DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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11 Knoxville Nationals wins for Schatz, ZERO started this way | Daily 8-10-2023
Is winning a Knoxville prelim night a good thing, or a bad thing? We'll talk about that plus everything you need to know from night one, an update on Jacob Allen, what to watch this weekend, and more. Let's go!
It's Thursday, August 10th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
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The first of two prelim nights at the Knoxville Nationals is complete, and there were definitely some surprises last night. David Gravel and Aaron Reutzel crashing in back to back heat races was high on that list. Reutzel called it a night and will try again Friday, while Gravel did go run the C-Main, which he ended up winning. He was then able to pick up ten spots in the night's B-Main, but an 11th place result was no where near the fourth place finish he needed to transfer. Going 21st to fourth in just 12 laps was going to be damn near impossible, but I appreciate him at least trying. Both he and Reutzel will need good runs during Hard Knox Friday to try and set themselves up for a decent day on Saturday. Gravel was definitely high on the list of favorites for the week, but now he'll have a big hill to climb. Other drivers missing last night's main event included Brent Marks, who was a top ten finisher in last year's Nationals, Justin Sanders, JJ Hickle, and Parker Price Miller, who were all also main event starters a year ago. Plus Zeb Wise, Chase Dietz in the Shark car, and past Nationals champion Tim Shaffer. In the feature, we saw something we hadn't seen in 20 years, which was a Donny Schatz prelim night victory. He went seventh to the win, topping Chase Randall. Sheldon Haudenschild needed a good run as well, after a poor qualifying effort, and he went 12th to third. As Schatz tries to tie Steve Kinser for the most Nationals wins all time at 12, you have to wonder if a prelim night win is a good sign, or a bad sign. Schatz didn't win his prelim night for any of his 11 Knoxville titles, and only twice in the past 15 runnings of the event has the eventual winner also won their prelim night. Brad Sweet did it in 2018, and David Gravel did it in 2019. Schatz's 479 points from last night makes him high point man, and should have him starting close to the front on Saturday. That will help his cause, although we've seen Schatz win from all sorts of different starting positions. Looking through the night one points, the totals are pretty low, so not everyone in the top eight will be locked in. Walkapedia says 460 points is in, with the recent average to lock in at 452. So that will be good news for everyone down to fifth, which is Schatz, Hunter Schuerenberg, Kerry Madsen, Gio Scelzi, and Corey Day. Randall has 449 as does Justin Peck, James McFadden has 447, and Kasey Kahne 446. All of those guys could be at risk, and everyone else on back will be on the outside. If Justin Peck is able to get in, it would be a pretty wild turn around, given the massive crash he had in the feature last night. He got over the right rear of Sheldon Haudenschild out of turn four and went into the frontstretch wall driver side first. It was a violent impact, but he emerged under his own power. Glad to see he was okay after his second big time incident of the year. Thanks to an emailer for that last photo. If you are ever at a track, and see something cool, or want to share, you can send photos to info@dirtrackr.com. You guys can be my eyes and ears all around the country.
Tonight at Knoxville, we'll do it all over again with the other half of the entries. This morning, that list is 55 cars strong and includes names like Logan Schuchart, Anthony Macri, Brian Brown, Rico Abreu, Carson Macedo, Brad Sweet, Kyle Larson, Buddy Kofoid, and a lot more. Same schedule again as well with hot laps set for 6:45.
A couple of other notes. Garet Williamson did end up finding a ride after parting ways with Bryant Paver Motorsports on Sunday. He's in a third car this week for Dennis Gainey and Team DGRD, who is also fielding cars for Brandon Wimmer and Clint Garner. Also, Jeremy Elliott talked to Bobby Allen about Jacob Allen stepping away from the 1A machine. Bobby said quote "Jacob just needs time to take a break" and that there is no timetable for his return. Bobby thinks the new tires have contributed to Jacob's struggles this season. Chase Dietz is filling in like we talked about yesterday, and he drove all night on Tuesday after getting the call to make the trip. Supposedly they didn't even need to change seats, as Dietz is about the same size as Jacob.
Before we move on, since we can't seem to go a day without a sprint car driver change, we had one late yesterday in Pennsylvania. Brandon Rahmer has decided to leave the Travis Esh Motorsports team. In 27 races in 2023, Rahmer has two top fives and 14 top tens running mostly at Lincoln, with some Wiliams Grove sprinkled in there as well. No word on future plans for either side.
In other Wednesday night racing, Chase McDermand went back-to-back with the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets. He won Tuesday at Clyde Martin, and led 19 laps last night at Action Track USA for his fourth win of the season. Taylor Reimer was second, and Kyle Jones third after starting on the pole and leading laps. The championship standings on the Xtreme website haven't been updated in a few days, but with Cannon McIntosh finishing five spots ahead of Jade Avedisian last night, he'll extend his advantage headed to Linda's Speedway tonight. Appalachian Midget Week continues through Friday with a stop at Path Valley. As of this morning, Bridgeport on Saturday has been cancelled.
At Florence Speedway, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series is back to racing after a few weeks off. This weekend is the $75,000 to win North/South 100. Last time out, it was Brandon Sheppard bagging $53,000 at Huset's during the Silver Dollar Nationals back on July 22nd. Ricky Thornton Jr. is your Lucas championship leader right now, with Hudson O'Neal second, Jonathan Davenport third, and Brandon Overton holding down that final chase spot in fourth. Just 115 points though separate Overton in fourth, Tim McCreadie in fifth, and Devin Moran in sixth. The race results by track tool from DIRTRACKR Plus shows me that Jonathan Davenport won this event a year ago, with Overton winning in 2021, and McCreadie winning in 2020. RTJ won at Florence already this year, bagging nearly $16,000 back on May 6th. Tonight and Friday are prelim nights, with each featuring split field programs with drivers earning points. Those points will setup Saturday's action. The Outlaws are off, big money on the line, so you know that means all the main drivers will be at Florence. Besides the Lucas regulars, that means Bobby Pierce who is red hot, plus Sheppard, Kyle Bronson, local favorite Josh Rice, Dale McDowell, and others. The whole weekend will be live on FloRacing if you can't get to Florence y'all.
Elsewhere this weekend there is $20,000 to win for supers at Cherokee, a $10,000 Iron-Man show at Talladega, plus the Southern All Stars, Carolina Clash, Ultimate Southeast and more.
That's it for the show this week. I don't have any plans at this moment to do a Friday show, as we are transitioning to the new Daily schedule. Maybe if something crazy happens, but don't hold your breath. Don't forget too about the streaming schedule over at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Hope you guys have a good weekend out there, we'll see you right back here on Sunday.