DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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We are seeing a very different Jacob Allen with the World of Outlaws; Madden, Sheppard win Thursday | Daily 5-12-2022

Coming up we get into last night's racing, including big wins for Jacob Allen, Brandon Sheppard and Chris Madden. Let's go!

Today is Thursday, May 12th, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.

I thought yesterday we might see a Shark Racing car in victory lane at Lincoln Speedway last night with the World of Outlaws, but on yesterday's show I just picked the wrong guy. I had Logan Schuchart as the pick, but it was Jacob Allen who went to victory lane last night, topping a very big field of 55 cars. It was Jacob's second win of the year and third of his career, and he was pumped up afterwards in front of his home town crowd. The Shark shop is just a few miles from Lincoln, and the packed crowd was I think about as excited as Jacob was. He started fifth and slowly worked his way forward as pole sitter Anthony Macri and Justin Peck battled in the early going. Macri led the first eight, then Peck settled in after that. A caution and subsequent restart for an incident involving Robbie Kendall brought Allen to second, and he was after Peck from there. With 11 to go, the 1A slipped by Peck on the bottom in three and four and that was it. Even a late caution for Sheldon Haudenschild and Buddy Kofoid getting together couldn't stop him. So at the end it was Allen winning, Peck second, Carson Macedo third, Spencer Bayston fourth, and Macri fifth. The career season for Allen continues, and whatever happened this offseason has completely transformed him as a driver. That's a different guy behind the wheel of that sprint car, and one who is learning he can compete any night out. With both Macedo and David Gravel finishing ahead of Brad Sweet, the points battle has tightened even more. Sweet will head to Williams Grove on Friday with just an eight point cushion on Macedo, with Gravel now 26 behind in third. Sheldon lost ground because of that late crash, and ended up 21st. He's now 92 out. Looking through the rest of the field, Kasey Kahne made the feature on his first night back out, and ended up 22nd after transferring in from the B-Main. That B was pretty wild at the end, you had Chase Dietz and Kahne battling for the transfer, and on the final lap TJ Stutts crashed out running second. Donny Schatz was also in that B, and the struggles continued for the TSR 15. He finished 13th in the feature, which was his worst Lincoln result over the past six races there. Kudos to Justin Peck and Kyle Reinhardt, both All Star regulars, who were in the field before they headed to Michigan for tomrrow's series race at I-96. And it was a rough night for the drivers with NASCAR connections. Alex Bowman ended up in the non-qualifier, didn't move forward in his heat, and was out in the C-Main. Christopher Bell didn't transfer in from his heat race, and started third in the B-Main, but first lap contact with Donny Schatz sent him around, and he only raced back to 11th, missing the feature. So another Pennsylvania show has come and gone, and yet another Outlaw victory. That's three in a row at Lincoln for the full timers. Macri was the highest finishing Posse driver in fifth, with Dietrich eighth, and Dewease 10th. Now the series will get today off to regroup, and then they head to Williams Grove on Friday and Saturday for the Morgan Cup weekend. The forecast does look like it's improving with rain chances dropping both days. We'll preview the weekend on tomorrow's show.

On the late model side last night, we had dueling super programs between FloRacing and XR. At Spoon River with the Flo series, they ended up with a very nice group of 56 cars. Ashton Winger started on the pole and led the first 21 laps before Brandon Sheppard ran him down before half way and took control. BShepp wasn't challenged again and he drove away to the $22,000 win and the first victory of this Illinois Speedweek. After Sheppard got by, Winger faded a bit, but his night went big sideways on a lap 36 restart. Bobby Pierce went really high in four, and onto the front stretch he caught the right rear of Winger and sent the 89 spinning into turn one. It seemed like Winger didn't know Pierce was there, and I think it was just a racing deal. No intent from Pierce on the move. Winger ended up 12th. As for Pierce, his night also went bad as he slipped over the race track with six to go and had to go to the rear on the caution. He finished 15th. So behind Sheppard at the end, Mike Marlar was second, Tanner English third, Stormy Scott fourth, and Ricky Thornton Jr. completed the top five. Headed to Lincoln Speedway tonight for another $22,000 to win Flo show, Sheppard has now taken the series points lead with Jonathan Davenport, Kyle Larson, and Brandon Overton all absent. Following tonight at Lincoln, this Speedweek continues Friday at Farmer City and Saturday at Fairbury with two MARS sanctioned races.

At Charlotte last night with the XR Super Series, we almost got to see Scott Bloomquist bust his winless streak that goes back to 2020, but in the final laps, Chris Madden denied him by getting by in lap traffic and driving on to the $25,000 score. Bloomquist had to settle for second, with Davenport third, Ross Bailes fourth, and Chris Ferguson in fifth. Kyle Larson ended up eighth after starting fifth. The win for Madden was his sixth overall of the season, and he just continues to stack up the cash after deciding to not run full time with the World of Outlaws. He's won the most cash of any late model driver so far this season, and I believe is approaching something like $350,000 in winnings. I mentioned the Flo show had 56 cars, but the XR event didn't suffer from a lack of entries either. They had 47 in the pits last night and no lack of big names and talent. Even with the big names split, I didn't feel like either event suffered. Good racing and plenty to talk about from both races. The Colossal 100 weekend continues tonight with another full program paying $25k to win. With the way Bloomquist drove last night, maybe we'll finally get to see him break that drought and grab a victory over the next few nights.

Elsewhere tonight, after having their previous four races affected by rain, the USAC National Sprint Cars are back in action at the Lakeside Speedway near Kansas City. It's going to be very warm there today, but there shouldn't be any problems getting the racing complete. With only four shows in the books so far this year, rookie Emerson Axsom leads the points standings right now by just three over Justin Grant, with Chase Stockon, Kyle Cummins, and Brady Bacon the rest of the top five. Axsom, Grant, and Bacon have split the four victories this year, with Bacon the most recent winner, back on April 16th at Atomic Speedway. This trip tonight to Lakeside will be the first visit for the USAC sprint cars in five years. The last four races there have been won by Robert Ballou, Thomas Meseraull, and most recently Brady Bacon in 2017. Justin Grant carries the longest top ten streak in the country into tonight's racing, with 10 straight. He also leads the series in average finish over the last five and ten race stretches, so don't sleep on JG tonight. This show at Lakeside kicks off a three race weekend for the series, with US 36 on tap for Friday and I-70 coming up on Saturday. All three nights, the USAC national competitors will be joined by the USAC Midwest Wingless Racing Association. The dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula likes Axsom tonight, but I'm going Brady Bacon. His team is going in the right direction after a tough few nights to open the year down in Florida, and I like his previous success at Lakeside.

Drop me a comment and let me know who you are picking for wins tonight between the two late model shows and USAC. I'm also curious to hear what you guys have to say about last night's action, including that big win for Jacob Allen.

The streaming schedule has six shows on it today. FloRacing has the Flo Night in America Late Models from Lincoln Speedway, the USAC sprint cars from Lakeside, and FloRacing 24/7. XR+ has night two of the Colossal 100 weekend, and Speed Sport has action from US24 and Kossuth County. 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!