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Dirt late model decision day, who's going Outlaws and who's going Lucas | Daily 5-4-2023
It's decision day for national touring late model teams as the Outlaws and Lucas have their first schedule conflict. We'll talk who's going where, plus news from FloRacing and more. Let's go!
It's Thursday, May 4th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
Tonight will kick off busy weekends for both the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and the World of Outlaws Late Model Series. The Outlaws are at Mississippi Thunder in Wisconsin for three straight nights, culminating in a $50,000 to win race on Saturday night. And Lucas has races coming up at Atomic tonight, Ponderosa on Friday, and Florence on Saturday. It's been nearly three full months since Lucas last raced, on February 10th at East Bay. They've had eight races since then cancelled or postponed. This will be the first time this season that the two national tour schedules conflict, which means teams have a choice to make. Are they going Outlaws or Lucas. No more being declared with both, it's officially decision day. And there will no doubt be some changes. A couple we already know about because of a post to Max Blair's Facebook page. He and Boom Briggs are flipping from the Outlaws to Lucas for the remainder of the season, and Max will chase the Lucas rookie title. He's currently eighth in Outlaw points and seventh in the Lucas standings, and he's now instantly the leading Lucas rookie driver. Either way was going to be a tough road for Blair and Briggs, but the rookie deal probably pushed them over the edge for Lucas. There could be other changes as well. Tanner English has been rumored to be on the fence, but his social media channels say he's headed to Mississippi Thunder. And Kyle Bronson's second place standing right now with the Outlaws probably made his decision as well. We'll see if anything else pops up. It does look like Jimmy Owens is sticking around the south to run with Lucas this weekend, and he had previously run six of the seven Outlaw nights. He did not return for Saturday at Talladega though. How Brandon Overton's season will continue to play out is also a question mark. He's got the Lucas schedule through Wheatland at the end of May on his website, but nothing after that except the Flo and XR series races. He's third in the Lucas standings right now behind Ricky Thornton Jr. and Hudson O'Neal and I think this Lucas title could still possibly be in play for him.
Looking at Lucas specifically, they head to Atomic tonight as a reschedule from March 17th. It's setup this incredible Lucas and All Star sprint car night there, which is a throwback to the old days of KC Raceway. If you are in the area, I would definitely get out to that one. It's not often you get a major late model series and major sprint car series on the same track during the same night. Both fields will be stout, and Kyle Larson will be doing double duty in both the Silva 57 sprint car and the Rumley 6 late model. This will be a busy month ahead for Lucas, with 10 races on the schedule, and teams trying to position themselves for the first Championship Chase cut during the Show-Me 100 weekend at the end of May. 15 drivers will be in after that, and right now names like Spencer Hughes, Garrett Alberson, and Garrett Smith are outside the cut line. If you can't get to Atomic, this one will be live on FloRacing.
Up at Mississippi Thunder, we are getting split field dual features both tonight and tomorrow for $5000 to win each. That will help set things up for Saturday's action. Chris Madden enters as the points leader over Kyle Bronson, Ryan Gustin, Brian Shirley, and Brandon Sheppard. Mike Marlar won this event a year ago, and he is expected to try and repeat. I talked earlier in the week about momentum for Sheppard and his first victory in the Longhorn Chassis. We'll see if those guys can keep it up this weekend. The driver who really needs a good finish is defending series champion Dennis Erb Jr. He's way down in 10th in the standings right now, and it's been a tough go for him with this new look Outlaws being run by Steve Francis. He has yet to score a top ten finish this season, and was 19th last time out at Talladega. Erb finished in the top ten 81% of the time in 2022 and had four wins. His average feature finish through the first seven Outlaw shows this season though is a dismal 15th. Tonight's racing can be watched live on DIRTVision.
We've been waiting all year for the Flo documentary series DIRT about Kyle Larson to finally get rolling, and news came yesterday that we finally have a premiere date. The first episode was shown during the Wild West Shootout way back in January with the promise that we would get the rest starting in the spring, and specifically April. Well obviously April has come and gone, but now it seems clear why we didn't hear anything. The five part series will debut May 16th on Fox Sports 1 at 7PM ET and run each of the next four weeks in the same time slot after that. Episodes will be available on FloRacing the next day. I'm just speculating here, but this feels like this thing was either taken over by the NASCAR media folks, or sold late, or something like that. The series is now sponsored by NOS Energy Drink, and no mention of a TV package or Fox Sports involvement was a part of this thing initially. So late in the going here we've added a sponsor and changed distribution. It's a good thing that dirt racing will get some more traditional media coverage on cable TV, but don't expect this to be some sort of catalyst for more coverage. The World of Outlaws do have a doc type show coming up this Sunday on the main CBS network starting at 1:30 PM ET, but this is part of their usual tape delayed race package with CBS Sports Network. And those CBSSN deals have in the past been something WRG had to pay for, unlike other big sports organizations that get paid for races and games. You can see the full TV schedule and press release for the Flo DIRT series over at floracing.com.
It was yet another fun Wednesday at Millbridge Speedway last night here near Charlotte. It turned into a familiar Cannon McIntosh sweep of the two micro divisions, but the winged feature was tight. McIntosh needed a final corner pass of Tulsa Shootout winner TJ Smith to take the victory. Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s nephew Wyat Miller was third behind the leaders, with Kyle Busch in fifth. Ross Chastain also came to play, and ended up 11th in that winged feature. It seems like Chastain has taken a big interest in dirt racing, and I'm sure he'll start to pop up some more. In the non-wing main event, after an early slider fest, McIntosh got away late and topped Steven Snyder Jr. and Trevor Cline. Brent Crews had trouble early in the night, and had to come from the back of the B. He drove through the B, and through the A to finish sixth. If you aren't in the area, these micro shows can be watched on DIRTVision.
Seven shows across the streamers today. FloRacing has the All Stars and Lucas from Atomic, plus Flo 24/7. DIRTVision has the World of Outlaws late models at Mississippi Thunder plus DIRTVision Now. There is also local action on Speed Sport. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Hope you guys have a good Thursday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow.