DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
Dirt racing news, results, discussion, analytics. Sprint cars, late models, modifieds, you name it. From national series, to top local shows. Brought to you five days a week. Email the show at info@dirtrackr.com.
Eldora bans sticks, two kickass races, and Brian Brown listening? | Daily 5-17-2023
Coming up, Eldora bans stick usage at the Dream coming up, we had two great races on Tuesday, and I think Brian Brown was listening. Let's go!
It's Wednesday, May 17th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
Two kickass racing programs from Tuesday, but two not surprising winners from each. We'll start first with the High Limit Sprint Cars from Wayne County. It looked like a packed house, and while they didn't get to 60 cars in the field, they did have 54. The track was fast, it was racy, the heat races were nuts, and there was plenty of action all night long. Unlike the previous race at 34 Raceway a few weeks ago, they chose not to run a non-qualifier race, and instead just packed everyone into the four heats. That may have played a bit of a role in the heat race madness, with as many as 14 cars racing for five transfer spots. I only have five World of Outlaws races in the dirtrackr.com analytics database going back through 2017 where we had heats with more than 12 cars in them, and two of those races were differing formats at Knoxville and Silver Dollar. And the All Stars haven't done it at all lately. The wild heats left several guys on the outside looking in, including Brent Marks, Brian Brown, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Cap Henry. All four of those guys ended up missing the feature transfer in the night's B-Main, and Marks and Brown ended up using provisionals to start the main event. It was surprising for Marks, as he has not been in a B-Main all season with either the Outlaws or All Stars. He did have to run the B at Lakeside with High Limit, but did end up transferring. Come feature time though, both guys were able to charge through the field, with Marks going 26th to eighth, and Brownie going 25th to fourth. The interesting thing about Brownie, was I talked about his stats back at the end of March, and just how rarely we see him drive through a field to finish well after starting poorly. Ohio sprint car driver Brian Smith tweeted at me last night mentioning the whole "don't tell me there's no passing in sprint car racing" thing and pointed out Marks and Brownie. Brown replied to the tweet with the thinking face emojis, a pencil and paper, and said quote "I listen" unquote. I'm not sure, but I guess that could be him referencing my past show and analysis of his results. Maybe it's something he and Chad Morgan have been working on after I pointed it out. Out front in the High Limit feature, Chase Randall and Justin Sanders led the field to green, and it was Randall who was out front early. It only took Kyle Larson eight laps though to get to the front, and he led the rest of the way for his first win in the series he co-owns. Sanders held on for second, and Justin Peck went 12th to third. Hat tip again to Chris Windom as well, for a 13th to sixth run in a field like that. It ended up being another tough night for Randall after sitting on the pole and leading early. With just a few to go, he caught the treacherous curb in turns one and two, and ended up flipping out of the ballpark. He was okay afterwards. Tyler Courtney entered the night as co-points leader with Larson, but he was also a victim of that curb and ended up flipping. He's fallen to fifth in the standings. There was also a gnarly crash involving Cory Eliason and Hunter Schuerenberg, with both of those cars ending up destroyed. And hometown favorite Sheldon Haudenschild got himself into contention at one point, but some late mistakes cost him a top five finish, and he ended the night in ninth. Headed to Tri-City in a few weeks, Larson leads the championship standings over Anthony Macri, with Brian Brown third, Justin Sanders fourth, and like I said, Tyler Courtney in fifth.
The FloRacing Night in America late models also put on one hell of a show last night at Marshalltown. Guys were able to race all over that track, and Bobby Pierce and Hudson O'Neal battling on the cushion was worth the price of admission. Those two guys were so high on the race track out of turn four, they were basically off the track, hitting that buried tractor tire multiple times. Towards the end, O'Neal was able to do just enough to keep Pierce and Brandon Overton at bay and pick up the Flo victory at Marshalltown for the second straight season. Overton was in the mix for a lot of the race, but just couldn't ever get a full move done for the lead. Issues for points leader Mike Marlar means O'Neal now leads the Flo points headed to Davenport Speedway tonight. Elsewhere in the field, Tim McCreadie had a solid night in fifth, Dennis Erb Jr. was sixth after starting on the pole, and Max Blair was eighth after leading a few laps early on. It was another tough night for Jonathan Davenport who started 10th, but finished 17th. His Lucas finishes leading into last night were 28th at Fairbury and 12th at Farmer City. I've also seen some comments about Jimmy Owens. He started the year in Longhorns down south, but switched back to Rockets at some point after that. He was pretty good over the weekend with Lucas, but was 21st last night, bowing out early. As for Davenport tonight, Tanner English won a pair of Outlaw shows there in 2022, Devin Moran won there in 2021, and Brandon Sheppard has multiple victories there as well. Those guys could all be in play, and I'd keep an eye on Ricky Thornton Jr.
Before we move on, stickers are back in stock over at shop.dirtrackr.com. That means sprint car ones, logo ones, and more late model ones. I've also kicked the prices on both shirts down to $15. Don't forget too, if you are a channel member, you get 10% off merch all the time. You can check out the channel member program by clicking the join button on these videos or the main channel.
In the recent ongoing discussion about signaling, Eldora Speedway has made a move towards there being less of it. They announced this morning some details for the upcoming Dirt Late Model Dream, including a $585,000 total purse, and a new rule banning signal sticks at the event. And you have to assume this rule will remain in affect for other Eldora events like the World 100 and Baltes Classic. They join the World of Outlaws Late Model Series in not allowing crew members to use them, and while this won't stop signaling completely, it should make it a little less ridiculous. We will have to see what this means for the Dirt Track World Championship to end the season, as that is a Lucas sanctioned event, and Lucas still allows them. My assumption would be they would be allowed under the Lucas rules and not be banned via the Eldora rules. With the responses I've gotten to my own comments, I'm sure folks will be split on their feelings in regard to this announcement.
After being postponed on Tuesday because of weather, the Short Track Super Series will try again tonight at Delaware International Speedway. The modifieds will race for $5000 to win, and the 50 lapper is part of the south region championship. We've had just one south region race so far this season, a win for Mike Maresca back on March 18th at Selinsgrove. And after tonight, the south region isn't scheduled to race again until July 9th. That race is supposed to be at Bridgeport, but after the shenanigans there back at the end of March with the series withdrawing sanction, who knows if that race will actually happen. Looking at tonight, Stewart Friesen has won this event three straight years and he will be in attendance to try and extend the streak. You'll also see the other usual suspects like Matt Sheppard, Maresca, Ryan Godown, Mike Gular, Billy Pauch Jr., and others. Hot laps are set tonight for 6:30PM ET, and if you can't get there, racing will be live on Flo.
If you're looking for other dirt racing audio this week, Winged Nation has Dave Blaney, Chad Kemenah, and Logan Schuchart. Forward Bite has Charlie Craig, Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks has Travis Millar, All Gas No Brakes has Caiden Black, Austin Kirkpatrick and others. Hoogie's Garage has Doug Johnson, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters from Dirt on Dirt, the Dirt Nerds, Quicktime, Dirt Track Confessions, and Dunewich on Dirt. To see the full list of shows and recent episodes, head over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
That's it for the show today. Make sure to check out the streaming schedule over at dirtrackr.com. Click watch tonight in the nav bar.
Hope you guys have a good Wednesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow.