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.
Outlaw tensions spill out publicly, McDowell scores $100k | Daily 4-17-2023
On this Monday show we are talking old guys winning big cash, big movers, plus things get spicy with the World of Outlaws. Let's go.
It's Monday, April 17th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
We've got a ton of stuff to get to today as it was a busy dirt racing weekend. Before we dive in though, make sure you make a stop today over at shoprico.com. All of Rico Abreu's 2023 gear is there now, including fresh t-shirts, Chili Bowl stuff, and more. There are also a ton of sale items if you're looking to score a deal, including all of last year's Rowdy apparel. And for my DIRTRACKR audience, Rico has offered up a special coupon code that gets you 24% off. And you can combine the code with sale items to save even more. So for example, if you wanted to grab a Chili Bowl shirt, they are marked down from $30 to $20, and the coupon code gets you another almost $5 off. That's a pretty good deal. That discount code will be applied at checkout, and it is "Invader24." So use code "Invader24" at checkout at shoprico.com for 24% off your order of great Rico Abreu merch. Thanks to Rico for his support of what I'm doing. I'll have a link below in the video description so you won't even have to open a browser window and type it all in.
We'll start today with the big money show from over the weekend, the $100k to win XR Super Series race at Volunteer Speedway. Packed house, sold out grandstands, 59 cars, and not a single driver had anything for Dale McDowell. He was fast time in qualifying, won heat four, started outside front row, and led all 100 laps to bank the big money and one for the old guys. It was the richest win for McDowell since he won the Dream in 2014. Behind him, Mike Marlar, and polesitter Hudson O'Neal rounded out the podium. There were plenty of comers and goers in the main event, with Tyler Erb going 19th to fifth, McCreadie 15th to sixth, Ricky Thornton Jr. 17th to seventh, and hard charger Jonathan Davenport went 23rd to eighth. Davenport needed a provisional to get into the big show, and at one point was in danger of going a lap down. That was surprising after the battle we saw between him and Kyle Larson there the week before. Chris Madden was the Bulls Gap winner earlier in the week, but he was out on lap one after contact. Looking ahead this week, the late model community will stay very busy. We've got Flo Night in America shows both Tuesday and Wednesday, with each of those $23,000 to win. Then later this week, Lucas is finally back in action with stops at Tri-City and Macon, while the Outlaws are at 411 on Thursday, and Talladega Friday and Saturday. That Saturday night show is $50,000 to win. That should be a wild one. As for XR, the Super Series is back May 8th at Kokomo.
At Pevely this weekend, we only got the Friday show for the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars and the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets. The Saturday show was lost to rain. In the Friday midget feature, both Chase McDermand and Zach Daum led laps early, but it was Cannon McIntosh who picked up the win, leading the final 11 circuits. The midgets ran after the sprint cars and the track was very bottom dominant. Daum ended up second, with Ryan Timms charging from the B-Main to the podium. A top five run for Kyle Jones was good enough for him to take over the points lead by 13 over Cannon Mac.
Earlier in the night, things got interesting between Carson Macedo and David Gravel and I wanted to dive into this today. Both Gravel and Macedo led laps, but after the two had contact past half way, Brad Sweet snuck by and drove away to the victory. James McFadden went 14th to second, and Logan Schuchart sixth to third. Other bullet points from the night included a rare big crash for Donny Schatz, trouble for Sheldon Haudenschild and a finish down the order, and big charges from Blake Hahn and Spencer Bayston. I wanted to talk Gravel versus Macedo though because we saw some things we don't normally get a view of. If you missed it, Gravel was leading on lap 26, when he and Macedo banged wheels in turn four. Gravel was trying to work past the lap car of Brock Zearfoss, and the lap before the incident, Gravel entered three low and slid all the way to the top. The next lap though, Gravel stayed middle, and I think Macedo expected him to slide high again like he did the lap before. Macedo had already committed to his line and the two just met in the middle. Gravel went for a spin and had a trip to the work area to fix a flat left rear. Macedo continued and later finished fourth. To me it just looked like a racing deal, but not everyone saw it that way. After the race went checkered, Gravel made it known to Macedo that he didn't appreciate the move. I don't know exactly what went down, because DIRTVision didn't show it, but Johnny Gibson made mention of it. I feel like it's pretty rare to see these guys that run up front with the Outlaws get together, but it's even more rare for what transpired afterwards. And that was the public acknowledgement of the issues. Later that night Gravel, or his social media guy, tweeted out the video of the incident mentioning that it was a tough night, but also using #wrecked and #notclear. That's a pretty clear message from a driver like Gravel who you rarely see a ton of public emotion from about racing incidents. And Macedo definitely took a beating from some, and he tweeted out an apology to Gravel and the 2 team. I think the main takeaway here isn't the incident itself, or how you view fault, but instead what happened after. All of this to me looks like an illustration of how competitive things have gotten and in turn guys letting things spill out publicly. Incidents like this usually get handled away from cameras and social media, but frustrations clearly boiled over after Friday. The World of Outlaws is a complete dogfight every single night, and with so many fast cars and fast guys, they all know they can't afford to have off nights and bad finishes if they are going to have a shot at the title. And if things are already to this point and it's only April, buckle up, because we could be in for a wild summer. And as long as things don't get ugly on track, I'm here for the rivalries. Macedo carries a 12 point lead over Brad Sweet into Knoxville this weekend for a two-fer.
