DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Mack McCarter showed America how not to drive a dirt late model | Daily 7-20-2022

What the hell was Mack McCarter thinking last night? We'll discuss his antics at I-75, plus talk Lucas at Huset's, Outlaws at Port Royal and more. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, July 20th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

I had planned on kicking today's show off with last night's Lucas show at Huset's, but then Mack McCarter decided to put on one of the more disrespectful performances I've seen in a dirt late model, so we'll start there instead. The Southern Nationals series was at I-75 Raceway last night for round number four, and it felt like there was just something in the air. There were multiple incidents in the feature, with several guys upset, but things started to get wild before half way. Ashton Winger and Tyler Millwood were involved in a dustup that resulted in Millwood turned around and a caution. On the restart, the battle for the top spot was on between Winger and leader Mack McCarter, and Winger threw his first slider attempt that didn't hold. It then took a few laps for Winger to get back to the 51 and the battle continued coming to 18 laps to go with another Winger slider into three that didn't hold. McCarter drove back by and gave Winger a little nudge off the frontstretch. Winger stayed in the gas though, and tried to get alongside the 51 down the backstretch, but again, McCarter gave no space and Winger was again off the track. The 22 got big sideways, but Winger saved it, and a lap later a third slider came McCarter's direction into turn three. But again the result was the same with McCarter squeezing Winger off the frontstretch. As he had the previous laps, Winger held tough though, and coming to 15 to go, Winger used the same slider move into three, but this time was able to clear the 51. McCarter wasn't obviously not going to give up, and into turn one the very next lap drove in really deep and let his car slide all the way to the top on exit, knowing Winger was there. The 22 again slid off the track, but there was no saving it this time. Winger's car bit and barrel rolled several times before coming to rest on all four wheels. Winger was okay, but very upset at McCarter, and then the fireworks were on with crews on the track, guys trying to fight and officials trying to sort everyone out. It was several minutes before the scrum on the track dispersed. McCarter ended up pulling off the track afterwards, which handed the lead to Cory Hedgecock, and he went on to the win. In the aftermath, Ray Cook, who runs the series, has suspended two crew members on Winger's car, one of which being Winger's father Gary, for their actions after the incident. That's not surprising, as guys coming onto the track from the pit area is usually going to draw the ire of officials. You don't need a bunch of people involved in a huge altercation like that. As for McCarter, he attempted to defend his driving to Kevin Kovac in a story over at Dirt on Dirt, but I don't know how you watch any of what transpired and side with McCarter. I don't know if these two maybe have a history, but the 51 was clearly going to do everything he felt necessary to keep the lead, including running Winger off the track. He tried to tell Kovac that Winger's last slider damaged his left front and that's why he did what he did into turn one. But that little bit of contact does not justify the way he drove the previous several laps, and Winger didn't deserve to get junked for the move. The series won't penalize McCarter, but that's the type of racing we don't need at any level. I understand you want to win, but we don't need to be getting people hurt and destroying race cars like that. McCarter showed no respect, no etiquette and should be embarrassed by his driving over those several laps. It's a shame it came to that, because if both drivers end up finishing the race, we'd be having a very different discussion today. The series is off today, but will be back in action on Thursday at Senoia. Hedgecock is now the points leader over Camaron Marlar following the win.

Now, the type of racing we should be talking about with dirt late models happened at Huset's Speedway last night with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. It was the debut for Lucas at Huset's, and as expected, we get to see some great racing. The tight confines and high banks of Huset's made for a lot of action, and we ended up with three different leaders through the 40 laps. Ricky Thornton Jr. took over from front row starting Tyler Erb on lap 13, but he eventually had a good portion of the right rear quarter and spoiler knocked off the 20RT from so many hits to the outside wall. That made him vulnerable, and points leader Tim McCreadie took control with 11 to go and drove off to this fourth win of 2022. Mike Marlar hard charged from 12th to second, with Tyler Erb third. RTJ faded to seventh with all that damage. Good stuff though at Huset's, guys racing all over the track, slide jobs, and poor RTJ's car. Headed to I-80 now for three nights of the Silver Dollar Nationals, McCreadie has extended his lead over Brandon Sheppard to 140 points, and RTJ lost more ground as well. I had some commentors asking about the future of the Silver Dollar Nationals with the impending closure of I-80, and honestly I don't know anything specific. Obviously Huset's would make some sense. It's only about three and a half hours from I-80, and clearly the racing is good there. Track owner Tod Quiring is trying to build that place up with some big events, so the Silver Dollar Nationals would be a good get. I don't know anything about the future though. Last night's win for McCreadie was his 20th straight top ten, to go along with everything we talked about on yesterday's show. I also wanted to spotlight Mike Marlar. He's not full time, but he's got 11 straight top tens when he has raced, including 10 straight top fives. In there as well are two wins at Lernerville, laps led in four races, and last night's 12th to second run. He's a different driver since the beginning of June and his incident at Wheatland where he was injured. He's also got five podiums, including two wins with the Outlaws in his past six appearances over there as well. Marlar is definitely one to watch in the coming weeks with a lot of big money on the line. The busy week for Lucas continues Thursday.

In Pennsylvania tonight, the World of Outlaws continue their season long fight with the Posse drivers. A stop at Port Royal is on tap before the Summer Nationals take place this weekend at Williams Grove. We've got Logan Schuchart and Sheldon Haudenschild in need of good runs to try and stay within striking distance of points leader Brad Sweet, and David Gravel and Carson Macedo trying to close down the gap. Central PA isn't normally a good area for Sweet, so these guys trailing him in the standings really need to capitalize this week before racing transitions back to the midwest in the coming weeks. As for the Posse guys, all eyes will be on Brent Marks to see if he can continue stacking up cash. He's obviously coming off those two huge wins at Eldora last week. Anthony Macri and Logan Wagner will also be looking to defend home turf at Port. With the NASCAR Cup Series at Pocono this weekend, there is some thought we might see Kyle Larson this week as well, so stay tuned for that. Larson won twice at Port Royal in 2020, and he's the favorite tonight from the prediction formula if he shows up. Spencer Bayston and Kerry Madsen were Port Royal winners with the Outlaws in 2021, and I would also not sleep on Donny Schatz. The ten time Outlaw champion has had plenty of success at Port Royal in the past, and that team has been better as of late, leading laps at Cedar Lake and Wilmot, and finishing second in the Kings Royal. If you can't get to the track tonight, watch live on DIRTVision.

Elsewhere tonight, the final week of the Summer Nationals kicks off at Thunderbird Raceway. Following today, the series will head to Butler on Thursday, Tri-City Motor Speedway on Friday, and the season closes out on Saturday at Merritt Speedway. The modifieds do have two more nights coming up later in the month at Fairbury for the Prairie Dirt Classic. Starting this final week, Bobby Pierce has a massive lead in the late model standings, it's 337 over Brian Shirley. Only Pierce, Payton Freeman, and Joe Godsey have run all 22 races to this point. This will be eventually be Pierce's fifth Summer Nationals championship, and his second in a row. And we've got just about the same thing with the modifieds, as Nick Hoffman will cruise to yet another title. 12 wins in 15 starts right now, and nobody even close. Kyle Steffens in second is over 400 points behind. Still plenty of money to win this week though, so don't sleep on these races. As usual, you can watch live on DIRTVision if you aren't going to be at the track.

If you want more dirt racing podcast goodness this week, LoudPedal has Ryan Bernal, Forward Bite has Ozzie Altman, the Dirt from Knoxville has Kelby Watt and Sawyer Phillips, Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks has Steve Justis, All Gas No Brakes has James Giossi and Joey Coulter, and Track Talk has Jamie Weaknecht. There are also new episodes of the Dirt Reporters, Passing Points, the Dirt Nerds, and QuickTime. To see the full list of shows and episodes, head over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.

It's another solid day across the streaming services with nine shows on tap for today. DIRTVision has the World of Outlaws from Port Royal, and the Summer Nationals. FloRacing has racing from 141 Speedway, Action Track USA, and Flo 24/7. There is local and regional racing on Speed Sport, and the XR Northern Storm continues from Hibbing on XR Plus. 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!