DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Brandon Sheppard out, Hudson O'Neal in Rocket Chassis house car | Daily 9-5-2022
On this Labor Day Monday we'll talk the wild silly season news from Friday regarding Brandon Sheppard, we've got a Nick Hoffman update, and we'll get into the weekend's dirt racing, including one sprint car championship battle that's over. Let's go!
It's Monday, September 5th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
Happy Labor Day friends! If you are going to be out and about celebrating today, please be safe out there. Also, today is the last day to take advantage of the coupon code for 20% off all merch at shop.dirtrackr.com. This deal is only for you guys that watch and listen to the show and it expires right before midnight eastern tonight. Use the code "daily" at checkout to get 20% off your entire order of shirts, decals, or both. Shipping is always free. shop.dirtrackr.com, click the merch link below in the video description, or the merch link at dirtrackr.com.
We'll kick things off today with the big news from Friday afternoon. I know it's been a few days since the announcement, and some of you have had plenty of time to digest it, but just in case, here's a quick recap. Following the 2022 season, Brandon Sheppard is set to depart the Rocket Racing number 1 dirt late model, and will be replaced for 2023 by Hudson O'Neal. Sheppard will return to his family owned B5 team to campaign Rocket chassis on a national tour next season. The unexpected news dropped later on Friday afternoon, and you figured something big was up when Michael Rigsby tweeted that the dirt late model silly season was about to get started. I'm not sure though that I thought this was what was coming. Sheppard has been the driver of the Rocket house car since 2017, when he replaced Josh Richards. Since then he's collected four World of Outlaws titles, just about every major win you can think of, and according to Dirt on Dirt, more than $3.5 million in earnings. BShepp told Kevin Kovac that he wants to have his family be more involved with the racing, including his dad and grandfather. It's also a chance to be closer to home and his wife and three children, including a new baby boy in August. Sheppard has already very clearly cemented his place in the history books of dirt late model racing, and this is now an opportunity to go build his own team. The Rocket/Sheppard pairing will finish the season together, as they are still in the mix for the Lucas title. As for Sheppard's replacement, Rocket owner Mark Richards did get the support of Hudson O'Neal's current car owner Roger Sellars before he made the move on Hudson. O'Neal is actually 22 years old as of today, and definitely one of the bright young stars in the sport. He's currently fourth in the Lucas points standings behind Tim McCreadie, Sheppard, and Ricky Thornton Jr, and since the 2020 season has 11 wins on tour. The last two seasons have shown he can compete for championships, and crown jewel wins in 2021 at the Show-Me 100 and Topless 100 prove he can compete on the biggest stages. If his past two drivers are any indication, Mark Richards could be about ready to turn O'Neal into one of the best in the business. He will supposedly begin testing soon to get prepared for the ride next year. I kind of like this move all the way around. Sheppard is more than capable of winning a lot in his family car, we've seen it on the Summer Nationals and elsewhere. And O'Neal is a nice pickup for the Rocket squad. I am curious though, if you were Mark Richards in this situation, is O'Neal your pick to replace BShepp? Or are you going a different direction? The other name I thought about in this case was Ricky Thornton Jr. I wonder though if the Rocket chassis connection with O'Neal already campaigning those cars helped with this deal. Drop me a comment, let me know your thoughts on this news.
The other news from Friday that we did talk about on the show was the highway accident for modified racer Nick Hoffman. Between his sister Ashly's Facebook posts and even a tweet from Nick himself last night, it sounds like things are improving. Late last night Nick tweeted quote "Laying in a hospital bed. Didn’t know what happened to me until a couple hours ago. Incredible amount of support. Thanks to everyone for reaching out. Dad is struggling but I am starting to feel better" unquote. I'm sure they will have a long road to recovery, but man it's good to hear that Nick's dad is moving around a bit, and even seeing Nick post a tweet is a massive step. If you want to show your support, there is a GoFundMe setup and shirts and decals being sold. I'll put links to them in the video description below.
Alright, let's dive into some racing from the weekend and we'll start with the Outlaws at Skagit. Logan Schuchart kicked the weekend off back on Thursday earning the opening night victory. Friday night, it looked like we might see a James McFadden repeat from 2021, but it was not to be. The season of absolute crap luck for JMac continued when he bowed out of the race on lap 17 with mechanical issues. And from the lead no less. There was a big fireball from his car a few laps before, and then he slowed to a stop and was done for the night. That handed the lead to Sheldon Haudenschild for the restart, and it was all Sheldon from there. It was win number nine on the year for the NOS 17 team. Jacob Allen and Carson Macedo completed the podium. Brad Sweet ended up fifth and David Gravel was ninth. On Saturday night in the $26,000 finale, it was all David Gravel. He won the dash and sat on the pole for the feature, and never relinqueshed the lead. Spencer Bayston and Brad Sweet chased the two car through lap traffic, but could never get close enough to make a move. Gravel now has six Outlaw wins on the season. Sweet finished second and Bayston third. It was Bayston's first podium finish since he won at Huset's back in June, a span of 28 races. That five team was really strong during the early part of the season, but since that Huset's victory, it's been up and down. Bayston has definitely shown flashes, but we do have to remember it's his rookie season. As for the points, Macedo and Gravel had solid weekends, but The Big Cat had two seconds and a fifth, and headed to Grays Harbor tonight, the points lead has been extended to 76 over Gravel and 106 over Macedo. I know there were some of you paying attention to the young guns in the field, and it was up and down for them. Joel Myers Jr. and Corey Day were in the features all three nights, with Myers ending up with the best finish, a fourth on Friday. Both Colby Thornhill and Ryan Timms only made one of three main events. Robbie Price was solid in his return to Skagit with three top 12 finishes and Tanner Holmes was a feature starter two of three nights. Looking to tonight at Grays Harbor, Logan Schuchart is the most recent winner from a year ago. Daryn Pittman, Donny Schatz, and Shane Stewart were winners there in 2019, 2018, and 2017. Over those past four races, Carson Macedo has the best average finish sitting at 2.5. Even with that, the dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula is giving the nod tonight to Sweet and I'll agree. You can watch the racing live tonight on DIRTVision.
The other points battle in sprint car racing we've been talking about is with the All Stars, and after Sharon over the weekend, I think we can say this one is over. Justin Peck had been on a hellacious run with four wins in six nights, but a 21st place finish on Friday night was probably the final break that Courtney needed. Part way through that Friday feature, Dave Blaney spun trying to avoid Dale Blaney, and Peck and Zeb Wise were collected. Peck went to the work area with damage, but wasn't able to make it back on track. Out front, Courtney charged from 11th to finish second behind eventual winner Brent Marks. That was a massive 38 point swing in Sunshine's favor. Hat tip to Dale Blaney in that Friday race, he kept Marks honest through a lot of that race before fading to fourth at the end. On Saturday with $12 Gs on the line, Cap Henry led all 35 laps officially to score his second All Star win of 2022. Near halfway, Rico Abreu actually cleared the farm car for the lead, but a mistake in turn four let Henry back by. At the line, Henry was followed by Marks and Abreu. Peck bounced back to fifth with Courtney in 10th, but with only eight race nights left, the gap is now 140 points. And unfortunately for Peck, only six of them are full points. That means Peck has six races to top Sunshine by 70 spots. Not impossible, but incredibly improbable. The All Stars head back to Pennsylvania this week for the Tuscarora 50.
Elsewhere around the country, we had a ton of rainouts and cancellations. Neither Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series show got completed because of weather. The USAC midgets on Sunday were rained out. And one of two World of Outlaws Late Model shows was lost. The Outlaws did race on Friday night at Smoky Mountain and it was all Jimmy Owens. The Newport Nightmare had a few issues through lap traffic, and Hudson O'Neal tried to stick with him, but at the end, O'Neal was out and Owens was the winner. O'Neal actually had his right rear tire come off completely with 10 laps to go. Chris Ferguson and Max Blair completed the podium. Dennis Erb Jr. finished ahead of Tanner English on the night and the points lead is back to triple digits. Both late model national tours are quiet this week, as the World 100 at Eldora looms. Wednesday we'll have the conclusion of the postponed Dirt Late Model Dream, then we'll get into World 100 prelims starting Thursday. We'll talk more Eldora later on this week.
Before we get ready to close it out for the day, big hat tip to Daison Pursley on the POWRi National Midget win last night at Lake Ozark. He started sixth and outdueled Brenham Crouch and Taylor Reimer late to earn his first midget win of the season. Pursley continues to recover from that spinal cord injury and the win last night was a massive step forward for his return to racing.
Other weekend open wheel winners included Tanner Carrick and Shane Golobic in 360 action at Placerville, Derek Hagar and Blake Hahn were ASCS winners, Cory Eliason was an AFCS winner at Attica, Aaron Reutzel and Mark Dobmeier were 410 winners at Huset's. Brooke Tatnell claimed the track championship. In Pennsylvania, Lance Dewease won at the Grove, Devon Borden was victorious at Port Royal, Freddie Rahmer took Lincoln, and Brian Brown won Sunday at Selinsgrove.
In other week late model racing, Matt Cosner, Gregg Satterlee, and Rick Eckert were ULMS winners; Mike Spatola, Bobby Pierce, and Jason Feger were MARS winners; fellow YouTuber Ryan Missler won at Attica, Chase Junghans and Tony Jackson Jr. were MLRA winners, and Ross Bailes won the Carolina Clash show at Cherokee.
Up in the northeast, Stewart Friesen won the $25,000 New Yorker at Utica-Rome on Sunday with the Short Track Super Series. And Andy Bachetti grabbed $25 grand and a guaranteed spot in Super DIRT Week with the Mr. Dirt Track USA win at Lebanon Valley with the Super DIRTcar Series.
There are eight shows on the streaming schedule on this Labor Day. DIRTVision has the Outlaws at Grays Harbor, FloRacing has the Ted Horn 100, there is also the IMCA Super Nationals on Speed Sport and more. 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.
Thanks everybody for tuning in, I'll see you tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!