DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Jacob Allen, Spencer Bayston off the pace; plus is Roth back on the Outlaw tour? | Daily 5-19-2023
I've got the numbers today on two World of Outlaws full timers who have had disappointing starts to 2023, plus we'll look forward to a busy weekend of racing, and is James McFadden actually back on tour with the Outlaws? Let's go.
It's Friday, May 19th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
As I'll talk about later when we preview the next two nights for the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars, just 19 races in we are down to a three horse race between Brad Sweet, David Gravel, and Carson Macedo. Further down the order, we've talked about some of the issues for Donny Schatz, and have mentioned Sheldon Haudenschild's up and down start that has him well out of championship contention at this point. I would have liked to have seen more from Gio Scelzi at this moment, but we'll give him a bit of a pass right now as it is his rookie season. Although one top five in 19 races for the driver that has five career series wins is not how they envisioned this year to get rolling. But there are two other drivers that have been very underwhelming through these opening few months and they are Jacob Allen and Spencer Bayston. I'll start first with Jacob. This is now year 10 on tour full time for the Shark cars in Allen and Logan Schuchart, and while Logan has developed into a regular contender, Jacob has had it much tougher. Leading into the 2022 season, there were even rumors of the 1A machine scaling back. But the season turned into a massive step forward for Jacob, with his best career average finish and an incredible five wins, including a Knoxville prelim night victory. It appeared as though he was on his way. But in 2023, he's off the pace again. Two top fives and six top tens in 19 races, a three position drop in average finish, and a time trial average that has dropped off a cliff, from a tick better than ninth to worse than 12th. last week at Lincoln he ended up 27th in a race he'd won the year before, and DNS'd the B-Main at Williams Grove after a miserable sixth to last run in the heat race. I'm not sur what's up, but the World of Outlaws is a better place when Jacob is fast. As for Bayston, it's a similar story. Top five and top ten percentages lower, a worse average finish by nearly a position, and it's all starting out in qualifying. In 2022 Bayston averaged a time trial position of 7.38, but this season it's a less than ideal 12.21. That's leading to an average feature start that is nearly 13th, and if it wasn't for a decent feature plus minus of +31 that's fourth best in the series, things would be even more bleak. That CJB squad has won a lot of races in the past and you would have hoped they'd take a step forward in year two with Bayston, but they are clearly still trying to find the right combination. We'll see if either driver can start to turn things around this weekend in Ohio.
Alright, looking at racing coming up this weekend, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series gets ever closer to that first Chase for the Championship cutoff. Teams have these two nights at 300 Raceway and 34 Raceway to position themselves inside the top 15 before the Show-Me 100 weekend at Wheatland. Right now Garrett Smith has that final spot, and it looks like probably only Ross Robinson has a legit shot of getting in. Boom Briggs would need a serious couple of nights to get closer and the rest of the guys down that far in the standings are running with the Outlaws this weekend. Teams will split $16 grand in bonus money at Wheatland for getting into the first cutoff group. Tyler Erb is the defending Lucas winner from 300 Raceway, while Tim McCreade won at 34 in 2022. Hudson O'Neal continues to lead the series standings over Ricky Thornton Jr. and Brandon Overton.
The World of Outlaws Late Models are headed to Pennsylvania with stops at Marion Center tonight and Port Royal tomorrow. Just six Outlaw shows have been completed so far, and Chris Madden leads Kyle Bronson, Ryan Gustin, and Brian Shirley in the standings. As tight as things are though with so few races completed, a lot can and will change. Dennis Erb Jr. won the last Outlaw show at Marion Center, while local Jared Miley took the last win at Port Royal. I would not be surprised to see a local win again at Port on Saturday, as that place seems to even the playing field a bit.
On the sprint car side, the World of Outlaws are in Ohio the next two nights with Attica on tap for today, and Sharon coming up tomorrow. There are rain chances later tonight, so the track has scrapped their support divisions and will just run the Outlaws to get things completed in time. Hot laps are scheduled for 5:45pm. Brad Sweet has pushed his series points lead to 36 over David Gravel with Carson Macedo 46 back in third. Everyone else from Logan Schuchart in fourth and on back is already triple digits behind the leader. Kyle Larson has won the past two Outlaw shows at Attica, but he won't be in attendance tonight. Brad Sweet won the Sharon show a year ago. One thing to keep an eye on tonight and going forward is what happens with Roth Motorsports and James McFadden. Some rumors out there that they might not be off the Outlaw tour after all. They ran out in California last weekend and with High Limit at Wayne County, but with their suspensions served, they might be back out. It would be a surprising decision for sure, and a bit of a curious one. They will be in attendance tonight according to the Roth Twitter account.
As for the All Stars, they've got three northeast races this weekend with Outlaw Speedway tonight, Fonda Speedway on Saturday, and Weedsport Speedway on Sunday. Tyler Courtney has seized control of the championship already, with Hunter Schuerenberg and Chris Windom looking like his closest challengers. Don't forget that the All Stars award just a single championship, and that it's based on owner points, and not driver points. So right now the McCandless 29 is second in the standings, but I would not expect them to stay there, tied with Schuerenberg and the Vermeer 55. Chris Windom has been really good as of late, but the hardest part about doing it right is doing it again. Zeb Wise is back in the Rudeen 26 this weekend, and they could challenge if they get hot. But they do trail Sunshine and the 7BC right now by 50 points.
The ASCS National Tour is in action this weekend at Longdale Speedway in Oklahoma. Hopefully they actually get to race. The most snake-bitten, worst luck series on the planet has completed just two features so far in 2023. Jason Martin is the points leader having won both shows, and three straight going back to the finale last year.
And finally, the USAC Silver Crown Series and National Midgets will both open their 2023 seasons this weekend at the Belleville High Banks in Kansas. Silver Crown will race on the big track, while the midgets will race on the 1/4 mile infield oval. Tonight is practice for Silver Crown and a full program for the midgets, while Saturday is full shows for both. Both fields will be stacked and should be around 30 cars. Kody Swanson opens his Silver Crown title defense, while things will be wide open in the midgets with no Buddy Kofoid in the field. There has been a bunch of movement with drivers and teams, and on paper Justin Grant looks like the favorite. There will be no lack of challengers though as the season starts.
Drop me a comment, let me know what your dirt racing plans are for the weekend and who your win picks are.
That's it for the show today, make sure to check out the streaming schedule over at dirtrackr.com to find what to watch and where.
Hope you guys enjoy the dirt racing weekend out there, we'll see you back here on Monday.