DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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World of Outlaws World Finals expands, bigger payouts; Mike Marlar dominates Kyle Larson's race | Daily 4-15-2022
Coming up on this Friday we are recapping Kyle Larson's late model show, talking changes to World Finals, and looking ahead to a busy dirt racing weekend. Let's go!
Today is Friday, April 15th, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
We've got a busy dirt racing weekend ahead, but first let's talk last night's racing and a news item or two before we get into what's coming up.
At Volunteer Speedway last night we got the first ever Kyle Larson Late Model Challenge. We actually ended up with over 40 cars, which is probably about 10 more than I'd expected we'd get. At the front of the feature though, it was the guys you'd expect to be fast at a place like Bulls Gap. Mike Marlar dominated the 50 lapper from the pole, leading wire to wire. Jimmy Owens and Scott Bloomquist completed the podium, with Kyle Larson and Jonathan Davenport rounding out the top five. It was a nice $20,000 payday for Marlar, and a good weekend warmup for a lot of these guys who will now spread out around the south for some of the shows coming up. From an outside perspective the event looked like a pretty big success. They had a very good crowd and again a strong field of late models. So I don't think there is any reason to believe something like this from Larson and FloRacing wouldn't happen again in the future. I did like Clint Bowyer on the call with Ben Shelton and Dustin Jarrett. He added a little something extra to the show, and is obviously very knowledgeable about dirt late model racing. Also, shoutout to the poor Bulls Gap flagman, who dropped the yellow almost onto the race track near halfway, and had to throw a red flag to run down the stairs and grab the misplaced laundry. Something you don't see very often. I also wanted to touch on William Byron and his appearance last night. He definitely took some flack on social media for struggling a bit, and there were some out there critical of him getting a promoters provisional into the feature. I don't like either sentiment. First, Byron came up on pavement and has almost no dirt experience. I'm not sure what the expectations are for someone like that getting into a super late model against that field of drivers. I honestly thought he did pretty well. He got out of the way of the leaders in the feature when he got lapped, and eventually pulled off. Also, why wouldn't the only other NASCAR Cup driver in the field get a provisional for a one-off race that literally didn't exist a few weeks ago? He was the most recent winner in the Cup Series, and it didn't hurt anyone for him to get the last starting spot. It's not like he got a free pass into the feature at the World or the Dirt Track World Championship. I thought it was cool to see Byron get out of his comfort zone and jump into that situation.
Another thing that sprang out of last night was sprint car driver Brian Brown tweeting at FloRacing asking how he could promote a midweek sprint car show similar to what we saw last night with Larson's deal, and also like the FloRacing Night in America late model series. I know behind the scenes there has been chatter about Flo doing something similar for sprint cars, and I wouldn't be surprised to see something happen in the future. Brownie was clearly interested in having discussions with them about doing an event. I think Michael Rigsby has taken some heat about this because it seems to some like he's just doing late model stuff, but in his defense I think the sprint car situation is a little muddier and more difficult. The Outlaws and All Stars already have huge schedules, and the Outlaw drivers wouldn't be able to participate in something like that, so there are challenges here that you wouldn't find on the late model side. With these Flo late model shows, you are able to draw the big name drivers, but the pool would be smaller on the sprint car side. Definitely curious to see what pops up out of these discussions in the future though.
In other news from yesterday, World Racing Group announced changes to World Finals for 2022. This year, the event at the Dirt Track at Charlotte expands from three days to four, and more money will be on the line for competitors. It's been a point of contention that World Finals, being the end to the season for the Outlaws and Super DIRTcar Series, didn't pay bigger purses for each division. That is getting rectified with this new version of the event. More than $600,000 in purse money will be paid out, with the early week features for the Outlaws paying $15,000 to win, and the finales paying $25,000 to win. The big blocks will race for $10,000 and $15,000 to win. Along with the expanded purse, we are getting a different event format. Each series will race twice between Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and drivers will earn points to set heat race lineups for Saturday's finales. So Wednesday, November 2nd is both Outlaw series, Thursday the third is sprint cars and the big block modifieds, Friday is the big blocks and late models, and then all three will run on Saturday. On the night where a series isn't racing, the track and WRG have promised increased fan engagement with the drivers with added activities throughout the venue. We'll have to wait and see what that actually means, as more details weren't provided in the release. So good to see this event expand, and for teams to be racing for more cash. I wonder too if in the future World Finals could include the Xtreme Series as well, as the non-wing stuff expands. To see the full release, head over to worldofoutlaws.com.
