DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Not running with the Outlaws paying off for Chris Madden, Sheldon Haudenschild sweeps weekend | Daily 6-20-2022
Coming up, more big money for Chris Madden, Sheldon Haudenschild sweeps, Justin Peck and Logan Seavey win mini championships, and more. Let's go!
Today is Monday, June 20th, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
We've got a ton of dirt racing to talk from the weekend, but just a heads up that it could be an interesting news day across the sport. I'll obviously be ready with the DIRTRACKR social media channels if anything happens, and we'll get you up to speed on tomorrow's Daily about any developments. Stay tuned friends...
Around the country we had a lot going on over the last few days with Ohio Sprint Speedweek wrapping up, USAC's Eastern Storm in Pennsylvania, we had the Outlaws at Beaver Dam, Lucas racing for big money and a lot more.
Let's dive in first with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. They were at Smoky Mountain Speedway in Tennessee over the weekend for two nights, and Saturday's finale paid $50,000 to the winner. Chris Madden and Jimmy Owens grabbed split field feature victories on Friday night, but the story may have been Carson Ferguson. He ended up third in the second main event, but he battled Owens and Jonathan Davenport all race long. It was just his second ever weekend with Lucas, and he didn't seem to be too bothered mixing it up with two of the best to ever do it. He later ended up 8th on Saturday night after starting second. He previously had two 22nd place finishes with Lucas at All-Tech back in February. Definitely a young driver on the late model side to keep an eye on. In the big show on Saturday, Madden started on the pole and led all 60 laps to earn yet another big payday in 2022. It was his fourth win of the year that paid $50k to win, and don't forget he also got $100k for finishing second to Davenport at the Eldora Million. According to Jackson Braun's numbers, Madden is now over $600,000 in winnings this season, and he trails only JD in that category. As for the Lucas championship battle, the top two got much cozier following the weekend, with Brandon Sheppard now leading Tim McCreadie by just 65 points. TMac ended up sixth on Saturday, with Sheppy ninth. This is definitely not a title that Sheppard will be able to run away with as the summer continues, and McCreadie seems to be finding a bit of a stride lately, with five straight top nine finishes, and don't forget he won back on May 22nd at 34 Raceway. We haven't seen Sheppard in victory lane with Lucas since we left East Bay. The Lucas teams get just a few days off to regroup, as the Firecracker 100 weekend at Lernerville is up next, starting Thursday.
Up in Wisconsin at Beaver Dam Raceway, Sheldon Haudenschild swept the World of Outlaws weekend to earn his sixth and seventh wins of the year. Friday night he led every lap from the pole, and Saturday he started third, and was to the lead by lap 13. Haudenschild has now won five of the last nine World of Outlaws races, and has moved into second in the standings behind Brad Sweet, but his last five events are a nice illustration of that duality we continue to see from him. Two wins over the weekend, and a fourth at Knoxville, but also two 13th place finishes at River Cities and Knoxville. With as consistent as Sweet continues to be, he absolutely must find a way to cut out those nights where he isn't a top ten runner. We did have some drama on Friday night right at the start of the feature with a nasty crash that involved JJ Hickle, Josh Schneiderman and Kraig Kinser. In the aftermath, Kinser was left with a concussion and he's sitting out for the foreseeable future. The incident started with contact between Marcus Dumesny and Hickle, with the 25 nose diving into the track in a crazy way. Afterwards, if you were watching the DIRTVision broadcast, you saw Kinser's crew chief, Mikey Kuemper upset at Noah Gass, but apparently there was some miscommunication and Kuemper thought Gass started the crash. I messaged with DIRTVision's Chase Raudman, and he said things have since been squared between everyone. As for the title fight, things did tighten up over the weekend, with the top five now just 72 points apart because of a 10th place finish on Saturday for Sweet. He cut a tire very late and ended up in the work area, but because there were so many lap cars, he didn't have to go to the tail, and recovered to a top ten. So with a huge week on Huset's coming up, Sweet leads Haudenschild now by 42, with David Gravel third, Carson Macedo fourth, and Logan Schuchart fifth. Buckle up here kids, this one is just getting good.
In Ohio we saw the conclusion of the All Stars' Ohio Sprint Speedweek, with weekend races at Limaland and Portsmouth. The Limaland show turned into a pretty big mess. Apparently the track prep guy was sick and the surface was not ready for 410 sprint cars. The track was a complete dustbowl, we had drivers going through the infield in heats, and eventually the series held a driver vote to see if they even wanted to run the feature. They did race, with Danny Dietrich eventually leading all 25 laps for his second win of the week. It seems like we've been waiting years to see a 410 sprint car race at Limaland, and the comments from fans and competitors afterwards were not good. Certainly not the night we were hoping for. On Saturday night in the finale at Portsmouth, Tyler Courtney led the most laps from the pole, but he slipped up in traffic on lap 20 and let both Brent Marks and Dietrich by. Marks went on to the $20,000 win, and with a third place finish, Justin Peck was crowned speedweek champion. Marks only raced three of the nights, but ended up with the win and two thirds. Not a bad few days for him. As for Peck, over the nine nights, he did have two finishes outside the top ten, but the other seven races resulted in finishes of 4th or better, including two wins. So with a few weeks off now to regroup, Peck has closed up on Sunshine in season long championship chase, with only 38 points between them. Everyone else behind them, including Parker Price Miller, Cap Henry, Zeb Wise, and Hunter Schuerenberg all had issues through the week, and are all more than 160 points back. Unless one of those other guys can catch fire, this is a two horse race right now. The All Stars are back July 6th at Lernerville.
A quick change of gears, but NASCAR did race on dirt over the weekend with the truck series at Knoxville. Todd Gilliland ended up the winner, but we did have some dirt racers in the field. Buddy Kofoid finished 11th in a Kyle Busch Motorsports truck after starting fifth. Dylan Westbrook was also there, he was 17th. Jessica Friesen got upside down and was 34th, and Gateway winner Tyler Carpenter ended up 36th after driveline issues put him out early. It was a solid showing for Kofoid who has aspirations of going pavement racing, and Westbrook gave up second place in the ASCS National Tour standings to run the race.
Eastern Storm for USAC is complete, and Logan Seavey ended up the sprint car mini series champion. Two wins, and a third on Sunday at Bloomsburg Fair closed it out for the surging Seavey. He also won the Silver Crown race at Port Royal on Saturday night with a last lap pass to beat Matt Westfall. Justin Grant won Friday at Williams Grove, even though he tried to throw it away a few times on the cushion. Photographer Dave Higgins had some good shots of Grant airborne from that one. And Brady Bacon picked up the victory last night at Bloomsburg, leading all 30 laps to bag his second win of the week and fourth of the year. Big shoutouts to Alex Bright and Briggs Danner who fought hard all week to defend their east coast turf against the national competitors. Bright had three top tens, including two seconds, one at the Grove and a hard charging one at Port Royal. Danner was top ten every night, including a second at Grandview, and he led laps at Bridgeport and Port Royal. Really impressive week for both of those drivers. In the national points, Grant leaves the week as the leader by 14 over defending champ Bacon. Seavey, Robert Ballou, and CJ Leary complete the top five. The sprint cars are in Wisconsin this coming weekend with stops at Wilmot and Angell Park. As for Silver Crown, Seavey leads Kody Swanson in those standings with just two races in the books.
With the Summer Nationals, we had weekend wins from Bobby Pierce, Chris Simpson and Brian Shirley at Tri-City, Fairbury, and Sycamore. Pierce won the first week championship and the extra cash, and he leads Ryan Unzicker right now by 4 points overall. We are down to eight drivers who have competed in all six races. On the modified side, nobody can stop Nick Hoffman. Five wins in five races and already over a 100 point lead in the standings. Teams are off today for a break, but the Hell Tour continues tomorrow night at Springfield.
Up at Cedar Lake, Jake O'Neil was the Friday winner with the USMTS modifieds. O'Neil already has six victories this year. And Saturday night in the finale of the Masters, Dereck Ramirez picked up the $10,000 winner's check. He's been trying to get back in the mix for the championship after a bit of a slow start, and he's now in striking distance of leaders Dustin Sorensen and Tanner Mullens.
Other weekend winners include Derek Hagar and Wayne Johnson in ASCS National Tour action. Johnson continues to lead the ASCS points, now with Blake Hahn and Garet Williamson in tow. Chase Dietz was a 410 winner at both Williams Grove and Lincoln, Trey Starks stayed hot out west with a 410 win at Grays Harbor. Remember Dirt Cup is on tap this week at Skagit. Ryan Timms swept the border battle between Jackson and Huset's, and Anthony Macri won Saturday at Port Royal.
JDK asked me on Twitter about the 410 win list for the year, so here you go. According to sprintcarratings.com, Anthony Macri has the most with 12. Danny Dietrich has eight in second, AJ Flick, Carson Macedo, and Sheldon Haudenschild all have seven in third. Brent Marks, Dominic Scelzi, Justin Peck, Ryan Timms, Gio Scelzi, and Logan Wagner complete the top ten.
Elsewhere, Wil Herrington swept the Comp Cams late model weekend at Magnolia, Jimmy Mars was a limited late model winner at Cedar Lake, Sam Seawright won with the Southern All Stars at East Alabama, and Gregg Satterlee was a ULMS winner at Selinsgrove. In northeast modified action, Matt Sheppard bagged the Short Track Super Series Sunday show at Devil's Bowl Speedway.
There are four shows on the streaming schedule today. FloRacing has 410 sprint cars from Skagit as we get ready for Dirt Cup, plus Flo 24/7. Speed Sport has IMCA racing from both Park Jefferson and Coos Bay. 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!