DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Bobby Pierce says he's full time with the World of Outlaws, but we don't believe him | Daily 1-19-2023
You know during the opening scene of the movie Anchorman when Will Ferrell says "I don't believe you" when told he's on the air? That was how I felt yesterday when the World of Outlaws announced that Bobby Pierce will be a full timer in 2023. Let's get into it.
It's Thursday, January 19th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
The 2023 season for the World of Outlaws Late Model Series gets underway tonight with the first of three race nights at Volusia for the Sunshine Nationals. The track was open last night for practice, and they had a very nice group of 43 cars participate. Will Roland ended up quickest overall with Kyle Stricker, Chris Madden, Jordan Koehler, and Brian Shirley the rest of the top five. Besides the expected Outlaw regulars, which we'll get to in a second, some others who are in the field this weekend include Lucas champion Tim McCreadie, Ricky Thornton Jr. fresh off two weeks of open wheel racing in Tulsa, Devin Moran with his new Double Down team, Scott Bloomquist with Big Frog, Chase Junghans, Stewart Friesen, Cade Dillard, Kyle Bronson, and others. As for that full time Outlaw field, I've been trying to keep you guys updated on who's in, and as of yesterday we are sitting at 17 total to begin the year, with one surprise signee as of Wednesday. After his big $25,000 finale win at the Wild West Shootout, Bobby Pierce has come to Florida and added his name to the full time Outlaw roster. In an interview posted to the Outlaw social media channels, Pierce said quote "I know it's a long year and a lot of traveling, but we do that all the time anyways, so we'll just see how it goes" unquote. Pierce has only previously run a national tour once, in 2018 with Lucas, and I don't know about you, but I'm pretty skeptical that he finishes the season. His quotes aren't exactly full of conviction, and this very much feels like a chance to race with status for the early part of the year, and then return to the midwest when the tracks start to open back up there. Pierce is transitioning to Longhorn Chassis for 2023, and these early season shows will help that team continue to fine tune their package. This Outlaw field has become competitive this offseason with the additions of Brandon Sheppard and Chris Madden to go up against guys like Dennis Erb Jr. and Tanner English who competed in 2022. Max Blair is also back, and the rookie field is deep. Pierce has won four times against the Outlaws in his career, but the paradigm changes when you're racing every night versus just the tracks you want. Maybe I'm wrong here, but I don't feel like I'll trust that he's in for real until he rolls into World Finals in November still carrying that full time status. With the addition of Pierce though, the field will begin with 17 and they are Erb, English, Sheppard, Madden, Pierce, Blair, Boom Briggs, Todd Cooney, Gordy Gundaker, Ryan Gustin, Logan Martin, Dustin Walker, Nick Hoffman, Brent Larson, Shane Clanton, Payton Freeman, and Johnny Scott. The rookies in the group include Cooney, Freeman, Hoffman, Martin, Pierce, Scott, and Walker. I think sitting here in January that the championship battle is really between Sheppard, Erb, English, and Madden. Sheppard looked strong at Vado, and I believe he'll be extra motivated to show what he can do away from the Rocket house car. Erb is obviously the defending champion, but the competition has ramped up significantly this season. Madden has come close before, and is coming off an epic season that under normal circumstances would have gotten more fanfare had it not been for Jonathan Davenport's two million dollar year. And English showed late last year that he can contend and win races, and that team has been fast in their few appearances together. I'm sure I'll hear it from someone that I didn't include Max Blair in this title conversation, but as much as I think he's talented, we need to see more from that Boom Briggs team before we can call Blair a real contender. Looking at the weekend specifically, Dale McDowell and Ashton Winger were winners a year ago, but remember that Volusia had undergone surface changes with new dirt, and the track was really rough and heavy for that event. Things should be much better this year. Also, Winger is in attendance, but McDowell is not. The team posted yesterday that they are not coming because of the new tire rule in effect and the added cost of it. At DIRTcar Nationals in 2022, we had four different winners in Madden, Erb, McDowell, and Brandon Overton. Other past Volusia winners include Devin Moran, Kyle Strickler, Kyle Bronson, Jimmy Owens, and BShepp. If you can't get to Volusia, DIRTVision will have live coverage of all three nights.
For the rest of the week over at shop.dirtrackr.com I'm running a sale on hats and t-shirts. No coupon code is necessary, and shipping and sales tax are still on me for US buyers. I'll probably run the discounts through the weekend, so grab something while you can. You can also snag a decal or two while you're there. So head over to shop.dirtrackr.com to buy.
Back right before Christmas, I did a Daily show about Hoosier bringing in new sprint car tires for 2023, but we weren't sure then about when they would actually be mandated this year. If you aren't aware, there will now be a single left rear available across sprint car racing, what they are calling the D12A. It's a hybrid construction between the previous RD12 and H12 left rears that has a new tread pattern designed to help reduce chunking and blistering. The new right rear is available in two compounds, medium, and the D15A which replaces the H15 and is slightly more firm. In the release from Hoosier in December, Neil Cowman said that competition in January and February would go on as normal with the old tires to help teams and distributors use up existing inventory. And as of yesterday, thanks to a rules update from the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series, we know these new tires will be mandated on their side starting on March 10th. That Outlaw rules updated also included some verbiage about seat belts, and the fire suppression rule. If you want to see the updated rules, head over to worldofoutlaws.com. I did also get asked recently about the World of Outlaws rulebook, and you can find the various sets of rules for WRG owned series at dirtcarmembers.com. Rules for most of the major series are available online, including those with the All Stars and Lucas for example.
It's been a few months since we had an interview show in the feed, but I posted a new one last night. Swindell SpeedLab's Dylan Schiebel joined me to talk dirt racing content creation, a bunch of stuff around the Chili Bowl win for the team and driver Logan Seavey, and more. I'd guess that most of you probably don't know Dylan's name or his face, but I guarantee you've seen his work. It's about 40 minutes, and there is some really good stuff in there, especially if you are interested in making videos or content around racing. You can find that Conversations episode on the YouTube channel and in the podcast feed.
It's a pretty solid Thursday in January across the streaming services. DIRTVision has the opening night for the World of Outlaws Late Models at Volusia plus DIRTVision Now. FloRacing has the first night of WinterNationals from East Bay and Flo 24/7. Clay Per View has action from Toowoomba and Perth, and Speed Sport has IMCA racing from Central Arizona. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Alright, that's it for the show today. Have a good Thursday. Thanks everyone for tuning in. We'll be back here tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily.