DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Anthony Macri stock post 39M, you BUYING or SELLING? | Daily 8-2-2023

Justin Peck breaks through with High Limit, Bobby Pierce tops RTJ, we've got Tuesday modified results, and I wonder who if we are still buying Anthony Macri stock right now. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, August 2nd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

We reached a fun milestone this week on the YouTube channel, as we've crossed over five million total video views. That's pretty badass, as there aren't that many dirt racing YouTube channels with that many views. Of those five million, more than 2.5 million have come just through the first seven months of 2023. And, as we work towards our year long goal of reaching 25,000 subscribers, we are just shy 21,000 currently. If you aren't subscribed yet, hit the button. It's free to do so and always will be. Also, hit that like button too, as that tells YouTube this is a good video.

There is a ton of stuff to talk about from Tuesday night. We'll start with High Limit at Kokomo. Tyler Courtney talked to FloRacing's Tyler Burnett at the track about his back injury suffered at Eldora. Sunshine has been sitting out, with Anthony Macri and Corey Day filling in. He's not in a brace or anything, and does have an upcoming doctor's appointment to check on his healing process. It sounds like he's hopeful to return this season if all goes well. That would be good news and hopefully he won't suffer any long term effects. It does seem like we've had a bunch of these types of injuries lately, and if I was a driver, I'd be checking into why and maybe making some adjustments to my safety setup.

As for the racing at Kokomo, it was what we would have hoped for. Justin Peck drove the wheels off his 13 car and topped Kyle Larson and Rico Abreu at the finish. Larson was out front for the most laps after getting around polesitter Corey Day on lap eight. But right around ten to go, Yung Money caught the wall out of turn two in lap traffic, and it slowed his momentum just enough to allow Peck to get by. From there, Peck drove like a man possessed and had to fend off multiple challenges from Larson down the stretch to score the $23,000 win. I found this stat a bit surprising, but it was just Peck's second victory of the season. He's made 50 410 starts so far in 2023 with his only other win coming way back on February 26th at Lincoln during the Icebreaker. That team has had a lot of bad luck this year, and I'm sure all of that was going through their minds last night, and provided that extra little bit of motivation for the driver. Looking down through the results, he didn't get the finish I'm sure he wanted, but Corey Day was impressive yet again. Led the first seven laps after outdueling Larson in the dash for the pole. I think he and that 7BC were fast, but I felt like a little bit of his inexperience showed through working through what was pretty heavy lap traffic at times. The decision making and risk taking through traffic is a big strength for Larson, and Day will get that figured out as he races more and more. I do wonder where we are right now too with Anthony Macri's stock. Since leaving the 39M, he's competed in nine races between the Clauson Marshall 7BC and the Indy Race Parts 71. He has just a single top five, a fifth at Red Hill with the All Stars, and just four top tens. His average finish over that span is 11th. And maybe we'd just chalk it up to adjusting to new teams, but having Day jump in the 7BC last night and show out against a tough field I think is a ding for Macri. To be fair, I believe last night was Macri's first trip to Kokomo, but it's not like Day has a ton of experience there either. He raced in a midget at Kokomo, but just once back in 2021. Macri is effectively auditioning for future rides, and he could be on the market even sooner than first thought if Sunshine is able to come back in the next few weeks. If the Central PA car owners are looking for a driver, Macri is a no-brainer, but I think he has much larger aspirations. And being a national touring guy means getting up to speed quickly at tracks you don't race at often. I do think his stock is maybe down just a bit right now, especially with Justin Sanders' consistent start to his Macri Motorsports tenure. High Limit is off for about two weeks now, returning on August 15th at Huset's. The rest of the sprint car world will turn it's focus to Pevely for the Outlaws this weekend and the 360 Nationals at Knoxville.

At Boone Speedway last night in Iowa, Bobby Pierce continued his march towards a possible first career national tour championship with a flag to flag victory. Ricky Thornton Jr. drove up from sixth to finish second, and he kept Pierce honest over the second half, but just couldn't find a way by. Tanner English finished third. With Ryan Gustin finishing outside the top ten, Chris Madden's fourth place result saw him jump back to second in the championship standings, but the gap is now 84 points. That's about 42 positions on track for reference. Pierce and RTJ continue to cement their positions as the top top guys in dirt late model racing in 2023, and I wonder what our reactions would have been if we were told these two guys would be it before the year started. Thornton was very solid a year ago with Lucas, grabbing a couple of wins and finishing a nice third in the championship. But the leap that team has made this season has been pretty incredible. North of 20 wins and over half a million dollars in earnings, and we still have plenty of big races left this year. And Pierce had only previously run a full season with one of the two tours once in his career. I predicted back at the start of the year he'd be off the Outlaw tour by the spring, and now it's August and he's building a serious lead. A lot of these late model racers and more will be right back to racing tomorrow night when the USA Nationals get rolling at Cedar Lake.

Up in Canada on Tuesday, Mike Mahaney picked up his third career Super DIRTcar Series win, getting by David Hebert on a restart with less than 20 to go and leading the rest of the way. Mahaney pocketed $10 grand for the victory and guaranteed himself into the feature at Super DIRT Week. Hebert settled for second with Erick Rudolph third. Matt Sheppard was out front for a lot of the event, but what looked like maybe a bit too eager of a move from Hebert sent Sheppard around on lap 49. The 9S went to the tail, and he eventually finished ninth. Sheppard still leads the championship though, and he'll look to rebound tonight when this run through Canada comes to an end with a stop at Brockville.

The other northeast modified show was the Short Track Super Series at the Action Track USA. Mike Gular came out on top of what turned into an absolute slugfest of a modified race. He topped Corey Cormier and Matt Stangle. The track had some character, and guys were not afraid to get their elbows out during the 50 lapper. I'd definitely sign up for that one again next season. The next series points race is next Tuesday at New Egypt.

If you want to dive into some other dirt racing content this week, Winged Nation has Brian Brown, Chase Randall and Greg Wilson. I was on Quicktime last week with the guys, Dunewich on Dirt has Nick Dietz, and there are new episodes of LoudPedal, The Dirt Reporters, The Dirt Nerds, Dirt Track Confessions, and Dirt Track Weekly. To see the full list of shows and episodes head over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.

That's it for this Wednesday edition of the Daily. Make sure to hit up that streaming schedule at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight to see what your options are for today.

Hope you guys have a good day out there, we'll see you right back here tomorrow.