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Crouch replaces Kofoid with Eliason; Outlaws and Flo Series race tonight | Daily 5-10-2023

It didn't take long for Crouch to replace Buddy Kofoid. We've got details on that, plus we talk Outlaws at Lincoln, Flo series at Spoon River and more. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, May 10th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

It was just a couple of days ago that we learned of Buddy Kofoid and Crouch Motorsports splitting, and it didn't take long for team owner Leighton Crouch to fill the seat of the 11. The team announced yesterday that they will finish the year with Cory Eliason as driver, and that tenure begins tonight against the World of Outlaws at Lincoln Speedway. Eliason departs his deal with Bernie Stuebgen and the Indy Race Parts 71 to take the job. Eliason had won some races in the 71, and so far in 2023 they had four top fives and seven top tens in 13 events. Because of his business, Bernie can't race every single weekend, and Eliason had been wanting to return to racing on a full time basis. His resume does include wins with both the World of Outlaws and All Stars, but consistency has been a problem. In his seasons out with the All Stars in the Rudeen car, it's a big reason why he couldn't get over the hump and beat Aaron Reutzel or Tyler Courtney for a championship. We know the 11 went fast with Kofoid in the seat, now we'll see if Eliason can match the pace on a nightly basis. And they are immediately jumping into the deep end this week with races at Lincoln and Williams Grove against the Outlaws and Posse. The plan for the Crouch 11 will remain the same going forward with a pick and choose schedule, including a heavy slate against the Outlaws plus High Limit and more. Talking to Jeremy Elliott, Eliason did say that Crouch is still working towards a full time World of Outlaws run at some point in the future. Drop me a comment, let me know your thoughts on this new deal between Crouch and Eliason.

Looking at tonight's racing at Lincoln, this will be the second stop of the year for the Outlaws to Abbottstown. The previous race was on March 18th, and Rico Abreu outdueled Brad Sweet that night for the victory, with Devon Borden grabbing his first career Outlaw podium. In the past seven races at Lincoln that I have in the dirtrackr.com/analytics database, we've had seven different winners. They are Rico, Jacob Allen, Sweet, Sheldon Haudenschild, Lance Dewease, Freddie Rahmer, and David Gravel. Don't expect to see the 69K tonight though. Dewease and Kreitz are planning on racing this weekend at the Grove. One driver I'd pay attention to tonight is Justin Peck. He is still seeking his first career Outlaw win, and if it's going to happen somewhere, Lincoln feels like it could be the place. He went 12th to fifth back in March, and led laps at Lincoln a year ago before finishing second to Jacob Allen. If they can get into the dash tonight, I could see them being a serious contender. As for this early championship battle, Sweet enters tonight as the points leader by just two over Carson Macedo. David Gravel is 28 back. As was the case a year ago, these three will be locked in a tight one all season. Most everyone else has fallen at least triple digits back through these first 17 races, and it would take a serious run to get back in the mix. If you can't get to Lincoln tonight, you can watch live on DIRTVision.

Before we move on, I've got a quick merch update for you. A fresh round of decals has been ordered, and hopefully I'll have those soon. I do still have just a few late model decals left if you want one of those. Also, I've been asked a bunch about a restock of hats, and they are now officially back on the site. The logo trucker snapbacks are available now and you can get one with free shipping and sales tax on me in the US. As an added bonus, if you use code "HAT23" at checkout with your hat order you can get any DIRTRACKR shirt for 50% off. So head over to shop.dirtrackr.com to order, or click the links below in the video description. I only did a limited run of hats, so don't hesitate if you want one.

Elsewhere tonight, a big week of dirt late model racing kicks off at Spoon River Speedway. The FloRacing Night in America series runs tonight and tomorrow (tomorrow is at Lincoln) to kick off this mini Illinois Speedweek, and then things ramp up even further Friday and Saturday with Lucas races at Farmer City and Fairbury. These two Flo races both pay $23,000 to win, Farmer City is $25,000 to win, and Fairbury is $30k. The Outlaws are off this week, so the fields should be pretty stout all four nights. We should easily get across 50 cars in the pits. Mike Marlar and Ricky Thornton Jr. picked up the first two Flo series wins this season, and Marlar leads the series standings. Brandon Sheppard won this Spoon River show a year ago, but that was with a different team and in a different chassis. He has been better as of late in the Longhorn, and a win tonight would be big for his season. We talked yesterday about Dennis Erb Jr.'s struggles, and he was sixth in this race in 2022. This could be a good chance for the 28 to start the turn around as well. So all the heavy hitters, nice cash, it should be a good night of racing. If you can't get there, FloRacing has live coverage tonight. Hot laps are scheduled for 6pm.

The Short Track Super Series was in action last night, and I was corrected in yesterday's comments about the race track. Apparently it's not Accord Speedway like it's spelled, apparently it's Aackord Speedway. So there you go. Mat Williamson was the pole sitter and he led the at the start. But the track had quite a bit of character and was pretty choppy on the bottom. On a lap 13 restart, Matt Sheppard was able to roll the smoother top and take the lead while Williamson struggled on the bottom. Sheppard basically never looked back from there. He scored the $6000 win over Williamson and Anthony Perrego. Billy Pauch Jr. and Williamson had a nice battle late for second, but Pauch pulled up lame right before the checkered and ended up fifth. I wonder if he maybe cut a tire beating and banging with Williamson. Tuesday night racing for the Short Track Super Series continues next week at Delaware International for $5000 to win.

If you want other dirt racing audio this week, Winged Nation has Brandon Spithaler, Mark Dobmeier, and Tyler Courtney. The LoudPedal podcast is back with a new format and they are talking the Let's Race Two weekend. All Gas, No Brakes has multiple interviews including Dillon Tidmore, Dalton Cook, and others. Hoogie's Garage also has multiple new guests, and Dunewich on Dirt has Newman Presnell and somebody named Road Soda Randy. There are also new episodes of the Dirt Reporters from Dirt on Dirt, the Dirt Nerds, Quicktime, and Dirt Track Confessions. To see all these shows and their most recent episodes, head over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.

There are five shows across the streaming services today. DIRTVision has the World of Outlaws sprint cars from Lincoln and DIRTVision Now. FloRacing has the Flo series late models at Spoon River and FloRacing 24/7. And Speed Sport has IMCA racing from Stuart International. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.

Hope you guys have a good Wednesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow.