DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Storm SZN: Can Justin Peck rain on Sunshine's All Star parade? | Daily 8-25-2022

Can Justin Peck really run down Tyler Courtney for the All Star title? We'll tell you today what he needs to do, plus we'll talk Smackdown at Kokomo and Justin Grant's insane consistency, World of Outlaws Late Models at Davenport and more. Let's go!

It's Thursday, August 25th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

Things got a little technical and a little cowboy up at the Bloomsburg Fair Raceway on Wednesday for the All Star competitors. It almost looked like we had a California track in Pennsylvania. The longer the feature went, the rougher it got. I know a lot of people complain about these races, and I know a lot of the drivers and teams don't like them because they are hard on equipment. But they can be entertaining, watching the drivers really have to work in the cars to navigate the surface while also trying to move forward. As someone who doesn't have to work on the cars, I sure don't mind a little bit of cowboy up racing once in a while to mix things up. Coming into the race last night, Justin Peck trailed Tyler Courtney by 118 points for the All Star championship, and that Buch 13 team needs to catch fire if they are going to run down Sunshine. They won over the weekend at Utica-Rome but it hasn't been all smooth sailing for that team in recent weeks. Finishes of 17th at Ransomville, 18th at Stateline, 21st at Knoxville, and 12th last week at Outlaw have set them back. But the win at Utica-Rome, and Peck's green to checkered win last night are certainly a step in the right direction. Peck started on the pole and was able to go the distance, keeping Sunshine at bay late in the going to score his sixth victory of the year. If you count the early season win in Florida, Peck and Sunshine are tied with six All Star wins a piece this year. The difference in the championship has just been the consistency. Courtney's average finish right now is a very strong 4.89, while Peck is nearly two positions worse at 6.72. The series is on it's way to Bridgeport tonight, and with 14 races left in 2022, the championship gap is 114 points. So if you figure about two points per position, that's 57 spots. 14 races left means Peck must average beating Courtney by four spots a night to pull even come Fremont in October. That will not be easy to do, especially if Courtney and that Clauson Marshall team continue with the consistency they've shown all season. Hat tip as well to Blake Anderson for the Tone Loc reference last night during the feature, dropping the Funky Cole Macedo during his play by play. Well done sir. Looking at tonight, I believe this is the first ever stop for the All Stars at Bridgeport. I could not find where they had been there before, which would make sense as the footprint for the series has only really started to expand in recent seasons. I forgot to mention this yesterday, the formula had Courtney for the Bloomsburg win pick, and I went with Macri. Those are also the picks for tonight. Looking at the past three World of Outlaws races at Bridgeport, I think Macri and Danny Dietrich will very much be ones to watch tonight. I was a little surprised at the car count last night, with less than 20 in attedance. The Posse contingent did not show up in force like I thought they would and it makes me wonder how many will travel to Bridgeport. Those guys might just be saving their stuff for Friday at the Grove and Saturday at Lincoln. You can watch the All Stars again tonight, live on FloRacing.

The other big race from last night was the Super DIRTcar Series at Ransomville, but they got all the way through to the feature last night before they had to postone things because of weather. So they will try again tonight, with a hot lap session at 7:30 followed by the feature at 8PM. Mat Williamson will lead the field to green from the pole with Peter Britten to his outside on the front row. Points leader Matt Sheppard will start sixth. This and the DIRTcar Sportsman feature will be shown on DIRTVision.

We talked about the drama between Robert Ballou and Brady Bacon earlier this week, and the two will be back on track against each other tonight with the first of two prelim shows on tap for the Smackdown at Kokomo. Besides their own rivalry right now, the two are also trying to track down Justin Grant for the USAC sprint car championship. Bacon trails Grant by 111 points, and Ballou is 163 out. Grant has been very good this year in the sprint car, with 24 top ten finishes in 25 races. In that span he also has 18 top fives and four wins, including the most recent trip to Kokomo, back on July 26th during Indiana Sprint Week. JG's only finish outside the top ten this season came at Bridgeport way back on June 15th. Right now he's riding a streak of six straight top five runs, and 15 straight top tens. These first two nights of Smackdown will consist of full programs and 30 lap features paying $5000 to win. Drivers will earn event points to set up the lineups for Saturday and the $15,000 to win finale. I just assumed after looking through things a bit that JG would be the win pick tonight from the dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula, but that isn't the case. The formula actually likes Bacon for tonight, and the Macho Man's average finish at Kokomo is the difference. Over the last 10 features, Bacon hasn't finished worse than sixth and his average finish is 3.5. Incredibly though, that doesn't include any wins. I'm gonna go against the formula on this one and pick Grant. Hot laps should be on track tonight around 6:30PM ET, and you can watch live on FloRacing.

If you're a late model fan, your weekend starts tonight with the World of Outlaws Late Models at Davenport for the Quad Cities 150 weekend. Tonight and tomorrow are full programs with 40 lap features paying $10,000 to win, and the results will set lineups for Saturday which will conclude with a 70 lapper paying $30 grand to win. Brandon Sheppard has won four of the last seven races with the Outlaws at Davenport, but he'll be in Pennsylvania this weekend with Lucas, so that should open things up a bit. One year ago, Devin Moran won the first prelim night and the finale on Saturday night, topping Brian Shirley and Boom Briggs. Moran is expected to be in attendance this weekend to try and repeat that success. In the Outlaw standings, Dennis Erb Jr. is on his way to the championship with a 164 point lead with just 15 nights left. The series rookie battle is still very much in play though, with Tanner English and Max Blair separated by just 26 points. The prediction formula is going Moran tonight, but I think I'm going to pick a wild card and say Tanner English will get a victory. Following Mississippi Thunder in May, that 81 car turned a corner and they have been really consistent. 14 top tens over their last 16 races, which includes six top fives. IMCA modifieds are also on the card tonight, and you can watch live on DIRTVision.

I've got a new Conversations episode to share today as promised. It will be on the YouTube channel and in the podcast feed hopefully by the afternoon. I talked last night with Huset's Speedway announcer Shawn Neisteadt about a number of topics, including their tight 410 sprint car points battle right now, we also talked Ryan Timms, how the track bounced back from that crazy storm earlier this summer, Shawn's history at the speedway, and more. So keep an eye out for that one later today.

Eight shows on the streaming schedule for this Thursday. DIRTVision has night one of the World of Outlaws Late Models from Davenport and they have the continuation of last night's Super DIRTcar Series event from Ransomville. FloRacing has the All Stars from Bridgeport, Smackdown at Kokomo, and Flo 24/7. There is also WISSOTA and IMCA racing on Speed Sport. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, head over to dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.

That's it for the show today, have a good Thursday. Make sure to like, subscribe, and comment.

Thanks everybody for tuning in, I'll see you tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!