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.
David Gravel hoping to break out the broom at Bristol; Million Dollar Donny? | Daily 4-29-2022
Coming up we'll dive into the dirt racing weekend ahead including what's happening at Bristol, with the All Stars, USAC in Indiana, plus news from Donny Schatz and Dave Darland. Let's go!
Today is Friday, April 29th, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
The World of Outlaws Bristol weekend is upon us, and last night the track was open for practice sessions for both the sprint cars and late models. I did see some criticism on social media about them having practice with the ongoing tire shortages, but I'd argue with the unique nature of the races, the speeds, and the changes to Bristol from a year ago, that these practices were warranted. Under normal circumstances, at tracks the Outlaws visit regularly, I'd think that criticism would make sense, but not here. I think it's the right idea, even at the most basic safety level, to give these guys some extra laps to be ready for the weekend. David Gravel led the way on the sprint car side with a lap of 13.624 at 138.990 miles per hour. That lap was about three tenths off the track record set by Sam Hafertepe last year. On the late model side, the Bristol Dirt Nationals winner a few weeks ago, Chris Madden, set the pace with a lap of 15.218. I still think we'll be right around that low 20's number for entries on both sides, but I'll be curious to see if any more late model teams show up with the Lucas weekend being sacked. I'll have more on that in a bit. With the sprint cars, it was a clean sweep for David Gravel one year ago, while Josh Richards and Devin Moran split the late model race wins. The dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula likes Gravel for the win tonight, just slightly over Donny Schatz. I'll agree here. Even with his recent qualifying woes, Gravel is still the best time trialer in the series, and going quick tonight will be key for those guys wanting to compete for the win. I do think with the changes to the banking this year, we'll have a bit more passing, but it will still be difficult to move forward. With the top four of Brad Sweet, Carson Macedo, Gravel, and Sheldon Haudenschild all within 74 points of each other, the pressure will be on those guys to keep stacking up top fives to stay in contention. With the late model series, the prediction formula favors Chris Madden, and again I'll agree. He's got Bristol figured out and he's been on a roll lately. I'd keep an eye on Jonathan Davenport as well though. He's won at Bristol in the past, and he's already taken home more than $70,000 just from race wins over the past week. With the departure of Brandon Sheppard and the Rocket team, the late model points standings are now wide open. Dennis Erb leads Max Blair by 44 currently, but more wins and good finishes being available now could drag others into the mix. Both tonight and tomorrow will be live streamed on DIRTVision if you want to watch.
And while we're on the topic of the World of Outlaws, ten time sprint car champion Donny Schatz announced yesterday he's going to compete in the Million at Eldora in his late model. The sprint cars are at Knoxville on June 10th and 11th, so no Dream races for Schatz, but he will be available Wednesday and Thursday for the Million nights. He'll drive his own number 15 Rocket Chassis in the event, that we've seen plenty of times before, including at DIRTcar Nationals, World Finals, and earlier this season at the Wild West Shootout. With all these added entries like Schatz, Tyler Courtney, and possibly Chase Briscoe, that June week at Eldora should be pretty damn epic.
One other news item from yesterday I wanted to share is about Dave Darland. One year after suffering a stroke that forced him to sit out from racing, Darland was back this week testing a non-wing sprint car at Gas City I-69 Speedway. Any future race schedule is unclear right now, but either way it was great to see the People's Champ back behind the wheel of a race car. The national sprint car hall of famer has championships in all three USAC divisions and big race wins including Turkey Night and the Oval Nationals.
If you're a fan of the All Stars, they've got three races lined up for the weekend, tonight at Lernerville, tomorrow at Sharon, and Sunday at Waynesfield. Tyler Courtney brings a 22 point lead into the three race stretch over Parker Price Miller, with Bill Balog, Zeb Wise, and Cap Henry the rest of the top five. Sunshine has two wins in five points races, with Anthony Macri and Brent Marks the other two winners. The fields should be pretty tough the next few nights, with the Western PA guys and Ohio regulars in the mix. Tonight at Lernerville, Sunshine is the favorite for the win from the prediction formula. Aaron Reutzel is the most recent series winner at Lernerville back in 2019, but he's at Bristol this weekend with the Outlaws. Things should be pretty wide open, but I'll go with Courtney as well. Spencer Bayston, Danny Dietrich, and Justin Peck were All Star winners at Sharon last year, with Cole Duncan and Kyle Larson the most recent winners at Waynesfield. I'd keep an eye on Parker Price Miller over the next three nights as well. Courtney is the only driver with a better average finish than PPM over the last five races. You can watch the All Stars all weekend long on FloRacing.
