DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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It was an experiment that failed, but Atomic made the right move | Daily 3-27-2023
Hat tip today for Atomic Speedway and their weekend experiment, plus everything you need to know from the dirt racing weekend. Let's go!
It's Monday, March 27th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
I'm going to get things started today with a little bit of kudos for Atomic Speedway in Ohio. Over the weekend they lost their Saturday show to rain, but they weren't ready to throw in the towel just yet on racing. So Saturday afternoon they put out a call on social media. If they could sell 1000 presale tickets before 9PM on Saturday, they would run a full show of sprint cars and modifieds on Sunday. They did end up getting somewhere across 500 presales, but ultimately fell short and had to cancel the Sunday show. It was late notice, and they don't normally run Sundays, so it wasn't a shock that they didn't meet their goal. But I have to give Charlie Vest and Dave Andrews and the folks their props for trying. When we talk about innovative thinking from track promoters, this is the type of stuff we need to see. They wanted to put on a show, but also didn't want to lose their shirt early in the season, which we all understand. So they took a shot. It's this type of outside the box thinking that needs to start happening everywhere. Those who don't push boundaries and try and improve their shows and facilities all around will eventually fail. It might not have worked in this case, but I guarantee you they learned something for the future. Racing at Atomic will continue later this week with the Super DIRTcar Series inbound for two days.
A cold and wet spring around the country limited racing options over the weekend, especially for the fendered crowd. But if you are an open wheel fan, you had plenty of races to watch the past three days. We'll start with the Outlaws down south.
When you think about sprint car areas in the US, Alabama and Mississippi are not states that will come up on the list, but I thought the Outlaws did well at Talladega and Magnolia. It looked like the crowds were solid, and each night had 29 cars. The car counts especially were nice surprises. And we got to watch two pretty dang good races. Friday night Buddy Kofoid sat on the pole, and he had to make the right moves through lap traffic and hold off Brad Sweet to earn his second career Outlaw win. Buddy has shifted back to full time sprint car competition for 2023 after back-to-back USAC midget titles, and he's been fast to start the year. Through these opening eight Outlaw races, he's now got a win, three top fives and five top tens with the Crouch Motorsports guys. I know their plan is to go pick and choose this season, but they do sit fifth in the Outlaw points right now, ahead of names like Sheldon Haudenschild, Donny Schatz, Spencer Bayston, and James McFadden. Get used to seeing that number 11 car up front in sprint car shows this year. Sweet and Bayston joined Kofoid on the Talladega podium. Logan Schuchart's top ten streak was busted with a 14th place result, while Carson Macedo bounced back from an early spin to finish 9th and keep his run alive.
At Magnolia on Saturday, we saw Sheldon Haudenschild lead his first laps of 2023, but ultimately they settled for third on the night. It was that team's first podium finish of the season, but they are in the midst of a 24 race winless streak, that stretches back to Skagit last September. They haven't been bad to start the year, by any stretch, but they haven't really been a factor either. This run of winless races is the longest such streak for Sheldon in three years. They have some work to do to get their package straightened out going forward, but Saturday's podium is a nice bump for that group. After leading the first nine circuits, Brad Sweet snatched the lead from Sheldon on lap 10 and drove off to the victory. It was the first victory for Sweet on the season, and his first since Sharon in 2022, a stretch of 16 races. It was also Brad's 80th career win, which moves him to just four shy of Stevie Smith for 10th all time. Him, and David Gravel, passing Smith and Daryn Pittman for 9th all time on that list are very much a possiblity this season. There was more praise from the drivers about the new Hoosier tires, and the eyeball test seemed to get passed again. No issues, and good racing both nights. Hopefully that continues going forward. Coming up this weekend, the series heads to Devil's Bowl in Texas for two nights of racing. Gravel is still the points leader, with Macedo, Sweet, Schuchart, and Kofoid the rest of the top five.
Up in Pennsylvania, it was a mixed bag of racing over the weekend, with Williams Grove and Port Royal cancelling, but Lincoln and BAPS getting races in. At Lincoln on Saturday night, Chase Dietz took advantage of a front row starting position to bag his first win of 2023, and first with his new team. A couple of well timed cautions helped Dietz along the way, as did a juiced up race track. Damp conditions kept Lincoln from really widening out, and some guys were caught out by the conditions, with multiple incidents plaguing the feature, especially at the start. I've got some more thoughts on the Lincoln show that I'll share tomorrow, but kudos to them for toughing it out on a difficult night.
At BAPS on Sunday, tires were the name of the game, with the track having issues, and rubber showing up during the feature. Anthony Macri got to the lead just past half way, and survived to the end to score his first victory of the season, and first with new crew chief Joe Mooney. Mooney took over this season after car chiefing the previous several seasons on Brad Sweet's KKR ride, and you figured it was only a matter of time before they got that first win. In the end, the BAPS feature was shortened, and only like 10 cars were running at the finish. Certainly not ideal, but hey, you'll have that in big time dirt racing sometimes. For weekly racing right now, drivers are still able to run the old sprint car tire if they so choose, and the teams' choices were mixed over the weekend in Central PA, with some choosing to go each direction. At BAPS, the top three were all on the new tire, while Dietz won at Lincoln on the old Hoosier.
In California, Justin Sanders won for the second straight week at Placerville. This time though, it was with the Sprint Car Challenge Tour. He topped Corey Day and Cole Macedo in that one. Most of the rest of the dirt tracks in the state were quiet because of the ongoing wet weather.
At Port City, the Friday night POWRi midget show was lost to rain, but we got a good one on Saturday night. Daison Pursley charged through the field from 13th and made a last lap pace on Jace Park to score the victory. Purley is driving the midget this season for Reinbold Underwood, while Park was in a Mounce Stout ride. Zach Daum completed the night's podium. POWRi is back this weekend as a co-sanction with the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets at Farmer City.
And with the USMTS modifieds, their Friday race at Humboldt was rained out, and Saturday night it was Dan Ebert who tracked down Terry Phillips past half way and drove on to a nearly 5 second victory in the King of America finale. Phillips and Cayden Carter completed the podium. Phillips leads the points now, with the USMTS headed to Ark-La-Tex Speedway later this week.
Just FloRacing 24/7 and DIRTVision Now on the streaming services today. 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 back here tomorrow.