DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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The 61st Knoxville Nationals is here... We've got everything you need to know | Daily 8-10-2022
It's day one of the 61st Knoxville Nationals and we've got everything you need to know to be ready for the show tonight. Let's go!
It's Wednesday, August 10th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
The biggest week of the sprint car year starts tonight with the first of two prelim nights for the 61st Knoxville Nationals. Big fields and big crowds will descend on Knoxville for the next four straight days of racing, and I think things are wide open coming into this week with what we've seen so far this year across sprint car racing. Brad Sweet enters as the World of Outlaws points leader, but he's only got three wins, and nobody has more than eight on the season so far. We've already talked about it here some, and other places, but I think there are a number of drivers that could win the big money come Saturday night. Kyle Larson is your defending Nationals winner, but while he does have sprint car wins this season, it hasn't all been easy going for Yung Money. He struggled last week during the 360 Nationals, and even coming off the Monday win at Osky, has had mixed results in recent weeks with the Outlaws. He won at Port Royal on July 20th, but was a non-factor at Williams Grove, and never competed for wins during the Kings Royal at Eldora. I do think he'll be fast and in the mix all week, but I also believe he is beatable. I think Brad Sweet is coming into the week with a lot of momentum following recent wins at Williams Grove and Pevely. David Gravel is a past Knoxville champion and those guys will be ready for sure. Donny Schatz has had on off season, but they have been better as of late, and you can never sleep on a 10 time Knoxville winner. Other names I like this week include Carson Macedo, Aaron Reutzel, Sheldon Haudenschild and you can't leave out Brent Marks. Macedo's Jason Johnson Racing team has won the Nationals twice. Reutzel knows how to get around Knoxville and is fresh off the 360 Nationals win. Sheldon Haudenschild is capable of winning literally anywhere. And Brent Marks' ability to win big races in 2022 will have his name a top a lot of win picks this week. Looking at tonight, we have 53 cars pre-entered for the Wednesday program. The names tonight include Logan Schuchart, Gravel, Reutzel, Parker Price Miller, Justin Peck, Corey Day, Schatz, Sheldon, Gio Scelzi, Marks, Hunter Schuerenberg, Cory Eliason, and James McFadden among others. The rookies in the field include Day, Cole Macedo, Carson Short, Garet Williamson, Justin Sanders, Dylan Westbrook, Blake Hahn, and Lachlan McHugh. Remember that Knoxville has it's own format for prelim nights. We'll qualify everyone, then invert heats by the top eight, with the top four finishers in each heat making the night's feature. Everyone else will head to the B and C. Throughout the night, drivers will earn points for their time trial spot and finishing positions, and the top 16 in those points after the two nights will be locked into Saturday's main event that pays $175,000 to win. Drivers can also race their way into the Nationals feature through Saturday's alphabet, or they can finish top four on Friday night in the Hard Knox qualifying night main event. So lots of money to win, around 100 cars, and the biggest sprint car crown jewel coming up. Another note, this week is sanctioned by the World of Outlaws, but only show-up points are being paid out this week, so we'll have no movement in the standings. There is always a ton of fanfare around this week, and part of that are the special paint schemes. So far we've seen fresh looks from Donny Schatz, Carson Macedo, Gio Scelzi, Justin Sanders and the SpeedLab 39, Spencer Bayston, and others. There are awards for best crew look, best helmet, and more as well. If you want a win pick for tonight, the dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula likes Donny Schatz. I think I'm gonna go Gravel. He's won his prelim night three years in a row. If you want to watch all week online, you'll either need to grab the pay-per-view from DIRTVision or have the yearly fast pass. This event is not included in the DIRTVision monthly passes. A week long pass is $124.99, each of the three week day shows is $39.99, and Saturday's main event pay-per-view is $49.99. Drop me a comment, let me know who you've got for tonight. Enjoy the days' festivities. Hot laps are scheduled for 7:15PM local time, with qualifying at 7:40 and opening ceremonies at 8:05.
With the iRacing World of Outlaws Late Models last night at Eldora, we had drama late in the race between what are probably the series' two main stars. Evan Seay entered the night with a one point lead in the standings, but it was Hayden Cardwell who was on the pole for the feature. Cardwell was trying to bounce back from missing the main event the week before, and he was dominant for much of the race. As his car went away though in the late stages, some contact with the wall brought third starting Seay right to the leader's bumper. Coming to nine laps to go, we had calamity on the frontstretch. Seay got to the inside of the 07, and Cardwell came down to block the slider line into one and the two drivers made contact. Cardwell ended up head on into the turn one wall, with third running Blake Matjoulis also collected. Cardwell was done for the night and Matjoulis later finished 14th. Out front, Seay went unchallenged after the incident and collected his second win in three races so far. Headed to Williams Grove next week, he'll extend his championship lead. The two tough weeks in a row for Cardwell will leave him in a huge hole going forward. Behind Seay at the checkered, Dylan Yeager and Felix Roy were second and third. You can catch these iRacing shows free every Monday night at 9PM ET on YouTube and DIRTVision.
In real life late model racing on Tuesday night, the XR Super Series closed out two nights at Gondik Law Speedway in Wisconsin. It was all Shane Clanton on Monday night for the $20,000, but last night the Georgia bulldog couldn't run down Chris Madden. Madden had an early battle with Brandon Overton out front before settling into the lead, with the feature going caution free. Madden was really good through lap traffic, using the middle of the race track to perfection, and Clanton just couldn't reel him in. The victory was win number six on the season for Madden with XR, and another $20,000 in his bank account. Clanton settled for second with Overton in third. The XR series goes quiet now until later in September when they take on Kokomo for two nights, September 19th and 20th. The focus for the dirt late model world now shifts to Florence Speedway starting tomorrow with three nights of the North/South 100 on tap for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. We'll talk more about that tomorrow.
A bunch of new episodes are available from the various dirt racing podcasts this week. Winged Nation did a big dump today and there are interviews with Ryan Timms, Anthony Macri, Brent Marks and bunch more in their feed. Suave Talk has episodes with Jason Feger and Josh King, and the Dirt Reporters have Josh Rice. I was on Passing Points with Michael Tyre, Forward Bite has Gordy Gundaker, the Dirt from Knoxville has Jack Dover and Wayne Johnson, QuickTime has Wade Aunger, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Nerds and Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks. To see the full list of shows and episodes, check out dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
Today's streaming schedule has six shows on it, headlined by the opening night of the Knoxville Nationals on DIRTVision. FloRacing has the weekly show from Action Track USA and Flo 24/7. Speed Sport has racing from Buena Vista and Stuart International, and Dirt Track Digest has a full show from Thunder Mountain. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, head over to dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Alright, I'm headed up to Kahne Screen Print to pick up our fresh DIRTRACKR t-shirts, they will be on sale very soon.
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!