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Drama and cowboy hats at Wayne County, plus what did Brandon Sheppard say?! | Daily 6-13-2023

Hudson O'Neal is $100 grand richer, but did anyone even notice? We'll talk about that, plus spicy comments from Brandon Sheppard and drama on Monday night from Wayne County. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, June 13th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

There is plenty to get into today, including last night's big XR show and the proceedings at Wayne County. First though, a quick word from today's show sponsor MSP Mounts. If you are any sort of racer, pavement or dirt, or you've got an ATV or side by side, and you want to capture video of what you're doing, you need one of these mounts. They are super adjustable and can fit all sorts of tubing sizes, and they are perfect for your action cameras like GoPros. MSP Mounts were created by sprint car racer Dan McCarron, and you've heard me talk about these before. MSP supported several shows back in December and January, and since then I pretty regularly get asked about them and where to get one. I've answered emails and DMs from a bunch of folks looking to use them to start capturing content or upgrade their current setups. You don't need any tools to put them on or take them off, and it's why some of the biggest players in the content game use them, like FloRacing and Swindell SpeedLab. And because they were created and designed by a dirt racer, you know they can handle whatever you throw at them. As a special offer to DIRTRACKR watchers and listeners, the 10% off deal is back. Head over to mspmounts.com and use code "DIRTRACKR" at checkout to take advantage. That's D I R T R A C K R at checkout to get 10% off at mspmounts.com. I'll also have links below in the video description. Thanks to MSP and Dan for their continued support of what I'm doing.

Alright, let's get into it. We had a $100,000 to win late model show last night, and I don't know if everyone still has a Dream hangover or what, but if you weren't paying attention, it would have been easy to miss it. It felt like there wasn't a ton of coverage or chatter about it, and it's a shame, because it was a really good race. All the big players were there, and it was a dog fight out front. I honestly don't know why there aren't more late model shows at Kokomo, because with the way that track is laid out, it seems like the perfect track for them. Hudson O'Neal ended up leading I think every lap but one, but he had to earn it. Ricky Thornton Jr., Mike Marlar, Bobby Pierce and Brandon Sheppard all took their shots at him. Sheppy and O'Neal even made a little contact late in the going. In the end it was the Rocket one bagging the big cash with BShepp second and Pierce third. O'Neal was solid over the weekend at Eldora, leading laps and winning a prelim night before finishing seventh in the big show. With $100 grand now in their pockets, the Rocket squad will get ready for two nights coming up at Smoky Mountain Speedway this weekend with Lucas. This was the second big money race in a row that Pierce was in the mix but ultimately ended up third. I know he can be a polarizing guy for some dirt late model fans, but you have to respect him for giving it hell to try and win. He was full send on the high side last night over the final few laps, just trying to make anything happen. I still really like Pierce's chances with the Outlaws all season. If you weren't tuned in last night, you would have also missed an interesting comment from Brandon Sheppard. Towards the end of his podium interview, he said he thinks they should hold the World 100 at Kokomo because it's better than Eldora. It was a sly and pointed comment from the future hall of famer and you have to wonder how many other guys have similar feelings about what went down over the weekend at the Dream. If you want to see Sheppard's interview, it's available on the XR social media channels. The XR Super Series returns to racing on July 10th with a $20,000 to win race at the Dubuque Fairgrounds. If you want some more dirt racing this week, Appalachian Mountain Speedweek continues tonight at Path Valley, and the Summer Nationals get rolling tomorrow.

Ohio Sprint Speedweek for the All Stars continued last night at Wayne County, and it was a pretty drama filled night. The Sunday show was lost to rain, and things were still very wet yesterday. It was one of those days where you could have made a very compelling case either way to race or to cancel. There were several drivers' meetings throughout the day and night, but eventually the show did go on after a lengthy delay for extra track work. Before the program even got going though, Cale Thomas and the 49X team loaded up and left, and Lee Jacobs and Logan Forler decided against racing as well. After qualifying was completed, the teams met with the series again, and the decision was made to shorten the feature to 25 laps and make the night show-up points only. More teams dropped out at that point, including Danny Dietrich, Blake Hahn, Henry Malcuit, Skyler Gee, Conner Morrell, and Danny Mumaw. And later we lost Zeb Wise, Sye Lynch, and Tyler Wiles. Darin Naida was scheduled to start 22nd in the main event after grabbing a B-Main transfer, but his front axle broke during pace laps for the feature and bowed out as well. Walkapedia on Twitter was all over the coverage all night, and he tweeted that 32 cars of the original 41 who showed up attempted their heat race. In the night's feature, Cole Macedo and Cap Henry led laps early, before Tyler Courtney took over and led the final 17 laps to score the $10,000 win. Henry settled for second, with Ricky Peterson charging from 14th to finish third. There were a number of DNFs, but it honestly wasn't the worst track I've ever seen. I feel like the California guys were sitting at home wondering what the big deal was. It was a no-win situation no matter how you slice it. I certainly don't fault anyone who loaded up and left, and I appreciate the massive effort the track crew put in to try and keep the surface as raceable as possible. There were actually very few incidents, and not a single flip or red flag all night. And kudos to Wayne County for not trimming the purse, because they very easily could have done that. I think nights like last night should be examples to the entire industry that discourse and cooperation are necessary, and really what the sport needs to move forward in a lot of areas. I wish drivers would do more to band together like many did last night to improve real safety issues, and not just on nights where the track is going to rut up. If teams aren't comfortable racing, hey, no big deal. We'll catch you on the next one. To those that stayed, thanks, we appreciate your support. Be adults, and handle things rationally. Regardless of how things went last night, some were going to leave in a better mood than others, and I think everyone involved did as good of a job as they could have given the circumstances. Ohio Sprint Speedweek was scheduled to continue tonight at Sharon Speedway, but as of this morning that race is cancelled. Teams will have Wednesday off as per the schedule, and speedweek will continue on Thursday at Atomic.

Elsewhere tonight, there is no rest for the USAC staff and competitors, as on the heels of the end of Indiana Midget Week, Eastern Storm gets rolling tonight for the national sprint cars. Six straight nights of racing, with stops at Grandview, Bridgeport, Big Diamond, Williams Grove, Port Royal, and Action Track USA. Brady Bacon is the championship leader right now over Kyle Cummins and Jake Swanson, and the Macho Man is the defending winner at Grandview, which is the track hosting tonight. With so many different types of tracks, things should be wide open all week. If you aren't in the northeast, every night will be streamed live on FloRacing.

Also tonight, the Super DIRTcar Series big block modifieds get rolling again at Albany Saratoga Speedway, and they'll race again tomorrow night at Airborne Speedway. Tonight is $7500 to win, and Mat Williamson brings in a very small three point advantage in the standings over Matt Sheppard. So far this season, Williamson has four wins, while Max McLaughlin and Sheppard have one win each. Both nights should feature strong fields of modifieds, and you can watch live on DIRTVision.

That's it for today's Daily. The streaming schedule is busy for a Tuesday, so make sure to drop by dirtrackr.com to see what's happening. If you want to hear more from me today, I'm jumping on Winged Nation at noon eastern to co-host with Steve Post. We'll be talking to David Gravel and NARC's Jim Allen. So check that out.

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