DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Is the sprint car talent pool big enough right now? | Daily 7-25-2023
If you were starting a national touring sprint car team today, who are you hiring as your driver? We'll talk about the options, plus dive into the stories around tonight's High Limit show, plus Monday results and a lot more. Let's go!
It's Tuesday, July 25th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
The High Limit Sprint Car Series is back in action at Grandview tonight, and there are a bunch of interesting subplots headed into this race. On social media yesterday we got a look at the pre-entry list which includes just 26 cars. In the hours since, we know of a few more that will be coming that aren't on the list, including Zeb Wise and the Rudeen 26, and Danny Dietrich. That would bring the initial count to 28. Tonight's race is the seventh ever High Limit show, including last year's one-off at Lincoln Park, and if the list holds, this will be the smallest car count they've had to date. The previous low was 31 at Tri-City back in May. I think it's important to understand though, there are a lot of factors at play here. At this moment, it looks like Zeb is the only All Star competitor coming to race, when for a lot of these races we've had several. I did a Daily back on March 21st talking about this All Star midwest swing potentially setting up some big trips for several drivers and teams, and the three guys I talked about that day were Justin Peck, Tyler Courtney, and Hunter Schuerenberg. Peck is racing tonight, but he's not a full time All Star driver anymore. And Sunshine and Schuerenberg aren't racing, because Courtney is injured and Clauson Marshall isn't coming with Corey Day because of the distance. And Schuerenberg is out of the Vermeer 55, and has been bouncing around to different rides. Big props to Zeb and Rudeen for making this crazy week happen and for attempting to run both with High Limit and the All Stars. Another factor is most of the Outlaw guys are either out of freebies or maybe have one left. My guess would be for those that do have one left they'd be saving it for that $50,000 to win show at Lernerville in September. Some other individual drivers who we've seen at a lot of these shows that aren't entered tonight include Brian Brown, Cole Macedo, Sam Hafertepe, Blake Hahn, Brady Bacon (he's in the middle of Indiana Sprint Week), Austin McCarl, Aaron Reutzel, and Buddy Kofoid. I'm actually surprised too about how few Central PA guys there are on this entry list. I figured we would have seen some guys like Chase Dietz, Dylan Norris, Kyle Moody, Justin Whittall, Troy Wagaman, Cameron Smith, and Lucas Wolfe come through. One driver we will see though is Lance Dewease. He obviously just got bounced from the Kreitz 69K, but with Justin Sanders not set to start with the Macri 39M until later this week, Dewease will drive it again tonight, like he did at Eldora. Sanders had been driving the Swindell SpeedLab 39, but it sounds like we won't see that car again until Knoxville. So a bunch of reasons why the car count is down, and regardless of prize money and hype, this is just sometimes the nature of running a series. Coming into tonight, Kyle Larson has won three straight and leads the championship over Anthony Macri and Rico Abreu. I think Rico, Macri, Brent Marks, and Justin Peck are probably the best picks for somebody to slow Larson's roll right now. Rico won a Speedweek show at Grandview back in 2022, and he might be the other favorite tonight. If you're doing pool picks or fantasy racing, don't forget I have the High Limit Series in the database at dirtrackr.com/analytics, so you can peruse results and stats there. Tonight is live on Flo if you can't get to Grandview.
All of these recent driver swaps had me thinking lately too. I had a friend text me the other day asking about drivers and rides and if a team was going to go on a national tour who would they hire right now. Their point was that the pool seems pretty small right now, and I would tend to agree. We have to eliminate anyone from this conversation who already has a big time ride, Sweet, Gravel, Macedo, Sunshine, etc. So that leaves us with guys who maybe drive their own stuff, or are free agents, or regional guys. I do think Macri is an interesting possibility, as this Clauson Marshall deal is only temporary. You've also got guys like Hunter Schuerenberg and Parker Price Miller floating around out there. But if you were starting a team and needed a driver for either an Outlaw or All Star run, or a big pick and choose schedule, I feel like the options are pretty limited for drivers that are ready and good enough to make that leap. Some other names I think you'd have to consider are Chase Randall and Ryan Timms. You could also reach for a regional guy like Trey Starks or Shane Golobic. But if you were in this situation right now, who are you going after? Drop me a comment, let me know.
Before we move on, it's shameless merch plug time. If you want to support what I'm doing and get some cool swag at the same time, head over to shop.dirtrackr.com. There are currently three different shirt options in stock, including the one I'm wearing. There are four sticker options, but I am down to the last five of the sprint car stickers currently. There are also four different color options of can koozies to keep that beer or soda cold. I am working on another round of logo hats, and some other new stuff as well, so stay tuned for that in the coming weeks. If you live in the US, any order of $20 or more ships free, as do orders of just stickers. You can shop any time over at shop.dirtrackr.com.
