DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Wild dirt racing weekend ends in Brandon Overton, Chris Madden dustup | Daily 3-6-2023
Coming up, Overton and Madden get heated, Senoia had a big mess, Brad Sweet and Kasey Kahne rep High Limit, and more from the dirt racing weekend. Let's go!
It's Monday, March 6th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
There are some weeks where I work on a Monday show and try and find angles and different things to talk about, and then there are Mondays like today, where the story from the weekend just wrote itself.
I'm going to start with the Sunday Southern All Stars show at Cherokee Speedway. 29 cars, $20,000 to the winner, and the name lived up to it's billing. March Madness. Michael Brown and Mike Marlar started on the front row together and Marlar was in control right away. Things didn't get spicy though until the second half. As has been commonplace at Cherokee in the past, tires became an issue later in the 50 lapper. There were numerous cautions inside 20 to go for flats, and that's when things got exciting. Both the top two would drop out of contention with tire issues, and we ended up with a dustup between Chris Madden and Brandon Overton. On one of those restarts, Madden lost a tire out of four and slid up the track, collecting Overton. The two were animated at each other on track, and the fireworks continued after both pulled off. This video is from Logan Sparks on Facebook. Madden emerged from his car with words for Overton, then Overton got out of the Wells 76 as the disagreement continued. There were some belly bumps, a shove or two, some choice language, and it took several minutes and a visit from the Cherokee County Sheriff's deputies on hand before things dissapated. Afterwards, Madden declined comment, but Overton told Robert Holman quote "We're magnets. Every time we're around each other we're gonna run into each other, every time. It don't matter where we're at. We could be in North Dakota and it's the same shit every time" unquote. It's certainly not uncommon to see shenanigans like this at dirt races, but it was interesting for it to happen between two high profile guys. You don't normally see things devolve to this point. In the end though, the issues for Marlar, Brown, Overton, and Madden elevated Chris Ferguson from fifth to the lead, and he basically didn't have to work for it. Fergie held on over the final laps to score the win, and he did so in his new Longhorn Chassis. Cousin Carson Ferguson finished second, with Georgia driver Caleb Gay going 25th to third.
And really, the Sunday show at Cherokee capped off a wild weekend, that included a mess on Saturday night at Senoia. The Spring Nationals opened their season Friday at Swainsboro with Brandon Overton leading 44 of 53 laps to score the $10,000 win over pole sitter Sam Seawright and Mike Marlar. The whole group moved to Senoia on Saturday for another $10k to win, but more than half the field was loaded up before heat races even started. The track dealt with a lot of rain all winter, and it sounds like the surface threw them a curveball on Saturday night. It turned into a rutted up mess, and a number of guys, including Overton, Marlar, and Shane Clanton decided it just wasn't worth it. The 43 car field was just 18 by feature time, and at the end of the main event that was shortened to 35 laps, only six cars were running. Ashton Winger had control until his car broke something and he pounded the turn four wall. At the end, Wil Herrington survived for the win, with Ross Bailes and Parker Martin rounding out the podium. Bailes and Martin actually collided on the final lap and limped to the finish. Definitely a night nobody wanted, and Senoia posted a full apology to their social media accounts. I hate it for them because they've put in a lot of work to make that facility nice, they did all that tarping late last year to save the FloRacing weekend, it just sucks. I hope the fans and competitors don't give up on them because of it. I'm sure there were some upset people though.
At Volusia last night, the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars were back in action for a double feature night. Things started off with the regularly scheduled Sunday show, they then reracked everything and ran the dash and feature that were leftover from the final DIRTcar Nationals night a few weeks ago. Gio Scelzi and Buddy Kofoid led the field to green from the front row, with Scelzi leading until lap nine. Carson Macedo moved up from third to take the top spot in traffic on lap ten and that was it. Macedo drove on to his first Outlaw victory of 2023. Behind him, Scelzi and Kofoid fell out of contention after contact on a late restart, where Kofoid climbed Scelzi's left rear. Scelzi ended up parking the 18, while Kofoid did limp to the finish. David Gravel ended up second, while Kasey Kahne was third. It was Kahne's first Outlaw podium finish since Huset's last June. The track for the first feature was pretty narrow, but there did end up being some passing, with Donny Schatz going 21st to seventh. The track did widen out though for the night cap.
In that makeup feature, there were seven guys who did not show back up from DIRTcar Nationals, so Cory Eliason, Danny Dietrich, Hunter Schuerenberg, Parker Price Miller, Anthony Macri, Brent Marks, and Tyler Courtney were all scored 22nd on back. James McFadden sat on the pole and he was untouched out front. He led all 30 laps to score the 100th World of Outlaws win for Roth Motorsports, his sixth career series victory, and the first ever for the Toyota 410 engine. Behind him, things went sideways for David Gravel's big gator championship. With 12 to go, Carson Macedo blew a left rear tire and collected Jacob Allen and Gravel. All three crews did miraculous work to eventually get them all back out of the work area, with Gravel's car having broken shocks, bent headers and other damage. But the incident relegated Gravel to 12th at the end, and a fourth place finish for Logan Schuchart saw him bag the big gator for the second time in three years. Behind JMac out front, Brad Sweet and Brian Brown rounded out the podium. I definitely think McFadden started the season on the hot seat at Roth, and this early victory should lower the pressure just a tad. I am glad though that he didn't get the boot. He's super talented and deserves to be out full time. With four races now complete, Gravel has a slight four point advantage over Schuchart in the standings. Schuchart is the only driver with top fives in all four races so far, and he, Sheldon Haudenschild, and Carson Macedo are the only three with four top tens. Tonight at Volusia, they'll do it all over again with another full program. You can watch live on DIRTVision if you aren't nearby.
One other note from last night, hat tip to Kyle Nap on Twitter for pointing this one out. Did you notice both Kasey Kahne and Brad Sweet had the High Limit Series logo stitched on their firesuits next to the World of Outlaws series logo? The patches were there for DIRTcar Nationals too, but I missed it from a few weeks ago. It's an interesting little wrinkle between the drivers and the series. Maybe a subtle little rebellious move there, plus the chance at some guerilla marketing for their series on DIRTVision. The saga continues.
Looking elsewhere this weekend, Freddie Rahmer went 15th to the win on Saturday at Lincoln, topping race long leader Danny Dietrch and Alan Krimes. Duane Howard topped Mike Gular in the modified portion of that Saturday show.
At Port Royal on Sunday, we had a great race late between Jeff Halligan, Parker Price Miller, and the mayor Dylan Cisney. PPM led at the white flag, but Cisney made a move into turn one and beat the law firm back to the checkered. Dillan Stake was the day's late model winner.
Bobby Pierce picked up a $10,000 win at Springfield, and Tom Berry Jr. and Jake Timm bagged the opening weekend victories with the USMTS modifieds.
Four shows on tap today for the streaming services. DIRTVision has the World of Outlaws from Volusia and DIRTVision Now. Speed Sport has IMCA action from Devil's Bowl, and there is FloRacing 24/7. 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.