DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Bruening out, Clanton in with the World of Outlaws; Busy dirt racing weekend ahead | Daily 5-20-2022
It's Friday and we're talking a much needed win for Max Blair, plus we get you ready for a busy dirt racing weekend, including the World of Outlaws, Lucas, All Stars, USAC and more. Let's go!
Today is Friday, May 20th, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
The World of Outlaws Late Model Series kicked off a three race weekend at the Bloomsburg Fair Raceway last night, and as expected it was all Max Blair out front. He started on the outside pole, was quickly by Jeff Rhine at the start, and led all 40 laps en route to the win. Even though he was dominant, he did get a little lucky at the end, as he said in his post race interview that the right rear tire on the 111V was going flat late in the race, and sitting in victory lane, it was all the way down. It was exactly what Blair needed for the championship chase, but unfortunately for him, points leader Dennis Erb Jr. drove up from seventh to finish second, so only four points were gained. Blair really needs to try and do the same thing tonight at Marion Center Raceway. The race last night was a bit messy, with quite a few torn up race cars, including Gregg Satterlee, Gordy Gundaker, Jeff Rhine and others. Only 11 cars were running at the finish, and even third finishing Josh Richards had damage, with nearly half the rear spoiler torn off the Boom Briggs owned car. It's been a very tough season for Richards back full time with the Outlaws, but back to back third place finishes should help with the moral over there. Tonight, the series moves over to Marion Center Raceway, which will be another first time track for the Outlaws. The 1/4 mile facility sits north and east of Pittsburgh, off highway 119. This was another track that Blair won at last season, and he'll be the one to watch again tonight. The series then closes out the weekend on Saturday at Port Royal Speedway. With no past results to go off of, the formula again likes Rick Eckert. I'm obviously going Blair here. Both remaining Pennsylvania nights can be watch live on DIRTVision.
And speaking of the Outlaws, we had a little bit of full time driver news yesterday. Tyler Bruening is giving up his fourth position in the standings to run a pick and choose schedule for the remainder of the season. He cited rising fuel and tire costs, and wanting to spend more time with his family as reasons. In his place though, Skyline Motorsports teammate Shane Clanton has signed back on with the Outlaws after a few seasons away. Clanton hasn't run the full schedule this year, so he's already basically out of the driver's championship race, but he will assume the owner's points position vacanted by Bruening. So that team remains in the top five on that side of things. Shane Clanton finished fifth last night, and could definitely contend for some wins this year.
The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series is headed to Ohio this weekend, with stops at Attica on Friday and Sharon on Saturday. They are coming off that three race swing through Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Brad Sweet continues to lead David Gravel and Carson Macedo in the standings. This will be the Outlaws first trip through Ohio this year, and with the All Stars up north, the locals will be out in force to defend their home turf. Another driver we'll see tonight at Attica is Kyle Larson. He raced on Tuesday at Bridgeport, ending up second after that great battle with Sheldon Haudenschild. He'll run the Paul Silva owned 57, before heading to Texas for the All Star weekend with NASCAR. Larson has wins in recent seasons at Attica with both the Outlaws and All Stars and will be a favorite tonight. Another driver to keep an eye tonight on is Donny Schatz. He's got two straight top four finishes, and of drivers with more than one start at Attica recently, Schatz leads all with an average finish of 3.2. I'd also maybe put some money at Spencer Bayston over the next two nights. He remains incredibly consistent in this first season with the Outlaws and has 11 straight top ten finishes. He won with the All Stars last year at both Sharon and Attica. The prediction formula likes Schatz tonight, I'm going Larson. You can watch these two Ohio shows on DIRTVision.
