DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Brent Marks takes advantage of Eldora format, wins 39th Kings Royal | Daily 7-18-2022
It's hot take Monday, and I've got one about Brent Marks that might get me in trouble. That today, plus everything you need to know from the dirt racing weekend. Let's roll!
It's Monday, July 18th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
So after taking down the $100 grand in the Historical Big One last Thursday, Brent Marks completed at least the big money sweep at Eldora on Saturday night, bagging the $175,000 and becoming King Brent the 39th in the Kings Royal. He started sixth, but was on the move early, and just past half way, he grabbed the lead from Brian Brown and didn't let go of it the rest of the way. The Saturday show felt similar to the Thursday race, with two other guys battling early for the lead, and Marks coming in later. Only this time instead of Tyler Courtney and Rico Abreu, it was Kerry Madsen and Brian Brown. It was an incredible way to cap off the week for Marks and his team, and he cements his place in history as a winner of the Kings Royal. Going forward, a lot of people will have him as a favorite when we go to Knoxville for the Nationals in a few weeks. Now, here's where I might get a little controversial. I have a bit of a hot take today, so just hear me out. If the two big money races were standard Outlaw format, I don't know that Marks wins either race. And here's why. Marks didn't qualify good any day this week at Eldora. He was 11th in his group Wednesday, 26th on Thursday, 15th in his group in the Friday program, and 19th for the Kings Royal. In the two shows that were standard formats, he finished 16th on Wednesday, and bowed out of the Friday show when he was scheduled to start 8th in the first heat race. He was eventually credited with 14th in the C-Main after they scratched. Marks made the Thursday feature because he started on the pole of heat three, and eventually faded to third at the end, which was the final transfer spot. And for the Kings Royal program, the inverts put him on the pole of heat one, which he ended up winning. So he was definitely able to take advantage of the Eldora big show format and the inversions. And now you're going to say, but he Justin, he drove through the field on Thursday from 14th. And yes, you'd be correct. But there is a reasonable chance that with the standard format on Thursday, he wouldn't have made the feature transfer, instead needing to drive through the B-Main, which would have put him even deeper in the feature to start. I also think it was probably a pretty nice advantage for that team to miss the Friday program, and instead focus on the night show. They didn't put their car at risk, and could just polish on it for the big money later that night. It was definitely a smart move. But the Outlaw teams didn't have that luxury, because the Friday race was a full points show. I'm not saying all of this to take anything away from what Marks accomplished this week, because in the end, when it came down to being fast when it counted, that 19 was tuned up. But he was definitely benefitted by the inversion format that happens at Eldora. The two shows that Marks didn't win this week went to David Gravel, and that helped keep things tight in the standings. Brad Sweet leaves Eldora with 42 points on Gravel, and 58 on Macedo. It wasn't a great week for Sheldon Haudenschild, who failed to record a top ten in any race at Eldora, and was 24th in the Kings Royal. He's slipped to fourth, and 80 points back. And Logan Schuchart was outside the top ten in both points paying features, and has dropped to 122 behind. So with three races in Central Pennsylvania coming up this week, we've got the top three separating themselves a bit from the rest of the pack. The Outlaws are at Port Royal on Wednesday, before two nights at the Grove this weekend.
On the late model side, the Lucas guys closed out a three race weekend with stops at Tri-City on Friday and Lucas Oil Speedway on Saturday. On Friday night, Hudson O'Neal led all but two laps to score his third win of the season over Tim McCreadie and Jimmy Owens. For O'Neal, after not winning at all with the series in 2022, he's now bagged three victories in nine days, has climbed into the top five in the standings, and is right on the heels of Tyler Erb for fourth. On Saturday night at Wheatland, Johnny Scott shocked the field by leading 49 of 50 laps in a caution free affair to score his second win of the year. Owens and Brandon Sheppard joined him on the podium. Johnny's other win this season came at Lucas Oil Speedway back on May 27th, and his stats with the series are pretty crazy. Over his last 52 appearances, he has just two top fives, both of which are wins at Wheatland. Outside of that, he only has four other top ten finishes. Of those 52 race nights, he's been in B-Mains 36 times. But he definitely has that track figured out. In the race for the Lucas championship, which I think I'm the only one that cares about it, McCreadie extended his lead to 100 points leaving the weekend, with Sheppard still second, and Ricky Thornton Jr. losing ground in third. He's now 265 back. This busy stretch for the Lucas late models continues this week, with a Tuesday stop at Huset's, followed by three nights at I-80 Speedway, culminating in the Silver Dollar Nationals on Saturday night.
