DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
Dirt racing news, results, discussion, analytics. Sprint cars, late models, modifieds, you name it. From national series, to top local shows. Brought to you five days a week. Email the show at info@dirtrackr.com.
Who is the best sprint driver without a World of Outlaws win... | Daily 3-22-2023
Who is the best driver right now without a World of Outlaws win? We'll talk about him today, plus an update on Mark Dobmeier, another USAC midget full timer and more. Let's go!
It's Wednesday, March 22nd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
Justin Peck's name has come up on this show a bunch, especially lately, and I wanted to talk about him today. He keeps coming up, because he's good, and also because we haven't been sure what his plans are for 2023. Initially it looked like a full time return to the All Stars was on the table, but the High Limit schedule, some sponsor stuff, and a car owner who wants to run a lot of races is pointing towards a pick and choose schedule for Peck and Buch Motorsports. I haven't seen it confirmed publicly anywhere that this is the case, but the industry certainly believes it, and there are plenty of signs. A season ago, even with the full All Star run, Peck ran a total of 99 races, and the story was similar in 2021 with 92. And the seat time has paid off. Seven wins in 2021, nine wins in 2022, and already a victory this year, at Lincoln a few weeks ago. When you look around the country at the list of sprint car drivers who are missing a World of Outlaws victory on their resume, Justin Peck is at the top of that list. With all he's done the last few years, it's almost surprising that he doesn't have one. But clearly he's the best driver in the sport right now without one and it's only a matter of time until he strikes. Looking over his Outlaw career, he's attempted 73 shows, with six top fives and 21 top tens. He's led laps on just two occasions, in 2018 at Haubstadt, and in 2022 at Lincoln where he was bested by Jacob Allen. But the signs of improvement are all over his results. Improving time trial averages, a feature finish average that continues to get better, and a very solid start to 2023. Just this past weekend at Lincoln, he was one of just a few drivers who were able to overcome a tough draw in qualifying to bring home a solid result. Seventh to third in his heat put him in the feature transfer, and then a 12th to fifth run in the main event. Clearly Lincoln is a place he likes and will continue to have success at. But what's even more impressive is the strong runs he's had elsewhere. Top fives and top tens at Volusia, a fourth at Eldora during the Kings Royal weekend, multiple Knoxville Nationals main event starts, plus good runs at places like Williams Grove and Pevely. His good performances aren't just limited to one track type or just one part of the country. With a pick and choose schedule incoming, and more cash available around the sport, I would not be surprised to see Peck in the same conversation this year as guys like Anthony Macri and Brent Marks. We've seen him get streaky with the All Stars, and I could see this team winning their first Outlaw show and then quickly racking up more after that. I am bummed that we won't get the Sunshine/Peck battle for the All Star title, because as we saw at East Bay, that would end up being epic I think, but that 13 team should be on your radar this year and one not to take lightly when they roll into pit areas this season.
Moving onto some news items...
Sprint car driver Mark Dobmeier continues to heal from burns suffered back on March 10th in an incident at Central Arizona Speedway. He was there running an ASCS regional show and suffered second and third degree burns on his legs, and ended up needing skin grafts. Just yesterday, Dobmeier posted to social media that he is home now and continuing the healing process. It's good to see him doing better and hopefully he'll be up and around soon. Definitely been a tough couple of years for Dobmeier with injuries in these crashes.
Yesterday on the show we were talking about Jacob Denney joining Malloy for a full USAC midget run, and now we know that Denney will have a Malloy teammate with the announcement that California driver Jake Andreotti will join him out on the road. Andreotti has a couple of USAC Western States Midgets wins, and was fast late in 2022 at Turkey Night, finishing fourth. His only USAC National Midget appearances have come at California race tracks, where he really seemed to find his footing last year. He made all seven features he attempted, led laps at Merced, and had that top five at Ventura. He's also made two Chili Bowl appearances, finishing 18th in a Saturday D-Main back in January. It will definitely be a tall task for him to go run a bunch of places he's never seen before, but having crew chief Jerome Rodella and a teammate like Denney who has seen a lot of these places, should aid in his development. Besides midget racing, Andreotti has made regular sprint car starts at Ocean Speedway, with the Kings of Thunder, the Sprint Car Challenge Tour, and at Trophy Cup. In between midget starts, he will still roll the sprint car out periodically. Andreotti is now driver number eight to declare with USAC, joining Denney, Logan Seavey, Chance Crum, Daison Pursley, Ryan Timms, Taylor Reimer, and Bryant Wiedeman. The midget season kicks off April 21st at Kokomo.
Out in California, the already shifted schedule for this weekend for the USAC CRA Sprint Cars is now off, with Saturday at Hanford now rained out. Track and series officials are looking at possible reschedule dates. The weather out there continues to be crazy with a ton of rain and flooding. The High Limit Twitter account posted a flooding photo yesterday as well on what was supposed to be their season opener. You guys that watch this show from California please be safe out there.
In dirt racing podcast land this week, Winged Nation has Cole Macedo, Devon Borden, and Kolten Gouse. LoudPedal has Chase McDermand, Open Red has Kyle Jones, Passing Points has Jock Goodyer, JJ Hickle, and Jake Helsel. Forward Bite has Benji Hicks, Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks has JJ Hughes, I was on Hoogie's Garage as was Chase Randall, Dunewich on Dirt has Andrew Smith. There are also new episodes of the Dirt Reporters, the Dirt Nerds, Quicktime, All Gas No Brakes, and Dirt Track Confessions. To see all these shows, all these episodes, head over to dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
A couple of other content notes for you. If you are curious about the new sprint car tires, what exactly they are, the differences between the old tires, and how the first racing went on them, I've got a trio of pieces. First, go find Brady Bacon's Twitter account. He did a video last week talking about the new rubber. Also, available across the World of Outlaws social channels is a piece with JJR tire guy Nate Repetz. I tweeted today that I'm all in on a let's learn something series with Nate. And over at FloRacing, Kyle McFadden has a written piece with quotes from a lot of the players involved on all the happenings with the tire. All three are fantastic if you are curious about some inside info, nuts and bolts type stuff.
It's another quiet day on the streaming services with 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 Wednesday out there, we'll see you guys tomorrow.