DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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I like the sprint car work area; Fergie DQ'd; Larson, Clanton get Monday wins | Daily 8-9-2022

Yung Money goes back-to-back at Osky, Shane Clanton bags more XR cash, Chris Ferguson has been DQ'd, plus thoughts on why I love the sprint car work area. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, August 9th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

The Knoxville Nationals festivities continued last night with Terry and Lori McCarl's Front Row Challenge at the Southern Iowa Speedway. They ended up with 30 410 sprint cars for the program, with a lot of big names showing up to support the McCarls. Carson Macedo was the only full time Outlaw driver in attendance, and I got asked on Twitter about his eligibility to race. Remember with the Outlaws, the full time teams aren't completely barred from racing elsewhere. They just must ask for and receive approval from the series before they venture out elsewhere. Normally for this event, they would do a King of the Hill to set the first four rows, but because of the tire shortages this year, they made a slight alteration. So instead of the King of the Hill, they did foot races on the frontstretch. Two heats, with the top two in each advancing to the finale. The finale round ended up being Carson Macedo, Anthony Macri, Brian Brown (who fell at the finish in his first heat), and JJ Hickle. Macedo ended up taking the win in the final heat and grabbing the pole for the feature. I know they said that the actual races will come back next year, but I didn't hate the foot races. It was an entertaining ten minutes or so with Wade Aunger on the mic and the guys seemed to have fun with it. In the night's main event, Macedo was quickly to the lead at the start, but near half way we had a great battle for second between Larson and Macri. The two battled for several laps, with traffic in play and some nice moves and slide jobs thrown in. Eventually Larson prevailed and was after Macedo for the lead. Surprisingly, the battle between the 57 and the 39 didn't allow the JJR 41 to get away. We had a brief battle for the top spot with 10 to go, but Larson was just better than Macedo. Yung Money pulled away late to earn his second straight Front Row Challenge win and third total victory in the event. Larson joins Daryn Pittman and Sammy Swindell as the only drivers to win the race three times. Macedo and Macri joined him on the podium, with the race going completely caution free and only the top ten runners being on the lead lap at the end. So now, things on the sprint car front are quiet today around the area, with Wednesday being the first prelim night for the Nationals. If you are around Knoxville and still want to check out some racing today, English Creek Speedway has outlaw karts tonight, and it's about 15 minutes away from the big track. You can also catch the action live over on The Cushion.

If you want even more sprint car content this week, I have a couple of suggestions. First, Toby Bellbowen, who runs the Sprint Car Hub YouTube channel, has come to the US from Australia and has been putting out videos all week. He was at Pevely both nights, the Cappy on Sunday, and Osky last night. He does GoPros on the cars, interviews with drivers, and all kinds of good behind-the-scenes stuff. Go search for Sprint Car Hub on YouTube, or you can find it in the Videos section at dirtrackr.com and in the featured channels tab on the DIRTRACKR YouTube channel. Also, I co-hosted the Passing Points podcast this week with Michael Tyre. We talked a bunch of sprint car stuff, included the Knoxville Nationals. You can find that episode wherever you get pods. Passing Points is one of the shows featured over at dirtrackr.com/podcasts as well.

Just as a side note, I recently had an email from a show watcher about recently discovering the website, so if you are new around here and aren't aware, DIRTRACKR isn't just these Daily shows on YouTube. You can also get them and the Conversations episodes in podcast form at your favorite podcast places. DIRTRACKR.com is home to a bunch of dirt racing stuff, including up to date news and headlines from around the sport. That front page updates itself automatically every 15 minutes, so as news breaks and things are added throughout the day, you can find the latest headlines there. We are also over 1250 races in the analytics database at dirtrackr.com, and all the stats and info you can imagine around those results. Driver pages, analytics, and more available for free, and then the premium DIRTRACKR Plus section if you want even more. There is also the streaming schedule, track listings, videos, podcasts, and all kinds of stuff to keep up with your favorite drivers and series. And if there is something you don't see there that you'd like added, just drop me a message or email. You can also follow DIRTRACKR across social media on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok for even more dirt racing content. Two different sizes of decals are for sale at dirtrackr.com and our first round of shirts should be in hand either tomorrow or Thursday, so keep an eye out for those details. I've got less than 150 shirts in this first run, so if you want one in your size, make sure to move quickly once they go on sale.

