DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Can the PA Posse finally beat the Outlaws at Williams Grove? Big late model money this weekend | Daily 5-13-2022
On this Friday we are talking late model wins for Kyle Larson and Dennis Erb Jr., what's ahead this weekend for the Outlaws in Pennsylvania and a lot more. Let's go!
Today is Friday, May 13th, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Just a few miles away from my house last night, the XR Super Series had night two of the Colossal 100 weekend at the Dirt Track at Charlotte. Chris Madden topped Scott Bloomquist on night one, but Thursday was a battle of the Longhorns. Kyle Larson started on the pole in the Kevin Rumley owned six car, and he was chased throughout by Brandon Overton. Big Sexy was able to close down the gap on Yung Money in the final few laps, but was never able to really make a serious bid for the lead. At the end it was Larson leading all 30 laps to bag the $25,000 score. Overton, Madden, Tim McCreadie, and Bloomer completed the top five behind Larson. The win was his first in XR competition, and second late model victory of 2022. His other coming a few weeks ago with the Flo series at Eldora. There was some rain through the program, and Larson said afterward that the extra moisture probably helped his cause come feature time. It was a nice improvement from the eighth place finish the night before. As for his fellow NASCAR Cup Series competitor Chase Briscoe, it's been a couple of learning nights in the Kent Robinson owned machine. Briscoe has yet to make a feature event this week. Tonight's race at Charlotte will be the final for the two NASCAR drivers as they will be off to Kansas tomorrow for the Cup weekend. Also missing the feature last night were Jimmy Owens, Mark Whitener, Joseph Joiner, and Kyle Bronson. Racing continues tonight with another $25,000 to win show, and then things close out on Saturday with $50k going to the feature winner. I'd expect Larson and Overton to be fast again tonight, along with Bloomquist who has two top fives so far. There are some little scattered bits of rain around the Charlotte area all day today, so keep an eye on social media to make sure the program goes on as scheduled tonight. You can watch these races live on XR+ with a subscription.
The late model Illinois Speedweek continued last night at Lincoln Speedway after the Wednesday show at Spoon River. These first two nights were FloRacing Night in America shows, while tonight at Farmer City and Saturday at Fairbury are both MARS sanctioned races. Last night at Lincoln, Garrett Alberson sat on the pole, and he battled with Dennis Erb Jr. early, but it wasn't long before Erb was in control. A few caution periods and lap traffic couldn't slow down the 28 though, and he drove on to the $22,000 score. Erb had a big lead in the final 10 laps, but fourth starting Brandon Sheppard was able to track him down in the final few times around Lincoln, but on the white flag lap he caught the backstretch wall and that was all Erb needed to close it out. Sheppard ended up second, Alberson third, Chris Simpson fourth, and Stormy Scott was fifth. Following these two nights of Flo action, BShepp has taken the series points lead, and he tops Stormy Scott by 72 markers. Mike Marlar, Hudson O'Neal and Ricky Thornton Jr. complete the top five. The next points paying event for the series is next Wednesday night at Marshalltown Speedway in Iowa. But like I mentioned earlier, this Speedweek continues tonight at Farmer City and tomorrow at Fairbury. Tonight's show pays $15,000 to the winner, and tomorrow at Fairbury is $30,000 to win. Most of the guys we've seen the past two nights should be in attendance at these races over the weekend, so expect a heavy dose of BShepp, Erb, Pierce, Shirley, Moran, and a lot more. We had 55 cars last night, and there is no reason to think we won't stay near that number through the next two nights. Both of these MARS nights will be live on FloRacing.
Like a lot of other racing series and tracks, USAC hasn't had great luck so far this year with the weather, but they did get in a show last night at Lakeside Speedway near Kansas City. Regular announcer Chet Christner was under the weather, so we got Bryan Hulbert on the call, who you normally hear on the ASCS broadcasts and at the Chili Bowl. He's one of the best in the game and he did a great job jumping in. If it was your first night watching the series, you probably wouldn't have even noticed he wasn't the regular guy. It sounds like Chet will be back on the call when the series heads to I-70 Motorsports Park on Saturday night. The USAC sprint car show that was originally scheduled for tonight at US 36 has been lost to wet weather. Back to last night though, we ended up with a 30 lap caution free affair, with pole sitter Emerson Axsom and CJ Leary swapping the lead during the opening few circuits, but on lap four, defending series champion Brady Bacon took over and that was literally it. Bacon drove away from the field to take the win by nearly five seconds. Justin Grant finished in the tenth position, and he had to hustle his four car over the final few laps to avoid going a lap down to Bacon. At the checkered behind Bacon, Robert Ballou finished second, Logan Seavey third, Axsom fourth, and Leary fifth. I had the Macho Man as my win pick for last night, so I'm now 13 for 63 on the season in correct win picks. That's about 20.5%. The prediction formula is currently 10 for 63. So with tonight off, the series heads to I-70 on Saturday in Missouri. It will be their first trip there since 1996, and the track has undergone quite a bit of work in recent years. It's safe to say this will basically be a new track for all the competitors. The prediction formula likes Axsom for tonight again, just because he's been so consistent lately. I'm having a hard time not picking Bacon again, although I tried to talk myself into Justin Grant. JG has an average finish of 6th recently on 3/8 mile tracks and four wins. But Bacon has five wins and an average finish about a position and a half better. So Bacon it is. With the back-to-back victories, Bacon has closed up on the leaders in the USAC sprint car standings. Axsom still leads, but only 37 points separate Axsom, Grant, Chase Stockon, and Bacon. That Saturday night show will be live on FloRacing if you cannot attend.