Speaking of the World of Outlaws, the sprint cars are headed for the Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 this weekend. They are scheduled for two shows, tonight and tomorrow night. Pay attention to things today though, as rain is expected to move through the area at some point, so delays or a cancellation is possible. Saturday looks pretty good though. Brad Sweet carries a 40 point lead into the event over David Gravel, with Carson Macedo, Sheldon Haudenschild, and Donny Schatz completing the top five. It feels right now though, that only the top four are in the fight. Schatz is already over 100 points back. As a quick reset, nobody has more than two wins this season, and we've had nine different winners. Brad Sweet leads the way with 10 top fives and 12 top tens in 13 races. 79 different drivers have appeared with the Outlaws so far this year. Pevely is a staple track on the Outlaw schedule with 14 completed races back through the 2017 season. Sheldon Haudenschild won the two most recent races there, back in August of 2021, and has won four times there over that span. Sweet also has four wins, Kyle Larson has two, Logan Schuchart has one, Rico Abreu has one, and Daryn Pittman has two. Obviously Larson won't be in attendance, so I think Sweet and Sheldon will be the ones to watch the next two nights. On top of the race wins, they have the best average finish at the track over the previous 14 races. The dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula likes the Big Cat, and I'll agree. If you want to watch both nights, you can do so on DIRTVision. Just keep an eye on that weather today.
To the north up in Ohio, we'll get both the All Stars and USAC in action. The All Stars get rolling at Attica after having their opener pushed back a week, and it's been a brutal start to the racing season for Rex Lejeune and Attica. They've had a bunch of weekly shows lost to rain, so hopefully we can get things going in the direction there this weekend with the All Stars coming in. As we talked about earlier in the week, Tyler Courtney begins his title defense with a whole host of guys chasing him, including Cory Eliason, Justin Peck, Zeb Wise and all the All Star regulars. They will also do battle this weekend with the Ohio contigent, which is always strong. And those guys will be itching, as they haven't really gotten to race much this season. If you're looking for race win picks this weekend, I'd stick with the All Star regulars. Last season, full time teams won all four races there, and the locals haven't been super successful there in recent seasons. The prediction formula likes Cap Henry tonight, but I think I'm gonna go Justin Peck. Peck has won at Attica in the past, and has already won this season in 410 competition. If you want to watch the opener, FloRacing has the live stream.
A few hours south of Attica on Saturday night, the USAC National Sprint Cars will be in action at Atomic Speedway. The series hasn't been to this Ohio track since 2010, but that night was eventually rained out. So for most drivers in the field, this will be a new experience racing at the Atomic. Entering the weekend, we've only had three race nights completed this season, all coming at Bubba Raceway Park back in February, so we don't really know quite where we are yet with who's fast. Emerson Axsom leads the points standings on the strength of those two wins down south, with Justin Grant, Buddy Kofoid, Chase Stockon, and Kyle Cummins completing the top five. We'll have big changes in the standings following Saturday's racing, as some of these guys aren't going to be competing, including Kofoid. One driver who will be hoping to move up the order big time is defending champion Brady Bacon. He had a less than stellar opening weekend back at Ocala, and finds himself tenth in the standings. The prediction formula is taking Justin Grant for the victory, but I'm going to roll with Bacon to rebound. He leads the series in recent seasons in average finish and most race wins on 3/8 mile tracks. If you'd like to tune in, remember that all USAC shows are on FloRacing.
If you're a dirt late model fan, it's a bit of a quieter weekend with neither national series in action. To get your fix, find the Iron Man Series at Ponderosa tonight, the Spring Nationals are at Wythe for $10,000 to win and there are some other smaller races around the country. On Saturday, we've got $21,000 to win for a combined Spring Nationals/Iron Man show at Tazewell in Tennessee. There are also crates at Golden Isles, supers at Florence, Carolina Clash at Fayetteville, and ULMS at Selinsgrove. I'll definitely be checking out those Spring Nationals shows, because I think a lot of the big name guys are headed that direction.
Drop me a comment below, let me know what tracks and races your headed out to see this weekend, or what you are gonna be watching on the streaming services. Throw in some of your own win picks as well.
There are nearly 20 shows on today's streaming schedule with almost 60 coming for the weekend. That includes the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars on DIRTVision, USAC sprint cars and All Stars on Flo, and a bunch of local and regional racing around the country. To see the full daily streaming schedule with those links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, have a good Friday and a good weekend. 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!