If you are a late model fan, hopefully you checked out the XR Super Series last night from Gondik Law. They had 42 super late models on the property for $20,000 to win. A lot of those guys who ran Cedar Lake over the weekend stuck around for this show. In the night's 40 lap feature, it was all Shane Clanton out front. He started on the pole and led all 40 laps en route to the win. It was his second XR win of 2022, to go along with a $40,000 score at Belleville back in June. Brandon Overton and Chris Madden joined the Georgia Bulldog on the podium. Shout out to Hunt the Front's Joseph Joiner on a very strong top five run as well. We've talked a few times lately about Ashton Winger, and we know he departed the GR Smith owned car not long ago. He was at Fairbury, Cedar Lake over the weekend, and at Gondik Law last night in the Big Frog Motorsports 58. We've seen Ross Bailes in that car before, and most recently it was Mark Whitener behind the wheel. We'll see if Winger continues running for them going forward. The Superior Showcase for XR continues tonight, with another $20,000 to win super late model race, with WISSOTA Midwest Mods, Pure Stocks, and Hornets also on the card. If you can't get there, watch live over on XR Plus.

One other late model bit for you, Chris Ferguson was the winner over the weekend with the Ultimate Southeast series at Virginia Motor Speedway, taking down $20,000. But as of this morning, Fergy has been stripped of the win because he used a tire that didn't comply with series rules. This was not a tire alteration or doping, but instead, according to series director Kelley Carlton and the story over at Dirt on Dirt, Fergy used a version of the Hoosier D70 that wasn't legal for the event because it wasn't broadly available. Runner up Russell Erwin has now been awarded the $20,000 and the win. In a statement on his Facebook page, Ferguson says they spoke with Carlton in advance of the event to make sure the tire in question was legal, and they were supposedly told they were quote "good to race." The tire was also okayed at the track before the feature, and checked again after the victory. Fergy's statement also says they quote "have no intentions of supporting any events that Kelley Carlton is a part of due to his lack of integrity" unquote. Strong words from a clearly upset Ferguson, and a bit of a strange situation here. The tire shortages have created plenty of problems around the country, and it's a shame to see a win taken away because of them.

Before we close out today, I have a couple of thoughts on the work area that I wanted to throw your way. The work area at sprint car races, and more specifically at World of Outlaws races, has been a topic of conversation at times this season. Sometimes it's been for good, and sometimes it's been for bad. I know there are those out there who don't like the work area and what is allowed there. I'm looking at your Jeremy Elliott. The idea being that only small repairs like flat tires should be allowed to happen there, and not full on car rebuilds like we've seen at various points. I disagree though. With DIRTVision and the other streamers having roaming cameras in the infield, I think the work area has become fantastic entertainment and a great example of the human drama that unfolds on a nightly basis at dirt tracks. Watching crews descend on a car to swap out front ends and nose and top wings or fix broken shocks, flat tires, or whatever else is wrong is fun to watch. At the end of the day, we are all watching these races to be entertained by the fantastic feats of human beings strapped into high horsepower machines, and the work area is nothing but additive to that experience. It's also a way for the crew members on these teams, who are usually faceless and nameless, to get some TV time. We've even seen stars emerge there, like Drew Brenner with Sheldon Haudenschild in previous years. His long hair, big stature, and willingness to help anyone made him super recognizable. So count me as a work area fan and I for one hope they keep things the same moving forward. It's a show within the show that I dig big time.

Three shows on the streaming schedule today. XR Plus has night two of the XR Super Series from Gondik Law, The Cushion has outlaw karts from English Creek, and there is Flo 24/7. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrack.com/watchtonight.

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!