Over to USAC, their schedule picks up big time this weekend with three days set for Indiana race tracks. The national sprint cars are at Bloomington tonight and Haubstadt tomorrow. Then the Silver Crown Series opens their 2022 season on Sunday at the new look Terre Haute Action Track being run now by Scott Ronk and Bernie Stuebgen. Those guys have been working on track improvements in recent months, and Terre Haute will look very different than it was in the past. Kody Swanson is the reigning Silver Crown champion, and we should be pretty close to 40 cars for that race on Sunday. With the sprint cars, Emerson Axsom leads Justin Grant and Chase Stockon in the standings with four race nights complete. Axsom leads the way with two wins, Grant has one and Brady Bacon has one. Bacon is the most recent winner at Bloomington, while Kevin Thomas Jr. was the winner last time out at Haubstadt. The prediction formula likes Kyle Cummins for tonight at Bloomington, but I'm going to ride with the Macho Man. Last week at Atomic showed those guys are headed in the right direction and I could definitely see them winning again. Don't sleep on Justin Grant though either, and Tanner Thorson is back in action this weekend with the wing off. Every USAC race can be watched live on FloRacing.
One other sprint car show to check in on this weekend is the NARC David Tarter Memorial at the Silver Dollar Speedway. This is the second race of the year for the 410 series out west. Colby Copeland was the opening night winner and leads the points standings. The field will include Paul McMahan in the Clyde Lamar 3C, Tim Kaeding, defending race winner Justin Sanders, defending series champ Dominic Scelzi, Willie Croft, Bud Kaeding, the Faccinto brothers, Billy Aton, DJ Netto, Shane Golobic, Corey Day and a lot more. If you don't mind staying up late on Saturday night, this one will be live on Flo as well.
With all the drama this week in the late model world with Brandon Sheppard and Rocket swapping allegiances from the Outlaws to Lucas, we now won't even get to see Lucas race this weekend. Their shows tonight at Tri-City and tomorrow at Macon have been cancelled because of weather. The Lucas late models are scheduled to be back in action next weekend, May 6th and 7th at Ponderosa and Florence. The series did announce their rookie class for the year this week, with five drivers set to compete for rookie of the year. As expected, they are Ashton Winger, Daulton Wilson, Garrett Alberson, Ross Robinson, and Spencer Hughes. Ashton Winger leads the way currently, as he sits sixth in the standings. The other four are 11th through 14th. There is no guarantee all five will make it to the end of the year, but at least to start this is a very nice group to have going for this award. Winger gets the nod as the easy favorite, as he's already run the full Outlaw schedule before, and he's knocked off quite a few big time late model wins. Anything can happen though, and this will be a nice subplot to keep an eye on with Lucas this season.
As for POWRi, their Frost Breaker Nationals at Lake Ozark this weekend have been cancelled because of wet weather. Their 410 winged series and the WAR sprint cars were supposed to be in action there. I don't think the new winged 410 series has actually had a race yet this season. I know they were sort of co-sanction on the World of Outlaws shows at Lake Ozark and Pevely earlier this month, but the rest of their schedule has been rained out and cancelled so far. Crappy start for this new series trying to run around the midwest. I know they are also keeping an eye on the tire situation, so hopefully we'll get to see some more sprint car stuff from POWRi soon.
I count 25 shows on today's streaming schedule with around 80 total for the next three days. That includes the Outlaws on DIRTVision from Bristol, USAC sprint cars and Silver Crown in Indiana on FloRacing, and a wide variety of local and regional racing across the various platforms. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, enjoy the dirt racing 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!