DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Brent Marks breaks, Anthony Macri spins and wins at Bridgeport; First ever 410 race at Bloomsburg | Daily 4-21-2022

Coming up we are talking a wild sprint car night at Bridgeport, plus what's ahead tonight for the All Stars and for late model fans. Let's do this!

Today is Thursday, April 21st, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.

We'll start with last night's sprint car show at Bridgeport Speedway in New Jersey. This was the second time they did this Invasion of the Posse event, and we again ended up with a solid field of cars and a really entertaining feature. Brent Marks started on the outside pole, and even though Anthony Macri chased him throughout the duration, Marks was on his way to the $7500 score, but disaster struck on the last lap. Out of turn two, Marks slowed suddenly with broken gears, and Macri had no where to go, tagging the rear of the 19 and going for a 360. Macri was able to keep the car running though, and when the dust had settled, he was still the leader. On the restart, Macri got away and claimed the victory. It was big time heartbreak for Marks, and his crew chief Heath Moyle posted photos of the shredded gears on social media. Just a terrible break. The win for Macri was his third straight going back to last weekend. He won Friday at Williams Grove, Saturday at Port Royal, and last night. Kyle Reinhardt ended up second after starting on the pole, Justin Peck went from tangling with the lap car of Lynton Jeffrey all the way back to third, Christopher Bell was fourth, and Freddie Rahmer completed the top five. NASCAR driver Alex Bowman was 10th in his Ally sprint car. Bell and the Swindell SpeedLab crew had an eventful night as well, as they didn't get a qualifying lap because of engine issues, and had to battle through all the way to that eventual fourth place result. I do have one gripe from last night, and this happens periodically through the season across the streaming platforms. I'm going to pick on FloRacing a little here because the show last night was on Flo, but this happens on DIRTVision and plenty of other places as well. But when there is no timing and scoring data on the screen during the broadcast, I feel completely lost. I know there are often technical reasons why we don't get the data, and I also know that broadcasts didn't used to have the info. But often when you are being shown one battle on screen, and the announcers are talking about another, and there is no scoring, it becomes really difficult to follow what exactly is happening. The announcers are calling the action for the track, so they have no real obligation to keep the viewers updated, and one big issue with all of it is lap count. Unless the announcers mention it, there is literally no way to know where we are in the race. It's a small problem, but something that needs to be addressed going forward, and minimized for the future. In an age where we have Formula 1 doing live in race battle predictions thanks to AI, we need basic timing and scoring in our dirt racing broadcasts.

Before we take a look at what's happening tonight, I have one quick news items from yesterday. The World of Outlaws show from a few weeks ago at Lawton that was postponed has now officially been cancelled. The series and track were not able to find a makeup date for the year. Fans with tickets will get a credit on their account, or they can request a refund by May 20th. If you have tickets to that show, and want more info, head over to worldofoutlaws.com.

If you're in the northeast and want more sprint car racing after last night's Bridgeport show, you are in luck. The All Stars are headed for Pennsylvania this weekend, and the three race stretch starts tonight at Bloomsburg Fair. They then head to Williams Grove on Friday and Port Royal on Saturday. Tyler Courtney leads the series to Bloomsburg Fair as the points leader, and this will not only be the first trip to this track for the All Stars, it will also be the first 410 sprint car show to be held there. So everyone, from the All Star regulars, to the Central PA guys they'll face, will be on equal footing tonight. With just two race nights complete, Sunshine leads the points over Hunter Schuerenberg, Greg Wilson, Cap Henry, and Bill Balog. Things will change rapidly though from night to night with things tight and drivers moving up and down. I think the two All Star guys to watch tonight are definitely Courtney and Justin Peck. Bloomsburg is a 3/8, and Courtney led the series in average finish on those tracks a year ago, and Peck had the most 3/8 wins with three. Peck was fast last night at Bridgeport, and maybe would have had a shot late had it not been for that incident. As for the Posse, we won't get Danny Dietrich tonight, and I'm unsure of Anthony Macri's plans. Dominic Scelzi will be in attendance in a Posse car, the Premier 21, and then we'll just have to see who else shows up. Briggs Danner raced his way to a top ten last night at Bridgeport, and he's continuing through the weekend with the wing on, so he'll be at Bloomsburg tonight as well. The dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula likes Sunshine tonight, no shock there. And I'm going to roll with Peck. He was in the mix last week, was fast last night, and has been good in Pennsylvania in the past. If you want to watch live, the entire All Star schedule is live on Flo.

As for you late model fans, you have a few choices tonight. The XR Super Series late models are back in action this weekend, down in Florida at All-Tech. Tonight isn't a race night, but cars will be on track for practice sessions. Friday they will race for $25,000 to win, and Saturday is $50,000 to win. The field will be stacked for both nights and will include Kyle Larson, Dale McDowell, Kyle Bronson, Jimmy Owens, Tim McCreadie, Bobby Pierce, Jonathan Davenport, Brandon Overton, and plenty more. Grandstands open tonight at 5PM ET, with cars on track around 7. They haven't released a complete schedule for today, but street stocks and hornets are also joining the late models this weekend. If you aren't near Lake City, Florida, you can watch live on XR+.

And in North Carolina, the 2022 Spring Nationals schedule continues tonight at Ray Cook's Tri-County Race Track before moving to Crossville on Friday and Clarksville on Saturday. Tonight and tomorrow are $4000 to win, and Saturday is $10,000 to win. With four races complete, Cla Knight leads Carson Ferguson and Jensen Ford in the series points standings. So far, Brandon Overton has two of the four wins, with Chris Madden and Shane Clanton the other two victors. David Payne is the most recent Spring Nationals winner at Tri-County. If you aren't aware of the Spring Nationals, it's a 12 race sort of mini series that runs in March, April and May around the south. Dale McDowell has won the championship the previous two seasons. These races are live on Flo if you can't be at the track.

A couple of quick housekeeping notes before we shut it down. If you want to support what I'm doing here, make sure you're subscribed wherever you consume the show, either on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform, or both. That will make sure you don't miss any future episodes. You can grab a DIRTRACKR decal for $3, including postage, over at dirtrackr.com/decal. If you're a stat nerd like me, and want to go beyond the free stuff that is available at dirtrackr.com/analytics, grab a DIRTRACKR Plus membership. $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year gets you access to even more stats and analysis from your favorite dirt racing series. New races are added all the time, and I recently started tracking the ASCS National Tour. So your membership will just keep getting better and better. I do appreciate everyone that tunes in regularly and comments. You guys are why I do this every day, so thank you.

There are four shows on today's streaming schedule. FloRacing has the All Stars from Bloomsburg Fair and the Spring Nationals from Tri-County, plus Flo 24/7. And XR+ has the first night of the Florida Dirt Nationals. 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!