DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Devin Moran, late model droop rule take heat at Show-Me 100 | Daily 5-29-2023
On this Memorial Day edition of the Daily, we'll talk Devin and droop, and a lot more from the dirt racing weekend. Let's go!
It's Monday, May 29th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
I'm going to start this week off with a question for you, and that's what was the biggest enemy on Saturday night at the Show-Me 100? Was it Devin Moran bouncing off everyone, or was it the droop rule that stripped Ricky Thornton Jr. of the $50,000 win? If you look at the social media reaction, it was very much the droop rule, as everyone from race fans, to drivers, to a guy like Kevin Rumley all took the opportunity to voice their displeasure against it. But in the pit area, it might be Moran, who was out there throwing bombs and putting himself on the wrong side of guys like Brandon Overton and Tim McCreadie. In the end though, that aggression and some luck is what got Moran the victory. With five to go in that feature, Moran was towards the front, but not going to win. On a late restart though, he then throws a huge slider at Overton that was never going to clear, and Overton crashes trying to avoid him. Jonathan Davenport ran out of gas with two laps to go, and RTJ's victory is taken away by the droop check, elevating Moran to the victory. Afterwards in his post race interview, Moran was a bit sheepish about the whole thing, and he made mention of the circumstances. I doubt either Overton or McCreadie will forget though how they got raced. McCreadie even made a comment to Dirt on Dirt's Kyle McFadden about possibly not helping Moran at an upcoming Longhorn test. It's been a quiet first few months for Moran in the Double Down ride, and you have to wonder if his driving on Saturday night was out of a little desparation to make something happen. As for the droop rule, it's again under fire after Thornton was found outside the tolerance in post race tech. His car measured 3/8" too much on the droop, and he was pushed from the win to fifth in the final rundown. He said after the race that the rough Wheatland race track broke the mount for the droop chain, which is why he failed. He was actually pretty rational about the whole thing in his comments, but obviously disappointed. What this means for the future of the rule, I don't know. I do know you can't just say the rule is off if the chain or the mount breaks, or the track is rough, because these guys will just build them weak and claim ignorance when they break in the future. There does seem to be growing and louder opposition to the rule, but the series that use it don't seem too bothered by it. The droop rule saga continues. Looking around the rest of the weekend, Davenport was much stronger than we've seen him be, winning both Thursday and Friday, and leading a ton of laps on Saturday. He did bow out late with an empty fuel tank. Hudson O'Neal was a complete non-factor all three days, with a best finish of 16th on Friday. The season continues later this week with two nights at West Virginia for the Historic 100. The top 15 in the Chase for the Championship is set, and now the next cutoff is down to 12 on July 15th at the Diamond Nationals. Jimmy Owens currently holds that last spot, with Ross Robinson, Tyler Bruening, and Garrett Alberson outside looking in. RTJ did extend his points lead to 115 over O'Neal.
At Sharon Speedway in Ohio, Chris Madden followed up his Thursday night win with the World of Outlaws Late Models with a fifth on Friday night, and then another score on Saturday in the $25,000 to win main event. Tanner English and Gregg Satterlee battled out front through half way, but then Madden got into the mix and took over for good on lap 32. English could never get close enough to make a move again. It was a decisive weekend for Madden who hadn't won yet coming into Thursday, but now he leaves Sharon with two victories, some cash in his pocket, and an extended points lead. Both Ryan Gustin and Kyle Bronson had poor finishes on Saturday and have tumbled from second and third to fourth and fifth. Gustin won that Friday race, but was out early on Saturday night after catching an infield tire while battling with Satterlee in the top five. Bobby Pierce has moved to second in the championship behind Madden with 10 top tens in his past 11 Outlaw appearances, including weekend finishes of second, sixth, and third. Nick Hoffman has moved to third with three weekend top tens after winning last week at Stateline. Later this week, the Outlaws have shows at Farmer City, Tri-City, and Paducah.