Last night at Off Road Speedway in Nebraska, the XR Super Series got their Elkhorn 100 event going with split field features. Devin Moran and Daulton Wilson bagged the two $5000 wins, and they will start together on the front row of tonight's $100,000 to win main event. That win for Wilson should boost that team a bit, as they've been battling the last several weeks out with Lucas. Just a single top ten in the month of July. Bobby Pierce, Ricky Thornton Jr., Kyle Bronson, Dennis Erb Jr., Jonathan Davenport, Hudson O'Neal, Tanner English, and Shane Clanton are all locked in as well. Everyone else will participate in two B-Mains to set the rest of the field. Up to this point, the big XR wins this season have gone to Dale McDowell, O'Neal, and Pierce, so we'll see if we can add to that list. O'Neal currently leads Pierce in the XR championship fight as well. After tonight, the XR Super Series will go to Gondik Law on August 7th, and then they'll have three nights at All-Tech in October to end the season. As for the larger late model world, after tonight, the attention will turn to the World of Outlaws and the Prairie Dirt Classic this weekend at Fairbury.
Indiana Sprint Week at Circle City last night. After what we saw over the weekend, it was nice to see a little bit of a tamer feature. Kyle Cummins took the win after Xavier Doney and Carson Garrett led laps. It was Cummins fourth USAC National Sprint Car victory of 2023. There continues to be a lot of shuffling in the championship standings, and headed to Terre Haute on Wednesday, Emerson Axsom is on top right now, trailed by Brady Bacon and Justin Grant. Jake Swanson had a stretch of four races with finishes of 16th or worse, and although he's bounced back the last two races, he's fallen to fourth. With two wins in four nights, Justin Grant leads the Sprint Week championship at the moment. Hat tip to Doney last night for his best series finish and laps led for just the second time in his career. And Carson Garrett really seems to be finding his footing lately. He's led laps in three of the last six races, and I would not be surprised to see him find his way to a win before the year is over. Today is an off day for the USAC guys, like I said, they'll be back Wednesday at Terre Haute.
Up in Canada tonight, the Short Track Super Series makes it's first ever trip across the border to take on Autodrome Granby. They'll hit up RPM tomorrow as well during this short maple leaf swing. Matt Sheppard currently leads the north region standings for the series by 56 points over Mat Williamson. Sheppard currently has four wins and five top fives in six races. Granby does host weekly modified action, but it looks like Carey Terrance is the only big block winner there in 2023, scoring back on June 9th with the Canadian Big Block Series. One of the US based series hasn't been to Granby since 2019, when the Super DIRTcar Series made a pair of appearances there. Larry Wight won in September and Matt Sheppard took the July show. Tonight's show is $10,000 to win, we'll see if any of the locals can challenge guys like Sheppard or Williamson for that big check. You can tune in tonight live on FloRacing.
In some other Tuesday night late model action, the Southern Nationals series is headed to Toccoa for a $7500 to win show. With four shows complete and a few rained out so far, Jimmy Owens is the series championship leader right now by just two points over Carson Ferguson. Ricky Weiss and Donald McIntosh are in striking distance. Owens, Dale McDowell, Ashton Winger, and Zack Mitchell have picked up victories so far. After tonight, the Southern Nationals series heads to Tri-County Racetrack in North Carolina.
And at Davenport, Iowa tonight, the MARS series is racing for $10,000 to win. Jason Feger is the current MARS points leader, and he'll be at Davenport tonight along with Chad Simpson, Billy Moyer, Ryan Unzicker, Drake Troutman, and plenty more. Both of these late model shows are live on Flo as well.
For my iRacing guys out there, last night was round three of this current World of Outlaws Late Model Series season. They took on Cedar Lake Speedway. After what we saw last season, and in the opener at Volusia, I figured Evan Seay was going to run away with this thing, but not so far. He got outdueled a week ago at Fairbury by his teammate Blake Matjoulis, and it happened again last night. Seay started on the pole, but Matjoulis was able to grab the lead early, and keep his friend and teammate in the rearview for the duration. Seay settled for second in consecutive weeks, while James Edens finished third. Seay still leads the championship though, because Matjoulis was fifth in the opener, and the pair is separated currently by seven points. Kendal Tucker is the only other driver to finish top ten in all three events to this point. Next up is Port Royal, but barring some epic run by Tucker or maybe James Edens, this thing feels like it will go back and forth between Seay and Matjoulis all year. You can watch these races at 9PM eastern on Monday nights on YouTube and DIRTVision.
That's all for today, make sure to hit up that streaming schedule over at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight if you aren't sure what to watch tonight.
Hope you guys have a good Tuesday out there, we'll see you right back here tomorrow.