With the All Stars over the weekend, we were treated to two incredible races at Attica. Friday night, Craig Mintz started seventh and picked his way to the front over the course of the 35 lapper. He threw a slider at leader Zeb Wise coming to the white that didn't stick, but then through three and four coming to the checkered, he just got a bit of a better drive. At the line it was Mintz taking the win by 0.074 of a second over Zeb. Hunter Schuerenberg settled for third after leading 27 laps. It was the first All Star win for Mintz in 11 years. And then Saturday night thanks to Brent Marks, I had everyone tweeting at me about "don't tell me there's no passing in sprint car racing." Shirts are available at shop.dirtrackr.com. Marks did not have a good qualifying effort, and didn't move forward in his heat, which left him needing a B-Main transfer to start the feature. He was on the move early and often though, driving from 20th into the top ten in just three laps. He was then inside the top five in ten laps, and in the mix for the win. Both Cale Thomas and Zeb Wise battled out front as Marks moved through, and the 19 took the lead with seven to go. In the end it was Marks winning over Wise and Tyler Courtney. I'm still looking through the database, but it's been a long time since somebody won a sprint car feature with a big series from the B-Main. Hat tip to Cale Thomas for leading laps and finishing fourth on Saturday after having engine issues on Friday and not advancing from the B. The All Stars are now off for a few weeks.
Weekend USAC sprint car wins went to CJ Leary, who dominated at Bloomington, and Justin Grant who held off Kevin Thomas Jr. at Haubstadt. Brady Bacon's 17 race top ten streak ended Friday at Bloomington with a shredded right rear. JG leads the standings over Leary and Emerson Axsom after the weekend. The sprint cars are back in action April 26th. Sunday's Silver Crown race at Terre Haute was pushed back to May 7th because of weather.
Other weekend late model winners included Shannon Babb on Friday night at 34 Raceway. Saturday's action at 34 was rained out. Cory Hedgecock was an All Star winner at I-75, Cade Dillard and Kyle Beard won Comp Cams shows at 67 and Rocket Raceway Park. Josh Rice was a $10,000 winner at Florence, and Ryan Gustin won the Saturday show at Paragon.
In other weekend open wheel action, Lance Dewease was a Friday night winner at Williams Grove. The Saturday shows at Lincoln and Port Royal were lost to weather. Devon Borden won Sunday at BAPS over Kyle Moody. At Tulare in California for the Dennis Roth Classic, Cole Macedo and DJ Netto picked up 360 wins. I don't know how Macedo kept going in that Friday race. He tangled with a lap car and full on backed it into the turn one wall. But somehow he kept it running, drove away from the scene, and kept the lead. The NARC 410 wins went to Corey Day Friday from 11th, and Justyn Cox went flag to flag on Saturday for the big money. I'll be curious to see how things go in the future between Corey Day and Dominic Scelzi. In that Saturday feature, Day threw a slider at Scelzi from Bakersfield that led to an incident and Scelzi needing a new top wing after getting turned back over. Don't sleep on NARC this season, because I think it will be spicy all season. Also, I don't know how you see something like Jared Faria's scary fire and still fight against cockpit fire supression systems. This was just the latest example of fire inside a sprint car. Faria was lucky that the fire crew was close, as he emerged from his sprint car with his legs on fire. He appeared to be okay afterwards.
It's a quiet day on the streaming schedule with just FloRacing 24/7 and DIRTVision Now on tap. Things will ramp up tomorrow though. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Hope you guys have a good Monday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow.