DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Longhorn Chassis now 14-0 in big super late model shows in 2023, will it continue? | Daily 2-6-2023
It's a busy week of dirt racing ahead, and we're talking Lucas and more Longhorn domination, a new team for Parker Price MIller, and tonight's DIRTcar Nationals schedule. Let's go!
It's Monday, February 6th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
Before we get going, I just wanted to mention that today is the official third birthday of the DIRTRACKR shows. I did the very first Daily back on February 6, 2020. Along the way, we've done 751 daily shows, and an additional 67 conversations episodes, with a few other random videos mixed in. So well over 800 different pieces of content. We also crossed over 14,000 YouTube subscribers over the weekend, so thanks for the continued support. Both December and January were well across 100,000 unique viewers on these shows, so if you don't subscribe, I'd love you to hop in and hit that notification bell. That will make sure you don't miss any future shows.
Alright, let's get into the show.
We'll start first with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. Saturday night they were at All-Tech Raceway in Florida, and it was another strange night of track conditions. Rubber way early in the night, and then it looked like maybe it was going to happen again in the feature, but it didn't. Very odd trend of how these things have been going during Speedweeks. We'll see what East Bay brings. The night was again dominated by Longhorns, with the top four spots locked out, and another victory for Ricky Thornton Jr. That's 14 big super late model races and 14 Longhorn victories between Vado, the Outlaws, and Lucas. Some other chassis have won elsewhere, but not with the tours or at Vado where most of the big names have been. RTJ fought back challenges from both Shane Clanton and Max Blair, who each led laps, and went on to his second victory in three nights. Had he night had that contact with Devin Moran on night two at Bubba, He'd have six top fives to start the season. He and that SSI team are just absolutely on a roll right now. Behind him, Tim McCreadie went 12th to second, and Brandon Sheppard eighth to third. The highest finishing Rocket was Tyler Erb, who was the hard charger with a 21st to fifth run. The win gave RTJ the Lucas points lead, with Brandon Overton missing the night's feature. There seems to be some question about what Overton's season could look like. On the FloRacing drive home, Michael Rigsby said he thinks Overton will run the full Lucas schedule, while Ben Shelton said he disagreed. And you'd think if Overton was going to do the whole thing, that he would have used a provisional at All-Tech, but he chose not to. We have seen Overton leading the Lucas points leaving Speedweeks in the past, and fall off, so I'm not sure what will happen this year. Elsewhere in the field, it was a brutal night for Jonathan Davenport. Multiple incidents, needed a provisional to start the feature, and finished 21st. He said afterwards it was the worst night of his career. The other status question I'm not sure about right now is Jimmy Owens. I thought he was going home, as that was what we had heard after Bubba, but he was in attendance at All-Tech, finishing 19th after starting ninth. His Koehler teammate in Jordan Koehler, was not there however.
Looking ahead to tonight, the teams had a Sunday practice at East Bay, and the Winternationals begin for real tonight. Monday and Tuesday are $5k to win, Wednesday is $7k to win, Thursday bumps to $10k, Friday is $12k, and Saturday is $15k. So it will be a busy week for those drivers and teams. I don't know what exactly the situation is, I'm waiting on clarity, but teams do not have to race every night this week. They are allowed to throw out some finishes for the points, so we night see some guys sit out, especially early in the week. I know Thornton does not plan to race tonight, he posted that to Twitter earlier. So keep that in mind when you watch these Lucas shows. In five nights at East Bay a year ago, we had only three different winners, with Dennis Erb Jr. and Moran winning once each, and Sheppard winning three straight. After this week, we won't see Lucas in action until the middle of March, but a lot of these teams will head across to Volusia for DIRTcar Nationals.
If you want to add a little something extra to East Bay week, check out some of the pools out there. Kyle Armstrong is running one all week, $20 per entry, and you can find the info by searching for Kyle Armstrong on Facebook. Kyle hosts the Forward Bite podcast. Also, @dirttrackpools on Twitter is running one as well. So some opportunities to go a little deeper if you want. You can watch Lucas tonight live on FloRacing.
I hinted at it a bit last week, but we now know what the future looks like for Parker Price Miller. He's going to run the full All Star schedule, along with select World of Outlaws and High Limit shows with McCandless Motorsports. The team has been campaigning cars for driver Logan McCandless, with the 29 machines making appearances in Ohio, Pennsylvania and with the Outlaws and All Stars. PPM is bringing his own cars to Florida to start the year, and then will transition to McCandless later on. Crew chief Kevin Osmolski is following PPM from McGhee over to this new setup. PPM returning to the All Stars will bolster that roster, and we should have a better idea in the coming days and weeks who will join guys like PPM and Scotty Thiel full time there. The All Star season kicks off tomorrow night at Volusia, but remember these early races are non-points shows.
No sprint cars racing tonight, but DIRTcar Nationals does get going at Volusia with a full night of UMP modified racing and sprint car practice. Lucas Lee won two straight over the weekend at East Bay, but it wasn't without a little controversy. He was declared the Friday night winner, even though Drake Troutman was the first to the checkered. Race officials decided that Troutman jumped the final restart, and gave the victory to Lee post-race. Nothing like a little bit of shenanigans to add to the intrigue. We should have big fields of modifieds at Volusia all week, and it should be a little more wide open with no Nick Hoffman. He is at Volusia for his Elite customers, but we won't see him in action until next week with the late models.
A couple of other weekend winners for you, Ross Bailes took down the $10,000 victory at Screven for Winter Freeze. Bailes topped Kenny Collins and Steven Roberts in that one. It was his second Winter Freeze win in a row. And at Hendry County, Davie Franek and Mark Smith picked up USCS 360 sprint car wins. The USCS moves over to Southern Raceway this coming weekend.
If you didn't see it over the weekend, make sure to check out the newest DIRTRACKR Conversations episode I posted with Kevin Rumley. We talked about a bunch of different late model topics, including Longhorn Chassis, shocks, the droop rule, working with Kyle Larson, and a lot more. That episode is on the YouTube channel and in the podcast feed.
Four shows today on the streaming schedule. FloRacing has the first night of Lucas late models from East Bay and Flo 24/7. And DIRTVision has the opening night of DIRTcar Nationals featuring UMP modifieds, plus DIRTVision Now. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Have a good Monday out there, so you guys tomorrow!