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David Gravel loses Outlaw points lead; Chris Madden, Chris Ferguson each $50k richer | Daily 3-28-2022

Coming up we are talking David Gravel, Gio Scelzi, Corey Day, Max Blair, Michael Brown, Chris Madden, Chris Ferguson, and much more. Let's go!

Today is Monday, March 28th, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.

We'll start here with the final two World of Outlaws Sprint Car races in California from the weekend. Friday night they were at Bakersfield, and Saturday they went south to Perris. The story from Friday was David Gravel losing the points lead to Brad Sweet after that early crash. Sheldon Haudenschild got into the wall on lap nine in turn three and collected the top three runners in the field. Spencer Bayston was the leader and he couldn't get slowed down in time, and then Gravel and Rico Abreu were victims as well. All three returned to the race, but Gravel ended up with a 23rd place result because late in the going he had a part in the steering break, which then sent him into the wall. It destroyed the car and he lost the Outlaw points lead to Sweet. Out front, the top three being knocked out handed the lead to Gio Scelzi, and after a brief battle with Corey Day, led the final 26 laps en route to his second Outlaw win of the season. The 16 year old Day ended up leading his first official Outlaw lap, and finished second. Sweet was third, Carson Macedo fourth, and James McFadden fifth. On Saturday night at Perris, we had five lead changes between pole sitter Macedo and Gravel, with Gravel eventually pulling away on a green white checkered finish for the victory, and the bounceback from the night before. Day grabbed second late, with Macedo third, Sweet fourth, and Haudenschild fifth. James McFadden was in the mix all race long, but got into the wall late and broke the rear suspension. It's been really fun these last few weeks watching Corey Day figure it out against the Outlaws. He was in B-Mains both nights at Tulare, then was 14th at Merced. He topped off the swing with the two second place finishes and led a lap. Not bad for a 16 year old against the best in the business. In the standings now though, things have changed pretty dramatically. Sweet leaves the weekend with a 20 point advantage over Macedo, with Gravel two more points back in third. Sheldon is fourth 46 back, and Gio has taken fifth, 88 points behind. Schatz and Schuchart are both 100 points back or more as the series begins the trek back east. They will race tomorrow night at Vado before Oklahoma and Texas are up this weekend. Back to Gio Scelzi, it's been one hell of an opening to this year for him and that KCP team. If you throw out those two opening nights at Volusia where they bowed out early and got 26th place finishes, they are averaging a sixth place finish for the year, and have two wins already. Without those two Volusia nights, they'd probably be second in the points right now, instead of fifth. I wouldn't expect Gio to stick around all year with the Outlaws, but we could be on the brink of a major jump for him. If he can carry this speed back east, it could be a big season for Gio. As for Gravel, the 15th at Merced and the 23rd at Bakersfield are not the end of their season by any stretch. You can finish outside the top ten probably 7 to 12 times a year with the Outlaws and still have a chance to win the title. I do think just kind of by the eye ball test, he and that Big Game squad are probably the fastest car in the series right now. They just have to stay consistent. Sweet is still winless, but since finishing 16th in the opener at Volusia, his worst result is a 7th at Cotton Bowl. They keep racking up top fives and top tens, and that's how you win these championships. Sweet suddenly leads the series in both top five and top ten finishes on the year. We are now 10 races deep, and have had six different winners. Wins have come from the pole, second, third, sixth, and seventh.

