DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Brent Marks is Kyle Larson's Kryptonite | Daily 7-1-2022
Coming up we are talking work area black helicopters, Josh Rice going back to back at Florence, Brent Marks beating Kyle Larson again, and a lot more. Let's go!
Today is Friday, July 1st, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
In case you missed it yesterday, the FloRacing/MAVTV Plus deal was finally announced. If you want to know more about what to expect and my thoughts, check out the instant reaction video I did yesterday. That show is also available in the podcast feed. In the last 24 hours I've seen a lot of your thoughts and comments about the deal and it's been interesting to see the differing opinions. There seems to be some thought that at some point Flo will raise their subscription price, and that might be true. Hell, it may have eventually been true without this deal. But if it does go up, I don't see it being a significant raise. We're at $150 for the year, and even a 10% bump would only push us to $165. So don't expect anything drastic on that front if it happens. Also, you are going to continue to see and hear people talking about streaming affecting attendance at race tracks. But remember that we are in a pretty crazy time with high inflation, rising fuel prices, and just general uncertainty about the economy. So if there are really issues with attendance, some are conveniently leaving out those other factors. And outside of anecdotal stories that don't really mean anything, there is very little actual evidence right now about this. I don't care about your buddy's sister's cousin's dad's next door neighbor who stayed home from the track to watch the race on DIRTVision. It's easy and incredibly lazy to blame the streaming services. As I've said before, very few dirt tracks are pushing the at track experience forward, and until they are, the complaints about one camera broadcasts are going to fall on deaf ears with me.
Before we move on to other things, I did want to briefly talk about time in the work area. I've had some comments about this recently, and have seen some social media posts about time in the work area at some sprint car events. It's important to remember that in most cases, teams are guaranteed two minutes to work on their cars before half way, but that is not the limit. If lineups are still trying to be set, or track work is ongoing, or there are other cars that eventually show up in the work area, that two minutes could extend well beyond. It's not a conspiracy that certain drivers are getting favored, or whatever else some want to think it is. It's actually pretty simple. We've seen plenty of times in the past where cars get more than two minutes to get things fixed. In those cases, it's basically circumstances and luck that lead to that extended time. Race directors are not sitting up in the tower telling infield officials to let certain guys keep working. If you want to hear for yourself, the radio communication can be picked up with any basic scanner. I don't do black helicopters, and am more of a common sense and occam's razor guy, so don't expect me to push those conspiracy theories on this or any other platform. Give me real evidence, and then we can have a discussion.
Over to some racing from last night, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series kicked off a four race weekend with a stop at Florence Speedway. Josh Rice won this event one year ago, and he just decided to keep the party going last night, driving up from fifth to take the lead on lap 27 from Earl Pearson Jr. Rice led the rest of the way for the $15,000 score. Ricky Thornton Jr. finished second after starting second, with Garrett Alberson also on the podium. And after leading the first 26 laps, EPJ ended up out of the event when a rock went through their oil filter. Not the end those guys were looking for after leading their first laps of the season. In the Lucas standings, Brandon Sheppard padded his lead a bit, with Tim McCreadie now 45 back. RTJ's second place finish bumped him to third over Tyler Erb, with EPJ still fifth. It's been a struggle for Erb as of late, with only two top tens in his past six races. That team was really good from the start of the season all the way through the race at 34 Raceway on May 22nd. In the ten races since, they've only made nine features, with an average finish of 11.8. They have some work to do going forward to stay in the fight. Tonight the series heads to Portsmouth, where RTJ, McCreadie and Jonathan Davenport were winners one year ago. And then Saturday and Sunday they'll take on Muskingum County, where TMac and Terbo have picked up the previous two wins. The dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula likes Sheppard tonight, but I'm going RTJ. That team has been good, and he's won at Portsmouth before. You can watch all weekend long on both MAVTV Plus and FloRacing.
