DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Buddy Kofoid's big hit, the Outlaws' new trailer, Cole Macedo driving Alex Bowman's car | Daily 8-24-2022
Coming up we'll talk a busy week for the All Stars, a new toy for the World of Outlaws, Buddy Kofoid's ARCA crash, and apparently DIRTRACKR shirts are too controversial for Facebook. Let's go.
It's Wednesday, August 24th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
After a few days off following weekend shows at Outlaw and Utica-Rome, the All Star Circuit of Champions is back tonight to start a stretch of five races in five days across Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It's Bloomsburg Fair tonight, Bridgeport tomorrow, Williams Grove on Friday, Lincoln Saturday, and Bedford Speedway on Sunday. Tyler Courtney padded his championship lead over the weekend and the gap back to Justin Peck is now 118. Everyone from Cap Henry in third on back is well out of striking distance. The All Stars have already been to Bloomsburg Fair this season, with Anthony Macri winning back on April 21st. He led the final 14 laps and topped Bill Balog and Peck. Macri will again be a favorite tonight, but you won't see him in his usual 39 machine. Instead, Macri is taking over the McGhee 11 for the next several races with Parker Price Miller still recovering from his Knoxville injuries. Cory Eliason was in that car this last weekend and picked up two top fives, so with Macri taking the wheel in his home area, expect him to compete for wins and run up front. Another different driver and team combo we'll see this week is Cole Macedo in Alex Bowman's Ally 55. Macedo tweeted this morning that he'll run Bloomsburg and Bridgeport this week in that car, and TJSlideways tweeted out the connection there. Joe Gaerte, who used to crew chief for Cole's brother Carson with Kyle Larson Racing, is in charge of Bowman's sprint car team. Cole has been strong running in Ohio this season with the Linders and Ray Brooks, and had a nice run at Knoxville for the Nationals in a Philip Dietz prepared car. He was eighth on his prelim night, and seventh in the Saturday B-Main. Other drivers you'll see tonight include Gio Scelzi, Brent Marks, Danny Dietrich, and I'm sure a solid contingent of other PA Posse members. You can watch the All Stars live tonight on Flo if you aren't headed to the race track.
If you follow the DIRTRACKR Twitter account, you may have seen my retweet yesterday of an interesting post from Featherlite Trailers. They shared a few photos of a new trailer they are just finishing up that is actually for World Racing Group and the World of Outlaws. The tweet mentions the trailer will be a mobile office setup and the big 53 footer includes the ability to serve as a ticket vending setup with multiple walkup windows. It will certainly be a nice addition out on the road, and after talking to some friends over at WRG, it sounds like we could see this new trailer at big events and out with the sprint car series. NASCAR has something similar they use for their credentials and pit passes, and having a setup like this could make buying tickets at busy events go much quicker. Instead of relying on just one or two windows that a local track's ticket booth would have, this trailer has five. Infrastructure and facilities are a challenge at some race tracks, so when in doubt, bring your own infrastructure. If you want to check out the photos for yourself, head over to twitter.com/dirtrackr.
Before we move on, I've got a quick merch story for you. I tried over the last week or so to set up some Facebook and Instagram ads to help spread the word about the new DIRTRACKR t-shirts. Somehow though in the process, my ads were rejected and my ad account has been disabled. I have no idea why, I twice submitted requests for review, and both times was given no explanation as to what I did wrong. Apparently my "Don't tell me there's no passing in sprint car racing" and "Dirt late model championships matter" shirts are just too controversial for Facebook. I guess for you guys, on the plus side, you won't be spammed with DIRTRACKR ads. So I guess instead of using ads, I'll just continue to periodically mention the shirts and decals here on the show and on my social media channels. If you want a shirt that is too hot for Facebook, head over to shop.dirtrackr.com.
I've had a few people ask me this week about the ARCA race from Sunday on the dirt at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. I didn't talk about it earlier this week because I didn't figure there were too many out there who cared about it. Buddy Kofoid was in the race driving an entry for Venturini Motorsports and was in contention for a lot of the event. The 100 lap race was eventually shortened because of time limits at the facility, but things went sideways around what probably was going to be one lap to go. The lap car of Bryce Haugeberg had issues on the front straightaway, actually hitting the outside wall, and he slowed dramatically right in front of the leader Jesse Love and Kofoid who was second. Love ducked low to avoid the stricken car, but Kofoid didn't see him until it was too late and absolutely piled into the back of the 12 car. If Buddy wasn't full speed at the moment, he was pretty close. Both drivers were okay, but both cars were destroyed and the incident basically ended the race. Love was the winner, and Kofoid actually ended up scored in second because officials did not count the final lap. Buddy said afterward that the windshields and the glare made it really difficult to see riding behind Love. It was an unfortunate situation for sure, but one that happens fairly often in ARCA. The level of cars and drivers varies wildly from the front to the back, and the speed differentials are fairly large. For example, at the end of that race on Sunday, only three of 21 cars in the field were on the lead lap. Looking at this week, although Buddy walked away from the incident, it seems as though he's going to take a few days off from racing. He was scheduled to be in Pennsylvania with the All Stars, but the Crouch Motorsports team tweeted yesterday that they will now not be in attendance. Jeremy Elliott also mentioned it in his top 50 over at sprintcarunlimited.com. Hopefully we'll see Buddy back in action soon. We are still about a week and a half away from the next USAC midget race where you would expect Kofoid to participate as he's working to defend his championship from last season with Keith Kunz.
Up in New York tonight, the Super DIRTcar Series is at Ransomville Speedway for the Summer Nationals. The big block modified portion of the night will feature a $7500 to win main event, and Matt Sheppard comes in hot having won four of the last five series races. He's also seized control of the championship bringing a 95 point advantage into tonight's racing. Mat Williamson is second in the standings, and Ransomville is a place where he's been fast this season in 358 modified competition. He needs to add some more good finishes to his 2022 tally if he's going to have any chance of running down Sheppard. Behind the top two, things from third to sixth are tight, with Jimmy Phelps, Anthony Perrego, Max McLaughlin, and Marc Johnson all only separated by 40 points. Besides the series regulars we'll also have a Stewart Friesen and Erick Rudolph sighting tonight. If you want to watch on the internets, DIRTVision will have the live stream.
A couple of show notes for you before we shut it down for today. I'm doing a fresh Conversations interview later today, it should be on the YouTube channel and podcast feed later tonight or early tomorrow. I'm also working on another interview for next week, and that will most likely be the first repeat guest we've had on Conversations. So some extra content coming your way over the next several days. If you want to start sending in questions for a future mailbag episode, drop them in my inbox at info@dirtrackr.com.
If you want more dirt racing audio this week, LoudPedal is talking the High Limit Open, Passing Points has Ryan "Hoss" Merz, Quicktime has Tasker Phillips, TJSlideways has Danny Sams, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters, the Dirt Nerds, Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks, and Wednesdays with Wayne. To see the full list of shows and episodes, head over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
There is some action on the streaming services today if you are looking for something to watch. DIRTVision has the Super DIRTcar Series from Ransomville and micros from Millbridge. FloRacing has the All Stars from Bloomsburg Fair and Flo 24/7. And Speed Sport has IMCA racing from Buena Vista. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, check out dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, have a good Wednesday. Make sure to like, subscribe, and comment.
Thanks everybody for tuning in, I'll see you tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!