DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
Dirt racing news, results, discussion, analytics. Sprint cars, late models, modifieds, you name it. From national series, to top local shows. Brought to you five days a week. Email the show at info@dirtrackr.com.
Sprint car driver Paul McMahan calling it a career | Daily 8-4-2022
Paul McMahan is calling it a career, Dominic Gorden switches teams and wins on the dirt at Indy, the 360 Nationals and USA Nationals start today, and more. Let's go!
It's Thursday, August 4th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
Lots of stuff to get to today, racing from last night, racing tonight, and a bunch of info and news bits for you.
We'll start with the BC39 on the Dirt Track at IMS. Last night's program included a round of heat races and the Stoops Pursuit race. The event was delayed during the program because of rain, but they did eventually get all the action complete. We talked yesterday about all the different drivers in the field, and I mentioned Ricky Stenhouse Jr. I was surprised to see that he wasn't in a Clauson Marshall car. He's been apart of that program for a long time, and normally when he hops in midget, like at the Chili Bowl, it's with CMR. For this event though, he's in a NOS sponsored car with Dave Mac Dalby. Supposedly it wasn't a bad split between the two sides, so maybe we'll see them together again in the future. The racing was pretty good before the rain came, but it did seem like after the storm, the track was maybe a little too hooked up for their to be great action. One of the wildest moments in heat races was before the rain. In heat four, Cannon McIntosh ended up flipping, but the car landed on all four wheels seemingly undamaged, and the safety crew pushed him back off again and he just rejoined the tail and kept driving. He drove back through the field to finish second, and is third in passing points headed into tonight's qualifier. According to Walkapedia, leading the way in points is Chris Windom with Mitchel Moles second. Some names with work to do tonight include Stenhouse, Donny Schatz, Jerry Coons Jr., Ryan Timms and Bryant Wiedeman. The pursuit race was wild at the start, we'd lost Chance Crum, Michael Faccinto, Justin Grant, TMez, Kyle Larson, Michael Pickens and Emerson Axsom before we even had a lap complete. Remember that if you were involved in a caution, you were basically out. Out front, things were actually pretty ho-hum, with Dominic Gorden dominating the 25 lap event, leading every lap and taking the win. Gorden had been running this season with Chad Boat, but was in a Keith Kunz car last night. Not sure what happened, but he was strong in the KKM piece. Looking at tonight, we'll get a round of qualifying races set by the points from Wednesday, and then we'll get into main events. The dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula likes Larson tonight, I'll go Justin Grant. You can again watch live on FloRacing.
Elsewhere tonight, the USA Nationals begin at Cedar Lake Speedway for the World of Outlaws Late Model Series. The Outlaw competitors raced one week ago at Fairbury for $50 grand to win, and they will do it again this week. Tonight is a full program with $6000 going to the feature winner. Friday we'll get double heat races and an eight car dash, which will then lead into last chance races and the feature on Saturday. In the Outlaw championship standings, Dennis Erb Jr. continues to lead Max Blair and Tanner English. The previous USA Nationals winners in recent seasons are Jonathan Davenport from 2021, Brandon Overton in 2020, and Chris Madden in 2019. A couple of driver notes for you around this event. First, we won't see Josh Richards at all over the next three nights. We found out from his social media accounts that Josh is dealing with COVID right now, and won't compete. Not a great stretch for Josh, dealing with that injury from Eldora, and now getting sick. Hopefully he feels better soon. Also, Shannon Babb has rolled into Cedar Lake with a Longhorn Chassis, which is a switch from the Bloomquist he's been running in the past. The prediction formula likes Overton tonight, I'll got with Madden. You can watch the USA Nationals all weekend long over on DIRTVision.
At Knoxville tonight, a big two weeks of racing gets underway with the first of two prelim nights for the 360 Nationals. Tonight and tomorrow are prelim shows, with Saturday's main event paying $30,000 to win. We'll then have the Capitani Classic on Sunday, with the Knoxville Nationals starting on Wednesday. We've got 53 cars pre-entered for tonight, with well over 100 expected for the three days. Each night is stacked with talent, and the Thursday portion includes names like Ayrton Gennetten, Aaron Reutzel, Chase Randall, Parker Price Miller, Corey Day, Shane Golobic, Gio Scelzi, Anthony Macri, Zeb Wise, Cory Eliason, Austin McCarl, and a whole bunch more. Gio is the defending 360 Nationals winner, but we've seen Aaron Reutzel have a bunch of success there this season in both 410s and 360s. I think these guys are in for some tough racing with such strong fields both nights. Just like the 410 Nationals, we'll qualify tonight, with the top 50 making heats, which will have six car inverts. Top four heat finishers go to the feature, with everyone else to the B and C. Drivers will then be lined up on Saturday based on how they do tonight and tomorrow. If you want to watch tonight and aren't in Knoxville, Iowa, DIRTVision has the live stream.
If you're a modified fan, make sure you check out the USMTS this weekend. They've got three shows starting tonight at 81 Speedway, then they move to Humbolt on Friday, and Lucas Oil Speedway on Saturday. With five wins and 15 top fives, Dustin Sorensen leads the championship over Tanner Mullens and defending champ Dereck Ramirez. Jake O'Neil continues lead all drivers with seven wins, but he has not run the full schedule. An incredible 226 cars have made a USMTS appearance this season. The modifieds are live all season long on RacinDirt.
A couple of race winners for you from last night at Action Track USA, Briggs Danner and Chris Allen won the two USAC East Coast Sprint Car main events. Allen won the makeup feature from July 13th, and Danner topped Alex Bright in the night's scheduled show. Colin White tried a late slider on Allen, but about knocked the wall down in four and Allen was able to drive on to the win. Danner continues to lead the season long standings.
Before we close out today, it sounds like sprint car racer Paul McMahan is calling it a career. He tweeted earlier today, 8/27, #LASTCALL and tagged Placerville Speedway. He'll end his career at the track where he made his first 410 start way back in 1987. Pauls to the Wall has over 1300 career World of Outlaws appearances and according to the World of Outlaws website is tied with Tim Shaffer for 23rd all time in series wins at 27. His best seasons were 2013 and 2014 when he finished 3rd in the standings, behind Daryn Pittman and Donny Schatz. He had four wins in 2013 and five wins in 2014. We haven't seen Paul run with the Outlaws since that big crash on his prelim night at the Knoxville Nationals one year ago. He did make two starts with the All Stars this season, with a best finish of 10th at Atomic in June. McMahan's last All Star victory came during Ohio Sprint Speedweek in 2021, and his last Outlaw win was at Lawrenceburg in 2015. When I worked at WRG, we always had fun with Paul because of his constant travel woes. Delayed flights, hotel issues, and plenty more. Definitely a very good sprint car career. A lot of wins between the All Stars and Outlaws, the Brad Doty Classic, and plenty of strong seasons. Happy to see him go out on his own terms.
There are eight shows on today's streaming schedule across the services. DIRTVision has night one from the USA Nationals at Cedar Lake and night one of the 360 Knoxville Nationals. FloRacing has night two of the BC39 and Flo 24/7. RacinDirt has the USMTS modifieds at 81 Speedway. There is also WISSOTA and IMCA racing 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 Thursday. 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!