DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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An update on Anthony Macri's future, plus Eldora Million night one | Daily 7-13-2023
Coming up, we'll talk Eldora Million night one, we've got an Anthony Macri update, plus what's ahead tonight. Let's go!
It's Thursday, July 13th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
It's Million day at Eldora, and there is a bunch to unpack from the prelim night. We'll start first with an update on the situation with Anthony Macri. He's not at Eldora, and won't be through the weekend, which I think is a bit surprising. Bernie Stuebgen offered to bring out a second car for Macri for the Million and Kings Royal, but Macri declined. He told Jeremy Elliott he's sitting out this weekend, and maybe next weekend as well. Supposedly he's received calls from other teams, but a return to the 39M at this point doesn't seem super likely. When asked about his family owned team, Macri said quote "That's out of the equation. That's not going to be an option. Obviously, I have to thank my parents for getting the operation to where it is, and it's just a falling out. We had different beliefs or ideas on certain things moving forward, and we couldn't come to an agreement. So, I decided to leave, but I have to thank them, thank Joe [Mooney] and everyone involved... the sponsors and all of the fans who stuck behind me since the beginning to now. It's not the end, and I’m going to be racing again. So, hopefully, they will follow me to my next adventure" unquote. You can see Jeremy's full piece over at sprintcarunlimited.com. We'll see what ends up happening with Macri, and the future is just as uncertain for the 39M. Dewease will be in it tonight, but we don't know about Friday and Saturday, or going forward.
It was a tough night for the 39M and Dewease, as they backed up in their heat race, and then didn't transfer out of the B Main in group B. He starts eighth in heat five, and only the top three from the heats transfer to the Million main event. I'd say that Dewease was probably the biggest name not in a feature last night, and the biggest surprise. Guys like Daryn Pittman, Brent Marks, and Zeb Wise were all outside of feature transfer spots in heats, but did race their way in through those B-Mains. I did want to give a hat tip as well to the Vermeer 55 crew led by Clinton Boyles, and the Crouch 11 squad led by Brad Alexander. Both did incredible work to get their drivers back into the fight. Vermeer got Kerry Madsen rolling again for the heat, and the Crouch 11 was ready to go for their B-Main after both were involved in crashes.
Another thing I was interested in last night was the atmosphere. I put the question out on Twitter and had some interesting responses about how last night compared to other shows at Eldora. I do think the Macri stuff sort of hung over the early part of the day, but there was some tension last night. FloRacing caught an animated situation between Tony Stewart and David Gravel's crew chief Cody Jacobs after that first group B heat race. Jacobs clearly upset about something, possibly the situation with Tyler Courtney very nearly missing the scales or how things went in that heat. And Tony not backing down an inch. I know last night was only a prelim, and some of the responses on Twitter were mixed, but I'm sure it will all continue to ramp up tonight.
The two feature wins went to Brad Sweet and Rico Abreu. Sweet got around early leader Aaron Reutzel just before half way and drove on to the $12,000 win. Reutzel and Kyle Larson were second and third. Brent Marks went 22nd to sixth, and Zeb Wise 24th to ninth. In feature two, Shane Stewart was supposed to start on the pole, but this night was over before it started. He had no brakes and a pool of fluid at his feet under pace laps and pulled in. That bumped Brian Brown up a row, and he led early, before Rico used a lap car as a pick on lap 10 and took over for good. Carson Macedo and David Gravel moved through the field to finish second and third.
Looking ahead to tonight, last night's total points earned through the program setup heat race lineups. Carson Macedo, Logan Schuchart, David Gravel, Brad Sweet, Kyle Larson, and Aaron Reutzel are the six heat race polesitters. The top three from each heat transfer straight to the feature. Fourth through sixth are in the B, and seventh on back head to one of two C-Mains. Top two from the Cs to the B, top six from the B to the feature. The heat winners will draw for spots one through six, second places for seven through 12, and third places for 13 through 18. There will be a break in the 50 lap feature on or around lap 20. Drop me a comment, let me know if your win picks changed at all after what you saw on night one. It sure seemed to me like the guys we thought would be fast were definitely up there. Also, I'd be curious thoughts on the inverts. All of social media is ablaze today about how amazing the racing was with the inverts, and people are ready to start inverting everything. Let me know.
The other racing from Wednesday night was the USAC Midgets at the Mitchell County Fairgrounds in Kansas. Bryant Wiedeman made a late move on Emerson Axsom, and led the final two laps en route to his first career series victory. Axsom settled for second with Logan Seavey third. Really good racing, and I thought Bryan Hulbert did a really nice job on the mic, with Chet Christner at Eldora for the Million. It's not easy to step into a situation like that, but Hulbert was well prepared and didn't skip a beat. The series is off today, before heading to Jefferson County on Friday and Saturday. Seavey still leads the standings, with Wiedeman second and Jacob Denney third.
If you want some other racing to check out tonight, the Summer Nationals are headed to Butler Motor Speedway. This will be the first race of week five, with the whole season ending Sunday at Wayne County. You can watch on DIRTVision. Also, Mod Wars at Ogilvie gets going tonight for the USMTS competitors. $3000 to win tonight, $5000 on Friday, and $11,000 on Saturday. Rodney Sanders has stretched away in the championship a bit from Jake O'Neil and Jason Hughes. You can watch this one on RacinDirt.
In some interesting crossover news from yesterday, it was announced that NASCAR Cup Series driver Ross Chastain will pilot a second Matt Sheppard owned entry in next week's Short Track Super Series event at Utica-Rome Speedway. It will be the first time Chastain has driven a big block modified. The Cup race that weekend is at Pocono, so Chastain won't be too far away, and he'll be getting in a car prepared by an incredibly potent team and driver. It should be interesting to watch.
Before we close out today, I wanted to run through the new podcast episodes this week. I normally do that on Wednesday, but I got caught up in all of the excitement yesterday doing two shows, and forgot all about it. Quicktime has Alan DeHaai and Joey Saldana, Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks has Joey Amantea, All Gas No Brakes has Bobby Pierce, Hoogie's Garage has Justin Clark, Dunewich on Dirt has Chase Raudman, and there are new episodes of The Dirt Reporters, the Dirt Nerds, Dirt Track Confessions, and Dirt Track Weekly. To see all the shows and recent episodes, head over to dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for today. Make sure to check out the streaming schedule over at dirtrackr.com if you are looking for things to watch that aren't the Eldora Million.
Hope you guys have a good Thursday out there, we'll see you right back here tomorrow.