DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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You make the call: Was Logan Schuchart's slider on Carson Macedo clean? | Daily 9-19-2022
Today we'll talk a sketchy Outlaw slide job, closer championship battles for a few series, and some glaring safety issues. Let's go!
It's Monday, September 19th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
We'll start this new week off with a little discussion about what is or isn't a good and clean slide job. On Friday night at the Keller Auto Speedway in Hanford, California, the World of Outlaws closed out their 2022 slate of California races with the $21,000 to win Tom Tarlton Classic. Carson Macedo was out front for 32 laps, starting on the pole, but things got spicy late in the going. The Shark teammates of Logan Schuchart and Jacob Allen had driven through the field, Logan from 10th and Jacob from 22nd, to get into contention. With three to go, Schuchart made his move for the lead into turn one, throwing a massive slider at Macedo. The 1S did technically clear the 41, but Logan's speed was way down, and Macedo had no where to go but to pile into the back of the 1S. It obviously killed Macedo's momentum, which allowed Schuchart to take the lead, but the worse part was that the contact damaged the front wing supports on Macedo's car. Schuchart drove on to the win over his Shark teammate, and Macedo faded to fourth at the end with the damage wing bits. As you can imagine, Macedo was not pleased with Logan and showed his displeasure afterward. In the post race release from the series, Macedo was mostly diplomatic, saying quote "It is what it is. It’s just one of them deals I think you have to put into the memory bank and just remember" unquote. Schuchart defended his actions in victory lane and in a tweet on Sunday, saying they were racing for the win. He also said quote "My definition of a slide job is to park a car in front of someone taking their momentum away. Some will not see it that way and that’s fine. But our rear bumper is bent, not our right rear wheel" unquote. Schuchart was showered with boos in victory lane from the California fans who were probably fairly pro Macedo. I wouldn't personally call this a dirty slider, especially with what we've seen in other forms of open wheel racing this season and in the past, but I don't love the move. Schuchart clearly did what he felt he needed to do to win, but if the guy being slid can't stab the brakes and keep rolling without hitting the slide thrower, then it's not clean. And this wasn't a little tap, bumper to bumper. This was pretty significant contact with damage that took Macedo out of contention. The beauty of this type of racing though, is guys get raced like they race other people, and in the future when this favor is returned to Schuchart, hopefully he'll remember his own comments from this situation. Behind the drama for the leaders, it was another incredible performance for Jacob Allen. A 22nd to 2nd run was Jacob's fourth straight podium finish and 13th top ten in a row. Jacob's previous best top ten streak was just four races. We also saw a rare Donny Schatz mistake on Friday night. Late in the going while battling in the top five, Schatz jumped the cushion in four and got into the outside wall on the frontstretch. The damage ended Schatz's night with a 23rd place result. Schatz hadn't finished outside the top twenty in an Outlaw show since Merced back in March. The Outlaws are headed back east now with stops at Eldora and Sharon on tap for this coming weekend. No big changes in the standings with Brad Sweet still leading David Gravel by 74 and Macedo by 94.
Rain on Saturday night at Knoxville pushed the Late Model Nationals for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series to yesterday. Bobby Pierce and Jonathan Davenport started together on the front row, and both led laps early, but I did not have Tyler Bruening as a serious threat on my bingo card. The Iowa driver started third, and ended up leading the most laps. He was out front late and looked to be in a good spot for the win, especially with Davenport battling with Earl Pearson Jr. inside ten to go. But JD got clear of EPJ and was able to reel Bruening in quicky and steal the lead with just a few laps left. Davenport has won several crown jewels this season, and obviously a ton of money, and yesterday's victory just adds to his incredible 2022. It was Davenport's first career win the Nationals. Bruening settled for second with Brandon Sheppard third. Eight race nights remain in the season, and what was looking like an easy run to the end for McCreadie and a second straight Lucas championship is now anything but. Engine issues early in the race yesterday left him with a 25th place finish, and with BShepp on the podium, the gap is now only 100 points. Overcoming that gap is very doable for the Rocket house car if they can stay hot. McCreadie hadn't finished outside the top 20 in a Lucas main event since he was 28th at East Bay way back in January of 2021. The Lucas late models head to Brownstown this weekend for the Jackson 100.
The All Stars were in Pennsylvania over the weekend for their final time this season. Friday at Williams Grove it was all Lance Dewease out front. He led from flag to flag to score his second All Star win of 2022. Brent Marks and TJ Stutts completed the podium. Behind them, it was a wild night for Justin Peck. He tangled with points leader Tyler Courtney and ended up out of the ballpark in turn four. Sunshine looked like he just slipped up the track and Peck was the victim. Incredibly, the Buch team got the 13 machine back to the pit area and repaired enough to continue. Peck ended up driving all the way back to 11th, which isn't easy to do at the Grove. I do think a few different incidents in the last few weeks have highlighted the safety deficiencies that still exist at a lot of race tracks around the country. We should not be still in situations where we have cars leaving the race track completely and ending up near light poles and billboards. We also had the issue a few nights ago at Hanford where Caeden Steele ended up on fire and DJ Netto was the first on the scene to help put the driver out. It was way too long before the fire and safety crew arrived. It also seems as though these fire crews don't have the right extinguishers to put out these sprint car fires. I hope these places are evaluating their procedures this week. At Lincoln on Saturday for the Dirt Classic, Anthony Macri was chased by Justin Peck for much of the main event, but neither driver went to victory lane. Brent Marks drove up from 10th and snagged the lead from Macri on the final lap to steal the $20,000 win. Marks is now at nearly $600,000 in winnings for the season. All that's left now for the All Stars this season is this coming weekend's Four Crown Nationals at Eldora, and two nights at Fremont in October.
Up at Fonda on Saturday night for the 200, Matt Sheppard was finally victorious in the event. It was about the only thing left that he hadn't won in his career. He started 11th and slowly worked his way towards the front, finally taking the lead for good after a caution at lap 131. Anthony Perrego tried to run him down late, but couldn't get close enough for a move. So $53,000 to Sheppard, with Perrego second and Mike Mahaney third. Sheppard leads the Short Track Super Series Elite Series standings with two wins now, and he's also out front in both the north region and south region. And let me remind you, he's also in control with the Super DIRTcar Series. We could very likely see Sheppard sweep the Short Track Super Series championships this season, while also taking down the Super DIRTcar title. It's been a very good season for that 9S team.
The USAC sprint cars were back in action over the weekend and the race for the championship is suddenly a lot tighter. Friday night at Circle City it was all Kevin Thomas Jr. He led every lap and scored his second win of the year, and second in three races. KTJ had been focusing on winged racing this season, but has been better as of late back with the wing off. He did have to fend off Brady Bacon on the final lap, but Bacon didn't take the chance and throw a huge slider like he could have, and instead settled for second. The reason the points are tighter, along with the second for Bacon, was early trouble for Justin Grant. He had an incident early on Friday and his team couldn't get repairs made in time, so he finished 23rd. It busted an 18 race top ten streak, and it was JG's worst finish since a 21st at Bloomsburg Fair in June of 2021. Bacon also finished ahead of Grant on Saturday at Haubstadt, so leaving the weekend, the gap between the two is now just 63 points. There are still nine race nights left for Bacon to close down that deficit even more. The Saturday win at Haubstadt went to Jadon Rogers, who had to drive his ass off to keep KTJ, Jason McDougal, and Kyle Cummins behind him. He ended up leading all but one lap to bag his first career USAC National Sprint Car win. Cummins and McDougal rounded out the podium. KTJ led lap 35, but was then out of the event after he slide high in four and caught the outside wall. The USAC sprint car season continues Thursday at Gas City.
If you want some racing to get into tonight, don't forget about the XR Super Series at Kokomo. Tonight is $20,000 to win and Tuesday is $40,000 to win. The field is packed and includes Davenport, McCreadie, Madden, Overton, Owens, Babb, Moran, and a bunch more. Brandon Sheppard is back in the B5 tonight as he gets ready to go full time in that car next season. You can watch the Kokomo Dirt Nationals live on XR Plus.
Other weekend late model winners included Max Blair at Eriez, Ashton Winger at Magnolia, Cade Dillard was the Saturday winner at Magnolia. Ross Bailes was a ULMS winner at Dog Hollow, Michael Chilton won the Iron Man show at Atomic, Mark Whitener was a crate winner at East Alabama, and Wil Herrington won the Southern All Stars show Sunday at East Alabama.
At the Hockett/McMillin Memorial on Saturday, Wayne Johnson led the final 16 laps to score the ASCS win over Blake Hahn and Scott Bogucki. It was Johnson's 59th career national tour win. He trails Blake Hahn though by 101 points for the ASCS championship. In the non-wing portion of the night with WAR, Chase Randall ended up on the winning side of a battle with Mario Clouser, with Wesley Smith also in the mix. Other weekend winners included Damion Gardner in CRA action at Perris, Aaron Reutzel won the Commonwealth Clash at Lernerville, and Cannon McIntosh was a POWRi midget winner at Fairbury.
There are three items on the streaming schedule today. XR Plus has the Kokomo Dirt Nationals for the XR Super Series, DIRTVision has the iRacing World of Outlaws Late Models 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.
Thanks everybody for tuning in, I'll see you tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!