DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Update on possible deal between MAVTV and FloRacing for dirt racing streaming rights | Daily 6-17-2022
I'm back after a short break and we've got some updates on the Flo/MAV situation, and we'll dive into the dirt racing weekend ahead. Let's go!
Today is Friday, June 17th, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
I'm back on this Friday after a few days off, so let's get into a few things before the dirt racing weekend kicks off.
First, I'm a little surprised we don't have an announced deal yet between MAVTV Plus and FloRacing. Following my Monday show where we talked about it, I had a few people reach out to me and confirm that a deal was incoming. Supposedly the parties involved were in the final stages of deal making and a midweek announcement was expected. We are now at Friday with nothing official yet. The MAV races for the weekend haven't been added to the FloRacing schedule, and the MAVTV Plus website has changed completely, with it now just showing the weekend schedule and nothing else. Apparently they are again offering the weekend for free, so if you want to watch their shows over the next few days, like the Lucas late models at Smoky Mountain, you can do that without paying. So even though we don't have a public deal, I'd assume this is yet another sign of change coming. I have seen in my YouTube comments that there have been a few complaints, with some of you not thrilled that Flo would be taking over this schedule, but I think it's probably a good thing. Some more consolidation means fans will have to pay less and fewer parties to watch more racing, and I think the Flo platform has been pretty solid. Across the board from all the streamers, I'd like to see broadcast quality continue to rise with more cameras and production value along with higher quality streams, but those feelings aren't just confined to Flo. I have some pretty serious doubts about the profitability of MAV and the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, and I think an influx of cash from a big streaming partner like Flo could help secure their future. We hear a lot about wanting purses to go up and tracks to get a piece of these deals, but it's also important that the companies that run these series are healthy. We won't have Lucas, or the All Stars, or the Outlaws or USAC if their parent organizations aren't financially viable. And the streaming revenue for a lot of these companies has become a cornerstone of their existence. I would still expect a deal between the two parties to be announced soon, barring any last minute snafus.
Now, let's talk about the dirt racing to come this weekend. Actually first, if you want to support what I'm doing, you can grab a DIRTRACKR decal for either $3 or $5 depending on the size you want. If you want a smaller sticker, go to dirtrackr.com/decal, the bigger ones are at dirtrackr.com/bigdecal. You can also find the merch tab at dirtrackr.com. The price includes sales tax and postage. If you get one, thanks in advance.The World of Outlaws Sprint Cars are headed north to Wisconsin with two shows coming up at Beaver Dam Raceway tonight and tomorrow. Brad Sweet currently leads David Gravel by 64 points, Carson Macedo by 66, with Sheldon Haudenschild and Logan Schuchart also in the mix. Schuchart leads the series in average finish over the previous five and ten race stretches and he's trying to climb back into this fight after a tough start to the season by his standards. Beaver Dam has been a very good track for Sweet as of late, so Schuchart and everyone else will have to beat that KKR 49 this weekend. Sweet is the win favorite from the dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula, and top fives in all of his last six starts there, including three wins, is the reason why. It's been 15 Outlaw races since we've seen a Brad Sweet win, but things are shaping up nicely for the weekend. Beaver Dam is clearly a good track for that group, and Brad has finished second twice with the series in the last three races. If you're one of those other top five runners, you need to fight for every point this weekend, as wins for the 49 will grow that points lead even further, and you can't have that with a busy summer in progress.
With the All Stars, Ohio Sprint Speedweek continues through Saturday and right now Justin Peck is in control of the weeklong championship. He's the only driver with multiple wins on the week, and except for an 11th at Fremont last weekend, he hasn't finished worse than fourth so far. He's really been on a tear, and whereas a lot of the other competition for the season long title has had problems and dropped back, Peck has been able to keep the pressure on Tyler Courtney. Headed to Limaland tonight, the gap is only 24 points right now between the two. I really hope this keeps up through the summer, because I really like the idea of a Peck v. Sunshine title fight. Also, I can't believe we are actually going to get to see racing at Limaland. It feels like any race at this track gets rained out, and things are looking pretty good for tonight. I have almost 1150 races in the dirtrackr.com analytics database, and not a single one is from Lima. Hopefully we can get number one added after tonight. It's been a rough week for both me and the prediction formula choosing winners, but we'll keep plugging along tonight. We are both 0-fer right now, but we'll try and turn that around tonight. Sunshine was your winner last night at Waynesfield, and we are going to both roll with him tonight. Over the the last three plus seasons, nobody has more All Star wins on quarter mile tracks than Courtney does, and that along with an average finish of 5.25 is good enough for me. The All Stars close out Speedweek tomorrow night at Portsmouth.
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series had their Thursday night show at Cherokee cancelled because we had a nasty line of storms roll through yesterday afternoon. I say we, because Cherokee isn't that far from the Charlotte area, which is where I'm located. They are now headed to Smoky Mountain in Tennessee for two nights. Brandon Sheppard maintains the series points lead over Tim McCreadie and Tyler Erb, and we are coming off victories for Jonathan Davenport and Devin Moran a few weeks ago at West Virginia Motor Speedway. I have four past races at Smoky Mountain in the database between Lucas and the Outlaws, and we've had four different winners in those races. Chris Madden, Mike Marlar, and Jimmy Owens have Outlaw victories, and Brandon Overton was a Lucas winner there in 2020. Overton will be in attendance tonight, and he's the pick for the prediction formula. I'm gonna go with Mike Marlar. He's had good finishes there with the Outlaws and could use a bounceback this season in Lucas competition. He's had a pretty tough season, with just one top ten finish, and this could be a good track for a strong night.
Through the opening three nights of the Summer Nationals, we've had three different winners in Ryan Unzicker, Bobby Pierce, and Chris Simpson. Simpson was the beneficiary of mechanical trouble last night for Pierce. On the modified side, it's been Nick Hoffman. Shocker, I know. He's got both victories and the points lead. We talked earlier in the week about who might do this thing all the way through, and so far we've had 10 drivers run all three nights. They are Unzicker, Jason Feger, Pierce, Dennis Erb Jr., Brian Shirley, Drake Troutman, Payton Freeman, Logan Martin, Tommy Sheppard Jr., and Joe Godsey. If you remove Erb, that's nine, and this championship might just become a war of attrition. You could win this thing just because you decided to grind it out. Right now Unzicker leads Feger by five points, with Pierce another 16 back. They are headed to Tri-City tonight, Fairbury on Saturday, and Sycamore on Sunday before they get a much needed off day Monday.
USAC's Eastern Storm continues through the weekend with more stops in Pennsylvania, including Williams Grove, Port Royal, and Bloomsburg Fair. Brady Bacon and Logan Seavey have wins already this week, with last night's show at Selinsgrove rained out. The sprint cars will also be joined at Port Royal by the Silver Crown teams on Saturday. That Saturday show would be a really good one to hit if you're an open wheel fan. USAC sprint cars, the Silver Crown machines, plus weekly 410 winged action. That's a nice lineup. In the season long championship hunt, Justin Grant and Robert Ballou are tied currently, with Bacon only 11 back in third. CJ Leary and Chase Stockon are the rest of the top five, while Emerson Axsom has tumbled to sixth after a couple of tough nights, including a 22nd place result at Bridgeport. The prediction formula likes Robert Ballou tonight, but I'm going to pick Justin Grant. He's usually pretty good on the big tracks and we haven't seen him win since Florida back in February.
Elsewhere this weekend there is a ton of other racing to check out. The NARC sprint car teams are headed to Skagit next weekend for Dirt Cup, but they do have some racing before that. Tonight's race at Silver Dollar has been cancelled because of the forecast and tire shortage. Teams are still scheduled to headed to Cottage Grove in Oregon tomorrow night. Dominic Scelzi continues to lead the NARC points. As for the ASCS National Tour, they've got weekend stops at Texarkana 67 and Boothill on tap. So far this season, we've had six different winners in six races, and Wayne Johnson is the current ponts leader over Dylan Westbrook and Blake Hahn. If this series can get it's luck turned around with tire shortages and weather, we could be in for an awesome championship battle here. Also, don't sleep on the USMTS modifieds this weekend. They are at Cedar Lake this weekend for the 23rd Masters, and points leader Dustin Sorensen won the opener last night. Tonight is $5000 to win, and Saturday is $10,000 to win.
Drop me a comment, let me know where you are headed this weekend, what you'll be watching, and some win picks.
There are over 125 shows on the streaming schedule through the weekend. All the services have something, we've got the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars, USAC, All Stars, Lucas, plus a ton of local and regional racing. If you want to see them all, 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!