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.
We need more transparency around racers' schedules | Daily 7-19-2023
Today on the show I've got something the late model world is just better at than the sprint car side and it needs to change. We'll talk about that, plus Wednesday results and what to watch tonight. Let's go!
It's Wednesday, July 19th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
How is everyone today? You guys good? I feel like this year is flying by and I haven't asked you lately how you're doing. Hope all is well in your world as we are half way through another work week. Over in the DIRTRACKR merch shop right now, I am down to the last two black Flexfit logo hats, so don't wait too much longer if you want one of those. Don't forget too I've marked down the late model and sprint car shirts to just $10. I had an order on Monday where somebody grabbed one of those shirts and four stickers and it was $28 out the door because shipping is free for US orders of $20 or more. The full rundown right now includes two different logo t-shirts, the sprint car and late model shirts, the flexfit hats, four different colors of can koozies, and four sticker options. You can shop anytime over at shop.dirtrackr.com.
So this situation popped up last night, and I want to dive into this. This might come off a little ranty, but it's really not. I'm going to mention some drivers, but I'm not really coming at necks here. Just want to preface that. The All Stars were at Lernerville last night and the World of Outlaws are at BAPS tonight. Kyle Larson was at Lernerville, but it doesn't seem like he's going to be at BAPS. The track tweeted yesterday that Larson would be there tonight, and Yung Money quote tweeted it saying he was only going to do Lernerville and then Grandview next week, but not BAPS, and I'm assuming that means no Williams Grove this week as well. It was certainly egg on the face for BAPS, which sucks honestly for everyone. They had some indication he was coming, regardless of where it came from, and it would be a big deal for that to happen. They want to push that, and as someone who used to help with event marketing, I'd do the same thing. But after Larson responded, the track deleted the tweet, and people responded in poor ways saying they were just trying to do anything to sell tickets, which is clearly not fair. And this whole thing last night brings me to my main topic for today's show. When it comes to dirt racers, especially the big ones, why don't we know where they are going to race ahead of time? I feel like the late model guys do a better job of this with their website schedules, but in the year 2023, is there not a better way to handle this? Why is it always a guessing game? When you run a series full time, fans and tracks know on these dates, we are getting these guys, most likely guaranteed. That's good. The shows can be promoted in a certain way, and it helps everyone involved. But for guys that don't participate in the sport that way, why can't they have their upcoming schedule listed on their website or social media accounts? I understand plans can change, especially with weather, but I don't like the mystery, and online schedules can quickly be adjusted if those plans do indeed get switched. A couple of examples. First, Chris Ferguson. Popular regional late model guy, has won on the big stage. I can go on his website right now and see what his plans are through the end of the year. I like it. The same is true of Jonathan Davenport, Brandon Overton, Brandon Sheppard. On the sprint car side though, the same is not true. I feel like Brent Marks does a decent job on his social media talking about his upcoming races, but there is not a schedule on his site. Same thing with both Rico and Larson. People end up tweeting at Rico to see what his plans are, and there are social media accounts posting guesses for Larson's upcoming calendar, which leads to issues like we saw yesterday. Brian Brown has a full schedule on his site, kudos to him. He even has marked where things are tentative at this point. Buddy Kofoid has a schedule page on his store site, but it's empty. Brady Bacon's schedule has both his winged and non-wing races, good stuff. If you look around at sports though, at all sorts of levels of motorsports and stick and ball sports, how many examples are there where fans headed out to watch don't have a complete picture of who they are going to see. You might get a basketball game where a star has the night off, but the teams don't change. You get injuries, but that can't be avoided. In the age of technology and social media and smart phones, this seems like a stupid problem to have. I see a lot of pros and probably not that many cons for teams and drivers being much more transparent about where and when they are going to race. If drivers or industry people have a rebuttal to any of what I said today, feel free to reach out to me on the side. Let me know if I'm somehow missing something here.
At Lernerville last night, Buddy Kofoid led the first 18 laps from the pole before Larson took over in lap traffic with 12 to go. He led the rest of the way for his second Silver Cup victory in a row. Brent Marks and Justin Peck made late moves to get onto the podium, with Kofoid fading to fourth right at the checkered flag. As for the All Star contenders, Anthony Macri was sixth in his first night out with Clauson Marshall, while Zeb Wise needed a provisional to start the main event and finished 19th. The All Star season continues Friday at 34 Raceway in Iowa, which begins a swing through the midwest.
Quick reminder, if you missed it yesterday, I've got two tickets to next week's High Limit show at Grandview to giveaway thanks to the TicketHoss app. Jump over to yesterday's show to see how you can get in on that if you are interested. I'm annoucing the winner on tomorrow's show.
Looking ahead to tonight's racing, the Southern Nationals late models were going to give it another go after being rained out on Tuesday at I-75. As of this morning though, today is rained out as well. They will try again tomorrow night at Senoia in Georgia.
As previously mentioned, the World of Outlaws are headed to BAPS Motor Speedway tonight for the first time in 31 years. They last raced at the Pennsylvania race track way back in 1992. A lot of drivers who will compete tonight though have experience at the track, as it regularly hosts 410 sprint car racing. Guys like Gio Scelzi, James McFadden, and Jacob Allen have won there, and we could be looking at a local as the favorite. Brent Marks is coming in off good runs at Eldora and Lernerville, and he'll be stout tonight. The Outlaw championship battle remains tight with the top three separated by just 24 points. None of the top three can afford an off night. After today's race, the Outlaws are headed for Williams Grove on Friday and Saturday.
Up at Land of Legends, a busy modified week continues with the Super DIRTcar Series back in action again. They raced Sunday at Weedsport, the Short Track Super Series was at Fonda on Monday, and now Canandaigua tonight with the SDS. Mat Williamson won Sunday night and continues to try and close the gap to Matt Sheppard in the championship hunt. This race was originally scheduled for July 3rd, but weather pushed it back to today. You'll get 70 laps with $7500 to the winner. Both this and the Outlaw show will be live on DIRTVision.
Looking around the other dirt racing podcasts this week, Winged Nation has Donny Schatz and Scott Gobrecht, SuaveTalk has Jonathan Davenport, Open Red has Shawn Neisteadt, Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks has Tres Mehler, and there are new episodes of The Dirt Reporters, Passing Points, The Dirt Nerds, Dirt Track Confessions, Hoogie's Garage, Dunewich on Dirt, and Dirt Track Weekly. To see all these podcasts and their recent episodes, jump over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
That's it for the show today. Make sure to hit up the streaming schedule at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight to see what your options are for viewing.
Hope you guys have a good Wednesday out there, we'll see you right back here tomorrow.