DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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No, the droop rule hasn't caused bad dirt late model racing. We've got evidence! | Daily 8-22-2022
Your dirt late model droop rule complaints are complete BS, and I've got a bunch of numbers today to prove you wrong. Let's go.
It's Monday, August 22nd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
I don't know about you, but I cannot believe the run that Jonathan Davenport is on right now in the late model world. No matter what else he did this season, he was going to lead the league in earnings for 2022 after the Eldora Million score, but since then, he's done nothing but just continue to bank more cash and take home more crown jewel trophies. His latest exploit was the Topless 100 at Batesville Motor Speedway with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. And not only did he win, it was complete domination on the weekend. He led every lap on Friday night in the lone prelim feature, and then was out front for all 100 laps on Saturday night. If we go back to the Silver Dollar Nationals at I-80 on July 22nd, Superman took control of that race on lap 74. Since then, he's won five straight races and has led 262 straight circuits. It was the final seven at I-80, then all 25 at Florence in his split field feature, all 100 in the North/South 100 main event, and all 130 laps this weekend. You can also include all 100 laps with the World of Outlaws during his dominating win at the USA Nationals as well. That's four crown jewels in just a few weeks. He's now got 17 total wins on the season. I don't know what they have figured out, but that 49 machine has been on absolute rails. Michael Rigsby had an interesting tweet this weekend. We haven't seen a lead change in the Prairie Dirt Classic, USA Nationals, North-South 100, and Topless 100, all in a row. Pretty crazy stuff. Through all of this though, I'm seeing people complaining about the racing, and the obvious culprit to them is the droop rule. I'm not sure I agree though, I think things have been pretty good, and we have some numbers to back that up. For example, the Topless 100 this year had 94 total position changes from start to finish. The hard charger was Kyle Beard, he went 27th to 10th. Hudson O'Neal finished second after starting 16th. So you can't claim that it's difficult to pass when you have guys making moves like that in a feature. As a direct comparison, the Topless 100 a year ago with no droop rule only had 61 total position changes from start to finish. How about number of race winners. One year ago with Lucas, sans droop rule, 15 total winners on the season. This year with droop rule, already 16 different winners. How about we go back to 2020. No droop rule. Jimmy Owens flat handled Lucas that season. 11 wins on the year, more than Davenport right now. Owens led 775 laps, which was almost 31% of total laps completed. Right now, JD has led 456 total laps, which is just a little more than 20%. So even with all the time out front we've seen the 49, he's still not nearly on pace for what Owens did two years ago. The Outlaws have had the droop rule for multiple years. Right now they've got 17 different winners on the season, and a whole bunch of dudes that have led laps and made a ton of passes. So if you're going to start talking about blaming something for what you call bad racing, you better have some evidence. The racing hasn't been bad, one guy and one team have just been really good. I don't know why we can just say that. Why there always has to be a problem or a reason like this. In the race for the Lucas championship, Tim McCreadie extended yet again, finishing one spot ahead of Brandon Sheppard on Saturday night. So with Port Royal up next, the gap between the two is 205 points. The Rumble by the River at Port happens this coming Friday and Saturday.
The other big money show from the weekend was the Jackson Nationals up in Minnesota for the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars. They had weather problems both Thursday and Friday, so they ran a double header on Saturday. The afternoon show got a little messy with the track taking rubber late and we did have some attrition and a few cautions. Logan Schuchart led early, but Carson Macedo was able to take advantage of the shifting track conditions and get by on lap 17. On the final lap though, Macedo got trapped in behind the lap car of Noah Gass, and Schuchart pounced, grabbing the lead and taking the win. Macedo had to settle for second with Jacob Allen also on the podium. In the big show on Saturday night though, Macedo couldn't be stopped. He drove up from eight to take the lead on lap 17 and went unchallenged from there. Jacob Allen finished second after leading 16 laps, and David Gravel was third. Everyone in the top five was able to make some ground on Brad Sweet, so right now it's 60 back to Gravel, 96 to Macedo, 138 to Sheldon Haudenschild and 170 to Donny Schatz. All of those gaps are smaller than they were before the weekend. The Big Cat didn't have a terrible day on Saturday, but finishes of 11th and 8th did allow for everyone to close. They series heads to North Dakota this coming weekend for races at River Cities and Red River Valley before they begin the trek west for the fall west coast swing. One quick schedule note, the series race on July 8th at 34 Raceway that was postponed has now been cancelled outright, because no suitable replacement date could be found. Head over to worldofoutlaws.com for ticket details if you need a refund.
Over the weekend with the World of Outlaws Late Models, we got two of three shows completed, with Sunday at Tri-City lost to rain. Friday at Williams Grove it was all Shane Clanton. He was quickly by pole sitter Ryan Gustin at the start and ended up leading all 40 laps. Max Blair finished second, with Gustin third. I thought the locals would be stronger at the Grove, but Outlaw full timers bagged six of the top eight finishing positions. On Saturday at Sharon, Ryan Gustin was fast again, but not as fast as Devin Moran. Moran slipped by The Reaper on lap 11 in traffic and drove off the win. It was Moran's first Outlaw victory of the season. Gustin and Clanton completed the podium. Weekend finishes of 4th and 7th mean that Dennis Erb Jr's points lead is still pretty safe headed to Davenport Speedway this week for three nights of action.
The All Stars also had one of their three nights of racing rained out, with Sunday's show at Weedsport lost to rain. Friday at Outlaw Speedway we had a fun early battle between Tyler Courtney and Brent Marks, but the 19 took over for good on lap eight, and then Danny Dietrich couldn't run him down late in lap traffic. Marks bagged his third All Star win of 2022, topping Dietrich and Cory Eliason. Justin Peck took another hit in the points with a flat right rear tire while running second. He ended up 12th. On Saturday at Utica-Rome, Brent Marks started on the pole and led the first nine laps, but Peck was on a mission to bounce back and he got the high side rolling to perfection. He took the lead on lap 10 and basically disappeared. His margin of victory at the end was over four seconds. Sunshine finished second, with Marks third. Even with the win though, Sunshine stretched the lead to 118 now over Peck with five straight days of racing starting Wednesday at Bloomsburg Fair on tap. I also wanted to quickly give a shout to Cory Eliason. Two nights in the McGhee 11 and two top five runs.
I feel like we haven't mentioned the win pick numbers lately, so here's a quick update. Right now I'm at 46 correct picks in 196 races this season. That's about 23 and a half percent. The win prediction formula is getting crushed, at 22 for 196, or 11%.
A couple of other schedule notes for you. Saturday's Bettenhausen 100 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds was postponed to October 15th because of morning rain. Kody Swanson won the pavement show at World Wide Technology Raceway on Friday. And the ASCS tweeted earlier today that this weekend's shows at Dodge City for the national tour have been cancelled. We'll see the ASCS again on September 2nd at Red Dirt Raceway.
Other weekend open wheel winners included Jordan Goldesberry and Jake Blackhurst with the IRA. Scotty Thiel was none too pleased with Blackhurst last night at Angell Park after last lap contact between the top front runners. Cannon McIntosh swept the POWRi midget weekend between Charleston and Macon. Steve Buckwalter won at Williams Grove, Scotty Thiel was a MOWA winner at Lincoln, Dominic Scelzi won the Johnny Key Classic at Ocean with the Sprint Car Challenge Tour, Logan Wagner took Port Royal, and Brian Brown topped Roger Crockett and Ayrton Gennetten in the POWRi winged 410 show at the Missouri State Fair.
Other weekend late model winners included Ricky Weiss bagging more than $20 grand at Richmond Raceway, Ashton Winger won with the ULMS at Lernerville, Mike Spatola was a MARS winner at Kankakee, and AJ Diemel won the $5000 limited show at Cedar Lake.
There are just two items on the streaming schedule today. The Cushion has 305s and vintage cars from Fremont Speedway and there is FloRacing 24/7. 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 Monday. 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!