DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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There ain't no party like a Dennis Erb party | Daily 5-11-2023

Dennis Erb Jr. struck last night at Spoon River for a big win, and he couldn't hide his excitement. We'll talk about that, plus the World of Outlaws at Lincoln, more news from Roth and Buddy Kofoid and more. Let's go!

It's Thursday, May 11th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

If you've been tuned in this week, you know I've talked about Dennis Erb Jr. and his struggles to start 2023. It's been a tough go of it so far coming off that Outlaw championship and he had yet to really contend anywhere. But this return to racing in his home state of Illinois came at just the right time. The FloRacing Night in America Series rolled into Spoon River Speedway last night for the first of four Illinois Speedweek shows and Dennis Erb did Dennis Erb things. He was fast off the truck, going second quick in his qualfying group, and ended up starting seventh for the feature. Out front, while Bobby Pierce, Brian Shirley, and Jonathan Davenport battled it out, Erb slowly and methodically worked his way forward in the 50 lapper. As you could have guessed, Pierce was banging the boards, while Shirley and Erb worked the very low side of the track. In the closing stages, Erb was able to get into the fight for the win, and after a brief skirmish with Pierce, took the lead for good on lap 46 and drove away to his first victory of 2023 and first since an MLRA win at 34 Raceway way back in July of 2022. I think Erb was probably better than Pierce and would have come out on top anyway, but the lap car of Ross Robinson getting in Pierce's way there late definitely helped the 28 stretch the gap. Pierce settled for second with Davenport third after setting the track record earlier in the night in qualifying. If the weather cooperates, this could be a good chance for Erb to build some momentum, running at tracks he knows very well for the next few nights. The Flo series shifts to Lincoln Speedway tonight, and then it's Lucas at Farmer City and Fairbury Friday and Saturday. And at this Lincoln Flo show just one year ago, Erb topped Brandon Sheppard, so back-to-back wins could definitely be in play. Mike Marlar maintains a slight advantage over Pierce in the standings after last night. A couple of other notes from last night. Parker Price Miller showed up with his late model after recently departing his full time sprint car ride. He had issues though and I don't think even ran his B-Main. Tim McCreadie was in attendance, but not in the Paylor 39. He ran the Rumley five car, which has become the R&D ride. He went 18th to 11th in the feature after a B-Main transfer. And some names who missed the show last night included Brandon Overton, Ricky Thornton Jr., Jason Feger, and Max Blair. So Lincoln is up next tonight, should be a very similar lineup and the weather will be nice. You can tune in again live on FloRacing if you aren't nearby.

Before we talk some sprint cars, don't forget that DIRTRACKR logo hats are back in stock at shop.dirtrackr.com. They are the trucker style snapbacks, and shipping and sales tax are on me when you order. If you also want to snag a shirt with your hat purchase, use code "HAT23" at checkout to get 50% off the price of the shirt. So you can get a hat and shirt shipped for $42.50 out the door if you live in the US. Place your order over at shop.dirtrackr.com.

At the other Lincoln Speedway, the one in Central Pennsylvania, the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars kicked off a stretch in Posse territory last night. At the end though, it wasn't Outlaw guys battling for the victory, but instead two of Pennsylvania's best. Brent Marks started on the pole and was in command for basically the whole feature. Late in the race though, Anthony Macri reeled him in and made things interesting. On the white flag lap, it looked like Marks had a big enough lead to keep Macri at bay, but the Concrete Kid made a hail mary move in three and four on the top and was somehow able to beat Marks back to the checkered in a drag race. Macri said afterward that he was quote "prepared to junk the thing or come out on top." Good thing for him and crew chief Joe Mooney, it ended up in a victory. Behind Marks in second, David Gravel was the highest finishing Outlaw driver in third. The win for Macri was actually his first Outlaw top five and top ten of 2023. He led laps on the opening night at Volusia, but hasn't been super fast otherwise. His best finish was an 11th, which came last weekend at Eldora. He has shown speed elsewhere though, including that High Limit win at 34 Raceway. With a fifth place run, Brad Sweet extended the series points lead, with Carson Macedo finishing way down in 18th. It was also an abysmal night for Jacob Allen who won this Lincoln race a year ago. He missed a C-Main transfer spot and used a provisional, only to finish 27th in the main event. And if you were curious, Cory Eliason was 17th in his debut with Crouch Motorsports. He nipped Billy Dietrich late for the final B-Main transfer spot and then went 24th to 17th. Also, Sheldon Haudenschild's roller coaster season continues. He ended up in the work area during the feature and finished 19th. In his last 10 races, he's got a win and a second, but also six finishes outside the top ten. For a team and a driver with championship aspirations, stretches like this just aren't going to get it done against the hyper consistent guys like Sweet, Gravel, and Macedo. The series is off today, and has two shows this weekend at Williams Grove for the Morgan Cup.

Also in sprint car land, I've got another update for you on Roth Motorsports. As expected, the team announced yesterday that James McFadden and the 83 will head to California this weekend and run the two nights of the Peter Murphy Classic with the NARC 410 series. I was told that the team had planned on running with NARC last week as well, but the Silver Dollar Speedway event was rained out. McFadden and Roth are expected to run 70ish races going forward on a pick and choose schedule. Roth will also campaign a second car at Hanford this weekend for Buddy Kofoid. Kofoid is obviously ride shopping after departing the Crouch Motorsports 11 this past weekend. With those two inbound and how tight things have been so far with NARC this season, don't sleep on these races. Corey Day vs Dominic Scelzi with McFadden and Buddy sprinkled in sounds like it could be a good time.

One other news item for you today. Holly Shelton is returning to the seat of a midget this season with 11 races planned. She's teaming up with Bundy and Ethan Mitchell to pilot one of their Honda powered Spike Chassis. Her first start will be with the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets at Tri-City on June 1st. The rest of her starts will come at Angell Park, Eldora, Bakersfield, Placerville, Merced, and Ventura in USAC competition. She has not raced a midget since 2018, and his since made scattered other open wheel starts. In her career she's got five USAC midget top fives, 23 top tens, plus ten top fives and 29 top tens in POWRi competition. Because of our NASCAR connection, I've gotten to know Holly a bit over the last few years, and I'm stoked that she's getting a serious chance to race again.

Looking at the streaming schedule, we've got eight shows coming up across FloRacing, Speed Sport, Clay Per View, and DIRTVision, headlined by the Flo series at Lincoln. 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.