DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Kyle Larson officiating from the driver's seat causes High Limit issues | Daily 6-1-2023
You absolutely cannot officiate from the driver's seat, and more from Wednesday's High Limit issues, plus other results and news from Eagle Chassis. Let's go!
It's Thursday, June 1st, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
We'll get into the results and what's coming up in a bit, but I'm going to start the show off today with what happened around that first High Limit heat race last night at Tri-City. If you don't know, or weren't watching, everything was going fine until the last two laps. Rico Abreu was leading over Kyle Larson and Justin Sanders, and after taking the white flag, Rico slowed suddenly down the backstretch. Larson and Sanders both had to take evasive action, and the yellow was thrown as a result. In the moments after, it became clear that Rico thought the race had ended. With two to go, the flag man showed the green flag to the field, which is not uncommon at certain short tracks, but maybe not as common for sprint car guys. Green is two to go, then white, then checkered. But with the glare from the setting sun, there was confusion, and Rico apparently thought the green was the white, and the white was the checkered. Unfortunate, but that was his mistake. As others pointed out, you usually stay on the hammer until the yellow lights come on, but he didn't do that. The initial call from the officials for the restart was to blend Rico back into the field, either into third or fourth, and there seemed to be some discussion as to what exactly was right. USAC's Kirk Spridgeon was race directing, and he tweeted late last night that it was his call to throw the yellow, and he was going to blend Rico into third. In my own opinion, that probably should have been the call, although I think there is a case to be made that Rico should have gone to the rear. As things were getting communicated out on the Raceiver though, Larson rolled to a stop on the frontstretch and had a conversation with series director Tommie Estes. In the moment, we didn't know what was said, but Rico was then put back in the lead and went on to the heat race win. The announcers said it was called an inadvertent yellow, which was why Rico was given the spot back. But that seemed to make it pretty clear that Larson had influence on the decision. With Rico getting the spot back, Justin Sanders was then left out of the dash, angering the Swindell team. Jordan Swindell took to Twitter to complain, and there were lots of other not-so-good reactions from people who have respect in the industry. The saga wasn't over there though. They did the dash draw like normal, but then when cars were rolled out for the dash, Sanders was the ninth car. He started ninth, and finished ninth, but didn't get a chance to draw for a spot. When the dash was complete, Brad Sweet got on the mic with Chris Wilner and explained the situation, the decision making, and why they put Sanders in the dash. It was the right thing to do, and kudos to Sweet for owning up to the issues. The only real problem I have with what went down was Larson getting involved. I don't think he was doing anything nefarious, and I'm sure his intentions were good. He felt Rico was wronged by the flags and was trying to fix it. I think a lot of people would have felt and acted similarly. But when you're in the car, series owner or not, you have to stay out of the officiating. And clearly Brad agreed. With Wilner, he said quote "I don't think it was good to have Kyle get out of his car and be apart of the officiating process" unquote. It looks bad for Kyle, it looks bad for High Limit, it looks bad for Rico, and it undermines the guys you have in place to make those decisions. If you are going to bring in veteran guys like Tommie and Spridge, you have to stay out of the way and let them handle it. If those guys make the wrong calls, then they will have to wear it, but it looks even worse to get in the middle. One of the criticisms from the start for High Limit was that this would just be a way for the rich to get richer in sprint car racing, and situations like last night don't aid in changing that view. I also think it's important to point out, if this happens with the World of Outlaws, or USAC, or the All Stars, the blowback would be pretty massive. I do think they will learn from this though, and again, big kudos to Brad for being transparent about the process and trying to make things sort of right by putting the 39 in the dash.
