DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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I-80 Speedway auction coming up, Jimmy Owens has a new ride | Daily 1-5-2023

Jimmy Owens has a new ride, the Outlaw field grows to 15, everything must got at I-80, and Kyle Larson talks to David Gravel. Let's go!

It's Thursday, January 5th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

With the Wild West Shootout getting underway this weekend and Speedweeks following not long after down in Florida and Georgia, we are about out of time for teams and drivers to have their plans settled for 2023. One of those names we were still waiting on was Jimmy Owens. The Newport Nightmare had been driving for Ramirez Motorsports, but the death of team owner Leon Ramirez early in 2022 put that team in question, and there have been rumors since the season ended that Owens was going to end up with all sorts of teams. But slowly, all of those options dried up and went to other drivers. Last night though, we got the announcement that Owens has a seat for this season, and we will see him debut with the Outlaws at Volusia on January 19th. He's partnering up with Koehler Motorsports, based in North Carolina, and owned by Bobby and Jessica Koehler for a full slate of super late model racing. The Koehlers have been fielding crate cars for sons Jordan and Evan, and this will be a step up for the them. In the release, Owens said they will maintain the equipment out of his shop in Tennessee and that he's going to aid in Jordan's career as he makes some super late model appearances this year as well. As of right now, they have an empty shop and a truck, but plans are for them to have two new Longhorns by Wells ready to go for Volusia, with Vic Hill power under the hood. This will be a departure from the Rockets that Owens has had so much success with in his career. He did try a Longhorn late in 2021, but eventually shifted back to Rockets. Owens ran a pick and choose schedule in 2022, and as of right now doesn't have a specific plan set just yet. They are going to play the Speedweeks game and see where they sit with both series before making a decision to follow a tour or continue racing where they choose each week. So with Owens now set, that's really the end of the big driver and team moves for this year. We'll have cars on track at Vado on Saturday.

One other late model note for you today. I had missed this from before, but the World of Outlaws have added yet another car with Johnny Scott declaring his intentions to compete for the rookie of the year. Scott's addition makes it 15 full timers right now for the Outlaws with just two weeks to go until their season begins. Johnny picked up two Lucas wins in 2022, both at Wheatland, and he had an Eldora prelim night win during the World 100 weekend in 2021. He raced against the Outlaws just twice last year, with appearances at Fairbury and Tri-City. Scott joins a rookie class that also includes Payton Freeman, Logan Martin, Dustin Walker, Todd Cooney, and Nick Hoffman. The rest of the Outlaw field features Dennis Erb Jr., Brandon Sheppard, Chris Madden, Tanner English, Max Blair, Boom Briggs, Ryan Gustin, Brent Larson, and Gordy Gundaker.

If you are in the market for some equipment from a dirt track, the I-80 Speedway auction begins next Monday. The land where the race track sits has already been sold, and now all the equipment must go. 2022 was the final season for the track, located in Greenwood, Nebraska, with the Kosiski family deciding to get out. The track had been home to a weekly racing program, and it held big events each year, like the Silver Dollar Nationals for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, and World of Outlaws shows. Jonathan Davenport bagged the final big Silver Dollar Nationals win in July, and David Gravel was the Outlaw winner in October. We do know the Silver Dollar Nationals will move to Huset's Speedway for 2023. The equipment auction is taking place online, and will run for a week. And they are selling EVERYTHING. You can buy equipment like graders, pack trucks, loaders, they have fire trucks, man lifts, golf carts, and a toterhome. You can get entire buildings, the frontstretch grandstands (which look great and are needed at a lot of tracks), concession stuff, musco lighting, and even a full playground setup. Full details on the auction are available at steffesgroup.com, including all the listings and photos. It's a shame to see I-80 go, but hopefully this could be an opportunity for some other tracks to upgrade their own equipment.

Over on David Gravel's YouTube channel last night, he did another livestream, with this one featuring Kyle Larson as the guest. No super big revelations during the three hour conversation, but there were some interesting bits in there. Larson did say that he won't compete at the World or Dream at Eldora this season. The Dream is the same weekend as the Cup cars out in Sonoma, so that's definitely not happening. And the World 100 is up against the Gold Cup out at Chico. Larson will definitely be a part of that weekend with his interest in the promoting group at the Silver Dollar Speedway with Brad Sweet and Colby Copeland. And we've heard him say this before, but Larson did reiterate that at some point in his career he wants to run full time with the World of Outlaws to try and win a championship. Not breaking news or anything there, but it's interesting that is still on his mind and on his wishlist. Gravel again got asked about the plans for the Big Game 2 team in 2023, and if they have decided to run or not run with the World of Outlaws full time. He said they are still waiting on clarification about which races are allowed to be run under the four and eight race freebies in the new Outlaw platinum agreement. He did say if they don't run the full schedule, they will run a lot of those races anyway. And that will be true for any team that decides against full time membership. You can watch Gravel and Larson's full conversation over at youtube.com/davidgravel.

Before we close out, I wanted to give a quick shoutout and thanks to the new channel members we've had join in the last few days. Thanks to Jordan, Gregor, Joseph, David, and Dave for hopping on and supporting the channel. We are up to 25 channel members now, which is super cool. I really appreciate everyone on that list who contributes to this project of mine. If you want to check out the membership program, click the join button on the videos or the channel on YouTube, or the membership tab. You can also visit youtube.com/dirtrackr/join.

There are seven shows on today's slate of streaming shows. Clay-Per-View has racing from Borderline Speedway down under, FloRacing has action from Huntly and Western Springs plus Flo 24/7. RacinDirt has karts, Speed Sport has day two of the Winter Nationals from Cocopah, and there is also DIRTVision Now. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.

Alright, that's it for the show. Have a good Thursday. Thanks everyone for tuning in. We'll be back here tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily.