DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Kyle Larson, Outlaws and others chasing big money in Ohio all week | Daily 7-12-2022

It's a big week for the World of Outlaws in Ohio, and the big names like Kyle Larson, Tyler Courtney, and Brent Marks are coming in to try and steal the money. We'll talk about that, plus XR results, midget and modified racing tonight, and what exactly constitutes cherry picking. Let's go!

Today is Tuesday, July 12th, two thousand and twenty two. This is DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.

Starting tonight, the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars race five times this week, with big money on the line and a crown waiting at the end. Things kick off tonight at Attica for the $15,000 to win Brad Doty Classic, and then racing shifts to Eldora for the remainder of the week. I know we mentioned it yesterday, but as a quick reset, Brad Sweet is your Outlaw points leader by 42 over Sheldon Haudenschild. Carson Macedo and David Gravel remain very close as well, with Logan Schuchart now 92 back in fifth. Donny Schatz, Spencer Bayston, James McFadden, Jacob Allen and Brock Zearfoss complete the top ten. The fields will be packed all week with not only the Outlaw regulars, but a lot of All Star guys, like Tyler Courtney, Hunter Schuerenberg, Justin Peck, and Zeb Wise, but we'll also see Brent Marks, Danny Dietrich, Anthony Macri, Logan Wagner and Kerry Madsen. We previously talked about Kyle Larson, as we know he will be in attendance tonight at Attica, and it sounds like his plan is to continue racing through the week at Eldora, including on Saturday night for the Kings Royal. He'll run the Cup car in qualifying at New Hampshire, then beat feet back to Ohio to run the big show for the big money. Yung Money's past success at both race tracks should make him one of the favorites all week. He won at Attica with the Outlaws back in May, leading all 40 laps, and he won the Doty back in 2020. I'm picking him for the win tonight, but the dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula is giving Donny Schatz a slight edge over Larson, and it's because of his average finish at the track lately. Schatz won the Doty in 2018 and his average finish over his last six appearances is a very stout 3.83. Donny has been better as of late, but I'm skeptical of him picking up any wins this week. Speaking of Schatz, if you are a fan or interested in him, just yesterday they dropped a documentary on his career called Fifteen. I haven't watched it just yet, but it is available over on the Donny Schatz YouTube channel. You can also find links on his social media accounts. Other drivers to watch tonight include Spencer Bayston, who won this event last year, David Gravel has multiple wins at Attica, and James McFadden and Carson Macedo both have solid average finishes there. We'll get more into what's ahead at Eldora on tomorrow's show. You can watch the Doty live tonight on DIRTVision if you cannot be there. Drop me a comment and let me know who you are picking tonight for the win.

With the XR Super Series last night at Stuart International, it was all Jonathan Davenport. He led from flag to flag to earn his third series win of the season. It was a $20,000 score for Superman, and he only trails Chris Madden this season in feature wins with XR. Chris Ferguson, Dale McDowell, Tim McCreadie, Kyle Larson, and Shane Clanton have all also picked up XR victories in 2022. While nobody had anything for the fast 49 out front, the racing from second on back was pretty good. McCreadie and Gustin ended up on the podium, but we had several other guys in the mix late, including Chad Simpson, Mike Marlar, Madden, and Ricky Thornton Jr. Gustin was really the only one to use the top, and I think if the race was maybe another 15 or 20 laps, Gustin may have had a chance to win the thing. He was really able to make ground banging the fence. Dallon Murty was the night's stock car winner, while Skylar Pruitt won the hobby stock race. They will line em up and do it all over again tonight at Stuart for another $20,000 to win. You can again watch the racing live on XR Plus with a subscription.

Out in Oklahoma tonight, the USAC midgets begin Mid-America Midget Week at Red Dirt Raceway. The teams had Monday off after Huset's, and now they'll race four times in five days between Red Dirt, Solomon Valley, and Jefferson County. Buddy Kofoid extended his points lead at Huset's to 46 over Justin Grant, and everyone from Bryant Wiedeman in third on back is pretty far out of contention right now. Grant and Kofoid both had the longest top ten streaks in the country going before Huset's, but both were broken over the weekend. One driver to keep an eye on this week is Jacob Denney and that Mounce/Stout team. In just nine appearances with USAC in 2022, Denney has a win, five top fives, and seven top tens. He's finished top five in four of his last five races, and the prediction formula actually favors him tonight at Red Dirt. I like that pick, so I'm going to agree. The top three in recent average finish with the series includes Denney, Brenham Crouch, and Cannon McIntosh. The previous two winners at Red Dirt were Daison Pursley and Tanner Thorson, and neither will be in attendance tonight. If you want to watch, you can catch the action live on FloRacing.

Elsewhere tonight we've got the Super DIRTcar Series big block modifieds at Big Diamond Speedway in Pennsylvania, racing for $7500 to win. Alex Yankowski was the winner at Big Diamond a year ago, and he's now a rookie of the year contender with the series this season. Mike Gular was the track champion in 2020, and he's in action tonight as well. In the battle for the championship, Matt Sheppard currently has a very slight four point lead over Max McLaughlin. Mat Williamson is only another 10 points back in third. We've yet to have a repeat winner in a points paying event this season, and that trend could very well continue tonight with the quality of these fields. Stewart Friesen is the only driver with multiple series wins in 2022, but one of those came during DIRTcar Nationals, which is not a points paying event. He will be in attendance tonight as well. If you aren't headed to the track, tonight's 75 lapper will be live over on DIRTVision.

If you want even more modified racing, the USMTS is kicking off their own busy week with a stop tonight at Mason City Motor Speedway. They will then head to Ogilvie Raceway for Mod Wars starting Thursday, and they will close out the stretch of five races in six days with a Sunday race at Casino Speedway in South Dakota. Competitors tonight are racing for $5 grand to win, and Dustin Sorensen enters as the points leader over Tanner Mullens, defending champion Dereck Ramirez, Zack VanderBeek, and Rodney Sanders. Jake O'Neil continues to lead all drivers in the wins category, currently sitting at six, and that is in three less starts then the full timers, as he's not chasing the title this year. Guys like Mullens, VanderBeek and Sanders are all still chasing their first win of the season. You can watch these races all week over on RacinDirt.

One more topic for you to think about today at work or whatever you've got going on this Tuesday. I had a commenter on the video yesterday who mentioned that Macri should have won at Lincoln over the weekend because he has a big money operation running local, Saturday night shows. And I've got to be honest with you, I've never thought of the Central Pennsylvania sprint car scene as a normal weekly racing area. Yes, there are smaller budget teams that compete every week, but you can about make a full time living driving sprint cars in that region every week, and Macri winning at Lincoln doesn't feel like cherry picking, or some big budget operation stealing a Friday night $500 to win show. That was a $5000 to win race, and Central PA isn't a joke. I've never heard of anyone saying the same thing about Danny Dietrich, or Brent Marks, or Lance Dewease. We've got late model teams and drivers that drop in on some of the higher paying local stuff every week and I don't hear those comments about them. So I'm curious where you stand on this subject. Where do you draw the line on cherry picking races, or do you even draw a line at all. Let me know your thoughts on this.

There are eight shows on the streaming schedule today. DIRTVision has the Brad Doty Classic, the Super DIRTcar Series at Big Diamond, and outlaw karts from Millbridge. FloRacing has the USAC midgets at Red Dirt and Flo 24/7. XR+ has night two from Stuart International, the USMTS modifieds are on RacinDirt, and there is IMCA racing on Speed Sport. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, head over to dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.

That's it for the show today, have a good Tuesday. 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!