DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
Dirt racing news, results, discussion, analytics. Sprint cars, late models, modifieds, you name it. From national series, to top local shows. Brought to you five days a week. Email the show at info@dirtrackr.com.
Sweet distancing himself from Outlaw foes, new drivers for Premier 21, more Outlaw video game details | Daily 4-5-2022
Coming up I've got some Brad Sweet stats, drivers for the Premier 21 sprint car, more details on the Outlaw video game and more. Let's go!
Today is Tuesday, April 5th, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
In recent days in the YouTube comments I've seen one person say they are tired of Brad Sweet, and another tell me I need to quit talking about points and just let them race, because it's early the in the season. So let's open today by talking about Brad Sweet and the World of Outlaws points. As it sits right now, Sweet leads the Outlaw points, and only the top five are within 100 markers of him. Remember at two points per position, which is about what it is, that means Donny Schatz is already 48 spots behind Sweet for the points lead. Sheldon Haudenschild is 30 spots, David Gravel is 22, and Carson Macedo is 16. Gravel and Macedo could wipe out those deficits quickly, with some good runs and some bad luck for Sweet. Things then get tougher the further down you go. You hear me say it all the time, but these championships are about consistency. Who can do it well every single night, and so far Sweet is looking good to be in a very strong position for four straight titles. Through 12 race nights, he's started top ten in 11 of them, and is a perfect 100% in both top five and top ten efficiency. His only start and finish outside the top ten was that opening night at Volusia when the track was so rough. Since then he's been lights out. Through these first few months, he's qualifying a full position better than he did a year ago. He's starting features a position and half better than a year ago, and he's finishing races more than half a position higher. And he's done it in Florida, California, and Texas so far on different surfaces and different size tracks. Some of y'all get mad at me for not mentioning other drivers more in the championship conversations, but with what Sweet and that 49 team are doing on a nightly basis, it's hard to include others. Schatz has already gotten himself in a fairly deep hole, while the rest of the top five is still within striking distance. But if Sweet keeps this up through the next few weeks, it could be a long summer for guys like Gravel and Macedo.
Up in Central Pennsylvania, the Premier Motorsports 21 sprint car will be back in action this weekend at Lincoln, and will have some familiar faces behind the wheel in the coming weeks. Matt Campbell departed that ride last year, and we already knew the team was scaling back to a smaller schedule for 2022. This Saturday the 21 will have 27 time World of Outlaws winner Paul McMahan in the seat, with Dominic Scelzi then slated to head east and drive the car coming up. Scelzi is the defending NARC 410 champion out in California, and he's got some days off following this weekend's Anthony Simone Classic at Hanford. The 21 has been a staple of Central PA for so many years, most notably with Brian Monteith behind the wheel, so it will be great to see that car back at the track. McMahan has appeared a lot at Lincoln through the years, while Scelzi has limited experience at the track. With all his success out in California, it will be fun to see Dom mixing it up with the Posse guys. Don't forget, that if you aren't nearby, Lincoln is part of the streaming package on FloRacing.
I mentioned on the show yesterday that we are getting a World of Outlaws console video game later this year, and the move was officially announced yesterday by iRacing and the series. There aren't a whole lot of details in the announcement, but there are a few things to notice. They did say they are using some stuff from iRacing, including art and expertise in helping create authentic vehicle models. The release mentioned multiplayer online racing, plus a career mode with real world drivers and tracks. We should have more details on the game and what will be in it in the coming months. Some of you pointed out yesterday that it hasn't been 20 years since we had an Outlaw game. You are correct, we did have one released back in 2010, but I forgot about that one, because the only game anyone ever talks about is the 2002 version. There was also a question from Kara about PS4 compatability, and I don't know the answer to that one. None of the information I've seen about the upcoming title has any real technical details. There are some wishlists floating around Twitter about the game, and hopefully since iRacing is involved, as is the series, we'll get some of those things included in this game, along with decent physics and damage models. As we know more in the future, we'll keep you posted.
So, as we've been talking about the XR Super Series, I assumed this was a championship series. Like the Outlaws or Lucas, you earn points through the season, and at the end we have a champion. But apparently I've been mistaken about that. XR's race director Bucky Doren reached out yesterday to let me know that is not the case. The collection of XR races does offer drivers and teams the opportunity to race for big money, and they do have a loyalty program, but now that Bristol is complete, there won't be an XR Super Series champion. There are 25 dates on the schedule, with thirteen paying $25 grand to win, 10 paying $50,000 to win, and two that pay $10,000 to win. So outside of them all being XR races, there is no connection between them, outside of the drivers that stay eligible for that loyalty program that offers things like free pit passes and merch space. I wanted to correct that, since I've been talking about the points, and it will also help me remember to not do so again in the future. This is an interesting concept, and not one I've really considered before. It seems like everything has some sort of championship attached to it, including all the series, tracks, and even local and regional sanctioning like DIRTcar and IMCA. You won't have points racing at any time in the season, so guys will just be hammer down on winning races. It's definitely additive in that sense, but certainly removes some of the longer storylines that we get with other series, and that connection between the first race of the year and the last. The XR schedule continues in a few weeks at All-Tech Raceway in Florida.
The early season weather hits just keep on coming. It's only Tuesday and we are already getting weekend cancellations. The USMTS has sacked the upcoming two nights at Hamilton County Speedway in Iowa because of forecasted below freezing temperatures. That means we won't see the USMTS Modifieds until they hit Mississippi Thunder Speedway in Wisconsin in early May. They will share that weekend with the World of Outlaws late models. Dustin Sorensen currently leads Jason Hughes and Tanner Mullens in the series points standings. For more info on the series, head over to USMTS.com.
If you're a sprint car fan and a consumer of YouTube, make sure to go check out and subscribe to Toby Bellbowen's Sprint Car Hub YouTube channel. He's done explainer videos and a bunch of interviews, and Toby is a past guest of DIRTRACKR Conversations. But lately he's been doing these behind the scenes, documentary style videos of race nights for different teams, and they are really good. He just posted a new one with Krikke Motorsport from Perth Motorplex, and you get to follow driver Dayne Kingshott and the team through a whole race program. Consequently, Ryan Krikke, who runs the team, is also a past guest of mine. This isn't a sponsored mention, Toby doesn't even know I'm doing this, but when there is cool dirt racing content popping up, I want to point it out for you guys.
The only thing on today's streaming schedule 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!