DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
Dirt racing news, results, discussion, analytics. Sprint cars, late models, modifieds, you name it. From national series, to top local shows. Brought to you five days a week. Email the show at info@dirtrackr.com.
Kyle Larson joins Longhorn party this weekend, David Gravel commits | Daily 1-27-2023
Another super late model race, another Longhorn victory. Today we'll talk Golden Isles, the Classic at Warnambool, and news from David Gravel, Indy Race Parts, and USAC. Let's go!
It's Friday, January 27th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series season opened last night at Golden Isles, and it was yet again the same ol' song. This is the third major super late model event of the year, on the third different race track, but it was yet again a big win for Longhorn Chassis. This time it was Brandon Overton. He led from start to finish, and the entire top five was all Longhorns at the checkered flag. To be fair, Hudson O'Neal and the Rocket house car had speed last night, going quick time in qualifying. And they were probably in line for a top five finish in the feature, but with ten to go, Jonathan Davenport tried to make a move on the Rocket one into turn three and misjudged his run. O'Neal protected the bottom and JD couldn't get on the binders fast enough, sending both cars spinning out of contention. O'Neal came home a disappointing 19th, with Davenport in 16th. Both will be looking for better runs tonight, although I'd say that O'Neal needs it more than JD does. Tanner English needed a provisional to make the show, and he ended up hard charger with a 25th to 13th run. It sounds like he has joined Kyle Bronson as signed up for both national tours at this point, as has Jordan Koehler. And I'm assuming if Koehler is, then Jimmy Owens probably is as well since they are teammates. So a handful of teams hedging their bets through speedweeks. The field on Thursday ended up being a little bigger than I thought it would at 50, and it's going to grow tonight with the addition of Kyle Larson. The Rumley six has arrived and could be a factor through the weekend. Larson had a pair of podiums at Golden Isles a year ago, and led laps. The crap luck of the night definitely went to Boom Briggs. He spun in his heat race battling with Bronson, and collected his other car in Max Blair in the process. Both cars looked like they were hurt pretty good, and neither competed the rest of the night. Hopefully they can get things fixed. The Lucas competitors will race again tonight for $12,000 to win and Saturday for $25,000 to win. If you aren't near Brunswick, Georgia to attend, you can watch it live on FloRacing.
Don't forget as well, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series is just one of the series that we track in the analytics section of dirtrackr.com. Race results, driver pages, and a ton of stats and analysis are available for Lucas at dirtrackr.com/analytics.
Did you guys stay up last night, or get up early today to check out the first prelim night for the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic in Australia? Hopefully you did, because we saw a pretty good show. Chase Randall led early on, but made a mistake while battle Lachlan McHugh for the lead and ended up flipping out of the feature. On the restart, Tate Frost flew by McHugh on the high side, and held on to grab the opening night victory. The track was pretty treacherous, and several had run-ins with the outside wall. Justin Sanders went out early, as did Brock Zearfoss and Tyler Courtney. Brad Sweet had a very nice 18th to fourth run. The top five at the end was Frost, McHugh, Brock Hallett, Sweet, and pole sitter Jock Goodyear. They'll do it all over again tonight, and then Saturday slash Sunday's finale is $50,000 to win. You can watch the action live on both Clay Per View and DIRTVision.
Before we move on to some news items, don't sleep on the USCS 360 Sprint Cars at Volusia tonight and tomorrow. That field is pretty damn good and should provide some good racing. They had practice last night, and some names in the field include Anthony Macri, Paulie Colagiovanni, Gavan Boschele driving Christopher Bell's car, Davie Franek, Chris Martin, Brenham Crouch, Devon Borden, Jordan Mallett, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Dylan Westbrook. It definitely feels like some teams were just itching to get out of the shop and come to Florida to get some racing in. Volusia will happily take your grandstand or pit pass money, but this one is live on DIRTVision both nights if you aren't nearby to watch.
We continue to see series commitments roll in for winged sprint car teams, and I've got a pair of announcements for you. First, the Indy Race Parts 71 with Cory Eliason back behind the wheel in 2023, will chase the High Limit money this year. Bernie tweeted out the news yesterday, and Eliason joins Danny Dietrich, Brent Marks, Justin Peck, Kyle Larson, Rico Abreu, and Buddy Kofoid as officially declared for the new midweek series. The first points race for High Limit isn't until April 11th, so there is still a lot of time for teams to make decisions.
Also, Big Game Motorsports and David Gravel will be back with the World of Outlaws this season. The team shared their plans on social media today, along with a refreshed Blackbeard paint scheme for 2023. Gravel had been non-commitable on his recent live streams about their plans, but he has joined several his fellow regulars in publicly announcing their returns here in the last week or so. Gravel ended up being Brad Sweet's closest competition a year ago, finishing second, 48 points behind the Big Cat. Gravel won seven times a year ago, and only Donny Schatz has more victories than he does over the previous six Outlaw years. Gravel actually had more wins and more top tens than Sweet did in 2022, but he did trail in a few key categories, including average feature finish, average feature start, and both top five and top ten efficiency. He must find just a little bit more consistency if he wants to win his first Outlaw title this season.
We talked yesterday on the show about Matt Westfall joining the USAC National Sprint Car Series for a championship run this year, and we know three more of his competitors. Emerson Axsom is returning for year two with the series and Clauson Marshall after winning rookie of the year in 2022. He won three times on tour in his rookie season, including two of the first three at Bubba Raceway Park to start the year. He won again late in the season at Cocopah, and along the way racked up 15 top fives and 31 top tens in 39 races. He'll be looking to improve upon his fifth place position in the final standings. Also back is Jake Swanson with Team AZ Racing. He didn't run the full schedule a year ago, but did get a win at Cocopah and had 19 top tens in 32 starts. He was also on the podium five times in his last seven races to end 2022, and if he can come out hot like that to start the year, he could be serious contender. And just today, Logan Seavey finished out his full slate of USAC racing by adding a full sprint car run with Scott Benic and the 2B racing operation. That team had recently parted with driver Anton Hernandez, and Seavey now has full time deals in all three of USAC's top divisions. Seavey finished sixth in the final standings a year ago, ending up with two wins, 11 top fives, and 22 top tens. We'll see the USAC sprint cars for the first time this year at Volusia in a few weeks.
Before we close it out for the weekend, thanks to Chad and Phillip for jumping on as new channel members this week. We are now up to 36, which is really cool. You can check out the membership program at youtube.com/dirtrackr/join, or click the link below or hit the Join button. For $2.99 a month you get special members only badges and emojis, you get included on the show outro, you also get 10% off DIRTRACKR merch always, plus a free sticker for signing up. It's actually, sort of a way to get a decal for cheap. I sell the decals for $5, but you could sign up for a month of membership and get one for $3. Anyways, thanks to everyone that has joined up!
Just like yesterday, the streaming schedules should be busy through the weekend. Lucas on FloRacing, the Grand Annual Classic from down under on DIRTVision and Clay Per View, and a lot more. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Alright, that's it for the show today. Thanks everyone for tuning in. We'll be back here tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily.