DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Dirt tracks take an unnecessary beating on weekend decisions | Daily 3-28-2023

Thoughts today on the beating that tracks take when the weather is bad, plus why Kyle Larson will win the High Limit championship. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, March 28th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

I mentioned very briefly on the Monday show that I had some thoughts around Lincoln Speedway from this past weekend, and I want to dive into that today. It was no doubt a wet weekend in Central Pennsylvania, and it led to the cancellations of both Williams Grove and Port Royal. Lincoln fought it out on Saturday, and BAPS ran Sunday. All of these decisions, in some form or fashion, were criticized. And criticized by not only people on social media, but also in the media. To give you an idea of how ridiculous all of this was, Jesse Carberry, who is a photographer up in PA, tagged me in this tweet. It reads, "PA Racing Twitter Weekend Recap: Williams Grove cancelled late even though everyone knew it would rain but also cancelled too early because they don't actually want to race. Port Royal cancelled and should've raced. Lincoln raced, should've cancelled. BAPS raced and should have but not with those track conditions." And yeah, that's basically the sentiments in a nutshell. The tracks in these cases literally can't win. If they race and conditions aren't exactly perfect, like we saw at Lincoln, people say they should have just cancelled. We saw those thoughts on social media and from Jeremy Elliott in his wrap-up post from the night. But if they cancel, they catch hell, like Williams Grove and Port Royal did. You hear things like it wasn't raining that bad. It was clear by X time, they could have got it in. They don't want to race, they should just sell the track. It's all pretty ridiculous. I've said before, you won't hear me criticize a track over track prep. And you also won't hear me dog a track for cancelling, or not cancelling. It's a judgement call either way. If they think they can get in a show, like Lincoln did, kudos. If the track goes sideways and drivers don't want to race on a night like that, fine, put it in the box or don't come out. We saw that a few weeks ago at Senoia. It sucks to see guys load up and leave, but that's their choice. Breaking stuff is expensive. Everyone is free to make their best decision. If pits are swampy, and the track doesn't want to risk a low turnout for a full payout, fine, shut it down. It sucks, we wanted to see some racing, but I get it. I've been critical of Lincoln lately around their decisions on streaming, but I appreciated that they raced on Saturday. It wasn't the best feature I've ever seen, but it was cool to see Chase Dietz score the win driving his own car. Especially after following him on TikTok all offseason as he's built the team. If you know how to look and where to look, there are interesting things happening all over the place, even in a feature that might not be a barn burner. I think we forget too that a big reason why dirt racing is captivating and fun to watch, is the dynamic track conditions. Some days you're going to have a perfect surface. Others, it will be heavy, rutted, and cowboy up. And still others it will get dusty, locked down, and eat tires. That's just the nature of the beast. If you don't like that, and want racing where track conditions are much more predictable, let me introduce you to pavement racing. Even Sunday at BAPS, not a particularly great day, but Anthony Macri still took home $5000. Somebody was going to win that race. And I promise you, Kolten Gouse would have loved to do anything possible to avoid the feature that happened, and the tongue lashings I'm sure he and his officials took from the drivers and teams during and after that one. So don't worry track promoters, I know you guys already hate me anyway, but barring some sort of horrific negligence, you won't hear from me on track prep or cancellations. Keep doing the best you can with this stuff and ignore the idiots. It's a tough business you're in, and I appreciate when you race anyway on a damp night and even when you cancel in the name of self preservation.

Alright, before we move on, quick shoutout and thanks to Josh and Jesse who have jumped on in recent days as new channel members. The added support is much appreciated. If you want to help with what I'm doing here for just a few dollars a month and get some extra perks, click the join button on this video, or go to youtube.com/dirtrackr/join.

Buddy Kofoid was a World of Outlaws winner over the weekend at the Talladega Short Track, and in my comments yesterday Blake said he thinks Buddy will win the High Limit Sprint Car Series title this season. We are at this moment, exactly two weeks away from the High Limit opener at Lakeside Speedway, so let's look at this field and see if we can't make a prediction or two. Right now, based on tweets and supposed agreements, the High Limit full time field looks like it's 11. Kofoid, Hunter Schuerenberg, Kyle Larson, Cory Eliason, Justin Peck, Chase Randall, Danny Dietrich, Brent Marks, Rico Abreu, Anthony Macri, and Tyler Courtney. This is a pretty serious group, and while I don't dislike the Kofoid as champion pick, I don't know how you pick against Kyle Larson here. If he's able to run the full slate of races and not have to miss any because of NASCAR commitments, he's got to be the guy. Over the previous three years, he's run a total of 122 sprint car races. Last season he won seven of 28, in 2021 it was 11 of 26, and that magical 2020 season was 32 of 68. So 50 wins in his last 122 starts is good for right at 41% of races. Nobody else even comes close to that percentage. Anthony Macri was the winningest driver in all of sprint car racing a year ago, with 23 in 93 starts, but that was just shy of 25%. So Larson wins more often than anyone else, and he had at least some hand in shaping this schedule and which tracks they hit. He's got past wins at six of the 11 tracks on the schedule, including 34, Wayne County, Grandview, Eagle, Lernerville, and Huset's. And he didn't win at Bridgeport with the Outlaws last year, but he was fast and finished second. This whole thing aligns really well for him to win a bunch of these races and the championship. Outside of the World of Outlaws, this will be a very tough championship to win based on the quality of the fields, but I think Larson is the guy here. Drop me a comment, let me know who you are picking for this championship and why.

Today's streaming schedule. Three shows. Outlaw karts at Millbridge on DIRTVision, plus DIRTVision Now. You've also got FloRacing 24/7. 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 back here tomorrow.