DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Get caught up on dirt racing news from Rocket Racing, XR, Noah Gass, Cruz Pedregon, more | Daily 11-29-2022
Lotta news items to cover today, as we'll talk national tour plans for the Rocket house car, a second confirmed World of Outlaws driver, the XR schedule, and a whole lot more. Let's go!
It's Tuesday, November 29th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
We'll get into the show in just a second, but first I wanted to let you know that today's episode is being sponsored by MSP Mounts. If you're a racer looking to capture video and make content, or you just have a side by side and want to capture your kickass trail days, you've gotta check these things out. MSP action camera mounts are made by sprint car driver Dan McCarron, and can be used for all sorts of applications. These things are super strong and fit any bar or tubing from 3/4" thick up to two inches. That means sprint cars, late models, midgets, modifieds, pavement cars, ATVs, whatever you've got, these will work to mount your GoPros or other cameras. And you don't need any tools to use them. They go on and off quickly and easily, and can be used to capture any angle. Now, you might be thinking, hey, why should I listen to the guy with a YouTube show who's never raced a sprint car and doesn't know crap. Well don't worry, you don't have to listen to me. These camera mounts are used by the best in the content business, including FloRacing and Swindell SpeedLab. So take that haters. If you are looking for a unique Christmas gift, or are getting ready for indoor season, or are wanting to make some content in 2023, go get a few of these. When you head over to mspmounts.com, make sure to use code DIRTRACKR at checkout, and you'll get 10% off your order. That's D I R T R A C K R for 10% off checkout over at mspmounts.com. Big thanks again to Dan for his support of my show.
Between Turkey Night and Sheldon Haudenschild's comments, we had a bunch of stuff to talk about yesterday, so I wanted to use today's show to get you up to speed on a bunch of moves that have happened over the past week or so.
We'll start first with the national tour plans for the Rocket house car for 2023. Rocket Racing announced yesterday that they will again chase the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series championship with new driver Hudson O'Neal. The Rocket team had been a long time regular participant with the World of Outlaws, but in a surprise move in 2022, flipped allegiances from the Outlaws to Lucas. They ended the year with seven wins in 53 races, to go along with 28 top fives and 42 top tens. They did miss out on the Lucas title, finishing second in the standings behind champion Tim McCreadie. With Brandon Sheppard departing the team to go out on his own with help from Scott Riggs, team owner Mark Richards made the call to go with O'Neal, making the announcement back in September. O'Neal debuted with Rocket at World Finals, picking up finishes of 13th, 5th, and 8th, including leading laps on the final night. I believe O'Neal is a strong pickup for Rocket going forward, both because of how young he is and his already wide experience on national tours. He finished second in the Lucas standings in 2021, and fourth this year, and bagged 11 wins along the way, including several crown jewels. Assuming McCreadie and Ricky Thornton Jr. are back in 2023 with Lucas, there is no reason to believe this team won't be in the title hunt all season, and in the mix for big wins.
Also on the late model side of things, despite constant rumors of their demise, the XR Super Series will return in 2023 with a full slate of races. Their 2022 schedule closes out this weekend down at All-Tech in Florida, and All-Tech will kick off the 2023 schedule for XR next February 20th. 13 events are on the calendar for next year, including $100,000 to win shows at Volunteer Speedway, Off Road Speedway, and Las Vegas. The XR Super Series was the cornerstone of the Bristol Dirt Nationals the past two years, and this schedule seems to confirm that just like the World of Outlaws, there will be no XR event on the Bristol dirt in 2023. There are two TBAs still on the schedule, one for July 10th, and another in December. Besides no Bristol, the other takeaway from this initial look is that the schedule is substantially smaller for next year. XR had 23 nights in 2022, versus 13 here. Barry Braun and his team continue to change and evolve as they learn, and we know they are looking at some other late model shows for next season, to go along with their revival of Pennsboro Speedway. So, we've seen the Lucas schedule, the Outlaw schedule, and now XR. There are still some regional plans to decide, and we don't know what things look like for year three with the FloRacing Night in America Series.
It was about two weeks ago that we talked about Noah Gass on this show and his baptism by fire with the Outlaws in 2022. It was a tough rookie run for that squad, but they are ready to do it all over again. The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series announced last Friday that Gass and his 20G machine will return to the series full time in 2023. Gass, his dad Randy, crew chief Cody Cordell, and car chief Robby McQuinn will be looking to build on their 12th place finish in the standings that included two top ten results. Some time to rest and reload should be good for this team, and I know they are busy already using the lessons they learned from the first run at the tour. Gass' commitment, along with the previously announced return of James McFadden to Roth, means we have two confirmed Outlaw teams for next year. Once we know the schedule and have some resolution on the platinum agreement in the coming weeks, the full time field should become much more clear.
We talked late last week about NHRA funny car driver Cruz Pedregon bringing two cars to the Chili Bowl, and as of this morning, we know both of his drivers. Yesterday it was World of Outlaws driver Jacob Allen getting the nod from the Cruzer, and just a little bit ago as I put the show together, it was announced that California sprint car driver Kalib Henry is getting the other seat. Neither have competed inside the expo center before, but both will be entertaining to follow. Allen had a breakout season with the Outlaws picking up four wins and finishing in the top ten in the standings. And if Henry is a name you don't know yet, you will soon. In scattered starts across California this season, he had top tens and top fives with NARC, the Sprint Car Challenge Tour, and at Trophy Cup. He also led laps against the Outlaws on his prelim night during Gold Cup, and was 12th in the Gold Cup finale. Thanks to Holly Shelton, I got to meet Kalib at a race early in 2022, and I think he has a really bright future. And apparently so do other people, because besides this Chili Bowl shot with Pedregon, Henry will also run next year in the midwest. Car owner Shane Liebig is putting Henry in his number 10 to run weekly at Huset's in 2023, along with starts at Jackson, Knoxville, and races against the All Stars and World of Outlaws.
One other regional sprint car move to mention as well is Jay Kiser hiring Zeth Sabo to drive his number 23 next season. Sabo replaces Chris Andrews who is looking towards becoming an owner/driver. Sabo had been racing with Rich Farmer, and picked up a win at Fremont Speedway. You'll see Sabo and Kiser all over Ohio next year.
With the departure of Casey Shuman from World Racing Group, we knew there were going to be some holes to fill in that organization. It was already announced that hall of famer Steve Francis is filling the void as the World of Outlaws Late Model Series director, but Shuman was also instrumental with the Xtreme Outlaw Series. He's going to stick around in some capacity though, as he takes over I-70 Motorsports Park, but WRG announced yesterday they have elevated Tyler Bachmann to series director for the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets. Bachmann was the competition director for the series in 2022, and is a longtime World of Outlaws Late Model Series official as well. He's also been invaluable leading safety efforts for the World of Outlaws and DIRTcar. I've known Tyler a long time, awesome guy, works his butt off, and has seen the sport from basically all sides. I love this move for him and the series.
Alright, that's it for the news items, let's talk a little racing from Monday night.
The new season for the iRacing World of Outlaws Sprint Cars is off and running, with last night's opener at Volusia Speedway Park complete. These competitors are racing for $300 to win on a weekly basis, to go along with the championship that pays $10,000 to win at season's end. A total of $25,000 is up for grabs for the season. Keep an eye out each week as I talk about this series, because the detractors will be out in force in the comments on these videos. For some reason we just can't seem to bring ourselves to understand that this is actual racing, with actual money on the line. Carquest Auto Parts has stepped in as the title sponsor of the series for this season, which is an actual auto parts store. Not a virtual one. So clearly someone is finding value here. Last night at Volusia, some iRacing vets ended up on the outside looking in, with Blake Matjoulis, Austin Semmelmann, Hayden Cardwell, and Braden Eyler all missing the feature. Things were tight late with three time champion Alex Bergeron in the mix with James Edens and newcomer Timothy Smith. Bergeron and Edens were able to make it a two car battle in the final few laps, with Bergeron eventually edging away from Edens to snag the opening night win. With defending champion Cameron Merriman not in the field last night, Bergeron will definitely be the favorite all year. This series will run the next consecutive nine Monday nights through January 30th. These races can be watched for free on DIRTVision and on YouTube, plus DIRTVision's Chase Raudman is on the call, so if you're an Outlaw fan, you'll hear a familiar voice.
The only things on the streaming schedule today are DIRTVision Now and 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 Tuesday! Please hit that like button, and subscribe to the show if you don't already.
Thanks everybody for tuning in, I'll see you tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!