DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Randall Edwards departs Best, Tyler Erb; Update on the future of Pennsboro Speedway | Daily 3-3-2023
Terbo is looking for a crew chief, Chris Windom is joining Heffner for some sprint car shows, we've got an update on Pennsboro Speedway, and more. Let's go!
It's Friday, March 3rd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
On this final show of the week we'll get into some of the racing ahead this weekend and there was a fair bit of news yesterday to talk about. And that's where we'll start. We are still about two weeks away from the Lucas season restarting at Atomic, but between now and then Best Performance Motorsports with driver Tyler Erb are in search of a new crew chief. We found out yesterday that long time head wrench Randall Edwards has departed Best after more than eight years to take over as crew chief for Lucas rookie Garrett Smith. Edwards cited his desire to slow down a bit, as Smith doesn't run nearly as often as Erb, even with a full Lucas run on tap. Just to give you an idea of Erb's grueling schedule, a year ago he competed in 124 race nights from January 7th through December 3rd according to MyRacePass, and there is no indication that team will slow down this year. On the flip side, Smith ran 72 nights and will probably run a similar amount of nights in 2023. Edwards replaces Cody Mallory, who departed the Smith team during Speedweeks. This move definitely feels like an upgrade for the young Smith, and a blow to Best. We don't know yet who will replace Edwards on Terbo's car, and I'll be curious to see how this affects their performance. Erb is usually good for a handful of Lucas wins a season, but has yet to really compete for a championship. His best season was 2019 when he finished 4th in the final rundown, with points finishes of 5th, 5th, and 6th the previous three years. Right now after Speedweeks, he finds himself way down the order in 12th, and 275 points behind Ricky Thornton Jr. We'll see this new pairing of Smith and Edwards at the next Lucas event on March 17th at Atomic Speedway.
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One of the areas of the XR universe I've been curious about is the progress of the revitalization of Pennsboro Speedway in West Virginia. With North Wilkesboro now fully in the hands of NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports, XR's next race track revival is happenning at Pennsboro, and Barry Braun gave us a public update on social media yesterday. He says planning begins next week to start getting the track ready for a return in 2024, and a lot of work is needed. They will work on new bridges, lights, and get the hillside ready for fans. Pennsboro's location and topography create some unique challenges for organizers because of the two creeks that cross the race track in multiple places, the lack of available parking, and the fact that there have never really been true main grandstands. The creeks cross the track in three different places, that's why Barry mentioned bridges, and the facility needs serious upgrades along with a lot of logistical thinking. As progress continues, we'll keep you updated on this show with how it's going. Barry also said any series or sanctions interested in running at Pennsboro can reach out to him with more information.
We talked last week about the change of teams for Chris Windom for 2023. He's moving from Hayward Motorsports to Lane Racing for a full All Star run, bringing NOS Energy Drink with him, but it was announced yesterday that he's going to add even more races to his early season slate. This weekend he'll run Lincoln and Port Royal with Heffner Racing, and be back in that car next week when the World of Outlaws are at Port. He may continue the following weekend as well at Williams Grove and Lincoln. Windom won't start with Lane officially until the All Star season starts in April, but this will be a nice chance to get back in a car and get some laps in Central PA. Heffner has no other plans in place right now for the remainder of the year, but crew chief Ben Engle told Jeremy Elliott they are talking to other drivers. Lincoln is slated to continue their season Saturday, with Port Royal opening their year on Sunday.
Down in Florida on Sunday, the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series will be back in action for the first of two days at Volusia. This is a new event this season, and coincides with Bike Week happening in Daytona. Sunday will feature the regular $10,000 to win program, but also the remainder of the DIRTcar Nationals finale that was postponed from a few weeks ago. That one will pay $16,000 to win, and the series will also crown the big gator champion. David Gravel swept the first two nights at Volusia and he is in the driver seat for the gator. Logan Schuchart and Carson Macedo are his next closest contenders. In the way too early season standings, Gravel leads Buddy Kofoid, Schuchart, Sheldon Haudenschild, and Macedo after those first two nights. The series will stick around and race again on Monday night before then trucking north to Pennsylvania for the Port Royal weekend that will see the introduction of the new Hoosier sprint car tires. As is always the case, you can watch the Outlaws live on DIRTVision.
If you want some other racing this weekend, don't forget about the Spring Nationals and March Madness at Cherokee. The Spring Nationals are at Swainsboro tonight for $10,000 to win, and then they head to Senoia on Saturday for another $10k show. At practice last night at Swainsboro, they had Brandon Overton, Ross Bailes, Carson Ferguson, Ashton Winger, Will Roland, Cla Knight, and others. With the Outlaw shows at Smoky Mountain off, these races my draw some more guys. Both of the Southern Nationals nights are live on FloRacing.
And then Sunday, a lot of these drivers will head to Cherokee in South Carolina for March Madness. This is a Southern All Stars show and it pays $20,000 to win. This one can be watched live on XR+, as they have picked up the full Southern All Stars schedule this season. They are expecting right now 35 cars, with the possibility of more additions. I mentioned this field earlier in the week, but some names to expect include Chris Madden, Mike Marlar, Ryan Gustin, Overton, Jimmy Owens, GR Smith, Payton Freeman and more. We also know that Chris Ferguson is planning on racing, and he's recently added a new Longhorn chassis to his fleet of race cars. He'd been a Bloomquist Zero guy, so we'll see how he gets on with the Longhorn. Sunday hot laps start at 12:45 PM ET, with racing starting at 1:30.
Drop me a comment, let me know if you are headed out to the track anywhere this weekend, or what you'll be tuned into across the streaming services. Also if you have an upcoming win picks.
It's a pretty good streaming weekend ahead across the services. Most of the platforms have something going on, with the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars on DIRTVision, FloRacing has a few shows including the Spring Nationals Late Models, and there are races across Speed Sport, Clay Per View, XR Plus and others. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Have a good weekend, we'll be back here on Monday!