DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Zeb Wise replaces Cory Eliason at Rudeen Racing | Daily 7-6-2022
Rudeen Racing has it's new driver, the All Stars race for $25 grand tonight and more dirt racing goodness for your Wednesday. Let's go!
Today is Wednesday, July 6th, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
The much anticipated driver announcement for the Rudeen 26 sprint car came yesterday afternoon with the team naming Zeb Wise the new wheelman. Wise replaces Cory Eliason who was released last week after more than three seasons with the team, and the new pairing will begin next Tuesday night at Attica for the Brad Doty Classic with the World of Outlaws. Wise ran a second car for Rudeen during the Dirt Cup at Skagit recently and is currently fifth in the All Star standings with two wins, 10 top fives, and 15 top tens through 25 races this season. This is year three of full time competition with the All Stars for the 19 year old driver from Indiana, with his rookie season happening behind the wheel of the McGhee 11, while 2021 and thus far in 2022 have been with his own Wise-Priddy team, partnering with crew chief Wayne Priddy. In a post to Twitter, Wise mentioned that he will be racing through the weekend in the 10 car, including tonight at Lernerville and Friday and Saturday at Ransomville and Stateline. From there, he'll jump in the 26, with the 10 car being parked for the time being. The loss of Eliason from the 26 and Wise shutting down the 10 means we've effectively lost an entire full time team from the All Star roster. It also takes both Wise and Rudeen out of contention for the All Star championship, because that series awards the title based on owner points. Rudeen will miss the next three All Star shows and they were already way down in eighth, and the 10 goes away after this weekend, that is unless some sort of weird points swap is happening behind the scenes that I don't know about. So right now we are left with Tyler Courtney, Justin Peck, Parker Price-Miller, Cap Henry, Zeb Wise, Hunter Schuerenberg, Bill Balog, Kyle Reinhardt, and Chris Windom as full time All Star drivers. From the perspective of Kevin Rudeen, I understand this move to put Wise in the 26. He's a young up and coming driver, has already won with the series, and is continuing to improve. But I am a tad disappointed we didn't get to see a fresh name in this seat. Maybe promote a west coast guy, or someone else on the rise from around the country. I don't know that this move solves all the problems for the 26 team, but we'll see going forward if some new blood and some fresh energy can get this group moving in the right direction again.
In other driver news this morning, the sort of All Star full time Bryan Grove Racing 28 team is looking for a new driver after Brandon Spithaler tweeted that he's left the team. Spithaler will be in his own 22 tonight at Lernerville. The 28 was originally going full time this year with Tim Shaffer behind the wheel, but that didn't last long. Spithaler jumped in the car in May, but is already out again. We'll see if that car is at Lernerville tonight with another driver.
And looking ahead to tonight, the All Star teams will race for $25,000 to win at Lernerville for the Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup. After being a World of Outlaws sanctioned event for a long time, this race is now All Star sanctioned because of issues between Lernerville and World Racing Group. If you might remember, Lernerville went ahead and flipped the Firecracker 100 from World of Outlaws to Lucas sanction for 2022, and the loss of the Outlaw sanction for the Silver Cup was collateral damage. It's a pretty wild turn if you think about it, because Lernerville used to be owned by World Racing Group, and now just a few short years later, the new ownership group has completely turned on that relationship. Anyways, back to the All Stars. The two most recent trips to the Pennsylvania track have been won by Hunter Schuerenberg, that was back on April 29th, and Aaron Reutzel back in 2019. The dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula likes Tyler Courtney tonight, but I'm gonna go Justin Peck. Peck led laps at Lernerville back in April after starting on the pole, and that team has 15 top five finishes in their last 20 All Star features. That feels like it's pretty good. Peck only trails Sunshine by 38 points currently and he's got three chances this week to try and close that gap down. There are some rain chances in the area today, so pay attention to that if you are headed out to the track. You can also watch this one live on FloRacing.
Also tonight, the Lucas late models kick off a four race week with a stop at Davenport Speedway in Iowa. This will be the first ever trip for Lucas to the quarter mile facility. As we talked about yesterday, Brandon Sheppard leads Tim McCreadie by 55 points in the standings, with Ricky Thornton Jr., Tyler Erb, and Earl Pearson Jr. completing the top five. After tonight, Lucas heads to Deer Creek in Minnesota, with Saturday's show paying $50,000 to the winner. I'd guess we'll see pretty good car counts over the next few days with so much cash available. Tonight, the analytics prediction formula likes Brandon Sheppard, and I'll agree. He was really good last weekend, picking up the win at Muskingum County on Sunday, and he's won four of the last seven stops at Davenport with the Outlaws. In those seven races, his average finish was an incredible 2.43. Tonight's action will be live on both FloRacing and MAVTV Plus.
Speaking of dirt late models, I get asked pretty regularly about the chassis situation in dirt late model racing. Who's the best, what do the stats look like, why is one doing better than another, etc. These are all tough questions, because things are incredibly cyclical, and it really depends on the team and driver. Right now we've got Rockets leading both national tour points standings between Sheppard and Dennis Erb Jr. McCreadie and RTJ are both Longhorn guys. Max Blair and Tanner English both drive Rockets. Devin Moran has won plenty this season in a Longhorn, Jonathan Davenport grabbed the million in a Longhorn, Chris Madden has won big money this year in a Rocket, Bobby Pierce has won with the Outlaws and Summer Nationals in a Pierce Platinum, and a guy like Chris Ferguson won a crown jewel in a Bloomquist. I think you can make arguments for a lot of these chassis builders being good, but it comes down to what drivers and teams are really comfortable with. We've even seen plenty of times, like Tyler Erb this year, where guys go back and forth. There is definitely not a black and white answer when it comes to the questions around dirt late model chassis.
A couple of other news items for you today. When the USAC midgets hit the Dirt Track at IMS later this summer for the BC39, another NASCAR driver will jump in a midget for that event. Sheldon Creed, who currently drives in the Xfinity Series for Richard Childress Racing, will make his series debut with Abacus Racing as a teammate to Maria Cofer. Creed is a regular on Wednesday nights at Millbridge in a micro, so this won't be a huge jump for the driver who also has a Truck Series championship and a lot of experience racing off-road. The BC39 takes place August 3rd and 4th.
Also, we've got a couple of Summer Nationals schedule changes. The series announced a few days ago that tonight's show at Fayette County was cancelled because of forecasted extreme heat. So no racing tonight. Also, the July 15th race at I-96 has been sacked, with series officials looking to replace that date with another race track. The futures of both I-96 and Fayette County seem to be in doubt right now.
In other dirt racing audio this week, Winged Nation has Tod Quiring, SuaveTalk has Tim McCreadie, LoudPedal has Jade Avedisian, Passing Points has Zach Blurton, the Dirt from Knoxville has Kaleb Johnson, Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks has Troy Morris, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters, the XR Super Series podcast, and All Gas No Brakes. To see the full list of shows and episodes, head over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
If you need a dirt racing fix today, you've got plenty of options across the streaming services. FloRacing has the All Stars from Lernerville, Lucas at Davenport, and Flo 24/7. MAVTV Plus also has the Lucas late models from Davenport, and Speed Sport has racing from Hancock County, Independence, and the RUSH sprint cars from Lernerville. 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 Wednesday. 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!