DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Do they think we don't notice when a dirt track takes rubber? | Daily 2-20-2023

We need to talk today about how race tracks handle rubber, plus we'll dive into the fun racing at Volusia, people again mad at Lincoln Speedway, and more. Let's go!

It's Monday, February 20th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

I know we had some big shows over the weekend at Volusia, and we'll get to those in a bit, but I wanted to start today off with the 360 sprint cars at East Bay. There are a couple of things that happened that I want to talk about. East Bay avoided the Friday rain that affected other shows in Florida, and in the main event, Aaron Reutzel took advantage when Danny Martin Jr. got trapped on the bottom behind the lap car of Tyler Clem. Reutzel rolled the high side in three and four and beat Martin back to the line for the victory. On Saturday though, things were a mess. As happens from time to time, the track took rubber, and it did it early. The surface went black and shiny pretty quick, and you could see that those right rears were not going to make it to the end. The first caution for a flat was for Sam Hafertepe with still 18 laps to go, and he would be the first of many. It only took like 12 or 13 minutes to get the race past half way, but it then took something like 45 minutes to finish the rest with all the cautions. The race did go red with 13 to go, and the track decided to make it an open red. Under that period, teams were able to make adjustments and add fuel, but any tire changes resulted in starting at the tail. And there were a few takers, including Aaron Reutzel. This brings me to my first point. I don't understand why they didn't just let teams bolt on a new right rear there. Avoid some of the cautions to come, admit there are issues, and try and get it to the end. Nobody wants to watch a race that goes under caution every lap or two because of flats. This was their chance to fix it, and they chose not to. I don't get that line of thinking. Even with the rubber though, we did have some action. Guys got the elbows out and were rooting each other up off the bottom to make passes, and it wasn't the least entertaining race I've seen. In the end, being the first guy with a flat worked out in Hafertepe's favor, as he was in the catbird seat late, and drove off to the win, topping Max Stambaugh, Terry McCarl, Aaron Reutzel, and Ryan Timms. The other problem I had with Saturday night had to do with the announcing, and I'm going to pick on Chris Stepan here a bit, but this is true of a good number of dirt racing announcers around the country. I don't understand why so many guys calling these races refuse to acknowledge a rubber down race track. It's clear to everyone at home and everyone on the property what is happening, so talk the audience through it. Don't dance around it and pretend like all these flat right rear tires aren't connected. It's part of dirt racing, nobody wants it to happen, but sometimes it does. Say, "here's what's happening" and use it as an opportunity to educate and talk about what the drivers are facing, how they navigate it, what the crews need to be prepared for, etc. I know track promoters would rather pretend that it's not happening, and maybe that influences how the announcers handle it on the mic, but it's super lame. We aren't stupid, don't treat us like we are. I know that calling races in these booths isn't an easy thing to do, and no matter how someone chooses to go about it, there will always be complainers, but this seems like an easy fix. I think the audience deserves a little more respect in these cases.

At Volusia over the weekend, the Friday night shows were lost to rain, but we did get some fantastic racing on Saturday night in the finale. The 50 lapper for the World of Outlaws Late Models was a barn burner, with Tim McCreadie leading a ton of laps, but Devin Moran and Hudson O'Neal getting into the mix late. O'Neal took the lead from Moran on lap 46 and drove on to the $20,000 win. The wild part though, was O'Neal started the feature from the 23rd position. He had a subpar qualifying effort and had to battle the rest of the night, needing a B-Main transfer to get into the big show. His 23rd to the win charge tied the second biggest run over the past 178 Outlaw races. He tied Brandon Sheppard who went 25th to third at Volusia in 2022, and Shannon Babb who went 25th to third at Davenport last August. The only bigger charge I have in the database was from Dave Hess at Eriez in 2021, he went 25th to second. After leading most of the show, McCreadie settled for fourth, but it was enough to win him the big gator championship for the week. McCreadie is the only driver to finish top five in all four Outlaw shows to start the year. Because of the points bonus for full timers, Chris Madden currently leads the standings over Brian Shirley and Kyle Bronson. The series is off for a few weeks now, and will return on March 3rd at Smoky Mountain in Tennessee.

The Super DIRTcar Series finale was also entertaining, and again we saw a last lap pass for the win. Jack Lehner and Rick Laubach battled each other for much of the 50 laps, with each taking turns leading. Late though, ninth starting Mat Williamson was lurking, and he pounced on the final lap. Lehner led at the white flag, but got held up on the bottom by the lap car of Jimmy Phelps, and Money Mat drove by on the high side to score the win, which also earned him the week long big gator championship. Not a bad trip south for Williamson, and a good way to start the year. The big blocks don't race again until March 31st when they head to Atomic Speedway in Ohio. Big kudos to World Racing Group and Volusia Speedway Park for a kick ass two weeks of racing. They did have some weather here and there, but the track was super racy, especially for week two. That facility has come a long way since I started going there in 2014.

Across the state at Bubba Raceway Park on Saturday night, we had a scary moment in the USAC sprint car B-Main. Kevin Newton got high in turn four and caught the outside wall. He then went for a big ride down the frontstretch, and wiped out part of the catchfence. He was okay, emerging for his car after just a few seconds, but the track did have to do some repairs to get the show going again. Just like Volusia, the Friday show was lost to rain. Later in the feature on Saturday night, Brady Bacon led 31 of 35 laps, but a mistake in lap traffic late cost him the win. He slid high coming to four to go, and Kyle Cummins snuck by to take the top spot. That ended up being the race winning move, with Cummins topping Bacon and CJ Leary at the end. It was a rough week for Cummins and his race team, blowing two engines early, and needing a hail mary run with a third engine from Chet Williams and Jay Harrington to even complete the weekend. It worked out though, with a fifth place finish on Thursday and the win on Saturday. The USAC National Sprint Car Series goes quiet now until April 1st at Lawrenceburg. Brady Bacon leads the way too early points standings over Leary and Justin Grant with two shows complete.

A couple of other news items for you today. First, back on Friday, the XR Super Series announced a point fund for the 2023 season. The late model series didn't have a points championship per se in 2022, but are stepping up for this year with $300,000 available. The 10 race series will pay $75,000 to the champion, with everyone down to 24th in the standings making money. Perfect attendance isn't required, and competitors can run the other national tours along with XR with no conflicts. The full breakdown is available over at xrsuperseries.com.

Also on Friday, thanks to a tweet from my guy Blake Anderson, we found out that the Dirt Cup, now Super Dirt Cup, at Skagit Speedway will pay $62,000 to win later this year. There is also lap money available, and the bump makes this show the sixth highest paying 410 race this season. The new ownership group at Skagit continues to push thing along with 410 racing on the west coast.

And finally today, if you want to know how fickle the dirt racing community is, let me point you to Lincoln Speedway in Pennsylvania. The track is set to open the Central PA 410 schedule this coming weekend with the Icebreaker. Temps for Saturday and Sunday though look pretty damn cold, so the track added a race night on Thursday to at least try and guarantee some racing this week. The forecast for Thursday is for a high of 76. But instead of being applauded for adding a race night and trying to make something happen, the online comments are pretty wild. There is some good in there, but a lot of people upset over the late notice and the addition. I was critical not the long ago for the track cutting down it's streaming schedule, but I'm with the promoters on this one. A really nice day is forecasted, $20 tickets, $5000 to win sprint cars, I'm not sure what there is to be mad about. Lincoln did say they will continue to monitor conditions for the weekend and make updates where appropriate.

The only items on today's streaming schedule are FloRacing 24/7 and DIRTVision Now. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.

Have a good Monday out there, we'll see you guys tomorrow!