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.
Sprint car silly season apparently NEVER ends | Daily 6-28-2023
Coming up we'll talk you through the recent round of sprint car musical chairs that was set off by Buddy Kofoid, we've got Tuesday race results, news from the ASCS and Super DIRTcar Series, and more. Let's go!
It's Wednesday, June 28th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
Over at shop.dirtrackr.com today I've got just a single distressed logo hat left in stock. You can grab it for $25, and it will ship free for US buyers. You can also get sprint car and late model t-shirts for $15, we've got three different stickers, plus the new can koozies in four colors. All orders over $20 get free shipping, and if you order just stickers, those will ship for free as well. I'm working right now on another run of the Flexfit hats and hope to have those soon. There are also new shirts in the works, and I've got two more sticker ideas in the pipeline. So stay tuned for all of that. You can grab some DIRTRACKR apparel over at shop.dirtrackr.com.
It's been a busy week for the never ending sprint car silly season, and we've had a couple of moves in just the last 24 hours. The departure of Buddy Kofoid from the Crouch Motorsports 11 has set off a cascade of moves in recent weeks, and that fallout continued yesterday. Kofoid left the 11 team, and joined up with Bernie Stuebgen and the Indy Race Parts 71 for several races. The allure of Kofoid then pushed Tony Vermeer to ax Hunter Schuerenberg after several seasons together, and Kofoid drove the 55 during Ohio Sprint Speedweek. But behind the scenes, Toyota and Kofoid were working on a deal to move the young driver to Roth Motorsports, and the Vermeer 55 and the Indy Race Parts 71 were left without drivers when Kofoid joined Roth for the High Bank Nationals at Huset's. That deal looks like it will continue, so now the 55 and 71 have made moves for other drivers. I tweeted this morning that it felt like FloRacing's Tyler Burnett had become the sprint car version of Adrian Wojnarowski or Adam Schefter, because he broke the news on both teams filling their rides in the last 24 hour period. First, it was Vermeer making the move to sign veteran Kerry Madsen to drive the 55 for the rest of the season. Madsen drove for Vermeer nearly 20 years ago, and picked up a Knoxville track championship in 2005. Going forward, the team will continue out full time with the All Star Circuit of Champions, and run big events like the Eldora Million, Kings Royal, Knoxville Nationals and other races like High Limit. The new pairing will debut this weekend with a shakedown show at Knoxville. Madsen had made scattered starts this year with Guy Forbrook, and was most recently at Huset's with the Outlaws. Madsen was strong in 2021 in scattered starts with the TSR 14, before joining Roth for 2022. That pairing ended though before the year came to a close, and Madsen has been less active since. Since 2017 though, only ten drivers have more Outlaw victories than Madsen and I think that could be a solid setup against the All Stars going forward. As for Bernie and the 71, that car doesn't run full time, but they will welcome back Shane Stewart for some upcoming races. They will join Vermeer and Madsen at Knoxville this weekend to get back rolling again, and then Stewart will pilot the car during the upcoming Eldora Million. Stewart has mostly retired from driving sprint cars, with his last Outlaw appearance coming at World Finals in 2021. These days he's busy running Port City Raceway on a weekly basis. There aren't plans for Stewart and the 71 beyond Eldora. The other move that happened this week that we haven't talked about yet was Pete Grove and Premier Motorsports parting ways with driver Scotty Thiel. Thiel and the Premier 70 had been full time with the All Stars, and through 22 appearances currently sit sixth in the standings. It has been a tough go of it though, with just two top fives and three top tens, with an average feature finish of 15.41. Thiel's best results were a pair of fourth place finishes at Wilmot and Weedsport, but they hadn't finished inside the top ten in their past 12 races. That stretch included a C-Main exit at Eldora, and B-Main exits at Port Royal and Attica. The Premier 70 has certainly been through a number of drivers in recent years, but this move isn't surprising just based on performance. Clearly things weren't working out how either side had hoped, and now Thiel is seeking opportunities elsewhere. So that gets you up to speed on the recent moves across the sprint car world as of today, but who knows what else is to come. If we know anything at this points, it's that things can change at any moment.
