DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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What style of racing do you like? Grant, O'Neal, Overton score Tuesday dirt racing wins | Daily 7-27-2022
Coming up, Justin Grant and Robert Ballou go wheel to wheel at Kokomo, Jake Swanson takes a rock off the face, and we've got Tuesday results from around the country. Let's go!
It's Wednesday, July 27th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
Indiana Sprint Week continued last night at Kokomo Speedway and we were treated to the classic high/low battle between Justin Grant and Robert Ballou. Grant up top, Ballou down around the bottom and picking the nose up off the corners. The Mad Man led the first ten circuits from his outside front row starting position, and then the fight was on. It ended up being officially seven lead changes between the two drivers, with Grant leading 17 laps and Ballou 13. At the end though, JG was able to scoot away, and then hold off Kyle Cummins over the last few laps to score the win. Cummins was second, with Ballou third. Kokomo was in good shape last night, and it's great to have a track where guys can run all over the place, because that's how you end up with battles like that. As a race fan, would you rather see two guys battling like Ballou and Grant did last night, or do you prefer slidejobs and things being a little more wild? I definitely think both have their merits, but the high/low battles are great, because drivers cannot make mistakes or it allows the other to get away. The win for Grant was his third top two finish in three races so far during Sprint Week, and he extended the weeklong points lead over Ballou. He also continues to separate himself from the pack in the year long championship battle as well. A little further down the order, Ryan Timms was a top ten finisher again in the KKM ride, ending up seventh, and Briggs Danner was 10th after starting 16th. Tonight, Indiana Sprint Week was supposed to move over to the wide open spaces of the Terre Haute Action Track, but the race has been rained out and will not be made up. I put some Terre Haute notes together already, so here they are anyway. Ballou and CJ Leary already have Terre Haute wins in 2022, and of the drivers that would have been in attendance, Justin Grant has the best recent average finish at the track, sitting at 4.63 over his past eight races there. Grant's NOS Energy sponsormate in Chris Windom had been lights out at Terre Haute in recent years, bagging four wins in six races and an average finish of 1.5. But Windom has been running with the wing on this season with the All Stars, and has been pretty good on that side as of late with five top tens in his past six races. So with tonight off, Indiana Sprint Week now goes to Lincoln Park tomorrow night.
Also from last night, a quick update on Jake Swanson. Jake went for a wild ride in heat race number four and was eventually transported to a local hospital for some checks. His scans came back good, but he did need some stitches for a cut on his cheek. Jake's wife Jess posted to social media that quote "we think he got hit by a rock mid corner that knocked him out causing him to flip" unquote. Crappy situation, but glad to see that he's alright and will be on the mend.
At Davenport last night for the Hoker 50, the MARS event turned into what looked like a national touring race with all the big names in the field. Guys were able to race all over the track early on, but things went rubber down the longer they ran. And that played right into Hudson O'Neal's hand. He led all 50 laps from the pole, holding off Bobby Pierce at the end for the $10,000 score. Pierce, Devin Moran, Max Blair, and Mike Marlar completed the top five. This was O'Neal's fourth win of the month, which includes three with Lucas. A lot of these guys will spend today and tomorrow getting some maintenance in and traveling, with the Prairie Dirt Classic at Fairbury starting on Friday.
A quick shownote before we move on. This month of July will be the best month to date in terms of views and downloads of the show. We are already through 150,000 for the month, and we still have a few days left. So thank you for that. Right now, we've had over 60,000 people tune in this month, which is great, but why not hit that subscribe button wherever you consume the show? According to my YouTube stats, only 33% of people that watched this month are subscribed to the channel. Help us get to 10,000 subscribers by years end, and make sure you don't miss any future episodes. Video likes, comments, and reviews are also encouraged. All are easy and free ways to help out this project of mine, if you like what I'm doing here. Now, back to the racing.
In Southern Nationals competition on Tuesday, Brandon Overton handled the field, leading all 67 laps to bag the $10,000 win. It was his second series win in a row. He topped Kenny Collins and Parker Martin, while series points leader Cory Hedgecock was fourth. SpikeFastRacing asked me in the YouTube comments if I could do an explainer about the Southern Nationals, so here you go. The 12 race series is owned by Ray Cook, who is a late model racer himself, and Cook also owns Tri-County Racetrack in North Carolina. When things happen around the country in late model tech, Cook is often involved as well. I've referred multiple times to his YouTube video exlaining the droop rule. The schedule includes races all over the south, in states like Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Alabama, and North Carolina. The Southern Nationals is one of three smaller series that Cook usually does each season, which also includes the Spring Nationals and Fall Nationals. All follow similar formats, with solid race payouts and a championship. The races will draw big names, including Overton, Dale McDowell, Scott Bloomquist, Chris Madden and a lot of the southern regional guys like Cory Hedgecock and Ross Bailes to name just a few. We've also seen guys like Davenport and Ricky Weiss roll through as well. A lot of the races are streamed, and you can keep up with the series at southernnationalsseries.com.
At Tulsa Speedway last night, Tim Crawley grabbed his second ASCS Speedweek win in three races, leading all 25 laps and topping Dale Howard and Dylan Westbrook. Tulsa is a tight little joint and looked pretty technical last night. I hadn't seen a race there before. Blake Hahn maintains the series points lead with Caney Valley on tap for tonight. Usual USAC competitor Cannon McIntosh made a rare winged start last night with the series, finishing 14th after starting seventh.
Up at Bridgeport last night, Ryan Godown got by Danny Bouc early and picked up the Short Track Super Series win. If you watched the show yesterday, I mentioned that Godown was probably the guy to beat, with Bridgeport being his home turf. Ryan Krachun and Matt Sheppard were also on the podium, and Godown will extend his south region points lead over Sheppard.
Out west, I caught a little bit of hell for not mentioning the Western Sprint Tour, so here's a quick recap for the 360 speedweek. Over the weekend at Skagit, Colton Heath and Trey Starks were winners. On Monday at Banks in Oregon, our fellow YouTube Tanner Holmes picked up the win over Logan Forler and Justin Sanders. And last night at Cottage Grove, it was Sanders getting his first win of the week, topping Kinzer Cox and Holmes. The Western Sprint Tour speedweek continues tonight at Cottage Grove, is off Thursday, then back Friday and Saturday for two more nights at Cottage Grove. A lot of these shows have been available over on Speed Sport TV as pay per view if you want to watch.
One schedule note for you, the World of Outlaws Late Model Series has cancelled the race at I-94 Speedway that was to take place on August 2nd. The series cited tire availability concerns as the reason for the move. Fans with tickets to the show can either get a credit on their account, or request a refund by August 25th.
In other dirt racing audio this week, LoudPedal has Kevin Thomas Jr., Passing Points has Blake Edwards, SuaveTalk has Kevin Weaver, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters, Dirt Nerds, and Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks. To see the full list of shows and episodes, head over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
The busy dirt racing week across the streaming services continues with nine more shows today. That includes micros from Millbridge on DIRTVision. FloRacing has Indiana Sprint Week from Terre Haute, the ASCS at Caney Valley, and weekly racing from Action Track USA. There are also four shows over 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 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!