action. I did a Conversations episode with Doug way back in 2020, so check that out if you want a little more background. Both of these tracks are quarter mile bull rings, typical for what you see in California, and it should be an elbows out kind of weekend. I have no past races in the database for either race track, because of how long it's been since the Outlaws raced there, but we can get an idea of who will be fast based on other races. Over the past five plus seasons, Brad Sweet leads the series in average finish on quarter mile tracks, while Carson Macedo has the most wins. I think both of those guys will be formidable this weekend, especially given they are both from Cali and both are just generally really fast. Sweet is still looking for his first win of 2022, and it's been since last September at Skagit since the Big Cat was won a World of Outlaws race. That's a span of 23 races. I don't think that's all that concerning, especially since we've already seen him finish on the podium three times this year, and he was second to Kyle Larson last Saturday at Tulare. It's also not uncommon for Sweet to be this deep in a season without a win. He's still second in the standings, and the 36 point gap to David Gravel could be erased in a couple of nights. And even though he is the points leader, has 15 straight top tens, and is the only driver to finish top ten every night out so far, I'm not yet ready to crown Gravel this year. It's still way too early, and Sweet and Donny and Macedo and others will challenge him, and Gravel will stumble at some point. Through seven nights, we've had two wins from the pole, two from second, two from sixth, and one from seventh. In dashes, all seven victories have come from the front row, with four from the pole. And 18 of 26 heat races have been won from the pole. We've had six different winners, with Sheldon Haudenschild the only repeat winner so far. And 12 different guys have led laps, with Gravel leading the way at 52. In the win picks department, the dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula likes Brad Sweet for both nights. I'm going to split my picks, and go with Macedo tonight at Merced, and Sweet tomorrow at Ocean. We had 32 cars both nights at Tulare last weekend, and I don't see a reason why we won't be similar to that this weekend. There are 360s at Placervile and Marysville on Saturday, but I don't think that will affect the Outlaw nights that much. If you can't be at the track this weekend, DIRTVision has the live streams.
On the late model side of things, no World of Outlaws this weekend, but we do get the return of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. Saturday at Brownstown and Sunday at Atomic are the first two races we've had since Speedweeks closed out over a month ago. A quick reset for you. Brandon Sheppard leads Devin Moran, Tim McCreadie, Tyler Erb, and Ricky Thornton Jr. in the points standings. Sheppard has the most Lucas wins in 2022 so far with four. Through 12 nights, Devin Moran is the only driver with a top ten finish in every race. He leads the way in top five finishes as well with 10. I have the last five appearances at Brownstown for Lucas in the database, and those races produced five different winners, with Jimmy Owens, Erb, Sheppard, McCreadie, and Josh Richards all getting victories. Hudson O'Neal is the most recent winner at Atomic, back in March last season. With the Outlaws off, I'd expect we'll be maybe just north of 30 cars for both events. There are quite a few options around the country for guys this weekend. Some drivers are definitely taking the weekend off with the Bristol Dirt Nationals coming up. For example, don't expect to see Jonathan Davenport anywhere this weekend, or Brandon Overton. But you will get all the Lucas regulars, plus Sheppard, Dennis Erb Jr., Bobby Pierce, Moran, Owens, and others. With both Sheppy and Moran racing this weekend, I'm not sure I'd expect McCreadie to jump into the points lead unless those guys have big problems. From McCreadie in third, to Earl Pearson Jr. in ninth though, is only a 95 point difference. We could see big swings amongst the top ten depending on how these nights go. That group includes TMac, Erb, RTJ, Ashton Winger, O'Neal, and EPJ. Those six drivers will definitely be the ones to watch for the championship as the season continues. I do think right now it's McCreadie as the favorite until someone else can prove that wrong. The loss of Owens and Davenport opens things up quite a bit behind McCreadie. Both nights of racing will be streamed on MAVTV Plus if you can't get to the track.
Down in Texas at Devil's Bowl, the 2022 ASCS National Tour season kicks off this weekend with two nights of racing. Blake Hahn opens his title defense against a group of 11 other full timers that includes Chase Porter, Landon Britt, Dylan Postier, Ryan Bickett, Seth Bergman, Garet Williamson, Jason Martin, Kyler Johnson, Dylan Westbrook, Brandon Anderson, and Matt Covington. This is the first season of ASCS action under new owner Terry Mattox, and he's already made changes to the series. The biggest probably being shrinking the foot print of the schedule. Gone are the trips west to places like California, and east to Pennsylvania. The series will stick to the midwest and south and race in Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, and the like. This should hopefully help teams keep costs down and draw more cars for each night. With JJ Hickle off to run 410 stuff at Knoxville, and Scott Bogucki taking on the full All Star schedule, Hahn will be the favorite to win the title, and I think Dylan Westbrook and Matt Covington will be his biggest challengers. Each had multiple wins in 2021, and they finished third and fourth in the standings. For this weekend, Hickle won all three Devil's Bowl nights in 2021, so things should be wide open with him absent. Hahn should be in the mix both nights, but Ryan Timms is on the way as well, and he was stout last season winning five times in 20 appearances. As is the case around the country, parts and tires continue to be problems, and the ASCS has adopted a new tire rule to try and aid in the shortages. Teams must use the same right rear tire for group qualifying, heats, and the feature. Tires will be marked to aid in the process like we see with other series. These ongoing tire shortages are something to keep an eye on going forward, and hopefully they get rectified so as to not affect the racing. Both nights of the ASCS at Devil's Bowl will be live on FloRacing and RaceOnTexas.com.
In some penalty news from yesterday, the new Xtreme Outlaw Sprint Car Series has dropped the hammer on two drivers and teams following the opening weekend at Volusia back in February. Both Justin Grant and Chase Stockon got popped for altering tires. Grant and TOPP Motorsports have been fined and lost their purse money from February 14th to the tune of a total of $4,620. They have been DQ'd from that night's action and suspended from the next two series events. Stockon got busted for February 15th, is on the hook for $3,920, and he and KO Motorsports are also suspended from the next two race nights. The penalties drew social media reaction from various folks, including Robert Ballou and Keith Kunz. Grant wasn't going to run the series full time anyway, so this is just a bump in the road for him. Stockon though was going to chase the championship with teammate Jason McDougal, so this is a blow to their season. It is nice to see the series making a statement right out of the gate that this stuff won't be tolerated. If you want to see the penalty reports for yourself, find my retweet of Keith Kunz on the dirtrackr Twitter account. The links are in that tweet.
Elsewhere around the country this weekend, there is plenty of other racing, including the ULMS late models at Williams Grove and Port Royal, the Southern All Stars at Southern raceway in Florida, the Carolina Clash at Lancaster, and Ultimate Southeast at Boyd's. The Short Track Super Series south region opens with stops at Selinsgrove and Port Royal. Williams Grove and Lincoln will be in action with 410s in Central PA. The Spring Nationals for IMCA divisions are happening at Beatrice, and there is a ton of other local and regional shows on the schedule. Attica has cancelled their opener in Ohio because of weather, and the USCS has shifted their racing to Saturday and Sunday also because of weather. So if you're headed out this weekend enjoy the racing. If not, sit back and relax and enjoy the streaming shows, because...
There are 12 items on the streaming schedule today, with 49 total for the weekend. This feels like the first proper dirt racing weekend of the year across the streaming platforms. The weekend schedule includes the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars on DIRTVision, the Lucas late models on MAVTV Plus, the ASCS from Devil's Bowl on FloRacing, the Short Track Super Series, plus plenty of other local and regional racing. To see the full daily streaming schedule through the weekend, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, have a good Friday. 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!