DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Ricky Thornton Jr., Prairie Dirt Classic deliver again; even more sprint car changes | Daily 7-31-2023
Coming up, the PDC at Fairbury delivers in controversy and action, plus sprint car driver news never stops, weekend results, and plenty more. Let's go!
It's Monday, July 31st, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
We'll start this new week off with the big money late model show from over the weekend, the Prairie Dirt Classic. I felt like we got exactly what we could have hoped for with a race long battle between the top two guys this season so far in Ricky Thornton Jr. and Bobby Pierce. Pierce led the most laps with 74, but settled for second behind an incredibly determined RTJ. With 20 laps to go, and RTJ out front, things went a bit awry for the 20RT, with the driver later saying it was the crank trigger that broke. But coming to lead lap 81, he slowed suddenly, and a caution was thrown because of it. When things were finally sorted by race officials, Pierce was out front for the restart and RTJ was put back to sixth. It was a bit of a bang/bang situation, and officials used the blend rule and made a judgement call to move the 20RT back. There was definitely some criticism over the decision, but I think it was mostly correct. Slowing like he did and not being under power, I don't believe he should have restarted out front. Based on what I saw and what the rulebook says, maybe fourth makes a bit more sense, but I don't super clearly understand the blend and how it's applied, and I feel like they had enough time to make a solid decision. Sixth was better than going to the rear. I would like to have heard a better explanation from Ruben about it though. I always like more transparency when possible. Regardless of the outcome though, these judgement calls are always going to be a cause for discussion. And it ended up giving us a nice last 20 lap run to the finish. In victory lane afterward, Thornton told DIRTVision's Hannah Newhouse that he was either going to win or tip it over. And the win is what he got, getting back out front with 12 to go and driving on to the victory. Pierce settled for second and extended his Outlaw points lead, while Ryan Gustin was third after starting on the pole and leading the first four laps. When it comes to these big shows, this is what you hope for. A knock down, drag out fight between the best in the business, and that's exactly what we got on Saturday night at Fairbury. The track had multiple lanes, some character, and the crowd on hand got their money's worth for sure. Headed to Cedar Lake Speedway this coming weekend for the USA Nationals, Pierce now leads Ryan Gustin by 68 points for the Outlaw championship. Chris Madden, Nick Hoffman, and Brandon Sheppard complete the top five.
As for the Modified Nationals finale, Mike Harrison grabbed the season ending win, while Tyler Nicely was crowned series champion for the first time in his career. He becomes just the fourth driver to win a Mod Nats title, joining Mike Harrison, Kenny Wallace, and Nick Hoffman.
Before we talk so more weekend racing and results, there are a few sprint car things I wanted to talk about first. We did find out over the weekend that the Kreitz 69K has a new driver, at least for some races. Logan Wagner is set to depart the Zemco car and drive the 69K at eight of the ten remaining races on the Port Royal schedule including the Tuscarora 50 and the Outlaw weekend. Kreitz said they still need to make a decision for who will run at Williams Grove, including the National Open. There is a chance as well that Wagner runs some races at Lincoln and Selinsgrove. Wagner is a multi-time track champ at Port and has won the Tusky 50. His situation with Zemco was scaled back this season as the team looked to lighten their schedule. John Zemaitis told Jeremy Elliott that the team isn't closing up shop yet and will be looking for another driver for the 1Z. So as with Don Kreitz the previous week, I'm sure there are plenty of drivers looking to get into the Zemco car for some races in 2023. At least for just running Port Royal, Wagner makes sense here with his success and knowledge of the track. He's only made 10 sprint car starts though this season, with a win at Port on July 15th. We'll see if this gets Kreitz going in the direction he wants.
The sprint car silly season though just continues to churn along. This morning it was the announcement that Grove Racing and Tim Shaffer had parted ways following 31 races together this season as full time All Star competitors. Shaffer had an All Star win, five top fives, asnd 10 top tens this season, but was outside the top 15 Thursday and Friday at Lake Ozark and I-70, and then he missed the feature Saturday at Knoxville. Shaffer is currently third in the All Star driver standings and the team is fifth on the owner side. No word on future plans for either party. I think there is still plenty more to come this season in terms of driver swaps and craziness.
There were also several scary crashes this weekend, including Justin Whittall leaving the ballpark in turn one at Williams Grove, Davie Franek with nasty crash at Knoxville that will take some time and surgery to make right, and Lee Jacobs with a bad hit at Sharon. There were some pretty suspect safety takes on social media through the weekend, and I'm glad that we don't allow Twitter and certain drivers to make decisions on what the right moves are in terms of safety procedures and equipment.
Alright, running through some more results. The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series got in just one of two Weedsport races. David Gravel led 33 of 35 laps last night to score his series best 10th win of 2023. Carson Macedo and Dave Blaney joined him on the podium. With the Ironman 55 at Pevely up next, Gravel has an eight point lead on Brad Sweet for the championship, with Macedo 48 back. The Knoxville Nationals are up after that.
And this past Saturday night with the All Stars was the final chance for some 410 racing at Knoxville before festivities begin this week with the 360 Nationals. Rico Abreu went sixth to the lead in just 12 laps and showed why he and Ricky Warner will be at or near the top of Nationals favorites coming up. Buddy Kofoid won Friday at I-70. Zeb Wise and the Rudeen 26 remain in control of the All Star championship picture, with Anthony Macri and the Clauson Marshall team still looking for more speed. In eight races together so far, they have just one top five and four top tens. The All Stars go quiet now until August 18th at Outlaw Speedway.
Indiana Sprint Week for the USAC sprint cars came to a anti-climatic close on Saturday night with a rainout at Haubstadt. Brady Bacon was the sprint week champion, while Emerson Axsom won the final race, Friday night at Bloomington. Hat tip to Briggs Danner for a nice run there, equally his career best national finish. Bacon also has a 19 point lead in the season long championship fight, with Smackdown at Kokomo next on the schedule, later in August.
With the Southern Nationals, Dale McDowell slipped by Carson Ferguson on the final lap to win Friday at North Georgia, and then the 17M dominated the postponed Tazewell show on Sunday to earn $10,000 and back-to-back wins. Jimmy Owens ended up with the Southern Nationals championship.
Weekend Xtreme Midget wins went to Jade Avedisian and Daniel Whitley. Whitley actually led at the white flag on Saturday at Atomic, but Jade beat him back to the checkered with a nice move out of four. Whitley bounced back on Sunday though to lead all 25 laps at Brushcreek for his first career national midget win. Cannon McIntosh maintains the championship lead, although Jade has cut it down to 44 points. I did have a few people ask about the low car counts for Xtreme this weekend, but I think it was just the fact that Ohio isn't a hotbed for midget racing. There aren't exactly local teams there to draw from. I wouldn't read too much into it.
And finally, hat tip to Brenham Crouch for securing his first ever IRA sprint car win. He'd been leading the championship standings, but was still without a victory. It looked like Crouch was going to maybe win Friday at Plymouth, but he got Greg Wilsoned on the final lap and finished second. Saturday at Wilmot though, Crouch was the late beneficiary of leader Bill Balog making a mistake on the top side in three and four, and throwing away a massive lead. Balog went to the tail, and Crouch led the rest of the way. 190 points separate Crouch and Jordan Goldesberry right now for the IRA championship.
If you want to get into some racing tonight, the Super DIRTcar Series is starting a three race run through Canada at Autodrome Drummond. You can also check out the iRacing World of Outlaws Late Model Series at 9PM. Both of these shows are on the streaming schedule at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Hope you guys have a good Monday out there, we'll see you right back here tomorrow.