With the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, it's been more than a month since they were last in action. A lot has happened in dirt late model racing since Gregg Satterlee won at Port Royal way back on April 10th. They are in Iowa this weekend for stops at 300 Raceway and 34 Raceway. Brandon Sheppard enters the weekend with a 15 point lead over Devin Moran in the standings. Tyler Erb, Tim McCreadie, and Jimmy Owens complete the top five. Lucas has made stops at 300 in each of the last two years, with Mike Marlar and Josh Richards picking up those wins. The series hasn't been at 34 since May of 2019, with Hudson O'Neal topping Jonathan Davenport that night. I'm curious to see how things start to play out with Lucas into the summer, especially with so little racing as of late. BShepp has been good in starts elsewhere, as has Tyler Erb, but Moran seems to have fallen off his early season pace and Tim McCreadie really hasn't done anything of note lately. Moran is going to continue racing with the series over the next few weeks, but of the guys in the top ten right now, I feel like Erb might the only one in a position to really bring the fight to Sheppard. The prediction formula likes McCreadie tonight, but I'm choosing Tyler Erb for the win. His last two starts at 300 were a second and a fifth. Keep an eye on the weather with Lucas this weekend. There are some rain chances both days, not super high, but it's around. If you can't get to the track, watch live on MAVTV Plus.
Up north, the All Star Circuit of Champions are set for three nights in Wisconsin. They're at Wilmot tonight, Plymouth Dirt Track tomorrow, and Angell Park on Sunday. Tyler Courtney continues to lead the points standings, but with two wins and a second last week, Justin Peck has jumped up to second and is the hottest driver with the All Stars right now. If Peck and the Buch team are really going to contend this season, they have to improve upon their not great consistency from a year ago, but so far in 2022 they've done that. Only two finishes outside the top ten in 12 starts and an average feature finish of seventh is a nice jump. I also still really like Parker Price Miller here if he can stay healthy and feeling good all season. He did his final round of cancer treatments this week, and is hopefully on the road back to 100%. Sunshine and Cory Eliason have the last two wins at Wilmot. Bill Balog, Kyle Larson, and James McFadden own the recent victories at Plymouth. And Balog has the last win at Angell Park. Balog has been pretty quiet so far this season, but with all his IRA experience at these tracks, and his wins a year ago when the All Stars came north, I would not sleep on the North Pole Nightmare this weekend. For tonight, the prediction formula actually likes Hunter Schuerenberg. That's not a bad pick as he's won twice in the last five races. I think I'm gonna go Sunshine tonight to repeat. All three of these All Star nights can be watched live over on FloRacing.
At Terre Haute, the USAC National Sprint Cars continue their 2022 campaign with two nights of racing at one of the staple Indiana race tracks. Tonight is the Don Smith Classic, and Saturday night is the Tony Hulman Classic, which according to USAC is the longest-annually held event on the sprint car calendar. Emerson Axsom leads a very tight points battle right now, with Justin Grant, Brady Bacon, Chase Stockon, Robert Ballou, and Logan Seavey all very much in the fight. Axsom leads all drivers in average finish so far, and he's been very strong in this first full season on the tour. He and Bacon lead all drivers with two wins each. Chris Windom has been insanely good at Terre Haute in recent years, but he's off running the All Stars full time, so things are wide open this weekend. Seavey, Grant, Stockon, Bacon, and Ballou all have wins in recent years here, so I'm not sure you can point to any of these guys as having an advantage. The prediction formula continues to like Axsom here, it's now picked him in three straight races. Easy to see why with his consistency. I'm going JG tonight. Wins in 2019 and 2020, and he's been very good so far this season with top tens in all six starts. Both of these nights will be live on FloRacing.
The absolutely terrible season for the ASCS National Tour is continuing this weekend with the loss of the two nights at Tri-City Speedway in Illinois because of weather. So far, under new owner Terry Mattox, the 360 sprint car series has only completed four races, and they haven't run since March 26th at I-30. It's been a combination of weather problems and the tire shortage that has led to so many events lost. Hopefully this is the last of their bad luck and things will start to turn around. Next up on the schedule is two nights at Lake Ozark Speedway in Missouri on May 27th and 28th.
The weekend streaming schedule is really heavy over the next few days. I count over 100 shows available, and I think we can safely say just about every dirt track in the country is open now for the year. Most of the big series are in action between the World of Outlaws, Lucas, All Stars, USAC and more. You can watch a whole bunch of stuff between DIRTVision, FloRacing, MAVTV Plus, RacinDirt and all the other services. To peruse the schedule for yourself, head over to dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, I'm headed to Texas for the NASCAR All Star weekend, so 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!