On the sprint car side, weekend World of Outlaws wins went to Brad Sweet and Carson Macedo at Atomic Speedway. Sweet led flag-to-flag on Friday night, topping his brother-in-law Kyle Larson, who was making just his second Outlaw appearance this season. Carson Macedo was third, while our other points contender David Gravel was fourth. Donny Schatz's recent speed continued, as he went sixth to third by half way. But a late flat right rear tire ended his bid for what would have probably been his sixth top five in his past seven races. Instead, he ended the night in 16th. Schatz was again in the mix on Saturday night though, leading laps, but eventually finishing third behind winner Macedo and David Gravel. For those that think Schatz can scrap back into this championship fight, this is the problem for him right now. He has bad luck Friday and loses more ground, and then even a podium on Saturday doesn't move him closer with Macedo and Gravel finishing ahead of him. He might beat one or two of them a night, but all three will be tough to do. Brad Sweet missed out on a top ten finish on Saturday night, down in 11th, but headed to Lawrenceburg tonight, Schatz still trails by 172 points. Remember at two points per position, that's 86 spots. As for the trio out front, Sweet in the lead to Macedo in third is just 14 points. Last year's winner at Lawrenceburg was Sheldon Haudenschild, and with the way his season has gone so far, they could repeat, or end up 16th. Friday at Atomic he blew a tire in his heat and was behind the rest of the night finishing 13th, and then was fourth on Saturday.
With the All Stars, after Tyler Courtney won last Thursday at Bridgeport, all three Central Pennsylvania wins went to Posse guys. Lance Dewease won Friday at the Grove, grabbing the lead from Anthony Macri on lap 19 and never looking back. Danny Dietrich went 11th to second, and Macri ended up third. Chase Dietz led early, but but lost it in turns three and four, and I can't believe Freddie Rahmer didn't hit him. Sunshine ran towards the front for a lot of that race, but blew a right rear with a few to go, and ended up 24th. Zeb Wise was the highest finishing series regular in ninth. At Port Royal on Saturday, Macri went on to one of the more dominating wins we've seen in a while, topping pole sitter Mike Wagner by nearly 10 seconds at the checkered flag. Brent Marks was third, with Zeb again the highest finishing All Star down in sixth. And then Sunday, Dewease bookended the weekend with a green-to-checkered win and $29,000 in the Weikert Memorial. Macri and Wagner again rounded out the podium. I haven't seen the updated owner points, but even with the Thursday win, my guess would be that Zeb closed the gap to Courtney with four finishes of ninth or better. A 24th on Friday, and two ninths at Port should have helped the 26 team gain some ground. The All Stars race again this coming weekend at Dodge County and Plymouth.
Looking around the rest of the country, Dale McDowell won two of three weekend Spring Nationals races, and it was Carson Ferguson who was crowned series champion for the second straight time. Josh Rice swept the Iron-Man weekend, Billy Moyer and Jason Feger were MARS winners, and Max Blair went to Eriez on Sunday and bagged $7600.
Weekend USMTS wins went to Rodney Sanders and Brandon Davis at Deer Creek, while Zack VanderBeek picked up $10,000 on Sunday at Fayette County. The recent surge for Sanders puts the four time series champion at the top of the standings right now by 84 points over Jason Hughes. The USMTS modifieds return in a few weeks for the Masters at Cedar Lake.
The ASCS National Tour had three different winners, with Austin McCarl victorious Friday at Lakeside, and Joe B. Miller and Jason Martin winning Saturday and Sunday at Lake Ozark. Martin now has four wins in seven races, but trails Seth Bergman in the standings. Bergman hasn't finished worse than third in all seven starts, and has an average finish right now of 2.43. The ASCS sprint cars head for Outlaw Motor Speedway and Caney Valley later this week.
At Weedsport last night, Mat Williamson stayed hot, grabbing the $7500 Super DIRTcar Series win. He started third, and eventually led 78 of the 100 laps, topping Jimmy Phelps and Matt Sheppard. They'll do it all over again tonight at Lebanon Valley for $13,500 and a guaranteed Super DIRT Week starting spot.
Before we close out today, hat tip to Kasey Kahne for picking up the 410 sprint car win last night at Huset's Speedway. He was back in the sprint car this weekend after taking a few weeks off, racing Knoxville on Saturday and Huset's yesterday. Kahne started second, and ran Ryan Timms down late to score the win over Brooke Tatnell and Tim Kaeding. Timms ended up way down the order after he spun trying to re-challenge Kahne, collecting pole sitter Chris Thram in the process.
That's it for the show today, check out the streaming schedule over at dirtrackr.com if you're looking for some racing to watch. Please be safe out there on this Memorial Day and take a moment to remember why we have this day.
Hope you guys have a good Monday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow.