DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Buddy Kofoid making NASCAR debut, Christopher Bell in a midget, Daryn Pittman on Winged Nation | Daily 3-22-2022
Coming up we are talking Buddy Kofoid's NASCAR debut, Daryn Pittman and Kasey Kahne, Christopher Bell back in a midget, and more. Let's go.
Today is Tuesday, March 22nd, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
When the NASCAR Cup Series and Truck Series head to Bristol next month to compete on the dirt, there will be a little dirt racing talent in the field. RacinBoys NASCAR reporter Lee Spencer tweeted over the weekend that Buddy Kofoid is expected to make his NASCAR Truck Series debut driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Buddy is part of the Toyota Racing development program, and KBM is the main Toyota truck series team. This is a move we've seen play out before with guys like Christopher Bell and Logan Seavey between TRD and KBM. Buddy was the USAC National Midget champion a year ago, and is currently in pursuit of title number two over there. He's also running a fairly heavy sprint car schedule with Bernie Stuebgen and Leighton Crouch. In between, he's also made scattered pavement late model starts in recent years as part of the Toyota deal. Kofoid is one of the brightest young talents in the sport right now, and he is clearly deserving of an opportunity like this. I would not be shocked to see him up to speed pretty quickly once he gets behind the wheel. As a dirt fan, I would selfishly like to see him continue in sprint cars because I think he's really fun to watch, and could be someone that could win a World of Outlaws championship in his career. But as someone who works in NASCAR and understands the total picture, this is clearly the right move for his career and I'm excited to see what he does at Bristol.
The absence of Kasey Kahne from the World of Outlaws races the last few weeks has been a serious bummer for the 2022 rookie of the year battle, and I mentioned yesterday that Spencer Bayston should run away with that award this season. We haven't seen Kahne since Friday night of Cotton Bowl Speedway as he is still dealing with the affects from that big crash at Volusia during DIRTcar Nationals. Going forward, I'm not sure I'd expect to see that number nine car any time soon. Back last week when I co-hosted Winged Nation for MRN with Ashley Stremme, we had a chance to talk to Daryn Pittman, and he addressed the situation at Cotton Bowl that weekend when he ended up filling in for Kahne. There was I think a little controversy from that Friday night show, and Pittman explained what went down. Kahne qualified the car and ran the night's heat race, but hit the wall and pulled in before the checkered. Pittman was on the property hanging out and promoting his business, UltraShield Race Products and after the heat, the team asked Pittman to fill in for the rest of the night. He squeezed into Kahne's gear and went out to run the B-Main. According to Pittman, the team had let Outlaw officials know the situation, but apparently word didn't travel to the tower. Pittman thought he was starting at the rear of the B, but officials moved him forward, and he eventually finished third, which would have transferred him into the night's feature. But afterwards, the team wasn't allowed to run the feature when the tower officials realized it was Pittman in the car and not Kahne. In the end, it was a communication issue and a misunderstanding between the team and officials, and not some conspiracy to hide the fact that Pittman was driving, which is what I think some thought was the case. Pittman ran the entire Saturday night show for the team, and we haven't seen the nine car since. I'd encourage you to go check out the Pittman interview. It's available on the Winged Nation YouTube channel, and I'll link to it in the description below. Besides the Cotton Bowl story, he also talks UltraShield and life on the other side of being a full time World of Outlaws driver.
I got called out in the YouTube comments yesterday for not mentioning the Short Track Super Series finish from Sunday at Port Royal, so here you go Daniel. Stewart Friesen looked to be the fastest car on Sunday, but he bowed out of the race 15 laps in with a mechanical issue. That turned the race into a two-way battle between Mike Gular and Ryan Godown, with the two each leading laps at various points. On the white flag lap, Godown pounded the cushion in turns one and two and was able to clear Gular down the backstretch on the high side. He then blocked low into three and four and beat Gular back to the line for the $5000 victory. Gular ended up second, Mike Maresca third, Mat Williamson fourth, and Matt Sheppard completed the top five. Godown is on a roll right now with the Short Track Super Series, having captured the $25,000 win at Cherokee just a few weeks ago. He currently leads both the Elite and South Region points standings. Up next for the series is April 2nd at Orange County Fair Speedway, with that event being both an Elite series race and the North region opener.
The 2022 POWRi National Midget schedule kicks off this week with the Turnpike Challenge between Port City and I-44 Riverside, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. With the NASCAR Cup Series running not far away down in Texas, the series announced that Christopher Bell will be in action for the three nights in a midget. No details were provided beyond that, and I haven't seen anything from Bell himself, but I'm going to assume he'll be there in a Keith Kunz car. We're still a few weeks away from USAC being back in action, and KKM usually brings a few cars to the POWRi events. Bryant Wiedeman was the POWRi champion last year driving for Keith and Pete Willoughby. The Turnpike Challenge starts Friday at Shane Stewart's Port City Raceway, and then moves to I-44 Riverside for Friday and Saturday. The events also feature POWRi micros. For more event info, check out powri.com.
If you're interested in some dirt racing tonight and through the week, the Bristol Dirt Nationals start today in Tennessee. This is year two of the dirt on Bristol, and besides these couple of weeks of the XR events, we'll also get the Outlaws on the Bristol dirt again, and the aforementioned NASCAR weekend. Yesterday was an open practice day, and racing action starts today for five divisions. Beginning at 4PM eastern, there will be racing for sport mods, hobby stocks, stock cars, 602 late models, and modifieds. We'll get similar programs Wednesday and Thursday, and then Friday they add the super late models to the mix who are racing for big money. Tickets and pit passes are available all week if you'd like to attend. If you want to watch online, you'll need a subscription to the XR+ streaming service which is $39.99 a month. You can find all the info you need for the Bristol Dirt Nationals at racexr.com.
And speaking of streaming... There are three items on today's streaming schedule. As I just said, XR+ has the first day of racing from the Bristol Dirt Nationals including five divisions of racing. 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!