One other ride note today, this one on the late model side. The Billy Hicks 79 car that Ross Bailes recently departed has tapped Donald McIntosh to fill that seat, with McIntosh debuting with the team at Cherokee coming up on July 7th. I still haven't seen anything about where Bailes might land.
In some racing from last night, Bobby Pierce stayed hot with the World of Outlaws Late Models, winning for the second race in a row. Tanner English looked like the guy to beat at Mason City Motor Speedway, but his tough luck continued when he pulled up lame on lap 26 with a flat right rear tire while leading. He eventually finished 19th. Unfortunately, Mason City took rubber over the second half of that main event, and it became pretty locked down on the bottom once things got going again. Pierce settled in out front, saved his tires, and drove on to the win over Shane Clanton and Brandon Sheppard. Chris Madden finished down in 13th, and headed to Red Rivery Valley Speedway tonight, Bobby Pierce has taken over the points lead, with Nick Hoffman now second, and Madden back to third. By the way, have you seen Pierce's firesuit lately? They apparently lost a sponsor or two, and Pierce was wearing a suit last night with tape on the front that read "Your Logo." So if you'd like to sponsor a front running super late model, I'm sure the team would love to talk. Looking at tonight, the Outlaws haven't been to Red River Valley since 2020, when Darrell Lanigan picked up the win. It's another $10,000 to win show, and you can watch live on DIRTVision.
With the Summer Nationals, week three kicked off with a flag-to-flag win for Logan Martin at Springfield. It was Martin's first career Summer Nationals victory, and except for a challenge or two from Ashton Winger, was in control most of the way. Billy Moyer Jr. ended up second with Winger third. Martin had been full time with the World of Outlaws Late Models to start the year, but they dropped off the tour a few weeks ago and will go pick and choose the rest of the season. Tonight the series moves over to Adams County and will be joined by the Modified Nationals crowd. You can watch this one live on DIRTVision as well.
If you want some sprint car action today, you have a few different options. The Tuesday Pennsylvania Speedweek show at Grandview was cancelled because of rain, and today they are headed for Hagerstown. Anthony Macri has the two PA Speedweek wins so far and leads the points standings. This show will be live over on sprintcarunlimited.tv if you can't get there.
Also tonight, Sharon Speedway has a special midweek, $4000 to win race that should draw quite a few Ohio regulars. Some names I've seen on social media who will be there include Ricky Peterson, Zeth Sabo, Chris Verda, Adam Kekich, and more. The program also includes the RUSH non-wing sprint cars. If you can't get to Sharon, this one will be streamed over on DIRTVision.
Two more quick news items before we shut down today. First, the Super DIRTcar Series was trying to reschedule the rained out June 14th race at Airborne, but that date is now officially cancelled. Sounds like they couldn't find a good date to try again. Also, in line with the recent news that RacinDirt has become the official streaming partner of the ASCS National Tour, it was announced yesterday that the platform is also hopping on as a presenting sponsor of the series. So some more good news for Terry Mattox and the guys over there.
Around the other dirt racing podcasts this week, LoudPedal is doing an Ohio Sprint Speedweek recap, Open Red has David Gravel, Passing Points has Jeffrey Newell and Alex Sewell both recent ASCS winners. Quicktime has Justyn Cox, All Gas No Brakes has Steven Whiteaker Jr. and more, Hoogie's Garage has Todd Weikert, Non Wing Worldwide has Thomas Meseraull, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters from Dirt on Dirt, the Dirt Nerds, Dirt Track Confessions, and Dirt Track Weekly. To see the full rundown of shows and recent episodes, head over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
That's it for today's Daily. There are quite a few shows on the streaming schedule today, so make sure you stop by dirtrackr.com/watchtonight to check out your options.
Hope you guys have a good Wednesday out there, we'll see you right back here tomorrow.