DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Ross Chastain debuting with Lucas, updates on two dirt tracks | Daily 4-14-2023
Updates today on the future of two dirt tracks, plus another NASCAR driver racing dirt, and what's ahead this weekend. Let's go!
It's Friday, April 14th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
We'll kick your Friday off with a little bit of race track news. I've got updates for you today on the future of Calistoga Speedway in California and Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Motor Speedway. Last month, residents of Calistoga pretty widely rejected a bond measure that would have allowed the city to purchase the local fairgrounds where Calistoga Speedway sits. The fairgrounds are currently owned by Napa County, who shut everything down when the fair association went bankrupt several years ago. Since then, there have been multiple attempts to revive the track and facility, but it remains in limbo. And the bond measure being defeated certainly wasn't a good sign for the future. But there remains hope that the city can find a way to purchase the fairgrounds, and an email was sent in the last few days by HMC Promotions, which previously operated the race track looking for support. A new city mayor and a new county supervisor seem intent on finding a way to make a deal happen, and more creative financing options are being discussed. So we'll keep an eye on how things progress into the future. If you want to get involved, or see more details, go find Hunt's Race World on Facebook.
Also, the future of PPMS suddenly seems very much in doubt. Back on Wednesday they posted to their Facebook page an acknowledgement that the race track was under contract, but that it hadn't technically been sold yet. According to the post, this has apparently happened multiple times in recent years, with each of those not resulting in a sale. The track is moving forward with it's 2023 season, which opens on April 29th. They also recently announced a streaming deal for the year with The Cushion, and they started a YouTube channel. There was also a short piece this week in Area Auto Racing News which says the track could close after 2023, and that the land is currently under contract for $2.75 million. I couldn't find the real estate listing they were referring to though, which was supposedly on LoopNet. Public records do show that the property has been for sale or lease off and on since 2016. There are no details on who is potentially buying the facility or what their plans are with it. The track is set to host Western PA Speedweek, BOSS sprint cars, the FAST series, and the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Pittsburgher 100 amongst their weekly schedule this season.
One other news item before we move on to some racing, NASCAR driver Ross Chastain will try his hand at dirt late model racing coming up. He'll pilot the Niece Motorsports late model that we've seen Carson Hocevar drive, in the upcoming Lucas show at Georgetown Speedway on April 28th. It will definitely be a dive into the deep end for Chastain, driving against the Lucas competitors on the big half mile Georgetown track. He'll join a growing list of NASCAR competitors we've seen make dirt starts in recent years, including names like William Byron, Kyle Busch, and Chase Elliott among others. The Lucas series is off this weekend, and they'll be back racing April 21st and 22nd at Tri-City and Macon.
A couple of race winners from last night included Ross Robinson at Georgetown and Chad Simpson at Davenport. Robinson go to the lead at Georgetown with five to go and topped Tyler Emory and Bryan Bernheisel. Max Blair won the night's RUSH feature of Trevor Collins.
If you haven't watched that Davenport MLRA feature from Thursday, I'd check it out today on FloRacing. I believe there were eight lead changes among five different drivers. Brandon Sheppard was driving away with it, but suffered a flat with 10 to go. That left the battle for the win down to Shannon Babb, Simpson, and Ryan Gustin. Gustin was absolutely ripping the highside, but it eventually bit him when he stepped over the cushion with two to go and ended up off of turn two. Chad Simpson held on for the win, and now the MLRA competitors will head to 34 Raceway tonight and tomorrow for the Slocum 50. The smaller Davenport configuration has put on some absolute bangers in recent seasons. It's a perfect late model track.
At Volunteer Speedway this weekend, the XR Super Series starts up their 2023 campaign, and the Saturday show pays $100,000 to win. There are rain chances around today, but things look pretty good for Saturday. If they do get to race tonight, they'll run dual $5000 to win features ahead of the big money Saturday. Chris Madden won there earlier in the week, and the field is stout. Hudson O'Neal, Brandon Overton, Madden, Devin Moran, Tanner English, Ricky Thornton Jr., and Tim McCreadie are just a few of the names expected. Jonathan Davenport also has this weekend on his schedule, and he could be one to watch. He ran second to Kyle Larson at Bulls Gap last week. This one will certainly turn into a dog fight on that high banked race track with so much cash on the line. Definitely one of a few awesome late model shows to check out this weekend. If you want to see a full rundown of the late model shows coming up over the next few days, check out the schedule at dirtondirt.com.
For the open wheel fans this weekend, you've got the World of Outlaws and Xtreme Midgets at Pevely, the All Stars at Attica, USAC sprint cars at Bloomington and Haubstadt, Silver Crown at Terre Haute, and NARC at Tulare among others. Carson Macedo leads David Gravel and Brad Sweet in the Outlaw standings heading to Pevely, and Sweet and Macedo were the winners there in 2022. Macedo has been the hottest full timer as of late, riding an 18 race top ten streak and having the best average finish over the previous five and ten race stretches. This could also be a good weekend for Sheldon Haudenschild to keep rolling. He's got four Pevely wins and has only finished outside the top ten there three times in the past 17 races. As for the midget portion of the event, Jade Avedisian carries a 30 point lead in over Kyle Jones. Michael Pickens and Chance Crum won here a season ago. We'll also see Rico Abreu back in a midget, as he's going to jump in Tanner Thorson's car.
With the All Stars, they are at Attica for take two, after the original weekend was lost to weather. There is nothing to talk about championship wise, because no points have been awarded so far in 2023. Tyler Courtney opens his title defense after running well earlier in the week at Lakeside with High Limit, and he swept this opening weekend in 2022. Should be a healthy field of cars in attendance, with all the Ohio regulars incoming with Fremont cancelling. Wayne County does have a FAST show on Saturday, so we'll see how many guys decide to go that direction.
In Indiana, it's a busy weekend for USAC, with the sprint cars at Bloomington tonight, Haubstadt tomorrow, and Silver Crown headed for Terre Haute on Sunday. Those guys will certainly be racing with heavy hearts after the passing of sprint car driver Justin Owen a week ago. Brady Bacon is the current sprint car points leader after just those few Florida shows, and this will be the Silver Crown season opener. That Sunday show is expecting 36 entries.
And out in California, the NARC 410 sprint cars have two nights coming up at Tulare for the Dennis Roth Classic. Corey Day won the season opener a week ago at Hanford, and it looks like we could have a fight on hand all season for the NARC title. There will be some added entries for the weekend with Cory Eliason and Kraig Kinser headed west to run cars for Roth. Tulare is a great race track, and these will be fun sprint cars after dark shows tonight and tomorrow.
Drop me a comment and let me know your dirt racing plans for the weekend. Hopefully mother nature will continue to play nice over the next few days.
The weather is starting to cooperate more, and plenty of tracks and series will be racing this weekend, which is why the streaming schedule for the next three days is approaching 80 shows. If you're looking for something to watch through the weekend, head over to dirtrackr.com/watchtonight. All the listings from the dirt racing streaming services plus links to watch.
Hope you guys have a good weekend out there, we'll see you back here on Monday.