With the Outlaw late models, it was an interesting weekend at Cherokee for the Rock Gault Memorial. We had not only the racing for the wins each night, but also the points battle for the Xtreme DIRTcar Series between Ben Watkins and Ross Bailes. On Friday night, Max Blair and Ryan Gustin led laps early, but Michael Brown took over on lap 16 and led the final 25 laps to take his first ever Outlaw win. Gustin settled for second and is still seeking his first Outlaw victory. Blair was third, Dennis Erb Jr. fourth, and Daulton Wilson fifth. Watkins pulled off late and finished 21st, with Bailes 22nd, so things stayed tight for the championship headed to Saturday. In the weekend finale for $20 grand to win, Brandon Sheppard was in another zip code early, jumping out to a huge lead. But disaster struck on lap 18 when he tangled with the lap car of Brent Larson and ended up turned around in four. He was only able to drive back to 12th by the end. That gave the lead to Max Blair who just kept the field at bay for the remainder of the 60 lapper. He took the big money over Ross Bailes, Daulton Wilson, Hudson O'Neal, and Cla Knight. The second for Bailes and a 17th place finish for Watkins handed the Xtreme title to Bailes. For his efforts, Bailes brought home $15,000 of his own. With Farmer City and the Illini weekend up next, Dennis Erb Jr. holds the points lead by 30 over Sheppard, with Blair, Tyler Bruening, and Hudson O'Neal the rest of the top five. Even with Bristol drawing nearly 40 cars not far away, both nights at Cherokee had 40 on the entry list, including plenty of regional and national drivers. O'Neal came south after the Davenport show was wiped out. We also had Spencer Hughes who is a Lucas regular, plus names like Zack Mitchell, Daulton Wilson, Carson Ferguson, and others. The action at Farmer City gets going on Friday.

Up at Bristol, we had two nights paying $50,000 each and two different winners. On Friday, it ended up being a good move for Chris Madden to bail on the Outlaws, because he dominated the 50 lapper and scored one of those big checks. He started on the pole and led every lap, topping Dale McDowell, Brandon Overton, Jonathan Davenport, and Mike Marlar. Even with the speeds, we had plenty of passing on the night. Overton went 12th to third, Davenport was 21st to fourth, and Marlar 16th to fifth. It was a tough night for Tim McCreadie and Ricky Thornton Jr., with both drivers way down the order in 20th and 21st. On night two, pole sitter Ricky Weiss was out to the early lead, but like Sheppard down in South Carolina, Weiss got held up by a lap car, and that let Chris Ferguson by for the lead. Fergie held off a late challenge from Scott Bloomquist, and drove away to the biggest win of his career. Bloomer was second at the end, with Weiss third, Davenport fourth, and RTJ fifth. McCreadie again ended up way down the order after a crash. EPJ and Owens also had nights to forget as well. These two nights were the first for the XR Super Series as well, so with another weekend at Bristol upcoming, Jonathan Davenport leads the standings over McDowell, Weiss, Madden, and Bloomer. Just like last weekend, the supers are back in action on Friday night and Saturday night with a lot more money to be paid out.

Elsewhere around the country this weekend, Kale Westover grabbed his first USMTS win in the prelim show at Humboldt Speedway. He topped defending champion Dereck Ramirez for the $5000 victory. On Saturday night, Jake O'Neil donned the crown and took down the $15,000 win the King of America finale. He led 36 of 60 laps and topped Darron Fuqua and Dustin Sorenson. With four nights complete, Sorenson leads the series standings over Jason Hughes and Tanner Mullens. With the ASCS Sprint Cars, Derek Hagar and Aaron Reutzel were winners at I-30 Speedway in Arkansas. On Friday night Hagar took the lead late from Landon Britt to earn his first win of 2022. On Saturday night, pole sitter Seth Bergman got knocked out of the lead after an incident with a lap car, and that led to a fun battle between Blake Hahn and Reutzel, with Reutzel eventually coming out on top for his 20th career ASCS win and first since 2017.

With POWRi, Buddy Kofoid took down both the weekend midget features at I-44 Riverside. Friday night he topped Christopher Bell and Cannon McIntosh, and Saturday night it was McIntosh and Bryant Wiedeman. In Central Pennsylvania, Dylan Norris took down his first career 410 win at Williams Grove, and Danny Dietrich grabbed his first win of the year at Lincoln. Tanner Carrick was a winner in a 360 at Ocean, Damion Gardner was the CRA winner at Perris and Justin Sanders topped Shane Golobic in the Sprint Car Challenge Tour opener.

The only thing on the streaming schedule today 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 Monday. 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!