DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Who's in for next week's sprint car Eldora Million? | Daily 7-5-2023
The Eldora Million is just seven days away, and we'll look into the growing entry list today, plus we've got news from Daryn Pittman and results from PA Speedweek, the Summer Nationals and more. Let's go!
It's Wednesday, July 5th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
Things get rolling a week from today at Eldora for the Million. They'll run split field prelim programs on Wednesday to then setup Thursday's action which will result in the largest winner's payout in the history of sprint car racing. Friday will then flip to the Knight Before and Saturday is the Kings Royal. According to the Eldora website, the early entry deadline for the Million is Friday, so teams do still have some time to get into the mix. As of today there are 47 cars on the initial entry list. We looked at this a few weeks ago, and it's grown sizeably since then. We talked about Daryn Pittman being in the field in the Alex Bowman 55. We know that Shane Stewart will be in Bernie's Indy Race Parts 71 and that Kerry Madsen has taken the Vermeer 55 seat. Stewart isn't on the entry list yet, but should be soon. Some other interesting moves revealed by this list include Hunter Schuerenberg in the Swindell SpeedLab 39. That's a car that Justin Sanders has driven all season, but there is a NARC show next Saturday, which conflicts with the Kings Royal finale. Looking at some Swindell tweets, it looks like that conflict is the reason for the move with Sanders committed to his California ride first. Ian Madsen is on the list in the Sandvig seven, which would mean a return to racing for him after sitting out for health reasons and departing the 2KS ride in the midwest. And Cole Macedo will race in the Tarlton 21 as that car will trek all the way from California. Looking ahead over the next week, this list should swell a bit more, maybe into the 50s or low 60s. Last year this weekend had 55 cars, and we saw 54 at Huset's a few weeks ago for their big shows. We'll keep an eye on the list the rest of the week and let you know on any other additions. You can see the full entry list over at eldoraspeedway.com. Click on the Million and Kings Royal race info in the top nav bar.
One other sprint car news item for you, on top of running the Million with Alex Bowman, Daryn Pittman will be in the Guy Forbrook five car for the 360 and 410 Knoxville Nationals, along with a weekly show on July 22nd. The Always Race Day guys had that bit yesterday. Pittman finished 10th in the 410 Nationals a year ago, and nearly won the 360 Nationals in 2021, eventually finishing second to Gio Scelzi.
Before we move on, it's a big day over in the merch store at shop.dirtrackr.com. First, Flexfit hats are back in stock after the first round sold out in seven hours a few weeks ago. I ordered more this time, and there are two different color options along with two different size choices. Also, for the first time ever I've got logo t-shirts available. If you watched yesterday's show you saw the Under the Lights logo on the blue shirt, and I've got the classic logo on a charcoal colored shirt. Plenty of those in a bunch of different sizes are here and ready to ship. Shipping is free for all US orders $20 and over, so that means hats and shirts will ship free if you live in the US of A. You can also pickup stickers and can koozies while you're there. See all the new stuff over at shop.dirtrackr.com.
Pennsylvania Speedweek finally closed out last night with the rescheduled finale at Port Royal. $15,000 to the winner of the Keith Kauffman Classic. Logan Wagner and Mike Wagner brought the field to green, with Logan out front early. As you could have guessed though, fourth starting Anthony Macri was quickly after him for the lead. The 39M grabbed the lead at half way, and went unchallenged to the finish to score the victory and wrap up the 2023 speedweek title. Logan ended up second, with his dad Mike in third. Brent Marks was third at one point, but faded back to fourth late with front nose wing damage. There were some nasty crashes last night, including early incidents for TJ Stutts and Danny Dietrich, and later Devon Borden. All drivers were okay. Josh Weller was the night's URC 360 sprint car winner. We will see a number of these teams next week at Eldora for the Million, but this coming weekend they'll have plenty of options around home. It's a normal Friday-Saturday between the Grove, Lincoln and Port. Selinsgrove will run on Sunday to make up their rained out Speedweek show, and they are still honoring the $10,000 to win, $700 to start purse, so that's cool. The All Stars are also not far away with Ransomville Friday and Sharon on Saturday.
Summer Nationals week four got started last night at Tri-City Speedway. When I saw the results on Twitter, my intial reaction was why were there two modified races, as Tyler Nicely and Mike Harrison were last night's winners. But actually, Harrison, who has something like 59 career Modified Nationals wins, was last night's late model winner. Along with his UMP mod, Harrison is running a late model schedule this season for Steve Lampley and Randy Korte and he was dominant at Tri-City. He started on the pole and led all 30 laps en route to his first career late model win anywhere. Jason Feger and Gordy Gundaker rounded out the podium, while week three champion Ashton Winger was fourth. Harrison has been running the late model all around the region this year, including at places like Fairbury, Farmer City, Pevely, and Brownstown. He got finished up with his victory lane celebrations and then was quickly right back to racing in the night's modified feature. He wasn't able to sweep the night, as Tyler Nicely led flag-to-flag for his fourth win of the year. Harrison tried to make a run at home late, but eventually finished third after nearly spinning coming to the white flag. Will Krup ended up second. Nicely continues to lead the modified championship over Kyle Steffens. Tonight, both the late models and modifieds are headed for Red Hill Raceway for round number two of week four. You can watch it live on DIRTVision.
Two other shows from last night, both out in California. Shane Golobic was a 360 winner at Silver Dollar Speedway, toppig Landon Brooks and Andy Forsberg. And Tony Gomes beat Michael Faccinto and Dylan Bloomfield for a 360 win at Placerville.
The Monday show for the Super DIRTcar Series at Land of Legends was postponed because of weather, but the series is back at it tonight with a return trip to Orange County Fair Speedway. This event was started way back on May 7th but eventually postponed. The first 18 feature spots are already locked in from action back then, with Larry Wight, Matt Sheppard, Billy Decker, Brett Hearn, Danny Creeden, Peter Britten, Jimmy Phelps, and Chris Hile making up the first four rows. They'll run three last chance races to fill the remainder of the field, with two cars transferring in from each. There are some big names who are on the outside looking in before action gets rolling tonight, including Mat Williamson, Tim Fuller, and Max McLaughlin. With this event being pushed back, I'm not sure how many cars they might lose from the field, so we could see some adjusted lineups later after everyone gets signed in. For example, Tim McCreadie was in this show, and I don't know what his plans are for tonight. Through four points races so far, Sheppard leads the championship by just four over Williamson. Phelps, Britten, and Chris Hile are the rest of the top five. After tonight's show wraps up, the next race on the calendar is next Tuesday night at Big Diamond Speedway. If you aren't near OCFS tonight, you can watch live on DIRTVision.
In other dirt racing podcasts this week, Open Red has Steve Carbone, Quicktime has Justin Sanders, Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks has Austin Ervine and Ryan Barr, All Gas No Brakes has multiple shows leading into the next XR Super Series event, Hoogie's Garage has Gregg Bakker, Dunewich on Dirt has Derrek Treece, Kyle Loader, and Travis Scott, Non-Wing Worldwide has Emerson Axsom, and there are new episodes of The Dirt Reporters, Dirt Track Confessions, and Dirt Track Weekly. To see all the shows and episodes, head over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
Hope you guys have a Wednesday out there, we'll see you right back here tomorrow.