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Don't sleep on Rico Abreu and Donny Schatz for the Knoxville Nationals | Daily 8-2-2022

With about a week until the Knoxville Nationals, Rico Abreu and Donny Schatz are gaining some momentum. We'll talk about them, plus an impressive stretch for Mitchel Moles and more. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, August 2nd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

I mentioned briefly on the show yesterday that I thought Rico Abreu could be a factor at Knoxville next week for the Nationals, and I wanted to start things off by expanding on that a bit and talking about a few other drivers to keep an eye on as we get closer. First, with Rico, that Saturday night win with the All Stars was definitely a strong way to head into the season's biggest sprint car event. Outside of the 360 Nationals, which Rico is not entered in as of right now, and the Capitani Classic, Saturday's All Star show was the final chance for drivers to get on track at the Sprint Car Capital of the World. Taking down a convincing win over Kerry Madsen and Tyler Courtney and his recent run of good finishes definitely make Rico one to watch. Without the mechanical gremlins he suffered at I-70, we could easily be looking at three straight All Star top fives for the 24, and he led laps in back to back races. He was also strong at Eldora during the Kings Royal weekend, including two podium finishes and laps led. This is the point in the season where the partnership with crew chief Ricky Warner should pay dividends for that team.

Also, because of the drama at Weedsport over the weekend, Donny Schatz's second victory of 2022 was definitely overshadowed. Schatz hadn't won an Outlaw feature since the opener at Volusia way back in February, but we've seen signs of life from the TSR 15 as of late. Between the Grove and Weedsport, they now have four straight top seven finishes, and Donny has led laps in three consecutive races. After winning the season opener, Schatz went 31 Outlaw races without even leading a lap. But in the 13 races since, has led in five features. Because of several different factors, that team isn't quite what it was in the past, but it feels like they will be ready to go come Nationals. Donny's record there is absolutely incredible with 10 wins, and don't forget that last year he drove up from fifth to the lead by lap 11, and finished second to eventual winner Kyle Larson. Over his last 24 starts at Knoxville, Donny's average finish in features is 6.42. I think when you start to talk about potential favorites, Larson will be at the top of the list, I think Brent Marks is also in the mix. Brad Sweet and David Gravel are both past champions and are also up there as well. But Schatz and Rico are two guys who are rounding into form at the right time.

Before we move on to other things, one other note from the last few days. I really like what we are seeing right now from Mitchel Moles on the non-wing side. I try and keep you guys up to speed on young drivers out there who could be on the rise, and he's one that I'm not sure people have really noticed just yet. He moved east from California this year to try and jump start his career, and between the opportunity in the Chad Boat midget and more recently in the Reinbold Underwood sprint car, he's been strong. During Indiana Sprint Week, he did have finishes of 20th and 21st between Kokomo and Circle City, but he also had a podium at Gas City, top tens at Bloomington and Haubstadt, plus the win at Lincoln Park. And his pace in qualifying has been really good. In 12 attempts, his average time trial position is 4.17, and over his last six races, which is all of sprint week, he went quick time on four different nights. I think he's definitely got some things to learn come feature time, and you don't want to see him tearing up equipment, but as they say, it's easier to pull the reins back a bit then it is to kick them in the ass. Moles is definitely a guy we could see grab a few more wins this season between the midget and sprint car.

If you want to watch some sprint car racing tonight, the ASCS National Tour is headed to Lakeside Speedway in Kansas for the final race before the 360 Nationals get going at Knoxville on Thursday. Unfortunately their speedweek ending up falling flat at the end with rainouts at Creek County and Salina, but the next five days should be really fun. I don't know that there is single series in America that has suffered more this year than the ASCS has with the rainouts and tire supply issues. Wayne Johnson has climbed back atop the national tour points standings, leading Blake Hahn right now by 19. And a strong speedweek for Tim Crawley has moved him to third, and he's only 27 points behind Johnson. Since a 23rd place finish at I-70 on June 25th, Crawley has nine straight top tens, four podiums, and two wins. Wayne Johnson had been a regular with the Outlaws in recent seasons, but he stepped back to a more manageable schedule for him this season, and returning to full time ASCS racing is paying off. He's leading the championship, and right now has the most wins with four, and the most top fives and top tens. Last year at Lakeside, Sam Hafertepe Jr. went on to the win after a battle with Dylan Westbrook. You can watch the ASCS national tour live tonight on FloRacing, and then we can look forward to the 360 Nationals coming up this weekend. Right now they've got 109 cars on the pre entry list.

In iRacing competition last night, the World of Outlaws ButtKicker Late Model Series was at Cedar Lake Speedway for round number two. Incredibly, last week's winner and series points leader coming into the night, Hayden Cardwell, missed the feature. He was involved in an incident right at the start of B-Main number two and was left on the outside looking in. In the 50 lap main event, 2019 series champion Blake Matjoulis started on the pole, and went to flag to flag out front for the win. Evan Seay and Dezmond Busby rounded out the podium, and nobody was really ever able to challenge Matjoulis out front. This was a nice little appetizer leading into the USA Nationals this weekend at Cedar Lake for the real life World of Outlaws Late Model Series. The iRacing pro competitors are back next Monday night to take on Eldora. It will be streamed free at 9PM ET on DIRTVision and YouTube.

There are five shows on the streaming schedule today. FloRacing has the ASCS National Tour from Lakeside Speedway and Flo 24/7. Flo also has the draft show for the BC39, but I didn't put that on the schedule because it isn't actual racing. Speed Sport has WISSOTA and IMCA racing between Gondik Law, Deer Creek, and Rice Lake. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com.

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!