In the feature, Larson was scheduled to start on the front row with Parker Price Miller, but agreed to a modified dice roll that saw him start eighth. Once green, he was on the move early and often, and was eventually promoted to second past half way when PPM got big tight on the cushion and went for a ride. After the restart, he and Rico traded sliders for a few laps for the lead, with Larson eventually taking over for good on lap seven. He became the first repeat winner, got $23,000 for the win, and an additional $8000 for dropping back through the field. Rico ended up second, with Cory Eliason charging from 13th to finish third. The win for Larson extended his series points lead to 37 over Anthony Macri, with Rico in third. It was a tough night for several drivers, including Cole Macedo, Tyler Courtney, Brent Marks, and Danny Dietrich. Macedo and Courtney were victims of a first lap crash that also included Brady Bacon and Buddy Kofoid. Dietrich broke a valve spring while leading, and slowed suddenly, collecting Marks. I was impressed with Aussie Lachlan McHugh. He went 15th to eighth on the night driving for Brandon Ikenberry. High Limit is back next Tuesday night at Eagle Raceway.
One other sprint car note for you today, this one involving Eagle Chassis. Back on March 31st, I did a daily show about Speedway Motors closing down the EMi chassis business, which is the brand of chassis utilized by several big drivers, including Larson and Rico. Chase Randall is also an Eagle driver, and up until recently, had EMi on his wing sideboards. But apparently Eagle isn't dead just yet. They are supposedly re-emerging as an independent business, have secured a shop, and are already doing some repair work in advance of production restarting. A formal announcement could come sometime in the next week. That will be good news for those teams that use Eagles.
Elsewhere last night, the FloRacing Night in America late models were at Florence for their final race before the summer break. Bobby Pierce led most of the feature, but cautions helped keep Jonathan Davenport and Ricky Thornton Jr. in the mix. After a restart, RTJ was able to get by Davenport for second, and then inside ten to go the battle for the lead was on. The cushion got pretty treacherous, and Pierce made a couple of mistakes that allowed RTJ to get close enough to start throwing sliders. The 20RT took over for good on lap 44 and drove away to the victory. It was a nice bounceback for Thornton after the Show-Me 100 penalty, and that team continues to show they are going to be a serious contender everywhere they go this season. Pierce settled for second with Davenport third. Hudson O'Neal went 16th to fifth and maintains the points lead by 24 over Pierce. We won't see the Flo Series now until September when they come out of hibernation for a mid month stop at Fairbury.
Looking ahead, there is plenty more dirt late model racing to come this week. Chris Madden leads the World of Outlaws into a three-race weekend starting tonight at Farmer City. Tri-City and Paducah then follow on Friday and Saturday. This could be a very good weekend for Pierce to make up ground on Madden in the standings. He's won at both Tri-City and Farmer City in Outlaw competition. Lucas begins a big weekend at West Virginia starting tomorrow.
Over to Western PA Speedweek, Brandon Spithaler dominated the speedweek opener at Knox last night, winning by nearly 11 seconds. They'll do it all over again tonight with a stop at Pittsburgh's PA Motor Speedway. Make sure to check out AJ Flick's Twitter account this week. He's keeping a running thread of their speedweek adventures through Sunday.
At Tri-City tonight, the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series is back racing with Cannon McIntosh looking to stay hot. He's won four of seven races and leads Chase McDermand and Jade Avedisian in the standings. After tonight, Xtreme will be at Wayne County in Illinois on Friday and Saturday. Neither of these tracks have appeared on the Xtreme schedule in the past, but both have hosted big time midget shows.
I screwed up yesterday and forgot to include new podcast episodes, which I usually spotlight on Wednesdays. So instead, we'll do it today. Winged Nation has Lance Dewease and Tyler Beichner, Quicktime has Tyler Drueke, Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks has Zach Hampton, All Gas No Brakes has Ross Bailes and more, Dunewich on Dirt has Kyle Jenks, Non Wing Worldwide has CJ Leary, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters from Dirt on Dirt, Dirt Track Confessions, Hoogie's Garage, and Dirt Track Weekly. To see all the shows and new episodes, head over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
That's it for today. Make sure to stop by dirtrackr.com/watchtonight to see today's streaming schedule.
Hope you guys have a good Thursday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow.