DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

Dirt racing news, results, discussion, analytics. Sprint cars, late models, modifieds, you name it. From national series, to top local shows. Brought to you five days a week. Email the show at info@dirtrackr.com.

"Work to do" after Rico Abreu loses another win to Kyle Larson | Daily 6-22-2023

On the show today we'll get into Kyle Larson's Huset's victory, an update on Matt Juhl, and more from the High Bank Nationals. We've also got ride news for Buddy Kofoid, plus we'll talk Firecracker 100, Summer Nationals, and Dirt Cup. Let's go!

It's Thursday, June 22nd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

We haven't seen Kyle Larson a whole lot this season in World of Outlaws competition. Before last night's race at Huset's, he'd made just two appearances in 2023, May 5th at Eldora and May 26th at Atomic. But after the opening night of the High Bank Nationals, he's $20,000 richer and the high point man. Yung Money started fifth, slowly worked his way forward, and got after Rico Abreu for the lead inside ten to go. A slider on lap 29 got him the lead, and he drove away from there. David Gravel went 12th to second, and Abreu faded to third at the end after starting on the night's pole. By the way, did you see Rico's post race interview? He almost looked shell shocked having gotten beaten by Kyle Larson again. Rico led laps in both the High Limit shows at Tri-City and Eagle before finishing second to Larson. And now a third last night after leading until late. You've got to think the motivation is mounting for him to come out on top in one of these battles. A really tight field of cars and the differing format caught some guys out on the night as you might have expected, and some big names were on the outside looking in come feature time. James McFadden, Donny Schatz, Tyler Courtney, Sheldon Haudenschild, and Brad Sweet all found themselves in the night's last chance race, and only Sweet was able to move forward into a transfer spot. The defending Outlaw champion finished 16th in the main event after a spin at one point. Just to give you an idea of how tight things were, I tweeted this morning that the top 50 cars in qualifying were separated by just a tick more than half a second, and if you were just two tenths down on Gravel's quicktime, you were 18th. Later on, passing was definitely tough in the heat races, and of the six heat race winners, five of them were first time heat winners with the Outlaws this season. Larson had the biggest charge in a heat going plus three, and we had no heat winners from off the front row. I certainly understand why some like heat race inverts, but it certainly didn't equate to a ton of passing last night. The competition is just too tough, and the track isn't really wide enough that early on to facilitate a ton of moves. Of the guys I mentioned yesterday as possible dark horse picks, Ryan Timms and Cory Eliason were in the Wednesday feature. Eliason started outside front row and finished fifth. He was very solid all night, while Timms had issues in the main event and finished 24th. We did have a pretty nasty crash in the feature that led to an fairly length open red period. Mark Dobmeier, Matt Juhl, and Tim Estenson were all involved. Matt Juhl was taken to a local hospital in the ambulance, and his dad posted to Facebook early this morning that he has a fractured back. Definitely hoping for a speedy recovery for Juhl. There was plenty of chatter leading into this week about the Huset's track conditions and the possibility of it taking rubber, but that did not materialize last night. The surface was really racey come feature time, and hopefully that trend continues through the rest of the week. I know there were some complaints about how late things ran last night though. Tonight at Huset's, they'll do it all over again with another $20,000 to win program. Drivers will be able to throw out their worst prelim night of the three, so the guys that struggled last night aren't necessarily out of it if they can rebound the next two nights. I would be surprised if guys like Sweet, McFadden, Schatz, and Sheldon weren't better tonight.

One news item to come out of yesterday involved the future for Buddy Kofoid. In recent weeks after departing the Crouch 11, we've seen Kofoid drive the Indy Race Parts 71, and he was in the Vermeer Motorsports 55 during Ohio Sprint Speedweek. But last night at Huset's, Kofoid was piloting a second Roth Motorsports entry, similar to what we saw him do with NARC at the Peter Murphy Classic back in May. And the rumor is this deal might continue going forward. Kofoid is tied in with Toyota, and Roth has been the main Toyota sprint car engine team, so this makes a lot of sense. Officially, the team was non-comittal on the future, saying the focus was on this weekend, and that they would announce more details and plans in the coming days. If this becomes Buddy's full time deal, that means Vermeer now needs a driver for the 55, and from the Twitter posts back and forth between Bernie Stuebgen and Buddy, it appears that deal is up, so Bernie needs a driver too. I'm sure drivers are already burning up their phones to those two teams.

Elsewhere last night, the XR show at the Belleville High Banks was rained out. The event will not be made up. The next Workin' Man Series event is August 8th at Red Cedar, while the next Super Series show is July 10th at Dubuque.

At Davenport on Wednesday, Ashton Winger had to fight through both Chad and Chris Simpson to score his first Summer Nationals win of 2023. It was a very strong bounceback from Moberly the night before where Winger exited the feature early with oil pressure issues. Winger started sixth, and got around Chad Simpson for the lead at halfway. Chris Simpson then challenged Winger out front, with those two battling through the closing stages and Winger eventually coming out on top. As for Drake Troutman, I don't know what he did to the racing gods, but it's now two races in a row where he exploded right rear tires. It ended a chance at a win on Tuesday, and last night he battled back afterwards to finish eighth. The week two points championship right now is being led by Jason Feger. The series was supposed to be at Spoon River tonight, but that one has been cancelled because of some sort of equipment issue at the track. So next up is Brownstown on Friday.

Over to Lucas, fresh off one $50,000 to win weekend, the late model series is headed for Lernerville Speedway for the Firecracker 100 and another $50,000 to win program. This year's Firecracker will feature a format change for the prelim nights. There used to be $6000 to win shows Thursday and Friday, but now we'll get twin, split field, $5000 to win races each night, with points setting up heats for Saturday. Tim McCreadie is the defending Firecracker winner, and he could use a victory right now. He's still winless in Lucas competition this year. Other recent past event winners include Brandon Overton and Cade Dillard, although those wins came when this event was under World of Outlaws sanction. Ricky Thornton Jr. is the Lucas points leader over Hudson O'Neal and Brandon Overton, with RTJ extending his advantage last weekend. The 20RT machine hasn't finished worse than 5th in nine straight Lucas races. He's now led laps in four consecutive shows as well. Outside of the usual suspects like RTJ, O'Neal, Overton, Davenport and McCreadie, I'm going to throw Max Blair out as a name to watch. He hasn't been near the front much this season, but he did win a Firecracker prelim back in 2020, and he's very familiar with this part of the country, having won so much with various different series on PA tracks.

If you want even more big money racing, the Super Dirt Cup at Skagit begins tonight with the first of two prelim nights. The 410 sprint car competitors will run full programs Thursday and Friday for $4100 to win, and points from the first two nights will set up Saturday's action that ends in a $62,000 to win feature. We talked yesterday about Aaron Reutzel headed out that way, and other drivers to watch this weekend include Zeb Wise, Corey Day, Dominic Scelzi, Trey Starks, Shane Golobic, Cole Macedo, DJ Netto, Justin Sanders, Tanner Holmes, Chase Johnson, and a bunch more. Last year this event drew in the mid 40s for a car count, and I would guess we'll be similar to that this season. This will definitely be one I'll be paying attention to all weekend.

Other racing to check out tonight includes the ASCS at Lawton Speedway. $4000 to win, and Matt Covington is trying to close the gap on Jason Martin in the standings. Also, POWRi's Illinois Midget Week starts tonight at Charleston. Some drivers to expect there include Cannon McIntosh, POWRi points leader Corbin Rueschenberg, Jade Avedisian, Taylor Reimer, Gavin Miller, Zach Daum, Jacob Denney, Daison Pursley, Andrew Felker, and plenty more.

That's it for today's Daily. There are quite a few shows on the streaming schedule today, so make sure to stop by dirtrackr.com and check that out.

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