DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Scott Bloomquist late to Dirt Late Model Dream feature, not allowed to race | Daily 9-8-2022
Coming up, Scott Bloomquist's Dream was over before it even restarted, and the reason is dumb. Also, Brandon Overton scored again, Kyle Larson came up short, and two big sprint car weekends start tonight. Let's go!
It's Thursday, September 8th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
We'll get this Thursday show started with the Dream make up program last night at Eldora to kick off World 100 week. I really enjoyed the format with the Chasing the Dream features. They did end up running three, $5000 to win races, each 20 laps. Ryan Gustin topped Garret Alberson in the first race. Freddie Carpenter was really good in race two, but dropped out with mechanical issues from the lead, and that handed the top spot to Mike Marlar. Marlar drove on to the win over Chase Junghans after Kody Evans had late engine issues. And the third race saw a good battle late between Daulton Wilson and Ashton Winger, with the two trading big moves. Wilson was able to grab the victory. If you wanted to give out a "c'mon man" award last night, or a "what they hell were they thinking" award, the honor would easily go to Scott Bloomquist and his Team Zero squad. As the Dream feature cars were rolling around under pace laps, Bloomquist was pushed from the upper pit to the crossover gate on the backstretch to join the action, but was so late that officials wouldn't allow him in. Cars must report for tire tech in advance of the feature, and the announcers said that Bloomer was something like 15 minutes late. That is just completely ridiculous. And if you were watching on Flo, you saw Bloomquist's crew member who was on the four wheeler, arguing with track officials. But at the point, being that late, what in the world could his argument have been? 23 other drivers and teams certainly had no problem finding their way to the speedway for the, let me remind you, $128,000 to win and $5000 to start main event. This wasn't some two bit feature at a backwoods race track. This was the Dirt Late Model Dream at Eldora, and they couldn't show up on time. I know it's like a running joke about this team always being late for everything, but at some point it just becomes ridiculous. I'm glad the officials put their foot down and stopped the insanity. Once the race got restarted, Chris Madden battled Brandon Overton and Hudson O'Neal early on, with O'Neal actually leading a few circuits. But by lap 25, things had settled out with Madden out front. Things were pretty calm for Smokey for the most part, but the race went sideways for him inside ten to go. Devin Moran appeared to either have a tire go down or something break into turn one, and his car took off for the wall. In the process, both Bobby Pierce and Hudson O'Neal were collected. The yellow flag erased a two and a half second lead for Madden. On the restart, Overton rolled the top in one and two and took the lead from Madden down the backstretch. From there, Smokey just couldn't ever get close enough again to make a move on the 76. The score for Overton made it three straight wins in the Dirt Late Model Dream. Madden again settled for second, with Tim McCreadie third, Jonathan Davenport hard charged from 21st to fourth, and Brandon Sheppard was fifth. Afterwards, Madden revealed that he had a loose plug wire under the hood that robbed his car of power, and he knew he was a sitting duck on that final restart. Even Overton admitted he didn't have the best car. It was a big bummer for Madden who just can't seem to get one of these big wins at Eldora. So with the Dream show complete, things shift into World 100 mode tonight. We'll have a split field program, with two $10,000 to win features to close out the evening. We'll see if Madden can restart the climb and make his way towards the top for the World come Saturday. You can again catch all the action live tonight on FloRacing.
Out in California last night, the Gold Cup weekend got underway at the Silver Dollar Speedway with the Sprint Car Challenge Tour taking center stage. There was a $2500 bounty on Kyle Larson, and had he not spun on the opening lap and subsequently gone to the tail, that money may not have been paid out. With Shane Golobic and Max Mittry out front, a caution late for a slowing Andy Forsberg put Yung Money right back in contention. He'd driven from the rear to fourth by the time of that caution. Over the final few laps though, Golobic was able to get away, and Larson nipped Mittry late for second. So I believe Golobic got $2500 for the win and the bounty for a nice $5000. Tonight, action shifts to the World of Outlaws and things are different at the Gold Cup this year. They are returning to a split field format Thursday and Friday, and the pre-entry list has crossed 60 cars, which is double what they had at this event a year ago. If you are watching on YouTube, here are the prelim night lineups. If you are listening to the podcast, you find the lineups on the Outlaw social media channels. Teams will race each night, earning points, with the top two point earners from each prelim program locking into the Saturday finale. They will use heat race inversions tonight and tomorrow. Everyone else past the locked in guys will be in heat races for Saturday. These prelim programs are not official Outlaw shows, just like Knoxville, so no points on the line. Saturday's Gold Cup finale pays $25,000 to win. World of Outlaws points leader Brad Sweet leads all drivers in average finish at Silver Dollar over the last nine appearances. He's the pick from the dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula. I'll go Larson tonight though. He was fast last night in the 360. The Gold Cup is live all weekend long on DIRTVision.
The other big sprint car weekend that starts tonight is the Tuscarora 50 at Port Royal. Tonight is $8000 to win, Friday is $10,000 to win, and the Saturday finale is a very nice $55,000 to win. The event is sanctioned by the All Stars and Logan Wagner is the defending event winner. The big show on Saturday in 2021 drew nearly 60 cars, and I don't see any reason why we wouldn't be close to that again. Tyler Courtney is bringing a 140 point advantage into the weekend, but with only six full points paying nights remaining, Justin Peck won't have enough chances to make a serious run at Sunshine. For tonight, the prediction formula likes Brent Marks, I'll go Anthony Macri. I think there will be a lot of fast guys though to watch for. Tonight's race isn't on the schedule for Lance Dewease, but he should be in attendance Friday and Saturday. I think you gotta watch out for Wagner again, Danny Dietrich, Mike Wagner, we've seen Dylan Cisney and Jeff Halligan fast at Port, and Devon Boren was a weekly winner just a few days ago. That's on top of guys like Sunshine and Peck, plus other travelers coming in like Brian Brown and Rico Abreu. If you aren't headed to Port Royal, you can watch the All Stars all weekend over on FloRacing.
And if you want to go three screens tonight, the ASCS National Tour is at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas. 13 race nights remain on the ASCS schedule for the year, and Blake Hahn currently leads Wayne Johnson and Tim Crawley for the championship. This one will also be on Flo.
Moving over to some news items from yesterday, we'll start with the North Wilkesboro announcement. They had originally planned to tear up the pavement on the half mile race track in North Carolina and run dirt races in October before the facility got a fresh repave. But yesterday afternoon, it was announced that the October dirt races were all cancelled, and that the old surface would remain. So no XR Super Series shows, no Carolina Sprint Tour, that entire week is gone. Instead, that old pavement will remain, and now Wilkesboro will host the All Star race in 2023 for the NASCAR Cup Series. It's a bit of a bummer to lose those dirt shows, but I do think this was probably the right move for the facility and it's future. It'd be a shame for that surface to go away.
And if you were looking for more updates on Nick Hoffman, we got some more good news yesterday. Thanks to Carl Edwards and his airplane, the family has returned home to North Carolina. Nick's sister Ashly posted a photo on Facebook, and Nick looks pretty good. His did Darrell is still in a wheelchair, but at least they got to get out of the hospital and go home. There is still recovery and rehab ahead, but this is looking much better than it did just a few days ago.
Eight shows on the streaming schedule today, and some big ones coming up. DIRTVision has the Gold Cup from Silver Dollar, FloRacing has the World 100 and Tusky 50, the IMCA Super Nationals continue 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 Thursday.
Thanks everybody for tuning in, I'll see you tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!