DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Travis Pastrana is bringing his talents to a dirt track soon! | Daily 2-2-2023

Action sports star Travis Pastrana is coming to a dirt track soon. We'll talk about that, plus update you on some sprint car rides and we've got Anthony Macri's schedule that features a series championship run. Let's go!

It's Thursday, February 2nd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

As someone who makes videos for YouTube, I spend a probably unreasonable amount of time watching videos on YouTube, and yesterday I checked out the new Hunt the Front video. Jonathan and crew guy Jordan came up this direction to grab a new car from Longhorn Chassis. If you aren't aware, the Longhorn shop is right outside of Mooresville, North Carolina, which is about 35 or 40 minutes from where I sit. There's actually a great golf course right across the highway from their shop called Warrior that I've played a bunch. Anyways, in coming to Longhorn for the car, owner Steve Arpin walked Jonathan around the shop for a little tour, showing off some cars and talking about how things have been going for the chassis builder. Jonathan asked if there were any cars in the shop currently for big name drivers, and Arpin just happened to mention a car for Travis Pastrana. Now, this isn't a dirt late model, but Longhorn also builds modifieds, and apparently Pastrana will be in the car at Volusia during DIRTcar Nationals. If you aren't aware, Pastrana is attempting the Daytona 500 in a third car for 23XI coming up in a few weeks as a teammate to Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick, and Arpin said the modified is being run in conjunction with that deal. The car itself is under a cover in the Longhorn shop, because the paint scheme hasn't been revealed yet, and the modified will have a similar look to the Cup car. Arpin did pull up the cover just a bit to show the 199 number on the door, and he said they tested with Pastrana at Brunswick at some point recently. Day one supposedly was an adventure, but it sounds like things went better after that. Going out on a limb, I'd say that both the Cup car and modified will be sponsored by Black Rifle Coffee Company, who has been featured prominently with Pastrana lately. He is obviously known for his crazy stunts on motorcross bikes, and appearing recently in Gymkhana videos. But Pastrana has spent plenty of time in his career in serious competition, running Rallycross, actual stage rallies with the ARA, and he had a foray into NASCAR. That attempt at stock car racing started in 2011 and included 12 K&N Pro Series starts, five appearances in the truck series, and 42 races in the Xfinity Series, with a full season in 2013. His best result was a ninth at Richmond during that 2013 year with Roush. Pastrana running at Volusia will bring plenty of attention to that event, and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to see him run half decent. He's clearly not afraid to drive a car sideways, and his car control skills should fit nicely with modified on a big track like that. I wouldn't expect him to win, but he is in a good car and will have good people around him. I'll link below to the Hunt the Front video if you want to check it out yourself.

The 2023 sprint car season will start next week at Volusia, but there is still plenty to decide in terms of rides and silly season moves, and I figured today we could talk about a few things still happening, especially at the regional levels. Most of the national stuff, at least in terms of driver moves, has been decided. I've been asked about the McGhee car with the All Stars, and as far as I know, that team is all done competing. Parker Price Miller was in that car a year ago, as were several other drivers late in the year after PPM got hurt. Always a competitive car, they picked up some victories, but don't expect them back. PPM has moved on and brought crew chief Kevin Osmolski with him. They are going to campaign their own car again, and I've heard there might be a new partnership in the works for PPM down the road. The other All Star car without a driver is the Lane Racing farm car. They parted ways with driver Cap Henry late in 2022, and we could see a surprise driver and sponsor with that team for this season if the rumors turn out to be true. Stay tuned on that one. The Heffner 27 car is still open in Central Pennsylvania, and I've heard nothing credible about who drive that one. Devon Borden had been in it before departing to partner with the Shuttlesworths. Daryn Pittman did win in the Heffner car at Selinsgrove in September. Elsewhere, we know that Dale Blaney will be back for a sizeable sprint car slate this year. Jeremy Elliott says he's going to drive for car owner Jerry Barris in something like 40 shows between Ohio, Pennsylvania, and maybe some of the series. Matt Campbell will be back in his own 16C for this season, while his ex-car owner Ron Rutherford has hired Mark Smith for a 410 slate. If there are other rides or drivers I'm forgetting, feel free to let me know in the comments and we can investigate those.

I also wanted to mention Anthony Macri today. His team dropped their tentative schedule yesterday, with over 100 nights of racing planned. As I expected, there is a pretty sizeable chunk of races outside of Macri's normal Central PA area. He's going to run Volusia and East Bay to start the year, plus plenty of local stuff as usual. He's also though got all 11 High Limit points races, which would make him now the eighth driver to commit to that series full time, joining Kyle Larson, Rico Abreu, Buddy Kofoid, Justin Peck, Brent Marks, Danny Dietrich, and Cory Eliason. Along with High Limit, there are a bunch of other midwest shows on Macri's schedule, including All Star stuff, and plenty of World of Outlaws appearances. I figured with Macri highing Joe Mooney away from Kasey Kahne Racing to be his new crew chief, that they were planning on some travelling, and this schedule definitely confirms that. So lots of racing on tap for the Concrete Kid.

After a couple of days off to recover and regroup, the Lucas competitors are back at it tonight at All-Tech for a practice night. They'll race Friday and Saturday there in Lake City, before action shifts to East Bay on Sunday. I don't believe there is any live coverage of the sessions tonight, as there is nothing listed on FloRacing's website. I'm sure there will be some updates floating around on social media though. With five race nights complete so far, Brandon Overton leads the standings over Ricky Thornton Jr. and Jonathan Davenport. Devin Moran is fourth and Tim McCreadie fifth. Overton has two wins, while RTJ, Davenport, and Kyle Larson all have one each. We'll talk more Lucas on tomorrow's show.

If you're curious, Travis Varnadore picked up the UMP modified win last night at East Bay. According to DIRTcar, Varnadore has been coming to WinterNationals for 15 years, and this was his first trip to victory lane. He topped Kevin Adams and Lucas Lee for the win. The modified portion of WinterNationals continues through Saturday night at East Bay, with the late models taking over on Sunday.

Still another relatively quiet day across the streaming services. We've got the same slate today we've had the past few days, with modifieds from East Bay and Flo 24/7 on FloRacing, and DIRTVision Now. Things will start to pick up though tomorrow and into the weekend. To see the full daily streaming schedule, click the Watch Tonight button in the nav bar at dirtrackr.com.

Have a good Thursday out there, so you guys tomorrow!