DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Drivers big mad at Williams Grove, Gas City; Davenport scores $53k; big Outlaw weekend for Sweet | Daily 7-25-2022
Apparently you can't talk about racing unless you've been a racer, there were lots of angry drivers this weekend, and we'll get you up to speed on Lucas, the Outlaws, USAC and more. Let's go!
It's Monday, July 25th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
We've got a lot of stuff to get into today, there was a bunch of racing over the weekend, plenty of drama, some news. So let's dive in.
We had multiple incidents over the weekend that resulted in more altercations with drivers and plenty of upset guys. With the Outlaws on Friday at Williams Grove, a heat race incident between Freddie Rahmer and Danny Dietrich turned into blows and a big scrum in the pit area. My favorite part of that video was David Gravel running into the fray smiling. It was kind of crazy, because both drivers were inside the feature transfer, and the move that Dietrich made into three didn't really need to happen. They would have been able to hold off Haudenschild. It looked to me like Dietrich just misjudged the speed and hooked Rahmer's rear bumper. Dietrich later ended up eighth on the night, with Freddie taking a provisional and finishing 15th. Also on Friday we had multiple guys upset at Robert Ballou for issues in the opener for Indiana Sprint Week. The Mad Man first got into Brady Bacon down the backstretch, sending the Hoffman car flipping. Bacon did go to Ballou under the red flag, but was diplomatic about it, as you would expect from a buy like Brady. Bacon also had a spicy tweet afterwards, wondering if Ballou might want to go midget racing. And then later, things got wild again with CJ Leary. Ballou made a move to the inside of the 77 coming to the white after Leary had issues in three, and the two cars came together on the front straightaway, with Leary going for a wild tumble. He also ended up heading over to Ballou's car, but this interaction wasn't as cordial as Bacon's. Leary threw two flying kicks at Ballou, missing the first one and trying again. Pleasantries and sign language were also exchanged. Not a great night for Ballou, and I was a little surprised we didn't get any tweets from him about it. He's usually pretty vocal on social media after incidents. And to close out a wild night at Huset's, Ryan Timms and Justin Henderson tangled on the final lap of Sunday's 410 feature, and Brooke Tatnell ending up stealing the win. Neither car was destroyed, and there didn't appear to be fireworks between the two, but Henderson did go after Timms in his post race interview, referring to him multiple times as a rich kid, and basically saying that it didn't matter if Timms junked cars because of the money behind him. Henderson is a solid dude, and I know he was upset that he lost the win, but I continue to not like this method of attack. Timms made a mistake and just slid too high, but it was a final lap battle for the win. Timms is young, but he's won at basically every level at this point. It's not like this was his first night in a 410. The rich kid attacks just get old I think. Henderson had every right to be upset that he lost that win, but the kid just made a bad decision. You don't have to drag the rich kid stuff into it. I also wonder at what point we decided that you aren't allowed to comment on racing incidents if you've never driven a race car. I had several commenters come at me on my Winger/McCarter thoughts because I've never driven a dirt late model. And this weekend I saw similar comments on social media regarding some of these other incidents. So because someone has never driven a 410 sprint car or dirt late model, they can't say crap moves were crap moves? I don't get it. Racers behaving badly behind the wheel is pretty easy to spot. A bad slide job or move is not something you need a lot of experience to recognize, and guys shouldn't get off the hook for those actions. The last time I checked, bench racing and reacting to these shows was a time honored tradition. On this show specifically, I personally don't have a problem if you disagree with something I say here. We won't always see eye to eye. I'm cool with that. But the "you've never driven" comments are a lame way to come at people for reacting to these races.
Getting into some of the results from the weekend, Jonathan Davenport bagged the big money on Sunday at I-80 Speedway with Lucas. The show was postponed to Sunday because of the weather, and Tim McCreadie ended up dominating most of the feature from the second starting position. He led 73 laps, but late in the going Davenport slipped by him in lap traffic to score the $53,000 win. Superman maintains that top spot as the highest earner in dirt late model racing this season, in big part because the Eldora Million win, but that $53k won't hurt. McCreadie ended up second, with Devin Moran third. TMac's lead in the championship standings continues to grow, with it now sitting at 160 over Brandon Sheppard. McCreadie hasn't finished outside the top ten with Lucas since May 27th. Sheppard and third place Ricky Thornton Jr. ended up sixth and eighth on Sunday. Hudson O'Neal has taken over fourth from Tyler Erb, as Terbo continues to have an up and down year. Lucas is off now until August 11th when they head to Florence for the North South 100. Dirt on Dirt's Kevin Kovac had an interesting note about Davenport and him doing video research. Apparently he's been watching a lot of races to try and get better with track changes and where his competitors like to go as things evolve. We've head that before also from a guy like Brad Sweet. These to guys continue to try and find ways to gain an edge, and the video stuff is an interesting development with streaming such a key piece of the sport right now. Also, Lucas announced that the Silver Dollar Nationals are on the schedule for 2023, we just don't know yet where they will take place.
