DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Justin Peck back in the seat, Scott Bloomquist updates future, Buddy Kofoid's fluid situation | Daily 6-9-2023
On the show today we've got an update on Justin Peck's return to racing, more details on Buddy Kofoid's move to Vermeer, if Scott Bloomquist is actually retired or not, and more. Let's go!
It's Friday, June 9th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
Last night at Eldora for the first night of the Dirt Late Model Dream weekend we had two not surprising prelim feature winners in Tim McCreadie and Ricky Thornton Jr. McCreadie started eighth in the first 25 lapper, and somehow before the first circuit was even complete was already third. The middle opened up and he just drove straight through. Late in the race, he took advantage of a restart following a caution for a slowing Spencer Hughes and pounced on race long leader Hudson O'Neal to grab the top spot. The prelim win was just McCreadie's third super late model victory of 2023, and his first at Eldora since 2021. McCreadie is still winless in Outlaw and Lucas competition this season, but did grab a pair of DIRTcar wins at Volusia way back in February. McCreadie has 13 straight top tens in competition at Eldora, and 15 top tens in his past 16 races. O'Neal and Kyle Strickler were also on the podium. Race number two was all RTJ. He started on the pole and led all 25 laps to score the victory over Devin Moran and Mike Marlar. Jonathan Davenport was fifth in the second race and Brandon Overton was hard charger, going 22nd to ninth after needing a B-Main transfer. The win for RTJ was his second ever at Eldora, and first since a prelim night win for the World 100 back in 2018. Tonight at Eldora they will do it all over again with two more split field prelim programs, and then Saturday will be all about that $129,000 winner's check. FloRacing will continue to have the livestream all weekend long.
A couple of other notes from Dream Thursday. DIRTcar and track officials did extend the signaling ban to not only prohibit sticks, but also where crews can stand. Basically nobody is allowed to stand along the frontstretch or backstretch walls, which was met with mixed reaction according to a piece at dirtondirt.com. Some crews attempted to stand on top of haulers, or signal from other allowed areas, but it appeared to be pretty difficult to communicate with drivers from those spots. Also, Kyle Strickler showed up to Eldora this week with a new Rocket chassis, swapping from Longhorns. He's getting help this week from Scott Bloomquist and Cody Mallory, and it appeared to work with Strickler solid all night, and ending up third.
And I did want to give an update about Bloomquist, especially after mentioning yesterday that he won't be racing this week for the first time in his career. FloRacing's Derek Kessinger asked him last night if he was retired and Bloomquist played down the idea his driving career is over. He said they'll be sure to make an announcement when he is actually retired, and that he still has some work to get done and that he still wants to come back at some point this year. I would assume that means there is more work to do with his body following some of his issues and surgeries. In the mean time, it seems he's staying plenty busy helping out guys like Strickler and hanging around Rocket chassis.
Quick sidenote, in honor of Dream week, I've dropped prices on the two late model items in the store over at shop.dirtrackr.com. For this weekend you can get a late model shirt for $12 shipped in the US, and late model stickers are marked down to $4. You can take advantage of that offer through Sunday. Also, if you are international, like in Australia, New Zealand, or Canada, and just want stickers from the shop, reach out to me on the side. I haven't figured out how to make the shipping show up correct when folks order just stickers. It tries to charge a lot for shipping which isn't correct. It's only a few bucks to drop some stickers in an envelope internationally, so holler at me and we can get it worked out. You can get merch any time over at shop.dirtrackr.com.
At Lincoln Park last night, Buddy Kofoid hard charged his way to the victory on night four of Indiana Midget Week. Emerson Axsom led most of the race, with Logan Seavey getting into the mix around half way. But Kofoid moved up from seventh and flat drove around Axsom to take the lead with nine to go. Kofoid will now depart Midget Week with finishes of second, first, fourth, and first and the week long points lead. I'll get back to Buddy in a minute. Midget week continues tonight and through the weekend with races at Bloomington, Lawrenceburg and Kokomo, and things will open up with Kofoid out of the mix. Seavey, Axsom, and Jacob Denney trailed Kofoid in the points, and those three will now be left to fight it out, with Bryant Wiedeman and Justin Grant not far out either. Even with another finish outside the top ten last night, Denney maintains the season long points lead for the USAC midgets. If you aren't headed out to watch, these next three races will be live on Flo.
Back to Kofoid and his plans moving forward. It seems as though things are quite set in stone for Kofoid and Vermeer past Ohio Sprint Speedweek. Supposedly Kofoid wasn't planning on finishing midget week anyway, and was instead initially headed to Knoxville with the Indy Race Parts 71. Now he's going to run speedweek with Vermeer, but what happens after that isn't set in stone. Tony Vermeer told Jeremy Elliott that he thinks it won't just be speedweek, and that future events like the High Bank Nationals at Huset's are on the table, but Buddy is still working things out with Bernie and the 71. And even though they have the family connection, Clinton Boyles is sticking around to continue crew chiefing the car, and crew guy Nate Knotts is staying as well. So the Vermeer 55 situation seems like it will stay fluid at least for a while in terms of drivers and where they race. We'll see how Kofoid makes out with the All Stars starting tonight at Attica. Ohio Sprint Speedweek races eight of the next nine nights, with stops at Attica, Fremont, Wayne County, Sharon, Atomic, Eldora, and Portsmouth coming up. Tyler Courtney continues to lead the All Star standings, and speedweek should mix things up a bit. Last year we had seven different winners over nine races.
One driver I've been asked about a bunch in recent weeks is Justin Peck and what his status is. He suffered a concussion in that nasty crash at Bridgeport and has been sitting out because of it. But thanks to a tweet from him yesterday, we know that he and the Buch 13 team will be back in action this weekend. They are planning on running tonight in the weekly show at Williams Grove, and sticking around Central Pennsylvania on Saturday to run Lincoln. It makes sense for the team to get started again at tracks near their Pennsylvania shop before going back out on the road. There is plenty of big money races coming up, so I'm sure they'll be back in the thick very soon.
The last thing I want to spotlight today is the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars at Knoxville the next two nights. The April trip to Knoxville was cancelled because of weather, so this will be the first appearance for the Outlaws at the track this season. Two $10,000 to win shows on tap, but more importantly, you know crews and drivers will be using these laps and looking ahead to the Knoxville Nationals later this summer. The car counts should be pretty solid the next two days with all the Outlaw teams, Knoxville regulars, and plenty of travelers coming through to get laps and tune their cars up on this new Hoosier tire. This event a year ago was split by Brent Marks and Brian Brown. The Outlaw standings remain tight at the top with Carson Macedo leading Brad Sweet by just ten points, and David Gravel only 22 back. Following this weekend, we've got Beaver Dam coming up with $30,000 going to the two winners, and then the four day High Bank Nationals at Huset's that will pay out $750,000 through the week.
That's it for the Daily this week. Make sure to keep an eye on the streaming schedule over at dirtrackr.com.
Hope you guys have a good weekend out there, we'll see you back here on Monday.