In PA Speedweek action at Hagerstown last night, Kyle Larson got outdueled by Brent Marks for the second time this week. Larson led early, but Marks was able to get by in lap traffic on lap 23 and hold on over the final few laps for the win. It was Marks' third win of the week and eighth total for the year, and he continued to extend the points lead over Anthony Macri who finished third. Larson settled for second at the end, and is now done for the week. We will not see him at Williams Grove tonight with NASCAR on tap for the weekend on the road course at Road America. Still three races left though to decide things. Tonight at the Grove, Saturday back at Port Royal, and things end Sunday at Selinsgrove.
Elsewhere yesterday, we had a battle of the titans in Modified Nationals action with Nick Hoffman keeping Mike Harrison at bay for the duration at Fayette County. It was Hoffman's ninth win in 11 races so far. On the Summer Nationals side, Shannon Babb slipped by Billy Moyer Jr. in traffic on lap 14 and held off Moyer, Brian Shirley and Tanner English at the end to become the winningest driver in series history. His first Hell Tour win came in 1999 and now he's got 101 total. Bobby Pierce finished third and extended the points lead over Shirley with stops at Paducah, Clarksville, and Lincoln coming up this weekend.
With the IRA last night at the Plymouth Dirt Track, Jake Neuman led a bunch of the race from the outside pole, but late in the going Bill Balog ran him down and took the lead. Balog drove on to the $5000 win with Neuman settling for second and Jake Blackhurst in third. It was a nice score for the 10 ten IRA champion who was moonlighting with the series as he's a full time All Star regular now. NASCAR driver Chase Briscoe finished seventh after starting ninth. Jordan Goldesberry maintains the IRA points lead, with the next race coming up on July 15th at River Cities.
In Super DIRTcar Series action on Thursday, Max McLaughlin picked up his first points paying win ever with the series, getting by Justin Haers on lap 73 and leading the final few circuits. Haers and Matt Sheppard joined him on the podium. The podium for Sheppard and a 20th place finish for Mat Williamson should be enough for Sheppard to take the points lead headed to Big Diamond on July 12th.
If you're an open wheel fan, we've got a few races to look forward to this weekend including USAC at Lincoln Park for two nights and the World of Outlaws at Cedar Lake. Both have tight championship battles with Justin Grant leading Brady Bacon by 11 on the USAC side, and Carson Macedo only 12 back of Brad Sweet on the Outlaw side. Sweet has won five straight at Cedar Lake and is the favorite from the prediction formula, but I think that team continues to be a little down this year, and this could be a good opportunity for someone else to strike. I'm gonna pick Macedo tonight, but Sheldon Haudenschild has also been fast lately and he's won before at Cedar Lake. I would not count those guys out either. At Lincoln Park, we've had six different winners over the last seven races there, so things could be pretty wide open this weekend. The formula likes Logan Seavey, I'm going Bacon. You can watch the Outlaws live as usual on DIRTVision, while USAC streams on FloRacing.
In other racing coming up, the Short Track Super Series is at Fonda on Sunday for round number four of the north region. The winner will bag $10,000. Matt Sheppard leads Mat Williamson in the north region standings. The ASCS National Tour has three stops, with Boone County coming up tonight, and WaKeeney on tap for Saturday and Sunday. Wayne Johnson is your current points leader over defending champion Blake Hahn. The series did announce today that upcoming races at Rocket and Jackson have been cancelled because of a lack of tire inventory. This series continues to be absolutely battered by tires and weather in 2022. And up north, Ohsweken Speedway is hosting the 16th annual Canadian Sprint Car Nationals tonight. 360 sprint cars racing for $10,000 to win. The track is located about 60 miles south of Toronto and is owned by Glenn Styres, who has done a lot for dirt racing and dirt racers.
On the streaming services this weekend, we are well north of 100 shows. That includes Lucas on Flo and MAV, the World of Outlaws from Cedar Lake on DIRTVision, USAC on Flo, the Short Track Super Series, the MLRA, Sprint Car Challenge Tour, ULMS, Summer Nationals and more. To see the full daily streaming schedule through the weekend, 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!