Looking ahead to the weekend, there is a lot of other big time racing to come, and we'll start with the World of Outlaws at Williams Grove. They take on that staple of Central PA tonight and tomorrow night with the Morgan Cup on the line. As we talked about earlier in the week with Lincoln, the PA Posse hasn't faired well at Williams Grove in recent seasons either. Brent Marks is the only driver with a Pennsylvania background to win at the Grove in the past two years, and you have to go back to 2019 to find other Posse wins. Marks won the National Open in 2019, but he was a full time Outlaw at the time. Before that, Lance Dewease ahd three wins between 2018 and 2019. In 2021 though, Carson Macedo was a winner twice, and Kyle Larson, Marks, Sheldon Haudenschild, and Aaron Reutzel were the other winners. There is some hope for you Posse fans with Anthony Macri running well, Dewease and the 69k coming, and Marks looking to bounce back from a rough show on Wednesday. The Outlaws will be super tough though, and I would expect Macedo to be near the top, along with David Gravel. I also wouldn't sleep on Spencer Bayston this weekend. The Grove isn't a place you would normally expect him to run well, but he's been hot lately, and you know crew chief Barry Jackson knows how to set up a car to get around that place. As for win picks, the prediction formula likes Gravel, which isn't a bad selection. He's got past wins there, and has the third best average finish at the Grove in recent seasons, only trailing Donny Schatz and Kyle Larson. I'm going with Macedo. That team has momentum, they won last year here, and half mile tracks are usually good to the California driver. This could be the night he jumps into the points lead over Brad Sweet. As for Schatz, I don't think he'll win this weekend, but the Grove could be a good track for the TSR 15 to get things righted. He hasn't finished outside the top ten in his previous eight starts at the Grove and over the last 26 Outlaw races there, he only has three finishes outside the top ten. If you aren't nearby, DIRTVision will have live coverage both nights.
With the other big sprint car series, the All Stars, they are in line for three races, with I-96 on tap for tonight, Wayne County for Saturday, and Waynesfield on Sunday. Seven races have been completed so far in 2022, and Tyler Courtney leads Parker Price Miller by 24 points in the standings. Cap Henry, Justin Peck, and Bill Balog are the rest of the top five. The series' last three trips to I-96 have been won by Cory Eliason and Courtney. Past Wayne County winners include Kyle Larson, Cap Henry, Buddy Kofoid, and Aaron Reutzel. Cole Duncan and Larson were Waynesfield winners in 2021. I like a lot about the All Stars right now, they put on good shows and there are a bunch of storylines to keep an eye on. You've got Sunshine trying to repeat as champion, Parker Price-Miller battling cancer and yet still running really well. I do think he gets his first series win of the year soon. Justin Peck looked fast the other night with the Outlaws and he could be a factor here as well. I do want more out of Cory Eliason and that Rudeen team right now. They are down the standings, and have had a tough go of it so far, with only 2 top fives and two top tens in nine races. They did win back in February at East Bay, but that was a non-points event. Since Attica in April, they have six finishes of 11th or worse. In a bit of an interesting move, Tim Shaffer was supposed to be running the full schedule with the Bryan Grove 28, but he's in Pennsylvania this weekend with Jason Sides, so Brandon Spithaler will drive that car this weekend. The prediction formula favors Courtney tonight, I'm going Peck. You can watch every All Star show live on FloRacing.
Across the country in Calfornia, the NARC 410 series is back in action this weekend with two nights of racing for the Peter Murphy Classic. They head to Tulare tonight and Hanford tomorrow. The Saturday show pays a very nice $11,000 to win and $1000 to start. Dominic Scelzi is the defending event winner and the defending series champion. With two races complete, he leads Justin Sanders, Corey Day, Shane Golobic and Tanner Carrick in the standings. Day and Colby Copeland have the two victories this year. These shows will also be live on FloRacing.
And in Oklahoma this weekend, the USMTS modifieds continue their 2022 campaign with stops at Red Dirt Raceway and Tri-State Speedway. Dustin Sorensen is the current series points leader, and this will be the first ever series stop at Red Dirt. Dereck Ramirez is the most recent winner at Tri-State. Not Haubstadt Tri-State, but Oklahoma Tri-State. Tonight pays $7000 to win, Saturday is $10,000 to win, and you can watch live on RacinDirt.
So there you go, you're up to speed to head into the dirt racing weekend. Drop me a comment, let me know your win picks, what tracks you're headed to this weekend, or what you'll be watching live. And speaking of live...
We've got pretty close to 40 races on the streaming schedule today, with a boat load more to come this weekend. That includes the World of Outlaws, USAC, All Stars, super late models at Charlotte and in Illinois and a lot more between DIRTVision, FloRacing, XR+, Speed Sport and all your favorite services. To see the full daily streaming schedule through the weekend, head over to 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!