DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Lucas Chase not creating excitement, Jimmy Owens changes schedule | Daily 7-3-2023
The Lucas Chase for the Championship format was not super well received initially, but so far it's been kind of meaningless. We'll talk about that, plus weekend results and more. Let's go!
It's Monday, July 3rd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
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We'll start this week off with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. Ricky Thornton Jr. your winner yet again at Muskingum County. He won his prelim feature on Friday night, started fourth in the big show on Saturday, took the lead from Brandon Overton just before half way, and that was it. Win number 12 on the season and another $30,000 pay day. In just Lucas competition this year, RTJ has now racked up almost $283k in winnings. That doesn't include the Flo series wins or any other racing he's done. And clearly that Anthony Burroughs' led team isn't going to slow down any time soon. Tim McCreadie and Max Blair joined RTJ on the podium. It was a much needed good finish for McCreadie after bowing out early at Lernerville, and Max Blair continues to look better. He went 22nd to third on Saturday, which was his fifth straight top five result, which included a prelim win at Lernerville. Definitely starting to find some speed in that Boom Briggs owned machine. Another win for Thornton means the points lead has been extended yet again, and it's now a 245 gap back to Hudson O'Neal. And this Lucas championship situation is what I wanted to dive into today. When the series announced the playoff format back at PRI, there was a ton of negative reaction about the move. Detractors comparing it to NASCAR and all the commentary that comes along with that. But honestly, At basically the half way point in the year, the chase cutoff points aren't really mattering, and this thing won't really show it's face until Eldora. The cut down to 16 was drama-free, with Boom Briggs too far out to challenge Ross Robinson. We are now two weeks away from the second cutoff, down to 12, and again, this will be a non-story. Garrett Alberson holds the final locked in spot, and the first guy out is Jimmy Owens, but the Newport Nightmare is off the tour having missed the last two Lucas weekends. Later on, depending on how things play out, you could have a close fight for the eight team cutoff, as Tyler Erb is only 20 points back of Daulton Wilson currently, but here's the real issue. Take this top 12 cutoff for example. Garrett Alberson is the last guy in, but he's 370 points behind Wilson right now in eighth. Barring an epic run only seem a few times in history, there is no way Alberson is moving up even that far. He'd then need to somehow gain another nearly 300 points to get all the way to fourth. And the same will be true of guys further up. I think the only real chance at drama right now is for that fourth and final spot with McCreadie in it, and Devin Moran and Jonathan Davenport still within some sort of striking distance. The rest of these cutoffs though have basically been meaningless, and will effectively continue to be so until Eldora. If you hated this idea initially, to this point don't worry, because it hasn't really mattered. The chase will create drama at Eldora to end the season, with everything reset to zero for the final four drivers, creating a winner take all night. But the rest of these chase situation has really been non-existent. Lucas heads to Deer Creek this coming weekend for the Gopher 50.
Sticking with the national touring late model series, after two more Outlaw nights to close out their midwest swing, Bobby Pierce has seized control of the championship. His 14 race top ten streak was broken on Friday night at River Cities with an 11th place result. But he came roaring back on Saturday at I-94 to score the victory. His Outlaw win total has been pushed to six, and his championship lead over Chris Madden is now 52. Ryan Gustin has moved into third, thanks to a win on Friday at River Cities, and a fourth at I-94. Gustin's career best season continues. Nick Hoffman has slid all the way to fourth, which started with that 24th place finish at Red River Valley where he was out of the race on lap one. He ended up only 13th on Friday, and was back in the top ten Saturday with an eighth. Hoffman will need to score some more wins if he's going to climb back towards the top, especially if Pierce stays hot like he's been. The Outlaws are off for a few days now, and will return July 14th at Ponderosa.
On the flip side, the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars are coming off a two-race weekend at Cedar Lake. Friday night it was Brad Sweet who took the win, picking up his seventh career victory at the track. He was able to hold off Logan Schuchart late in lap traffic. It broke a 12 race winless streak for Sweet, and it was his first win in over a month. As for Schuchart, who was seventh on Saturday night, his season seems to be turning a bit. They were very up and down this season through the month of May, but things seem to be stabilizing just in time for these big money shows. That 1S will definitely be a car to watch come the Eldora Million. Saturday night, fourth starting David Gravel picked up his first career Cedar Lake victory, topping Spencer Bayston and Jacob Allen. Jacob made moves late to charge to the podium after starting 13th. He had just cracked the top ten by half way. Bayston ended up leading the most laps, but eventually settled for second. He hadn't led laps in an Outlaw show since Eldora way back in September of 2022, but he's now led laps in two of the past four races. I talked a few weeks ago about how disappointing this second season has been for the CJB 5, but they have been better since River Cities. 11 top tens in their past 12 races. Later this week, the series heads to 34 Raceway on Friday, and Wilmot on Saturday. We are just nine days away from the Eldora Million. Sweet currently has just a four point lead over Gravel, while Carson Macedo lost more ground and is 54 back.
In Pennsylvania, Speedweek was hit hard over the weekend by poor weather. The Friday show at Williams Grove was delayed, while both Saturday and Sunday at Port Royal and Selinsgrove were rained out. Brent Marks was the $20,000 winner on Friday, holding off Anthony Macri for the duration. Chase Dietz joined them on the podium. Tonight is supposed to be the Speedweek finale back at Port Royal, but I'm not sure they will get it in. Macri has a 127 point in the championship standings, and was probably uncatchable anyway. If you are headed that way tonight, make sure to keep an eye on websites and social media for status updates.
A bunch of other shows were lost to weather this weekend as well. Both USAC nights at Lincoln Park were pushed to Sunday and Monday, but then yesterday was rained out as well. They will try again tonight. The Sunday race at Fonda for the Short Track Super Series was postponed to Wednesday, July 12th. The Super DIRTcar Series race at Land of Legends scheduled for today has been pushed to Wednesday, July 19th. And we lost two of three Summer Nationals shows. Clarksville was cancelled outright, and they will try again tonight at Lake Cumberland. I do hope you watrched that Friday night show at Paducah. That race was pandemonium at the end. With just a few to go, we lost second running Tyler Clem, leader Ashton Winger, and both Moyers who were running up front. That gave the lead to Drake Troutman, who then later slowed. All of these were tire issues, by the way. That gave the lead to Jason Feger, who had a flat on lap three, and drove all the way back through the field for the win. Absolute insanity. With just tonight's show left in week three, Ashton Winger is the championship leader.
Looking at other weekend winners... Hat tip to Shane Stewart for bagging the POWRi 410 win over the weekend at Lake Ozark. It was Shane's first race back in a sprint car as he prepares to run the Million in the Indy Race Parts machine. He topped Garet Williamson and Gunney Ramey in that one. Travis Arenz was an IRA winner at Plymouth, while Brenham Crouch is the series points leader. Shane Golobic bagged the Sprint Car Challenge Tour win at Antioch, while Blake Hahn and Jake Bubak were weekend ASCS winners. Jason Martin maintains the championship lead there over Matt Covington.
With the Hunt the Front series latel models, Jimmy Owens was the Saturday winner at Senoia. It was his first win of the season now that he's off the Lucas trail. Wil Herrington won the Sunday show at Duck River, and took home an extra $5000 for the mid season Hunt the Front championship bonus. Austin Neely won Saturday with the Southern All Stars at Bulls Gap, and Dave Hess Jr. bagged $4500 at Stateline.
That's it for the show today, make sure you stop by dirtrackr.com/watchtonight to see what your streaming options are today. It's actually a pretty busy day for it being Monday.
Hope you guys have a good Monday out there, we'll see you right back here tomorrow.