DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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An update on Roth's future, plus three late model drivers with work to do | Daily 5-9-2023
I've got three dirt late model drivers for you today who have holes to dig out of, including two champions, plus an update on Roth and James McFadden's future, and more. Let's go!
It's Tuesday, May 9th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
With us finally getting at least a few more dirt late model races in here recently, I wanted to look at a few guys who are off to less than stellar starts this season. Two of them were champions a season ago, and the third is a guy you would expect to be competing on a nightly basis. They are Dennis Erb Jr., Tim McCreadie, and Devin Moran. We'll start first with Erb. He was the Outlaw title winner in 2022, and really was able to take advantage of the series being down a bit on cars. Sort of nine drivers were full timers by the time World Finals rolled around, but only five made all 43 races. Josh Richards sat out with injuries and has since retired. Boom Briggs missed a few nights, as did Gordy Gundaker, and Shane Clanton was technically full time, but he only raced 33 shows after taking over the owner points spot of teammate Tyler Bruening. That left Erb, Tanner English, Max Blair, Ryan Gustin, and Brent Larson as the few to really fight it out. Erb picked up all four of his wins before June was over, and his consistency over the second half brought home the trophy. It was opportunistic for sure, but he still had to put in the performances. This season though, with a much tougher group showing up every night under a reworked set of benefits from new series director Steve Francis, Erb has struggled and mightily. His only top five and top ten finish of the season was this past Thursday night at Mississippi Thunder. He finished fourth behind Cade Dillard, but that was in a split field prelim feature. His four Volusia runs were 11th or worse, Talladega was not great, and at 411 he was outside the top 20. His average feature finish has dropped seven spots this season, down to 13.6, and he's already triple digits behind points leader Chris Madden with just six races complete. The Outlaws don't race again for another 10 days, but Erb is expected to compete during this week Illinois Speedweek. He desperately needs to find some speed this week and start turning around his year.
Your other national touring late model champion from a year ago in Tim McCreadie with Lucas hasn't had as tough of a start as Erb has, but he already finds himself fifth in the Lucas standings, 265 points back of red-hot Hudson O'Neal. There have been bright spots for McCreadie, including top fives at Golden Isles, All-Tech, East Bay, and most recently on Saturday night at Florence. But his average finish is almost four positions worse than a year ago, he's still winless, hasn't led any laps, and he's off his top five and top ten pace. As long as he can hang around that top four though, his title chances will still be in play all season. And right now he's only 35 points out of that fourth and final chase spot. I have way more faith in McCreadie turning this thing around at this point than I would in Erb climbing back in it with the Outlaws.
In a similar vein, Moran hasn't been bad, with 10 top tens in 14 starts, he just hasn't made the noise we've seen from him in the past. I thought joining a Double Down team that was a serious contender with Hudson O'Neal in the past would just keep rolling with Moran, but that hasn't really been the case. His best finish is fourth, which has happened three times, he did lead some laps at Bubba in January, but other than that, he hasn't been in contention for victories. And this past weekend at Atomic, a track in which he'd led laps in both previous appearances and finished on the podium, he was 22nd. Moran did rebound Friday and Saturday with top tens, but he's even further back than McCreadie in the standings, currently trailing the Rocket 1 by 345 points. If he were able to find his way to the top four come the Dirt Track World Championship at Eldora to end the Lucas season, his past history at Eldora doesn't exactly make you confident in his title chances. Like the other two we've talked about here, that 99 team has some work to do in the coming weeks. With four races on the schedule this week in Illinois, we'll have plenty more dirt late model stuff to talk about as the week continues.
I mentioned yesterday on the show that Roth Motorsports had lost it's appeal to the penalties they were given following a failed tire test from Pevely a few weeks ago. The team began serving their suspensions at Eldora, and as of right now still have two more races to sit out. That would include Wednesday at Lincoln and Friday at Williams Grove. There are rumors floating around that the team will head west this weekend and compete Friday and Saturday with the NARC series at Hanford. I heard that from one source yesterday, and Jeremy Elliott mentioned it on his website today. The Saturday show for the Peter Murphy Classic pays $11,000 to win. If that does indeed happen, it would be a pretty clear indicator that the team will go pick and choose for the remainder of the season. The points lost for the penalty, along with the four races lost took the team way out of World of Outlaws contention, and this felt pretty inevitable. The end of the season Outlaw bonus money would be negligible and the team can now focus on the high paying shows both out west and around the country. I'd assume High Limit will be on the table, as will shows like the Dirt Cup at Skagit. I did reach out for confirmation, but did not hear back.
We haven't seen them in a month, but the Short Track Super Series modifieds are back racing tonight. The north region takes on Accord Speedway for $6000 to win and $500 to start. Matt Sheppard is the most recent winner with the series, back at Orange County on April 8th. There has only been one other completed event between the north, south, and Elite, and that was at Selinsgrove on March 18th. There have been rainouts, plus that weird situation at Bridgeport where the series withdrew from sanction over some crazy stuff that happened away from the track. Over the offseason, the track at Accord was altered, including a wider backstretch, less banking, and tighter corners. It will certainly be a question mark for teams as they try and get setups right tonight. Sheppard will be in attendance, along with names like Danny Bouc, Anthony Perrego, Billy Pauch Jr., David Schilling, Andy Bachetti, Mat Williamson, and more. Perrego leads all drivers in past series wins at Accord at three, but again, this newly reconfigured track should change things a bit. Also on the card are the 602 sportsman and four cylinders. Racing is set for 7:15 eastern, and you can watch it live on FloRacing if you aren't nearby.
There are four shows on the streaming schedule today. DIRTVision has weekly action from Beaver Dam and DIRTVision Now. FloRacing has the Short Track Super Series and Flo 24/7. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Hope you guys have a good Tuesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow.