DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Local dirt racer to national contender with Mark Richards in charge? | Daily 7-28-2023
Could Mark Richards take a decent local driver and make them a contender? We'll dive into that today, plus talk Prairie Dirt Classic, the All Star championship battle and more. Let's go!
It's Friday, July 28th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
It's Prairie Dirt Classic weekend, and we'll get into plenty of dirt late model discussion coming up, but before we do, let's do a little merch discount code for the weekend. Use code "PDC2023" when you checkout at shop.dirtrackr.com to get 15% off your order. The code will be live through Saturday night so you have today and tomorrow to take advantage. The 15% discount applies to everything in the store at this moment, including shirts, koozies, and stickers. If you live here in the US, your order will also ship for free if it's $20 or more. So code "PDC2023" at shop.dirtrackr.com.
I had a comment from my show yesterday where we talked a bunch about the talent that is out there at lower levels that I want to dive into a bit today and get some feedback on. Commenter Chris said quote "Let’s be extremely clear. Richards could take just about any decent local driver, shove them in the Rocket 1 and have him winning in both major series. It’s a certainty. Josh Richards proved it alone. The performance of other drivers pre and post house car also demonstrates this. Hell, look at sheps falloff alone. If he never set foot in the house car he’d have 1/25th the wins. There’s a reason for this" unquote. I'm curious if that is a take that you agree with. That Mark Richards is a sort of kingmaker when it comes to drivers. To me this makes it seem like the guys who have driven the Rocket one were nobodies ahead of their time in that car, and were nobodies after, which isn't really true. You can't get into Josh Richards' time before because he obviously grew up in that race shop. But after he left the house car, he did win a Lucas title with another team, and finished top five in Lucas points four straight seasons, winning 21 times along the way. And Brandon Sheppard was a 10 time national tour winner ahead of getting his chance with Rocket in 2017. He was a Lucas full timer in 2015 and 2016, finishing sixth and fourth in the standings driving his family owned B5. So he knew what it was to compete out on the road which is no small matter. Looking at Shepp since leaving Rocket doesn't feel like a super fair comparison, as he's back to running his own team again, and he switched chassis manufacturers. It's going to take some time for this to play out, but we are coming off a weekend where he did win a $53,000 Lucas show, which was I believe his fifth total win of 2023. And the current Rocket pilot has certainly been elevated this year in that car, but again Hudson O'Neal didn't come out of nowhere. Something like 18 Lucas wins before 2023, including multiple crown jewels and a second place championship finish in 2021. I do agree with Chris that Richards and the team he has assembled around their very successful chassis can elevate drivers, but I also think that Mark knows how to spot talent. I think the drivers he's chosen were very strategic and were the right guys at the right time, and both were already driving Rocket chassis. Drop your thoughts below, let me know if you agree with Chris, that Richards has the ability to just pluck any decent local driver and make them a national tour contender. Thanks to Chris for his comment and weighing in with his take.
Looking ahead to Fairbury this weekend and the Prairie Dirt Classic, this could be a good chance for Sheppard to keep his momentum rolling. Using the race results by track tool which is available with a subscription to DIRTRACKR Plus, we see that Brandon Sheppard has won two of the last three Prairie Dirt Classics, with Kyle Larson in there as well in 2021. And Bobby Pierce won the Lucas show at Fairbury this year, back in May. Based on recent results, I'd say that Sheppard and Bobby Pierce will be the two guys to watch for the win, and it seems like those guys with a lot of history at Fairbury will have an advantage. I'd think a guy like Dennis Erb Jr. could be another to watch. Ricky Thornton Jr. is coming, and obviously he's been scalding hot all year, but Fairbury wasn't particularly kind to the 20RT a few months ago with a 17th place finish. That May race if you might remember was when O'Neal tangled with Dennis Erb, and O'Neal later hit the wall and finished 16th. Sheppard won those two PDCs with Rocket, so O'Neal shouldn't be overlooked either. Pierce enters the weekend with a 56 point advantage over Chris Madden for the Outlaw championship, which is about 28 positions on track. Ryan Gustin, Nick Hoffman, and Sheppard complete the top five. Tonight we'll get four, 25-lap showdowns that pay $5000 to win, with the top four finishers in each locked into Saturday's main event. The PDC finale pays $50,000 to win, and $500 for every lap led. So if you lead them all, you could take home $100,000. This weekend is always a fan favorite with all of the festivities, but if you can't make it to Fairbury, the whole weekend will be live on DIRTVision.
In some dirt late model racing from last night, Jimmy Owens bagged the Southern Nationals win at Tri-County, and extended his championship points lead with two races left. Ricky Weiss finished second, while Donald McIntosh was third after leading the first 16 circuits. The Southern Nationals close out their 2023 season with a stop tonight at North Georgia, and a Saturday show at Tazewell. Nice to see Owens having some success after they struggled to start this year.
Some other late model racing to check out this weekend includes $10,000 to win tonight at Lernerville, the Comp Cams series has two shows, the ULMS is in action, and more.
We've been talking about this All Star championship situation as the season has progressed and with Tyler Courtney sidelined currently, and last night at Lake Ozark things flipped in the direction of Rudeen and Zeb Wise. Zeb had already taken control of the driver championship, but last night the owner side changed at the top. Anthony Macri doesn't seem to be quite up to speed yet in that substitute role with Clauson Marshall, and Rudeen has been able to take advantage. A top five run last night was Zeb's fifth in a row, while Macri needed a provisional to start the feature and went 25th to 12th. In six starts, Macri only has three top tens, and with I-70 and Knoxville looming the next two nights, the 7BC now trails by six points. Out front, Aaron Reutzel went on to the Thursday win, with Buddy Kofoid also leading laps. Buddy seemed to work lap traffic a little bit better and he was able to snag the lead from Reutzel before half way, but the eight car was better and Reutzel was back out front for good on lap 17. It was Reutzel's first All Star win since Screven, way back in January of 2021. Him and Tyler Swank definitely seem to be peaking at the right time here, especially with the Knoxville Nationals on the horizon. The next two All Star nights can be watched live on Flo.
At Putnamville last night, the wild Indiana Sprint Week continued. The track took some rain earlier in the day, and she was pretty juiced up, which caught a lot of drivers out. I think there were seven flips before the night was done. In the feature, Jake Swanson led flag-to-flag for his fifth win of the year, topping Robert Ballou and Brady Bacon. With Bloomington and Haubstadt still to come, Justin Grant has a very slight lead in the sprint week title chase over Bacon, while the Macho Man has stretched away just a bit in the season long fight. If you're headed out to either of these shows this weekend, and really at a lot of places, make sure to stay cool and hydrated. It's going to be a hot one out there.
Up in New York on Saturday and Sunday, the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars will be at Weedsport. The championship remains tight with David Gravel and Brad Sweet tied at the top, and Carson Macedo 44 points back. Donny Schatz and Gravel split these wins a year ago, and Gravel comes into the weekend with the best average finish in the series over both the past five and ten race stretches. Schatz could use a good run as well. After winning the Kings Royal he was 12th at BAPS, 15th at the Grove on Friday, and then ninth at the Grove Saturday. After this weekend at Weedsport, we've got the Ironman 55 coming up at Pevely, and then it's all about Knoxville.
Before we shut it down for the weekend, one bit of track news for you. Friendship Motor Speedway here in North Carolina shut down last year, but it's being brought back to life. Bobby and Jessica Koehler, who own the car that Jimmy Owens is driving, have bought the track, and it will come back to life on August 26th as Ultimate Motorsports Park. The first event will be a $7500 to win Ultimate Late Model Series show. More details, a website, and improvements will be on tap for the coming weeks.
That's it for the Daily this week. Thanks to everyone who tunes in, subscribes, comments. It means a lot to me that you guys take time out of your day to watch or listen to my show.
Hope you guys have a good weekend out there, we'll see you right back here on Monday.