DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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More failed tire tests in the sprint car world, Bronson drops off Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series | Daily 3-24-2022

Coming up we are talking more failed tire tests in the open wheel world, plus updates on Kyle Bronson, Bristol, and some weekend cancellations. Let's roll.

Today is Thursday, March 24th, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.

If you were paying attention yesterday very closely to the dirt world, you may have seen USAC put out a statement regarding tire tests from the opening national sprint car weekend at Bubba Raceway Park back in February. The statement says the organization met with four teams on Tuesday to go over the results of tests received following lab analysis. The statement then says quote "Upon the completion of tire testing, initial results have indicated four out of four tests performed did not meet the benchmark for the required tire and compound used during competition. In this unique case, all four samples tested were identical in characteristics that resulted in not matching the benchmark sample supplied by the tire manufacturer. Due to this atypical pattern of four out of four samples not performing to benchmark testing, and in pursuit of an ultimate resolution to this unprecedented occurrence, USAC officials have been and are continuing to seek further analysis and additional tests to clarify those results. An outcome for those additional tests is expected in the coming week." unquote. So basically they are saying they took tire samples from four teams at Ocala, all four failed, but they all failed in the same way, and that's weird. So because they think it's weird, they are seeking further information and analysis before they make a decision about penalties. I'm not sure I've seen this move before, but lets back up and give you guys some background here.

Rewind to literally one week ago, and it was the Xtreme Outlaw Series who was announcing penalties for failed tire tests during their opening sprint car weekend at Volusia. We talked about the penalties on the Thursday episode for Justin Grant and Chase Stockon. Both were DQ'd, fined, and suspended. In the days since then, there have been a lot of cryptic tweets, rumors, and innuendo about what's going on behind the scenes with these teams and the sanctioning bodies, including World Racing Group that owns Xtreme and USAC. Are tests being administered regularly? Are the results being handled and shared properly? Are things fair for all competitors? It was a big statement out of the gate for the Xtreme Series to issue these penalties and show the community they won't tolerate these types of infractions. It appears as though some folks were wondering if USAC would follow suit, especially with rumors of failed tests during their opening weekend. And now this statement from yesterday confirms those rumors of the failed tests, but clearly the results are in question. In the decades that I've been around motorsports, there have always been three main areas you don't mess with in the rulebook; tires, fuel, and engines. Any infractions involving those areas will, and should, bring hefty and swift penalties. Altering tires is a pretty brazen way to cheat, especially knowing the penalties and the stigma that comes with it, and I continue to be surprised when people are caught doing it. It just seems really dumb. But yet again, here we are. As a competitor myself, I understand trying to find every possible advantage and pushing the limits where possible to gain speed. I get it. But we are better than this. Also, before you jump in the comments and try and stick up for these infractions, or say it's possible they picked something up off the track, or it wasn't their fault, spare me. You don't drive over oil on the track and fail a tire test. I say all of this to get to this point: if there are instances of cheating, especially in main areas like this, I would hope no sanctioning body is hiding these infractions from view, and that they are penalizing teams as they should per their rulebooks. Any other course of action severly undermines credibility and damages the racing and the series. I don't care about sponsors, or public perception, or the buddy system, or anything else. Do the right thing. Tech the cars, test the tires, pump the engines, check the fuel, whatever it is. And when teams fail, penalize them accordingly, and post it on your website and your social media accounts so everyone knows. Consistency and transparency are needed in these cases. Don't leave room for questions and the rumors. These things happen because people think they can get away with it. If there are better chances they'll get caught, and that fans and the media will know, it will lower the occurences. This situation with USAC is something I for sure will be keeping an eye on in the coming days, and we'll update you on when we have a resolution. This is a topic we shouldn't have to talk about. We should just be focusing on the racing and the characters and the stories.

Back to this conversation about late model full timers and not full timers, I missed this one from over the weekend. Kyle Bronson did not race with Lucas at Atomic over the weekend. He's been a series regular for the last few seasons, and this absence effectively ends that run. He told Dirt on Dirt's Kevin Kovac that it was just too far to go for one race, with the Saturday show at Brownstown cancelled. Following Speedweeks, Bronson was outside the top ten in Lucas points, he'd only picked up two top fives and three top tens through the first 12 nights, and had six finishes outside the top 15. Not exactly the start to 2022 he'd hoped for after finishing sixth in the standings last season. Bronson is expected to be in attendance for the two super late model weekends at Bristol chasing the big money. We'll see where his season takes him after that.

And speaking of Bristol, racing continues there tonight with another round of qualifying action for the stock cars, hobby stocks, sport mods, modifieds, and 602 late models. Along with that full program of racing, we will also see an hour of super late model practice tonight in advance of Friday and Saturday's dual $50,000 to win features. I would imagine quite a large portion of the field will be in attendance tonight to get some track time. I'll share some of the practice results on tomorrow's show, as it will give us an idea who who is racing at Bristol, and who is headed to Cherokee.

Looking towards the weekend, we've already lost several shows around the country to poor weather. The Xtreme DIRTcar Series is closing out their season this weekend, and it was supposed to be a three day weekend between Lake View and Cherokee, but the Thursday show at Lakeview has been cancelled because of rain. That leaves just the two nights at Cherokee, which is a co-sanction with the Outlaws, as the final two nights to settle that championship. Ben Watkins enters the weekend with a 16 point advantage over Ross Bailes, and 40 points over Carson Ferguson.

In Ohio, the Super DIRTcar Series big block modifieds were supposed to be at Atomic Speedway for two nights, but that weekend has been dropped, also because of wet weather and cold temperatures. As of right now, it's not a cancellation, as officials are hoping to reschedule. With this weekend off, that means the next race for the Super DIRTcar Series is April 9th at Can-Am Speedway in New York. Even though we've had SDS races so far in 2022, none have been points paying, so technically the season hasn't started yet. And this weekend being lost at Atomic also means we've lost the FAST Series season opener, as they were on the card with the big blocks. The Ohio-based 410 series will now open their 2022 season on April 30th at Muskingum County.

There are five items on today's streaming schedule. XR+ has day three of the Bristol Dirt Nationals, RacinDirt has the USMTS Modifieds from Humboldt Speedway, the POWRi National Midgets are on MAVTV Plus, there is IMCA action from Batesville, 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 Thursday. 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!