With the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series, the Williams Grove weekend was split between the Outlaws and Posse. On Friday night, it was a Posse sweep of the podium, with Lance Dewease winning over Brent Marks and Anthony Macri. Dewease and the Kreitz 69K team hadn't won an Outlaw show since 2019. They hadn't been a factor in their three previous Outlaw starts this season, including a 22nd at Williams Grove back in May. But it was a nice, methodical run from fifth to the win. On Saturday night, we saw something we hadn't seen before, and that was Brad Sweet winning at Williams Grove. According to the series, Sweet had made 52 previous starts at the Grove without a win. He outdueled both Donny Schatz and Sheldon Haudenschild for the victory, which was his first since way back in March at Vado Speedway Park. This was a weekend where guys like Macedo and Gravel really needed to take advantage of Sweet's Central PA struggles, but the Big Cat flipped the script on the them, topping all of his championship rivals on both nights. This feels like it could be a significant point in the race for the Outlaw title. Headed to Weedsport this weekend, Sweet now leads Gravel by 54, Sheldon by 84, and Macedo is now triple digits behind after a Saturday night crash that left him 24th in the box score.
Back to USAC and Indiana Sprint Week, after the fireworks with Ballou, Shane Cottle grabbed the opening night win at Gas City, stealing the lead late from Justin Grant. The Saturday show at Kokomo was postponed to July 26th because of rain during the evening, and the Sunday race at Lawrenceburg was called a complete show even though they didn't get the feature started. The feature payout was split between the starters and points were given out as well. Indiana Sprint Week continues tonight at Circle City in Indianapolis, and fresh off that drama at Huset's, Ryan Timms will be in the field in the Keith Kunz sprint car. It should be a fun one. The dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula likes Kyle Cummins, I'll go Brady Bacon. You can watch live tonight on FloRacing.
Out in Missouri, Tyler Courtney picked up a weekend sweep of the All Star shows at Lake Ozark. I said on Friday that this could be a good weekend for Sunshine to put more distance between himself and Justin Peck, and that's what he did. He led all 55 laps on the weekend, while Peck had finishes of 6th and 7th. With more midwest racing on tap for this week, Courtney's points lead is now an even 100 over Peck and the Buch 13 squad. Joe B. Miller had a nice run on Friday, finishing second to Courtney. Parker Price Miller picked up a pair of top fives as well. The All Stars head to I-70 for two nights starting Thursday, and are at Knoxville this week as well. With the Nationals looming, I'll bet the field is strong for that one.
Before we move on to other weekend winners, I wanted to point out the news from the weekend that Ashton Winger and GR Smith have parted ways. The pairing was in the field on Thursday at Senoia, ending up 13th in the feature, behind winner Carson Ferguson. They were not in attendance though on Saturday at Screven where Brandon Overton picked up the $10,000 win. It sounds like things are still good between both sides, but that they felt a change was necessary. Smith is now looking for a driver as he still wants to compete nationally with a series like Lucas. Winger is most likely headed back to his family owned equipment, but told Kevin Kovac they need some time to get organized before they go racing again.
Elsewhere in late model racing this weekend, Dona Marcoullier and Brandon Thirlby were Summer Nationals winners, Mark Whitener was a $10,000 crate winner at Golden Isles, Logan Martin and Kyle Beard were Comp Cams winners, and Jason Feger was a MARS winner at Farmer City.
Tonight, don't forget the World of Outlaws late models are Boone Speedway for $20,000 to win. Dennis Erb Jr. continues to lead the Outlaw standings over Max Blair and Tanner English. The win prediction formula likes Bobby Pierce. I'm gonna go Jonathan Davenport to keep the party going, as he is expected to race. You can watch that one on DIRTVision.
Other weekend sprint car winners included Tim Crawley and Wayne Johnson with the ASCS. Their speedweek continues tomorrow at Tulsa Speedway. Bud Kaeding was a 360 winner at Ocean, Trey Starks won $10k at Skagit, Cole Macedo won at Fremont, Aaron Reutzel grabbed the 360 win at Knoxville while the 410 show was postponed because of weather. DJ Netto grabbed the NARC win at Stockton, and Danny Dietrich was a winner Sunday at BAPS.
One quick schedule note for you, the Super DIRTcar Series Hall of Fame 100 at Weedsport has been moved to August 15th. Rain and severe weather on Sunday are to blame. Weedsport will kick off four straight nights of racing, which will also include Brewerton, Fulton, and Canandaigua.
It looks like we've got five shows on the streaming schedule today. DIRTVision has the World of Outlaws Late Models from Boone Speedway, FloRacing has Indiana Sprint Week from Circle City and big blocks from Autodrome Granby. There is also Western Sprint Tour racing on Speed Sport. 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!