DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Rudeen Racing releases driver Cory Eliason | Daily 6-30-2022
Cory Eliason is out at Rudeen Racing, Brent Marks wins again in Pennsylvania, plus what's ahead tonight on dirt. Let's go!
Today is Thursday, June 30th, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
We'll get to last night's action and what's ahead tonight in a bit, but we'll start off with the big news from yesterday which was Rudeen Racing announcing that after three and a half seasons together, that they had parted ways this week with driver Cory Eliason. It was only a few weeks ago that I did a daily show talking about the struggles that Eliason and that team have had this year, and since then, things hadn't gotten much better. Eliason is still way down in eighth in All Star points, and the team had an abysmal weekend at Dirt Cup at Skagit, where Eliason finished 23rd, 21st, and 19th. In the story from Jeremy Elliott, Eliason said that team owner Kevin Rudeen called him on Monday to give him the news, and that he wasn't really prepared for it to happen this week. He did indicate though that he thought this move might be coming. Rudeen did say to Eliason that he'd help him secure a ride in the future, but right now, there is nothing to report yet on where Eliason could end up. As for the Rudeen 26, supposedly the team will be in attendance next Wednesday night when the All Stars head to Lernerville. We just don't know yet who will be driving. Before this season's struggles, Eliason had been a yearly contender with the All Stars, finishing third in the standings in 2019, and second each of the past two years. Along the way he bagged eight wins, 59 top fives, and 111 top tens in 173 races. This year though, things were just not working. Through 27 races, the team had just five top fives, 12 top tens, and the lone win at East Bay early in the year. Their qualifying average was almost five positions worse than a year ago, and their feature finish average was two spots worse. I personally thought that this team would be the ones to beat in 2021, and I figured they'd keep Sunshine honest again this year, but that did not happen. Behind the scenes, there were crew changes to try and fix things, but to no avail. And now, with still half the season to go, Eliason is out and Rudeen will have a new driver. It's a shame, because that 26 team is definitely a premium ride and capable of competing every night out. And we know Eliason is as talented as they come. You don't win with both the All Stars and Outlaws unless you can drive. But sometimes things just don't work for whatever reason, and this is one of those instances. I saw a lot of people defending Eliason yesterday on social media, and some of it spilled into my mentions. I was a bit surprised by it, because I didn't see anywhere that people were actually blaming the driver for the issues, or that he somehow deserved this move. The defense seemed a bit unnecessary. Anyone who's seen him race, knows that he is plenty capable. But again, this is just the nature of the beast sometimes. I'm guessing we'll know fairly soon who the new Rudeen driver is with less than a week until they race again. As for Eliason, he'll be working the phones I'm sure and trying to put together rides to continue his season. Drop a comment and let me know what you think of this move.
Pennsylvania Speedweek had a big shakeup in the weeklong points standings last night at Port Royal. Anthony Macri entered the night with a sizeable lead over Brent Marks, but after an expired engine for Macri and a dominating win for Marks, the top two have flipped headed to Hagerstown. Marks ended up leading all 30 laps from the outside front row, while Macri lost that engine with just nine laps remaining. He was running third at the time. We may have ended up with a nice battle for the win between Marks and a hard charging Kyle Larson, but under the caution for Macri, Larson's right rear tire started going flat, and it was only three laps later that Yung Money was out of the feature when that right rear finally went all the way down. So Marks picked up $7000 and his second win of the week, with Mike and Logan Wagner joining him on the podium. Heading to Hagerstown tonight, the gap back to Macri is 55, but there is still plenty of racing left for the Concrete Kid to make a charge. We have another streaming flip tonight, with Sprintcarunlimited.TV having the live stream.
At Benton Speedway last night, the Summer Nationals and Modified Nationals event turned into a bit of a mess. They couldn't get the track right early in the night, and eventually the series made the call to just pull the plug on the event entirely. It seems like some of the competitors already had an idea this track was going to be a problem, and didn't even show up. The late model field was only 20 cars, and the modifieds only had 11, which didn't include Nick Hoffman. It's pretty common for the mod guys to take nights off, and Hoffman has certainly done it in other years. But this one felt a bit strategic. So no changes last night with no racing completed, and now they will head to Fayette County tonight. The show tonight pays $10,000 to win for late models and $1500 for modifieds. If you can't be there, DIRTVision has live coverage.
