DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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The Mad Man is hot! Boschele spins Wiedeman, wins at Millbridge; Outlaws sack 3 late model shows | Daily 5-25-2022

Today we are talking Xtreme midget drama at Millbridge, another Matt Sheppard win, schedule changes for the World of Outlaws late models, and racing tonight for USAC at Circle City. Let's go!

Today is Wednesday, May 25th, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.

We'll start today with the Xtreme Outlaw midget debut at Millbridge last night. They had over 50 cars on the initial entry list, but we ended up with only 35, which I'm guessing is because of the weather. Obviously we had a Monday rainout, and the forecast for the week didn't look great. But we did get racing complete last night with no issues, and the forecast for today is pretty similar. Millbridge is a small track and a small facility, so the place looked packed last night between the midget teams, micro field, and all the fans in attendance. Once on track action got going, things were super tough last night. Taylor Reimer was quickest in qualifying at a 10.026, while Kevin Woody Jr. was slowest at 10.724. So less than seven tenths of a second separated the entire field. Heats were tough as well, and we had some big names end up in last chance races, including Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe, Ryan Timms, Kaylee Bryson, and Jake Swanson. Larson, Briscoe and Timms all transferred from the first B, with Brent Crews, Emilio Hoover, and Dominic Gorden moving on from the second. But Reimer, John Hunter Nemechek, Andrew Felker, and Carson Hocevar were all names that missed the night's main event. There were quite a few incidents through the night, and nobody was really immune from contact, including the leaders in the feature and Larson. Yung Money started 15th, had to go to the work area early with problems, then drove back into the top ten, before getting collected in a late crash and finishing 16th. Out front, pole sitter Gavan Boschele battled with Keith Kunz teammate Bryant Wiedeman all race long, with each leading laps. Inside ten to go though after a restart, Boschele got into the 01 in turn three and spun him out. Wiedeman was running through the middle with Boschele up top, and this exact situation nearly played out a time or two before, with Boschele narrowly missing Wiedeman. Several cars had damage from the aftermath, and from there it was all Boschele out front. He led the rest of the way to earn the very first Xtreme Outlaw midget feature victory. Behind him, Zach Daum went 12th to second, Nick Drake was third, Nick Hoffman went 13th to fourth, and Brent Crews went 16th to fifth. The move from Boschele didn't appear to be on purpose, and he did at least attempt to apologize to Wiedeman afterwards. The racing was definitely about par for the course with the way midgets are right now. Two young drivers up front trying to impress a packed night, and the inexperience comes out. Boschele is talented, but still very young and he'll continue to learn as he moves up and forward in motorsports. As for the night's micro race, Brent Crews took the win over Sheldon Creed, with Kyle Larson going 18th to third behind them. Tonight they will do it all over again out at Millbridge, and you can either head out there, or watch it live on DIRTVision.

Up in New Jersey last night, the Short Track Super Series south region took on the New Egypt Speedway. Matt Stangle was the early leader from his second starting position, but Matt Sheppard was lurking. There was a lap 14 caution for a slowing Brandon Grosso, and the restart gave Sheppard the opening he needed. Into turn one he drove by Stangle on the outside to grab the lead, and was unchallenged from there. It was Sheppard's 25th career series win, and second in just eight days. Ryan Godown tried to track down Stangle late for second, but came up short. So behind the 9S at the finish, it was Stangle, Godown, Danny Bouc, and Jeff Strunk. In the south region standings, both Godown and Sheppard should be moving up after last night's racing, as points leader Mike Maresca ended up 14th. Up next is a joint north region and south region race at Bloomsburg Fair in two weeks on June 7th. That race will pay $7000 to win and $700 to start.

In some schedule news from yesterday, the World of Outlaws Late Model Series has made some changes to their June and July slate of races. The Hawkeye at Boone is moving to Monday, July 25th, which is the same week as the Prairie Dirt Classic at Fairbury. That race will pay $20,000 to win before competitors head to Fairbury for Friday and Saturday. The June races at Route 66 in Joliet and Orange County Fair have been cancelled outright, as has the July 12th stop at Gondik Law Speedway. The series cited rising fuel prices and tire availability as reasons for the changes. It's not surprising to see the Joliet show off the schedule, as there have been questions around that track all season. The All Stars had previously dropped it from their 2022 schedule as well. Orange County Fair only drew 22 cars a year ago, and it's not a stretch to think that a race there this season would be even smaller. And Gondik Law is a serious hike for the late model teams, as it's two and a half hours north of Minneapolis up on Lake Superior. These all seem like pretty damn reasonable moves to me. If you want to see the full, updated series schedule, head over to worldofoutlaws.com.

In Indianapolis tonight and tomorrow, the USAC National Sprint Cars are in action at Circle City Raceway as Indy 500 festivities continue in the city. We are coming off the two shows at Terre Haute last weekend won by CJ Leary and Robert Ballou. Finishes of sixth and fourth vaulted Justin Grant into the series points lead following Terre Haute, and he leads Emerson Axsom now by just five points. As I said on Monday, the top seven in the championship are separated by just 66 points, so things will change quickly as the summer progresses. Axsom and Grant are the only two drivers to finish in the top ten in every race so far this season, and Grant's top ten streak goes back to 2021, and is at 14 races currently. The USAC sprint cars made just one appearance at Circle City in 2021, with that race won by Tanner Thorson who led all 30 laps. The one driver I'd really not sleep on right now though, is Robert Ballou. He might be the hottest driver in the country right now in any dirt racing series with five straight top three finishes, including two wins. His average finish over those races is 1.8, and he's done it on tracks in Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, and Indiana. The dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula likes Brady Bacon tonight for the win. I think I'm going Leary. He bagged a top five at Circle City last year, and he's got five straight top five finishes right now, including that Friday win at Terre Haute. We will have to keep an eye on the weather around Indy for the next two days, as there are some rain chances in the forecast. If it holds off though, you can either head to the track or watch live on FloRacing.

There are a bunch of new dirt racing podcast episodes this week. Winged Nation has Brent Marks and Justin Peck, LoudPedal also has Justin Peck, Passing Points has Bobby Allen, Forward Bite has Eric Coomes, Quicktime is back and has Stu Snyder, and there are new episodes of Open Red Credentials Denied, the Dirt Reporters, the Dirt Nerds, and Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks. To see the full list of shows and episodes, head over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.

It's a nice little Wednesday on the streaming services if you're looking for some racing tonight. DIRTVision has night two of the Xtreme Outlaw midgets at Millbridge. FloRacing has the USAC National Sprint Cars from Circle City, weekly racing from Action Track USA, and Flo 24/7. And Speed Sport has IMCA racing from Southern Oklahoma. 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 Wednesday. 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!