DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Brandon Overton questioned going to Talladega, Lernerville quietly removes video signs | Daily 4-24-2023
So apparently we weren't the only ones wondering what was up with Brandon Overton. We'll talk about that, plus Lernerville backs off their video policy, it snowed in Knoxville, and more from the dirt racing weekend. Let's go!
It's Monday, April 24th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
Before we dive into the dirt racing weekend, I am running a coupon code right now for DIRTRACKR merch. 40% off all hats, shirts, and decals through midnight tonight. This is the biggest discount I've ever done, so take advantage while you can. Shipping in the US is always free, and I'll cover sales tax. So grab something today over at shop.dirtrackr.com and use code "GIVEME40" at checkout, that's "GIVEME FOUR ZERO" at checkout over at shop.dirtrackr.com. Alright, let's get into the racing.
Back on Friday we talked about where Brandon Overton and Jonathan Davenport are this season compared to past performances in response to a question I had gotten in the comments section. As usual, there were several snarky responses about the show, but apparently Overton himself was having some negative thoughts and feelings about where his season was headed. After banking $50,000 on Saturday night at the Talladega Short Track with the World of Outlaws he said quote "I saw real quick how mental it is. You get in your feelings and in your head, and you start doubting everything you ever done. It feels good to get it back on your side and I just want to thank my crew. They've been busting their butt and it's been miserable the last couple of weeks" unquote. So apparently it hasn't been all rainbows and butterflies for Overton and the Wells 76. This was actually his first Outlaw winy in over a year. Outside of his split field win on Friday night, his last trip to a World of Outlaws victory lane was at Volusia in 2022. According to the Outlaw post race release, Overton even questioned whether or not they should go to Talladega at all. It's certainly a good thing they did though, because after getting by race long leader Tanner English, Overton was in the cat-bird seat when Bobby Pierce broke a wheel while leading on lap 46. Overton ran away on the ensuing restart to score the 50 gees. English ended up second with Ryan Gustin going 11th to third. There were issues for several other contenders in this one, including point leader Chris Madden who did rebound to finish fifth and keep the points lead. Brandon Sheppard had problems, Kyle Larson broke a wheel as well while running towards the front, and the early part of that Saturday feature were a mess of cautions. Hat tip to Nick Hoffman for ending up sixth on Saturday night. He had issues in qualifying Friday and nearly turned it over, then went 20th to seventh in the prelim feature, and 15th to sixth in the big show. I hope that Talladega gets the chance to stay on these Outlaw schedules. I feel like we've seen good shows there from both the sprint cars and late models, and that place looked packed on Saturday night. The Outlaws are off this weekend and return to racing May 4th through the 6th at Mississippi Thunder. Madden leads the standings over Kyle Bronson, Ryan Gustin, Brian Shirley, and Brandon Sheppard.
The weekend USCS sprint car wins at Talladega both went to Ricky Stenhouse Jr. He went seventh to the win Friday, topping Morgan Turpen and Terry Gray. And he went seventh to the win on Saturday to grab the sweep. Stenhouse will be back in a sprint car this week at the High Limit show at 34 Raceway. We'll talk more High Limit tomorrow, as there are some interesting things to point out with that expected field of cars.
No big touring series shows over the weekend for sprint cars, but there were plenty of local and regional races. Friday night at Williams Grove, Brent Marks took advantage of trouble for Justin Peck and overcame a damaged front nose wing, to outduel Anthony Macri for the $8000 Tommy Classic. Danny Dietrich and Lance Dewease rounded out the podium. The Saturday action around Central PA was cancelled because of weather, but we did get some Sunday racing at Selinsgrove. Danny Dietrich tracked down Dylan Cisney in that one to break a 24 race winless streak. Cisney and Macri were second and third. And if you were curious about conditions at Knoxville, since so many were angry about the Outlaws cancelling, Knoxville's Eric Arnold posted a photo on Saturday of him walking the area around the track with snow falling down. So I'm sure everyone who was critical will be posting their apologies on social media soon. Hey, you know, or probably not.
Lernerville also opened their 2023 weekly season on Friday and the night's feature winners included Tyler Dietz in pro stock, Brian Swartzlander in the big block modified, John Garvin in the late model, and AJ Flick topped Trey Jacobs in the 410 sprint car feature. There was also an interesting development in the video capture situation there. If you might remember from a few weeks ago, the track said a viral social media post about their photo and video policies was fake or from a rogue former employee. In the aftermath, we were basically able to confirm that what was in that supposed fake post was actually true, including photos of signage that had been added to the frontstretch grandstand area late in 2022. Well thanks to a tweet on Friday from Brian, we found out that the track has now removed those black and yellow signs from the seating area. I'll let you decide how to react to that one.
Over to the ASCS sprint cars, or the series with the worst luck in America, their Friday show was lost to weather, and Saturday night at Boothill ended up being delayed because of a local power outage. So weather, tires, now power outages affecting the ASCS. Just unreal. Once they did get going, it was again a dominant performance from Jason Martin. He topped Landon Britt and Seth Bergman for his third straight series win. And in those three consecutive victories, Martin has led every single lap, so that's 85 straight laps out front for Martin. The ASCS is back racing on May 13th at Moberly, Missouri.
Other weekend sprint car winners included Ryan Timms at Jacksonville, Brody Roa with the CRA at Hanford, Joe B. Miller with POWRi at Benton, and Dominic Scelzi with the Sprint Car Challenge Tour at Merced.
Other weekend late model winners included Benji Hicks with Carolina Clash at Lavonia, Ben Watkins at Cherokee also with the Clash, Cory Hedgecock with the All Stars at North Georgia, and Mark Whitener in a crate car at All-Tech.
In weekend modified action, Tyler Wolff went flag-to-flag Friday at 81 Speedway with the USMTS. He topped Rodney Sanders and Jake O'Neil in that one for $5000. And Saturday night in the big $10k to win Gressel Memorial, it was O'Neil going eighth to the win. Tom Berry Jr. and Jake Timm rounded out the podium. A strong weekend for O'Neil has him atop the USMTS standings with the series moving to Hamilton County later this week.
And with the Super DIRTcar Series on Sunday, Mat Williamson got by Darren Smith late in the going, and then held off a charging Matt Stangle right at the line to bag the win at Bridgeport. Matt Sheppard led that one early, but suffered a cut tire on lap two, and eventually raced back to finish seventh. Williamson has now won five of the last seven races for the Super DIRTcar Series. They'll race again on May 7th at Orange County Fair.
Before we close out today, we are hoping for the best for sprint car driver Marcus Dumesny who was injured in a crash over the weekend at Toowoomba Speedway. It took quite a while to get Marcus out of the car, and he's since been diagnosed with a fractured T3 vertebrae. The family posted to social media that he is in good spirits and that they will continue to share updates as they know more.
Just two shows today on the streaming schedule with FloRacing 24/7 and DIRTVision Now. 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.