DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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How will teams tackle this four day stretch of sprint car races? | Daily 3-21-2023

Coming up, the July logistics for several sprint car teams could get interesting, plus XR shifts their schedule, the USAC midget field grows, and more. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, March 21st, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

We were supposed to be getting the first of the midweek High Limit sprint car shows tonight, but the weather out in California ruined the season opener at Tulare. Now we have to wait until April 11th for the first race, which is a $50,000 to win show at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas. In the mean time, we've been tracking the list of drivers who are going to chase the first High Limit championship, and another name emerged yesterday. The series is having full time teams and drivers sign some sort of agreement to get added benefits, with teams needing to submit those agreements by April 1st. The first four signees were dropped yesterday, and not unexpectedly the list included Kyle Larson, Buddy Kofoid, and Cory Eliason. The fourth driver revealed though was Hunter Schuerenberg. This was the first time I'd seen his name associated with the series, which isn't super surprising, as he's definitely a guy we were no doubt going to see at some of these races anyway. But this is noteworthy because of the way the All Star and High Limit schedules intersect. Of the possible All Star drivers who are also on the High Limit list, we knew about Justin Peck, although his schedule seems to be in question. We also know that Tyler Courtney will attempt both. So Schuerenberg will be another driver who could potentially have to figure out the logistics of going from Red Hill Raceway in Illinois on July 23rd, to Grandview Speedway in Pennsylvania on July 25th, and back to Benton Speedway in Missouri on July 26th. It's something like a 1700 mile round trip and probably 30 hours of driving if someone attempted it with one team and truck. If this does all indeed play out like this, I hope the FloRacing cameras are rolling so we can see how this all works behind the scenes. Because it would probably mean multiple race cars, maybe extra crew guys, quick plane flights, and maybe even extra teams to make this happen for guys trying to run for both titles. I originally thought that nobody would be able to attempt this turnaround, but now we could have at least three try it. We'll see what other names end up signing on the dotted line with High Limit in the coming days.

The spring time schedule changes continue to roll in, and the most recent weather related victim is the opening weekend for the XR Super Series. They were supposed to be at Volunteer Speedway this weekend as a co-sanction with the Iron-Man series, for a $100,000 to win main event. Cold weather and wet conditions though have forced the event to move, with the action now scheduled for April 14th and 15th. That April weekend was originally the date for the XR show at Off-Road Speedway in Nebraska, but that weekend has now been shifted to July 24th and 25th. In addition, the new XR Workin Man Series has added a date on April 11th at Volunteer that is $10,000 to win and $1000 to start. So big XR show at Volunteer now April 14th and 15th, Off-Road moved to July 24th and 25th, Workin Man race on April 11th. With the shift, that early part of April in Tennessee will be pretty sweet if you're a dirt late model fan. I saw XR's Jackson Braun post this, but you've got Kyle Larson's Late Model Challenge at Volunteer on April 6th, that's $20,000 to win. Two days later is $21,000 tow in at Tazewell with the Iron-Man Series and Spring Nationals. Then $10k to win on Tuesday, April 11th at Volunteer, followed by the XR, $100k to win show. That will be a great little ten day stretch. To see the full release and more details, head over to xrsuperseries.com.

The 2023 full time field for the USAC National Midget series grew by one yesterday with the addition of Ohio driver Jacob Denney. He'll take on the full schedule for car owner Tom Malloy with crew chief Jerome Rodela. Denney made eight starts with Malloy late last year, and ran a sizeable schedule with Mounce Stout, winning his first ever series race during Indiana Midget Week at Lincoln Park. He ran 28 of 32 races in 2022 and finished eighth in the points standings as a rookie, so this season will be his sophomore run. Besides that win at Lincoln Park, Denney had eight top fives and 14 top tens and an average feature finish of 11.15. Looking around, I believe he's the seventh driver to declare for the series publicly to this point. He joins Logan Seavey, Chance Crum, Daison Pursley, Ryan Timms, Taylor Reimer, and Bryant Wiedeman. I'd assume also that Justin Grant and Thomas Meseraull will be back, and I don't know about Cannon McIntosh and Mitchel Moles. We know Cannon is running the full Xtreme slate, so I don't know why he wouldn't also add the full USAC schedule as well. Moles was out all year in 2022 with Chad Boat, ending up as the top rookie, but he just ran two weekends ago for Keith Kunz at Du Quoin, so I'm unsure of his plans, which already include the full USAC sprint schedule with Reinbold Underwood. As of today, we are exactly one month until the season opener at Kokomo Speedway which takes place on April 21st. So still plenty of time for more full time teams to emerge.

I did finally get a chance to watch the Jonathan Davenport documentary piece from FloRacing. Really well done by Matt Dillner and Rob Blount, and all the folks at Flo. There was some nice background stuff in their on JD and his journey up through racing, and the stuff with his wife Rachel showed that side of racing you don't often get to see. That's one of the things I think we probably don't talk about enough is the sacrifice that everyone makes around the racing. The wives and husbands and kids and family members of people who have decided to make this a career or a huge part of their lives. All the time they are away, and miss holidays and big events. We watch JD win over $2 million in a season and think it's all great, but at home is a wife and a son watching just like we are. I do wish there were a few more kind of miced up moments like we saw with Gordy Gundaker, and the little confrontation with Tyler Erb at World Finals. Really interesting to see those sides of Davenport and a peek into what are usually conversations away from cameras. And the ranch down in South Carolina that the Davenports have built is quite the place with the longhorn cattle. If you haven't checked it out yet, I'd highly recommend giving it a watch. It's only 40 minutes, and I think you'll enjoy it even if you aren't a JD fan or a late model fan. It's on FloRacing and should be pretty easy to find.

The streaming schedule today is just FloRacing 24/7 and DIRTVision Now. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.

Have a good Tuesday out there, we'll see you guys tomorrow.