DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Another unacceptable dirt racing impact, plus news from Swindell, PPM | Daily 6-6-2023

High Limit is back tonight and we've got updates on the situation from Tri-City, who's racing and who isn't, plus some sprint car news, and more blatant safety issues to address. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, June 6th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

The High Limit Sprint Car Series is back tonight for round number five of the season. They are headed for Eagle Raceway in Nebraska for one of the more anticipated races on the schedule. $28,000 on the line with $1500 to start, and the first time a big winged 410 series has been to Eagle since the World of Outlaws were there in 2017. Kyle Larson won that race with a late move to get by Shane Stewart. Larson was driving a second car for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. that night. Doubling back to last week's heat race issue at Tri-City, we've since seen things from the Justin Sanders slash Swindell SpeedLab side thanks to their race vlog. In that video, we got to hear and see how Kevin Swindell and Sanders reacted to everything, and we heard Tommie Estes admit to Kevin that he was overruled in the situation. And then FloRacing posted their High Limit room show with Larson, Brad Sweet, and Dillon Welch, and they talked about the whole thing, with Larson saying he did get involved and that he shouldn't have. As I said last week, they will learn from what happened, and move on. Sweet did say they will defer to Tommie and Kirk Spridgeon in the future. Looking at the entry list, the Swindell SpeedLab 39 and Sanders are absent, but not because of last week's issues. The team posted to social media yesterday that they are missing tonight, but will be back in the future. Kevin has been dealing with some health issues, and they are going to sit out to get him feeling better again. Certainly can't blame them for that. As for the rest of the entries, it looks like we've lost Paulie Colagiovanni, Justin Henderson, and Conner Morrell from the full timer's list. Paulie had run the first three races, with a best finish of 20th at 34 Raceway. He was in C Mains the other two nights. He did not race last week at Tri-City even though he was on the entry list and is missing again tonight. Henderson had also been at the first three races, but had yet to advance out of a B-Main and was also not at Tri-City after being on the initial entry list. And Morrell hadn't missed a show yet in 2023, with a best finish of 19th in the opener at Lakeside. But coming off four straight B-Main exits with the All Stars, he is missing from tonight's list. As of last night, the series had 40 cars pre-entered, including the main names, Larson, Rico, Buddy Kofoid, Brent Marks, Anthony Macri, Tyler Courtney, Cory Eliason, etc. We've also got Gio Scelzi using up another World of Outlaws freebie, Kasey Kahne is back, and Corey Day has made the tow from California to make his series debut. Larson continues to lead the series points over Macri and Rico, and it's hard to really pick against him tonight. One other name that's done well in recent weeks under the radar is Lachlan McHugh. He's come over from Australia to race this summer and was eighth at Tri-City last week, and had two weekend top tens with the All Stars. He's probably not in the mix for the win, but he could run towards the front tonight. It looks like no support division on the card, with hot laps scheduled for 6:30 PM local time. You can watch as usual live on FloRacing if you can't get there.

A couple of other sprint car notes for you. Noah Gass did run on Sunday at Huset's Speedway, eventually finishing second to Chase Randall. I had an email about this, and yes this will count towards his four World of Outlaws freebies. He had yet to use any this season, and I think this was a solid move for that team. Get some laps at Huset's with the High Bank Nationals coming up in a few weeks, and it should be a nice confidence boost to grab a podium finish. That team has been better as of late against the Outlaws, making features in five of their last six starts. Danny Dietrich has been running a car out of this stable with High Limit and you have to wonder if the feedback from him has been helping Gass out on the road.

Also, as Jeremy Elliott has reported, Parker Price Miller is teaming back up with Sam McGhee motorsports for select events coming up. PPM drove for the team last season, but the 11 car shuttered over the offseason with PPM and crew chief Kevin Osmolski moving on. With PPM sort of ride searching now though after departing the McCandless 29, this is an interesting development. The McGhee 11 will re-appear this weekend at Knoxville with the Outlaws, plus at the Brad Doty Classic, the Million and Kings Royal at Eldora, the 360 and 410 Knoxville Nationals, and at the Huset's High Limit show in August.

Indiana Midget Week continued last night with a stop at Circle City Raceway in Indianapolis. This was night two following the opener Sunday at Haubstadt that was won by Jacob Denney. We had a nasty crash in heat race three when Jade Avedisian got on the bike and went hard into the concrete wall. The car hit nose first, and thankfully not cage first, but it was a hard hit for Avedisian. Going back to the video I did on Justin Peck's Bridgeport crash, their were some unhinged comments from certain folks that want open wheel racing to remain dangerous and not go soft or something like that. I've seen comments about wrapping drivers in bubble wrap. But seriously, to hell with that. Nobody, including me, is saying we should wrap drivers in bubble wrap. What I am saying is we need to eliminate openings in the fence like Peck's car got into at Bridgeport, and we need to get rid of these blunt edges like Jade hit last night at Circle City. A lot of tracks have concrete outside walls, with then a catch fence set back away from the concrete. That means drivers can hit that top, exposed corner, or land hard on that top concrete ledge. Those are the types of hits that fold in cages and get people hurt. It's completely unacceptable to have impacts like that possible. If you disagree with me on this point, you are free to move along and find your dirt racing content elsewhere. We will never be able to make racing 100% safe, everyone understands that. But we should be working towards eliminating just absolutely blatant hazards around these race tracks. We are going to reach a point where some of these facilities will struggle to get insurance, either the underwriters won't approve them at all, or it will be too cost prohibitive for the tracks to get coverage. And I don't think the fans understand how big of an issue for the industry insurance is and could become. If there is no insurance, there is no racing. Period. Like it or not, that's the reality and the world we live in. Thankfully Jade was okay last night, and bounced back to finish eighth in the feature. Out front, Buddy Kofoid got to the lead twice because of issues for the leader. The first was Gavin Miller wrecking by himself on lap 12 while out front, and the second time was Logan Seavey having ignition problems with just a few to go and losing a shot at the win. Kofoid now has two USAC midget starts this season, with a second place and a win. If he continues to run, he'll be a big problem for the other competitors. Behind him, Jacob Denney and Bryant Wiedeman rounded out the podium. Denney extended his series points lead to 67 over Daison Pursley. In five starts, Denney's finishes are 8th, 4th, two wins, and a second. I don't think anyone saw this coming from the Ohio driver. Indiana Midget Week is off tonight, with racing getting back going again tomorrow at Gas City.

That's it for today, make sure to stop by dirtrackr.com today to see the daily streaming schedule and get caught up on all the latest news.

Hope you guys have a good Tuesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow.