DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Is a deal between MAVTV Plus and FloRacing imminent? | Daily 6-13-2022
Is a MAVTV Plus and Flo deal imminent? We'll discuss, plus dive into the big racing from the weekend. Let's go!
Today is Monday, June 13th, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
We're going to kick this Monday show off some business of dirt racing stuff, and with what appears to maybe be some shenanigans afoot between FloRacing and MAVTV Plus. I noticed late last week that there were some odd races that had been added to the FloRacing schedule, and a few of you mentioned it to me as well. The weekly show from Lucas Oil Speedway, some Lucas motorcross, and a few other things were very quietly included on the Flo schedule for the weekend and we might not be done just yet. This week's races on MAVTV Plus that start on Thursday have not been put on the Flo schedule, but I will say "yet" here. I'm guessing that it will only be a matter of time before we see them added. I was asked not that long ago about Lucas highlights appearing on FloRacing as well, and at the time I figured that was just Michael Rigsby using his Dirt on Dirt deal to add some more content to Flo, and that MAV and Lucas would benefit. But maybe that was just the beginning of a pending deal between the two companies. It's no secret that MAVTV Plus has had it's issues. It was originally Lucas Oil Racing TV that then became MAVTV Plus in recent years, but it's not been smooth going for the service operated by Lucas. Outages, app issues, and other problems have plagued the streaming arm, and it was just a week ago that they had the entire service basically free for a weekend to try and make up for some of the problems. It appears now that maybe the Lucas Oil Company has had enough and Rigsby and FloRacing have convinced them to do a deal going forward. This is all speculation on my part, and I haven't spoken to Rigsby or anyone on either side about this, but this would be a very nice get for Flo. If a deal is on it's way, that would mean the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, more drag racing, motocross, possibly POWRi action, and more would be available through Flo. I don't know what this would mean for MAVTV or the Plus service, but it's possible that the company would keep the TV network, and just scrap the streaming side. They could keep control of production, and just push streams to Flo, and get nice rights fees to do so. They would be removed of the headaches of trying to run their own service, and get some cash on the other side. Remember too that Flo already has early coverage of the Chili Bowl, and this could tie things even closer for that event as well. Flo did also have their own Chili Bowl main event show that was posted as on-demand content later on, following the live broadcast. A move like this would consolidate things even more at the top of the streaming game, and strengthen Flo's offerings, that are already incredibly stout. If a deal is indeed coming, I'd expect an announcement fairly soon. Adding a bunch of Lucas late model races to the Flo schedule would certainly generate some questions, and that series is racing this weekend. This is definitely something to keep an eye on as the week progresses.
As for the last few days of racing, there are no lack of things to talk about. At Eldora we didn't get the big finish to the weekend we were hoping for as weather ruined things for the Dirt Late Model Dream. Chris Madden and Brandon Overton picked up prelim feature victories, but rain on Saturday night halted the feature with 14 laps complete. The rest of the race will be run in advance of the World 100 weekend in September, with the Dream makeup on Wednesday, September 7th. Chris Madden led Brandon Overton and Hudson O'Neal at the stoppage. If you were at the race, make sure to keep your tickets and arm bands, as they will be valid for that race day. For more information, head over to eldoraspeedway.com.
At Knoxville, the World of Outlaws full timers were shut out of victory lane during the two night program over the weekend. Friday night it was Brent Marks completely dominating the evening, sweeping qualifying, his heat race, the dash, and the feature. Logan Schuchart and Brian Brown chased him throughout the main event, but could not get by the 19 machine. It was Brent's first ever Knoxville win. And on Saturday night it was Brian Brown taking down the feature win over Brad Sweet and Spencer Bayston. Brownie was a prelim night winner at Knoxville during the Nationals last year, but he hadn't had an official Outlaw win since this June weekend way back in 2019. The victory was also the first ever Outlaw win for Danny Lasoski as a crew chief. The Dude is 6th all time with 122 Outlaw wins as a driver, but even with as many times as he's won, he was really fired up on Saturday night to do it as a crew chief. In the Outlaw points, as expected and as we talked about on Friday, there wasn't a whole lot of movement. The gap from first to fifth is still 88 points, but Brad Sweet did extend just a bit back to second, with the difference to Gravel now 64 points. Sheldon Haudenschild dropped back to fourth after issues on Saturday night. So your top five is Sweet, Gravel, Carson Macedo, Haudenschild, and Schuchart. The Outlaws stay around the midwest for the next several weeks, and two nights at Beaver Dam are on tap for the coming weekend.
With the All Star Circuit of Champions, Ohio Sprint Speedweek is off and running, and the first three nights are complete. On Friday night at Attica it was Danny Dietrich who led every lap and picked up the feature win. Friday was a good night for PA Posse drivers off the porch, with Dietrich winning at Attica and Marks winning at Knoxville. A bunch of our points contenders had issues, and Hunter Schuerenberg, Cory Eliason, Tyler Courtney, and Parker Price Miller all finished outside the top ten. For Saturday and Sunday, the series moved over to Fremont, and the win I have been telling you guys about finally came on Saturday night, with Parker Price Miller outdueling Chris Andrews and Craig Mintz to pick up his first win of 2022 and second All Star win of his career. PPM hadn't been in an All Star victory lane since 2015, which is pretty crazy to think. Behind PPM, it was a nice night for Chris Windom, who picked up his first series top five of the season. And on Sunday night, Zeb Wise battled past pole sitter Cap Henry on the opening lap and led the full way for the win. It was Zeb's second win of the year, and second in just five starts. It was a nice bounceback from a 23rd on Saturday night after he had a throttle pedal break. Speedweek keeps rolling along with the competitors headed to Wayne County tonight. Cap Henry currently leads Justin Peck, Dietrich, Sunshine, and Craig Mintz in the week long standings. As for the year long championship chase, Sunshine and Peck have separated themselves from the rest of the field. Peck trails Courtney by 54, with PPM, Henry, and Hunter Schuerenberg now all more than 100 points back. If you want some win picks for tonight, the dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula likes Courtney, I'm going Cap Henry. He had wins at Wayne County in 2019 and 2020, and he's got three straight top four finishes. Hopefully we can get back going in the right direction with win picks, as both me and the formula were 0-fer this weekend.
Elsewhere, Indiana Midget Week limped to it's conclusion with only one race of three completed over the weekend. Friday at Gas City and the already rescheduled Circle City race on Sunday were both rained out, which meant the Saturday race at Kokomo ended up being the last race of the week. Cannon McIntosh was the winner at Kokomo after an early battle with Justin Grant. He drove away at the end to a pretty sizeable margin of victory. It was a tough midget week for Cannon Mac, but a nice way to bounce back. It was his first USAC national midget win since Gas City in September of 2020. Big shoutout to Jacob Denney who had five top tens in six nights, including that win at Lincoln Park and a second in the final race at Kokomo. He looked very strong in that Mounce Stout ride. As for the midget week championship, it was Buddy Kofoid who was crowned midget week champion for the second straight year, thanks to three wins, a second, a fifth, and a ninth over the six nights. Kofoid currently has 15 straight top tens in USAC midget competition and leaves midget week with a 46 point advantage over Justin Grant in the season long championship hunt. Nobody behind JG is even close to being in contention. We won't see the mdigets back on dirt until Huset's in July, but the USAC sprint cars and Silver Crown cars are headed east this week for Eastern Storm.
Out in Kansas with the USMTS, Dereck Ramirez and Jake O'Neil were weekend winners at Belleville. If you're an XR+ subscriber, don't forget that the Belleville Dirt Nationals continue tonight with the XR Super Series coming in. A lot of the guys that were at Eldora this weekend have made the trek to Kansas for tonight and tomorrow with tonight's race paying $20,000 to win and Tuesday paying $40,000 to win. We know Chris Madden, Kyle Strickler, Scott Bloomquist, Jimmy Owens, Chris Ferguson and more have already unloaded today and the field should be stout.
Other weekend open wheel winners included Brady Bacon in Xtreme Outlaw action at Lake Ozark. There was drama in that show if you didn't catch it. Jake Swanson was mad at Hoosier about his right rear tire, I also thought we might get fisticuffs between Swanson and Robert Ballou, but it was just one of those nice friendly conversations after both drivers were out of their cars quickly. Through four races, CJ Leary leads Ballou and Shane Cockrum in the Xtreme sprint car points. Out west, Corey Day swept the NARC weekend driving the Works Limited 57 with Paul Silva on the wrenches. Those 57 cars continue to show they are fast, regardless of owner or driver. Dominic Scelzi continues to lead the NARC standings. Justin Sanders won the Saturday night Sprint Car Challenge Tour main event at Placerville, Brooke Tatnell was the Sunday 410 winner at Huset's, Ryan Timms was a 410 winged winner at Lake Ozark, and Chase Dietz won at Williams Grove.
A quick show note, I've got today obviously, and we'll have a new episode tomorrow. I'm then taking Wednesday and Thursday off, so now new Dailies those days, and then we should be back Friday with a new episode. It's an off week for the day job, so I'm going to relax while I can.
There are four shows on the streaming schedule today. FloRacing has the All Stars at Wayne County and Flo 24/7. XR+ has the XR Super Series from Belleville, and there is IMCA racing from Hancock County on Speed Sport. 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 Monday. 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!