DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Sprint car team shakeups in Central Pennsylvania | Daily 7-8-2022
We've got a sprint car shakeup in Central Pennsylvania, plus we'll talk the dirt racing weekend ahead. Let's go!
Today is Friday, July 8th, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
We've already had several driver and team changes on the sprint car side this season, especially within the last week or so, and yesterday things changed pretty dramatically in Central Pennsylvania. Anthony Macri didn't finish racing during PA Speedweek, sitting out the finale at Selinsgrove, and it seems now that we know why. So here's where we stand today with the information that started trickling out last night. Devon Borden has been racing the Heffner 27 over the past year, and now the young driver from Washington is out. Going forward, Borden will drive for John Stehman, who's campaigned cars for himself and Pat Cannon in recent years. Stehman is being joined by Jim and Chris Shuttlesworth, who move over from Anthony Macri's team. Jim has been Macri's crew chief for a few seasons now, but supposedly he's getting an ownership stake in this new venture with Stehman and Borden. So Macri losing two key crew members is probably why he didn't finish racing last week, and losing those guys could be a massive hit for his season going forward. Macri has already had an incredible year with wins all over Pennsylvania, including during PA Speedweek, with the All Stars, and during weekly competition. He's also had solid runs with the Outlaws, with top fives at Lincoln and Bridgeport, and a top ten at Knoxville. In the meantime, while the Macri team tries to figure out how to replace Jim and Chris Shuttlesworth, Macri posted to his Facebook page that Bernie Stuebgen of Indy Race Parts is coming in this weekend to fill in as crew chief on the 39. So Macri now with Bernie, Borden to the Stehman team with the two Shuttlesworths, and Mike Heffner is looking for a driver for the famous 27 ride. And now the rumors are flying about the future of the 27, with all sorts of names being floated, including Macri, but I've also seen Cory Eliason and Briggs Danner mentioned. Macri is obviously not the guy here, but Eliason and Danner are interesting possiblities. Eliason is probably the highest profile free agent right now, but I wonder how good of a choice he'd be, given his up and down history in Central PA. He's won at Port Royal and Lincoln in All Star competition, but Williams Grove has been an issue, and there are also some tough finishes at Port and Lincoln mixed in. He is talented though, and maybe the switch from the young Borden to the more experienced Eliason would be a boost for the 27. Danner is being mentioned here, as he's already backed by Heffner in his other racing pursuits, and he's high on the list of young talent right now in open wheel racing around the country. There could also be other names at play, but those seem to be the two most mentioned. This situation appears to be pretty fluid right now, and the announcement could come fairly quickly on the new driver for the Heffner car. Stay tuned friends, as the Silly Season door has just been kicked off the hinges.
In Lucas competition on Thursday night, Chris Madden picked up the first prelim night win at Deer Creek Speedway. He started 11th and took the lead with six laps to go. Brandon Sheppard and Jonathan Davenport were battling for the lead, and Madden just kind of slipped by both on the bottom and drove off to the win. Sheppy and JD completed the night's podium. For the second night in a row we had really good racing with Lucas. At the end, you could have thrown a blanket over the top four with Tim McCreadie also in the mix. Racing continues tonight with another $5000 to win prelim program, with Saturday's big show paying a very nice $50 grand to the winner. No movement in the Lucas standings last night, and there won't be tonight either, so Sheppard still leads McCreadie by 30 and Thornton by 200. Both me and the dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula are sticking with the same win picks for tonight that we had last night. The formula has Sheppard, I'm going Davenport. You can again watch live tonight on MAVTV Plus and FloRacing.
It's been a tough week for the Summer Nationals with cancellations, and that theme continued last night, and it's already bitten them for tonight. Thursday's Herald & Review 100 at Macon was rained out and will be rescheduled for Thursday, September 1st. And tonight's show at Farmer City has already been lost to rain, with a new date of Friday, July 15th. Highland Speedway and Tri-State Speedway remain on the schedule for the weekend, so we'll see if those Summer Nationals and Modified Nationals event happen. Bobby Pierce continues to lead Brian Shirley and Jason Feger in the late model standings, while Nick Hoffman has a sizeable lead on Kyle Steffens and Kenny Wallace on the modified side. If the weekend shows happen, they will be live on DIRTVision.
And speaking of postponements, tonight's World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series race at 34 Raceway has been postponed because of the wet stuff. They will try again tomorrow at Wilmot in Wisconsin. Track and series officials are efforting on a new date this season for the 34 race. I've got five Outlaw shows at Wilmot in the dirtrackr.com analytics database, and Brad Sweet was the winner there one year ago. David Gravel, Donny Schatz, and Brent Marks all have recent wins there as well. Over those past five races, Donny Schatz actually leads all drivers in average finish at 4.2. The analytics prediction formula likes Gravel for tomorrow, and I think this could be a good track for those guys to grab their first win since Perris back in March, a span of 24 races. So I'll go Gravel as well. The top five in the Outlaw standings remain tight, with first to fifth only separated by 72 points. One other Outlaw note for you, Kyle Larson is expected to join the field next Tuesday night at Attica for the Brad Doty Classic. I do not know what Larson's plans are for the Kings Royal. The Cup cars are in New Hampshire next weekend, so that's not necessarily an easy back and forth on Saturday with Cup qualifying and the big show at Eldora.
Up at Huset's Speedway in South Dakota, it's a big USAC weekend with both the sprint cars and midgets inbound for the USAC Nationals. Friday and Saturday nights pay $5000 to the winners, with Sunday's finales paying $12,000 to win. Buddy Kofoid leads Justin Grant in the midget standings coming into the weekend, with those two quite a ways ahead of anyone else this season. On the sprint car side, things are much tighter, with the top six still all really within contention. Grant leads Brady Bacon and Robert Ballou, with Logan Seavey fourth, Emerson Axsom fifth, and CJ Leary in sixth. Thomas Meseraull and Chris Windom were prelim night midget winners last year, with Windom taking the big win on night three. Tanner Thorson and Leary were sprint car prelim winners, with Leary also winning the finale in 2021. The prediction formula favors Bacon and Kofoid tonight, and I'll agree. Both have been really good this season and as of late. You can watch the USAC Nationals from Huset's live on Flo all weekend.
And in the northeast, the tight All Star points battle between Tyler Courtney and Justin Peck heads to Ransomville tonight and Stateline tomorrow. The gap between the two following the Silver Cup at Lernerville is only 24 points, or about 12 positions. It appears as though the series hasn't been to Ransomville since the year 2000, while Hunter Schuerenberg won at Stateline a year ago in All Star competition. I'm guessing we'll get some of the PA Posse contigent in attendance over the two nights, which includes Brent Marks. He hasn't finished worse than sixth in his last eight All Star races. I'm going to pick him tonight, while the formula continues to like Tyler Courtney. Both of these races will be live on FloRacing.
There is a bunch of rain around the country today, so stay tuned to social media and check with your favorite track or series before you head out tonight. There have already been a bunch of cancellations, and more are definitely possible.
There are over 100 shows this weekend across the streaming services and that includes the World of Outlaws on DIRTVision, Lucas on FloRacing and MAVTV Plus, USAC at Huset's, the Summer Nationals, the All Stars 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, 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!