A quick note about Ashton Winger, we talked last week about him dropping off the Lucas tour as a rookie, and Kyle McFadden with Dirt on Dirt confirmed the team's plans over the weekend. They were short handed and have decided to just go pick and choose the rest of the year. Winger and the GR Smith owned team will run the 22 number going forward and will work on building for the future and winning races on their terms. You can see McFadden's piece at dirtondirt.com.
With the Outlaws, we hadn't seen them in action since June 26th at Jacksonville. They got two of three shows in over the weekend, with Saturday's race at I-94 postponed to August 2nd because of rain. On Friday night at River Cities, Shane Clanton scored his first Outlaw win since 2019, leading all 40 laps and topping points leader Dennis Erb Jr. and Mike Marlar. He was a full timer with Lucas in 2020 and 2021, but over that stretch only scored one victory on that side. Clanton's been pretty strong though with the Outlaws since returning as a full time driver though, taking the place of teammate Tyler Bruening a while back. On Sunday at Red Cedar, polesitter Mike Marlar lost the lead on lap one to Ricky Weiss, but Marlar got him back by lap six and was in control the rest of the way. It was his second win of 2022 with the series, and second in just his last three starts. Weiss and Erb completed the podium. Erb's strong weekend saw him extend the championship lead to 170 now over Max Blair, with Tanner English now only 14 points behind Blair for second. Everyone from Ryan Gustin on back is way out of contention. The Outlaws are back next Monday night at Boone Speedway.
Out in Nebraska we had more USAC midget fireworks over the weekend. On Friday night, early leader Ryan Timms got hung up in lap traffic and Mitchel Moles was there to pounce, grabbing the lead on lap seven and driving away to his first career national midget victory. Moles has now grabbed his first USAC wins in both the sprint car and midget over the past week. On Saturday night though, things didn't go so great for Moles and that Chad Boat team. They flipped in their heat race and had to go to a backup car. They drove through the semi to get in the feature, but then crashed again the main event and finished 21st. Even with the issues though, I'm really high on Moles. Him moving from California to the midwest has been paying off, and he's been fast a lot. I like his future. As for the fireworks, things got crazy on Saturday night very late in the going. Ryan Timms was headed for his second win of the week and fourth podium, but Corey Joyner got turned around in four right as Timms was going to get the checkered. That setup a green-white-checkered finish and it was on like Donkey Kong. As they were coming to the white, Cannon McIntosh got by Timms and chopped him on the front straightaway for the lead, which Timms didn't seem to appreciate. So the huge slider was inbound, and neither driver relented in turn two. Both ended up off the track down the backstretch, and Buddy Kofoid was there to take advantage. He led about half of the final lap to score the $10,000 win. The issues for the leaders also promoted Jerry Coons Jr. to second and Zach Daum to the podium. McIntosh ended up 10th with Timms 11th. It was another instance of two young, talented drivers not wanting to give an inch and they both paid the price. It was entertaining to watch though. Four top fives over the week, and the win in the finale meant Buddy Kofoid has extended the championship lead to 77 now over Justin Grant. The next points paying event for the series is the BC39 August 3rd and 4th.
And before we shut it down for the day, I wanted to mention the ASCS from the weekend. Gunner Ramey bagged his first national tour win at US36 Raceway, and what a top five we had. Ramey your winner, Corey Day hard charging from 17th to 2nd, Riley Goodno third, Garet Williamson fourth, and Landon Crawley fifth. Young guys really shining with that 360 series. The points have been blown wide open as well, with Wayne Johnson taking a step back to continue healing from the crash at WaKeeney. Points leader Blake Hahn also went for a big tumble early at US36. So right, the top four are only separated by 43 points. The ASCS starts their summer speedweek on Thursday, so a bunch of racing coming up for them.
Other weekend sprint car winners included Xavier Doney in WAR action, Lance Dewease won Friday at Williams Grove, Jodie Robinson scored a 360 win at Placerville, it was her first. Aaron Reutzel won the 410 show at Knoxville, Justin Sanders won the Howard Kaeding Classic at Ocean, and Mark Dobmeier won Sunday at Huset's.
In other late model action, Corey Hedgecock and Dale McDowell picked up weekend Southern Nationals wins at Beckley, Wythe, and Volunteer. Josh Rice won twice, at Ponderosa and Richmond. Devin Moran was a Summer Nationals winner at Oakshade, and Gregg Satterlee and Kyle Hardy were ULMS winners.
And with the USMTS, Dustin Sorensen, Jake Timm, and Jake O'Neil were weekend UMSTS winners.
There are two items on the streaming schedule today, Speed Sport has dwarf cars from Antioch Speedway and there is FloRacing 24/7. 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 Monday. 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!