DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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FRUSTRATION mounting as AGGRESSION stays high in dirt racing | Daily 7-26-2023
RTJ scores another big win, Davenport is tired of getting wrecked, and everyone is swapping sprint car seats at Grandview. Let's go!
It's Wednesday, July 26th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
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Alright, let's kick this Wednesday off with last night's big late model show at Off Road Speedway in Nebraska. Daulton Wilson, Bobby Pierce, Ricky Thornton Jr. all led during the 100 lap main event, but in the end it was RTJ getting away for yet another big money victory this season. He scored the $100 grand and his first career XR Super Series win. Pierce settled for second with Kyle Bronson third. Pierce's second along with an 18th for Hudson O'Neal cleared the way for a change atop the championship standings, with the Smooth Operator now out front by 32 over O'Neal. The Rocket one DNF'd after contact with RTJ and a spin with 21 laps to go. Thornton has crossed the 20 win mark for the season, winning with XR, Lucas, the Flo Series, the Hunt the Front Series, and even in micro sprint competition. Last night's victory was his second that paid $100k in his career. He and Pierce have separated themselves from everyone else in the late model world so far this year. No shock they are leading the two national tours' championships and are at the top of the money column. If you watched it live or have checked out the highlights this morning, I'm curious what your thoughts are on the Jonathan Davenport, Daulton Wilson dustup. After O'Neal's caution, Wilson and Davenport came together into turn three on the restart and JD went around. He eventually finished 12th, but he was not happy with Wilson under that caution, making his feelings known with a little contact of his own. Wilson doesn't seem to be a dirty driver to me, and he claims he got bumped up the track into the 49. Davenport's frustration with how people have been racing though seems to be growing in recent weeks. He commented on it after his Lucas win at Davenport Speedway a few weeks ago. If you might remember there was early contact between him and Devin Moran and he mentioned they've had to replace a lot of sheet metal because of how guys are driving. And last night, those frustrations boiled over with Wilson. We talked way back in April about how aggressive things are right now not just in dirt late model racing, but everywhere, and it seems to maybe be wearing on some of the more veteran drivers. The sliders are getting bigger and sketchier, but I feel like on some level these things will police themselves. Drivers will keep pushing the boundaries until they get bit. And last night it was JD biting back. The Prairie Dirt Classic is up next now, but don't expect the 49 to be in attendance. He told the Always Race Day guys last night that he's taking the family on a cruise. Action at Fairbury gets rolling on Friday. We'll see the XR Super Series again in few weeks at Gondik Law.
Moving on to High Limit. Obviously as is my luck, as I was in the middle of uploading yesterday's show when the news hit that the race was being postponed to today. Pushing the race back has caused issues for a few teams and drivers who were already committed elsewhere for tonight. So here's where things stand right now. We will not see Zeb Wise and the Rudeen 26 today. They are in the thick of the All Star title fight, so he headed back to Missouri to join them at Benton. We also won't see Anthony Macri at Grandview. He's headed to Benton as well to rejoin the CMR team, but Bernie and the Indy Race Parts 71 aren't leaving. The 71 will instead have Kyle Reinhardt in the seat. The Alex Bowman Racing 55 was initially scheduled to run with Jake Swanson, but he's off to Terre Haute tonight to continue Indiana Sprint Week, so Hunter Schuerenberg will pilot the Ally 55. And you will see double tonight with the Macri Motorsports 39M. They are pulling out a second car for Lance Dewease to run Grandview tonight. Ryan Hand will crew chief it. And Joe Mooney will take their main operation to Benton to join up with Justin Sanders to start that pairing. So that initial entry list will look a little bit different. We also know that Danny Dietrich is no longer running the High Limit shows with Randy Gass. He'll be at Grandview tonight with the GKR 48, but doesn't plan on any more High Limit races, except maybe Bridgeport in October. Barring any other losses or additions, I'm guessing we'll be mid 20's for tonight, losing Zeb and effectively another car with Reinhardt swapping from his 91 to the 71. The forecast does look better for today, so hopefully no issues. You can watch live on FloRacing, or grab some tickets on the TicketHoss app.
One other sprint car ride note, Cale Thomas shared to social media yesterday that he was out of the Demyan Rudzik 49. He'd made 13 appearances in that car this season, while also mixing in some shows with his own 91 car. No word on what direction the 49 team will go for a driver, but I'm sure we'll see Thomas out again soon in his own ride.
Elsewhere last night, we had two other late model races and the Short Track Super Series in Canada. Stop me if you've heard this before, but it was Matt Sheppard taking the win at Autodrome Granby. He got to the lead with 16 to go and never looked back. He topped locals David Hebert and Michael Parent at the checkered. We did have some fireworks between Mat Williamson and Mike Mahaney. The two made contact late while battling for second, and Williamson slowed to a stop with broken front suspension. Under that yellow, Money Mat threw something at Mahaney to show his displeasure. Not sure what exactly it was. Mahaney's night though went sideways just a few minutes later when he slowed on the restart and was out of contention. All of these drivers will now head to RPM tonight for aonther $10,000 to win show.
With the Southern Nationals late models, Zack Mitchell picked up his second consecutive win with the score last night at Toccoa. Over the weekend he dominated at Screven for a $10,000 payday, and last night he battled past race long leader Donald McIntosh with 15 to go. He tacked on another $7500 for doing so. McIntosh, driving the Billy Hicks 79, settled for second, with Kenny Collins third. I believe that's a new Longhorn by Wells that Mitchell has been running lately, and it's clearly fast with a couple of wins. The Southern Nationals head to Tri-County in North Carolina tomorrow. Jimmy Owens maintains the points lead over Carson Ferguson.
And at Davenport Speedway in Iowa, Drake Troutman led flag to flag with the MARS series to score $10k, topping Garrett Alberson and Jeff Larson. Troutman was fast often with the Summer Nationals but ended up missing out on a few wins. This should make up for that though.
Looking ahead to tonight, besides High Limit and the Short Track Super Series, we've got the USAC Sprint Cars at Terre Haute and the All Stars at Benton. Justin Grant will try and increase his Indiana Sprint Week championship lead, while I think a few guys will be looking for clean nights, including Jake Swanson, CJ Leary, and Mitchel Moles. Brady Bacon already has a Terre Haute win in 2023, while Robert Ballou and Leary won there in 2022. With the All Stars, Zeb Wise has taken the driver's championship lead, while the owner's title is down to just 40 points between the 26 and 7BC teams. I believe this is the first trip to Benton for the All Stars since Dale Blaney won there in 2008. There has been recent 410 sprint car action there though, as Joe B. Miller picked up a POWRi 410 win at the track back in April. He topped Roger Crockett and Emerson Axsom in that one. Both of these races will be live on Flo.
There is other action tonight as well, like the Western Sprint Tour, Sprint Invaders, and weekly action at Canandaigua. You can see all of it over on the streaming schedule at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
If you want to check out some other dirt racing content this week, Winged Nation has Rico Abreu, Bill Balog, and Logan Schuchart. Quicktime has Zach Hampton, Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks has Alfred Galedrige, All Gas No Brakes has the XR bossman Barry Braun, Hoogie's Garage has Tanner Holmes and Jade Avedisian, Dunewich on Dirt has John Windham and Reid Christenson, and there are new episodes of LoudPedal, The Dirt Reporters, Passing Points, the Dirt Nerds, Dirt Track Confessions, Dirt Track Weekly, and Non-Wing Worldwide. You can see all of this for yourself at dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
That's it for today's Daily.
Hope you guys have a good Wednesday out there, we'll see you right back here tomorrow.