DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Reutzel trading Huset's for Skagit, Bloomquist's new battle | Daily 6-21-2023

Coming up we'll dive into tonight's High Bank Nationals opener at Huset's, talk about Aaron Reutzel's weekend decision, we've got an update on Scott Bloomquist's health and a lot more. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, June 21st, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

A quick merch update before we get rolling. There is a new addition over at shop.dirtrackr.com, and that is DIRTRACKR can koozies. They feature the new alternate logo and come in four different colors. You can snag one for just $4. I do have a few of the distressed, adjustable logo hats left, and there are stickers and shirts available too. Shipping is free for orders over $20, and if you buy today, I'll ship today. That's shop.dirtrackr.com, or click the links below this video, or the merch button in the nav bar at dirtrackr.com.

Tonight is the opening night of the Huset's High Bank Nationals for the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series. Each of the next three nights are $20,000 to win programs, leading in Saturday's big show that will pay a very sizeable $250,000 to the winner. The three prelim nights will feature qualifying, heats with a six car invert, and the top twenty in points after heats making the night's feature. The top eight will go to the redraw. Every driver will get to drop their worst prelim night, with the other two nights setting them up for Saturday's action. The entry list from Walkapedia that we looked through yesterday had 53 cars on it, although things have changed yet again. Jeremy Elliott says that Aaron Reutzel will not be at Huset's, instead deciding to tow all the way to Skagit for the $62,000 Super Dirt Cup. Reutzel has not been good against the Outlaws over the past year plus, so this might be a good move for him. He was 24th and 9th in a B most recently at Knoxville, and over his last 26 series appearances, going back to Beaver Dam one year ago, has just five Outlaw top tens and a best finish of 6th. In 2023 though, he has just two top tens, a 10th in the opener at Volusia, and a ninth at Magnolia. The main theme of the Tuesday daily was guys making choices about where to race based on their situations and money, and clearly Reutzel thinks he's got a better shot against the west coast guys to finish well, versus getting his head kicked in at Huset's. I've got the past nine Outlaw shows at Huset's in the dirtrackr.com analytics database, and we've had seven different winners. They are Sheldon Haudenschild, Carson Macedo, Buddy Kofoid, Spencer Bayston, David Gravel, Reutzel, and Kyle Larson. Over that span of nine features, the driver with the best average finish is Kofoid at 5.25. James McFadden, Gravel, Larson, and Brad Sweet are the rest of the top five on that list. Looking over the entry list and what we know right now, my feeling is that there are probably eight or nine guys who can win this week. In that group I'd say is Rico, Macedo, Sweet, Larson, McFadden, Sheldon, and Gravel, and maybe throw in Gio and Logan Schuchart. I'll put Schatz in as a guy with an outside chance. He's been known to rise up in a big money show or two in his career. And I'd call Ryan Timms, Chase Randall, and maybe Cory Eliason some darkhorse guys to watch. We won't have any changes in the Outlaw championship picture this week, as because of the differing format, the Outlaw guys will be getting show up points all week. So guys won't have that on their minds each of the four nights. If you aren't headed to Huset's, you can watch live tonight on DIRTVision.

Real quick before we move on, I wanted to quickly jump back to yesterday's discussion on car counts and prize money. There were several of you who said you equate ticket cost with car count, on a dollar per car rate. I hadn't heard that before and thought it was interesting. So for example, if a ticket is $40, there should be 40 cars. It's honestly not a terrible rule or way to look at some of these big events. Thanks to everyone that chimed in yesterday.

The Summer Nationals kicked off week two last night at Moberly Motorsports Park in Missouri, and we had heartbreak for Drake Troutman. He started fifth, but it wasn't long before he was catching leader Billy Moyer Jr. The seven machine definitely looked like the best car in the field, and past half way, he got by BMJ in traffic for the top spot. Just six laps later though, Troutman slowed suddenly in turns three and four and went to the infield with a shredded right rear tire. When that tire decided to let go, it let go big, completely destroying the quarter panel and fender on Troutman's car. He tried to stay in the show, but eventually parked it and finished 15th. Out front, Moyer inherited the lead and drove on to his 11th career Summer Nationals win. Jason Feger went seventh to fifth, and Aussie Kye Blight made a late charge to the podium after running further down the order for much of the race. It's his best career series finish to date. On the modified side, it was a pretty disappointing field, with only seven cars showing up to race. I don't remember a Modified Nationals field with that few of cars in recent seasons. I know we had one last year with 11, but you'd think there are enough mods around the country to do better than seven. Austen Becerra ended up taking the victory over Chris Spalding, with only four cars stilling running at the finish. I'm certainly not throwing any shade at the guys who did race, and for Becerra, you can only race against the guys who are in the field, so kudos to him for the first series win of his career. The Summer Nationals continue tonight at Davenport Speedway in Iowa.

If you're looking for some other dirt late model action tonight, the XR Workin' Man Series will be on the small track at the Belleville High Banks in Kansas for $10,000 to win. This series has had four different winners in four races, with Chris Madden, Nick Hoffman, Tyler Erb, and Ross Bailes scoring victories. I'm not 100% certain who is racing tonight, but Dirt on Dirt shows expected entrants as Blair Nothdurft, Tad Pospisil, Andrew Kosiski, Jesse Sobbing, and others. Ross Bailes is listed as well, although I'm not sure about his status. It was announced just three days ago that Bailes had parted ways with Billy Hicks and the 79 car, and there is nothing on Bailes' schedule on his website after the Dream at Eldora. Kansas isn't usually a place we'd see Bailes race, so we'll see what happens tonight. You can watch tonight's show on XR+ if you can't get to the track.

We've talked a few times lately about where Scott Bloomquist is with his career currently, we know obviously he's been out of the car since Volusia, and he missed the the Dirt Late Model Dream for the first time ever. He's been hanging around Rocket Chassis and helping out Kyle Strickler recently. As of yesterday, we got another not-so-great update from a Facebook video posted by Reid Millard, who promotes Moberly Motorsports Park. According to him Bloomer has been diagnosed with cancer, although we didn't get a ton of other details. Late last night, Kyle McFadden, who covers the sport for Dirt on Dirt and FloRacing tweeted that Bloomquist has a quote "highly treatable form of prostate cancer" and he said it sounds like a similar situation to Dale McDowell. And in a story just posted by Kevin Kovac, it was revealed that Bloomquist has prostate surgery scheduled for July 5th, and that any procedures needed to help correct his back problems will be delayed. Kovac made it sound like 2023 will be a wash in terms of seeing the hall of famer back in a race car. Not the news we wanted to hear, but hopefully the cancer is indeed treatable and Bloomquist will be on the road to recovery soon.

If you are newer around here, every Wednesday I spotlight some of the other dirt racing shows and episodes out there for you to check out. This week, Passing Points has Garet Williamson, Quicktime has Phil Durst, All Gas No Brakes has several new episodes including with Devin Moran, Dunewich on Dirt has Dan Stone, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters from Dirt on Dirt, the Dirt Nerds, Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks, Hoogie's Garage, and Dirt Track Weekly. To see all the podcasts and their most recent episodes, head over to dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.

That's it for the show today, if you're curious about the streaming options for tonight, make sure to stop by dirtrackr.com/watchtonight. There are a number of races available to watch.

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