At Atomic Speedway in Ohio last night, the FAST Series was in action with 410 sprint cars. The feature was marred by several early incidents that took out a bunch of cars, and it was nearly 40 minutes from the time the green flag waved the first time until we had an official lap complete. Once rolling finally, Cole Duncan was on a mission, and he jumped to a massive lead and started putting the field laps down. Later, with just a handful of laps left, Duncan had managed to put everyone a lap down from 5th on back, but his night did not end in victory lane. With three laps to go, he shredded a right rear tire into turn three and was then just a passenger as his 22 car went for a tumble. It was a brutal end following a dominant performance. The crash handed the lead to Lee Jacobs and he held on over the final few laps to earn the $5000 win. Cale Thomas and Nate Dussel completed the podium. The FAST Series is back in action on Sunday at Waynesfield, joined by the BOSS non-wing cars.
With just a few days off since the Firecracker 100 weekend wrapped up, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series is right back at it for a four race weekend starting tonight at Florence Speedway in Kentucky. They will then head to Portsmouth in Ohio on Friday, and then Muskingum County on Saturday and Sunday. We talked earlier in the week about Tim McCreadie closing the gap to Brandon Sheppard for the championship lead, and entering tonight, it's only 25 points between the two. Behind them, Tyler Erb, Ricky Thornton Jr., and Earl Pearson Jr. complete the top five. All of them have some work to do to get into the mix. Florence is a regular stop for the Lucas late models, and in just the previous two seasons, I have seven races in the dirtrackr.com analytics database from there. In those seven shows, we've had six different winners. Brandon Overton won two of three in 2021, with local favorite Josh Rice the other winner. In 2020, Tim McCreadie, Mike Marlar, Jimmy Owens and EPJ all picked up victories. Over those seven races, TMac has by far the best average finish, sitting at a very strong 3.7. That past success at Florence, combined with his recent run of good races has McCreadie atop the win chances from the prediction formula, and I'll agree with that choice tonight. He's won back to back races on two different occasions in the last three seasons, so he could definitely do that again tonight. If you can't get to Florence, watch live on MAVTV Plus.
If you're a big block modified fan, the Super DIRTcar Series is racing tonight at Land of Legends Raceway in Canandaigua, New York. The series raced just six days ago, with Mike Mahaney coming out on top at Albany-Saratoga. Stewart Friesen had been leading the points standings, but he didn't race last Friday as he was in the truck race at Nashville, so we had a points jumble following the event. Headed into tonight, Mat Williamson has taken over the top spot in the championship, with Matt Sheppard 25 points back in second, and Max McLaughlin, Jimmy Phelps, and Anthony Perrego in tow. Surprisingly, Sheppard is the only driver in the top ten in the standings with a series win this season. I would guess we'll probably see that change tonight. Peter Britten is a regular at Canandaigua, and he won here last season in SDS competition. He could be a very solid choice tonight as well. The race tonight pays $7600 to win, and you can watch it live on DIRTVision.
Elsewhere tonight, the IRA sprint cars are headed to the Plymouth Dirt Track in Wisconsin for a $5000 to win show. This track is only five miles from Road America, which is hosting NASCAR this weekend, so hopefully some folks will get a chance to see some dirt racing before the road course racing coming up. Chase Briscoe will be there with the Mahindra sprint car as part of his dirt schedule this season. With eight races complete, Jordan Goldesberry currently leads the IRA points standings over Jake Neuman and Jake Blackhurst. Goldesberry and Neuman are both seeking their first wins of the year, while Scotty Thiel is the only driver with multiple victories in 2022. If you aren't nearby, tonight's IRA show can be watched live on FloRacing.
It's a busy day on the streaming services, with 15 shows coming up. That includes the Summer Nationals and Super DIRTcar Series on DIRTVision, the Lucas late models on MAVTV Plus, PA Speedweek on Sprintcarunlimited.TV, and a lot more. 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 Thursday. 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!