DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Why I didn't talk about Tyler Carpenter, plus more driver moves and another track for sale

Tyler Carpenter got me in trouble again, Macon Speedway is up for sale, and a few driver moves to mention today. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, October 24th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

Before we get rolling today, there is a new Conversations episode on the channel and in your podcast feeds. I haven't done one of these since February when I talked to Kevin Rumley. This new interview features Joshua Joiner from Hunt the Front talking about their first year of their late model series, plus starting a streaming service, and a lot more. It's about 40 minutes, so tune in when you get a chance today. Also, if you haven't done so, hit that like button on today's video, and subscribe to the YouTube channel or where you get podcasts. As of this exact moment I'm writing this show up, we are just 683 subscribers short of our 25k goal for this year. Can we break through before November starts? Let's see!

In my comment section on yesterday's Daily show about the Lucas finale, there were several folks in there who were disappointed with me that I didn't talk about what Tyler Carpenter did during that Eldora feature. I left him out because as nice as it was to see a local guy lead some laps, ultimately he wasn't the story. In my opinion, BShepp winning and the crazy championship fight deserved the focus, and that was really what people were talking about in the aftermath. What's interesting though, is Carpenter was one of eight race leaders from the Dirt Track World Championship, but nobody said a word or had complaints about me also not talking about Mike Marlar, Brian Shirley, Tim McCreadie or Bobby Pierce. Did Carpenter deserve more attention then those guys? I'm not so sure. Even in both the Dirt on Dirt post race stories, Carpenter is only mentioned once in each, and both times it's in reference to other things, not to tell the story of his brief race. Late in 2022, after the Gateway Dirt Nationals, I talked on a Daily show about how Carpenter is such an interesting phenomenon in dirt racing, because of how rarely you hear about him. His local exploits don't get him much attention, but when he pops up at Gateway, or this past Sunday night at Eldora, people are suddenly all about some Tyler Carpenter. I don't really know of any other drivers that create quite the reaction he does so few times a season. There are local guys that pop up periodically to lead races, or grab the odd win, but I've never had complaints about not going deep on those other drivers. I did take some heat though from what I'm assuming are his fans in the aftermath of that December 2022 show, but what I said that day wasn't really a knock against him, it's just an observation. Unless you hang out where he races each week, the guy just isn't part of the conversation around the sport. I'm into this stuff as deep as anyone, and I had no idea he has seven victories this season according to MyRacePass. To be fair though, it's all in weekly competition around Ohio, Kentucky, and the like. He doesn't race often with the big series, and when he does, he's not making a ton of features. Two Outlaw shows this year, both B main exits at Atomic. He was at the World, and again three B mains. And in three Lucas starts, he did make all three main events between Atomic and Muskingum, but was outside the top ten in both full field races. Again, this isn't a shot at him, those are just his stats. Carpenter's 17th to the lead charge in 24 laps at Eldora on Sunday was pretty wild, and he looked like a world beater for that short stretch. But in the end his equipment gave out on him, with it being shared that it was the power steering that had failed and put him out. Even if that hadn't happened though, I'm not sure that Carpenter would have been a real threat towards the end. He was able to drive through the field because of his balls out style, and there were a bunch of guys clearly just saving their stuff trying to go the distance early on. But it's that same style that did end up biting him, his car did have damage when he bowed out, and I think would have been his downfall by the end of the 100 lapper anyway, with it being so rough. Let's not forget that just six cars finished this race, and half of them spent time in the infield at some point. When conditions are right, he can be very fast, we've obviously seen that with his Dome wins. In a situation like this though, especially when this audience has made it clear through comments and their viewership that they are less interested in actual race talk, how much attention does a driver that leads 10 laps early in a 100 lapper, and then finishes 19th out of the race deserve? And I'm not being crappy here, I'm legitimately asking. Let me know your thoughts.

Alright, there are some news items to hit on today. First up, more race track news. Macon Speedway, which has been under the control of Chris Kearns for just a tick less than a year, is now on the block for sale. In an announcement from yesterday, Kearns announced the move and said his wife's medical issues are the reason why. He wanted to run Macon with her, and that's not possible now. It's certainly a bummer for the track and it's fans and competitors, but obviously in this instance Kearns needs to focus on his family. They do still plan on having the season ending banquet, and he did say that he and son Blade are prepared to run the track in 2024 if a suitable buyer isn't found in the offseason. Besides their regular weekly racing, Macon is also home to the Herald and Review 100 for the Summer Nationals, and had USAC midgets, MOWA sprint cars, POWRi, and the Lucas late models on it's 2023 slate. We'll see if they are able to find a buyer soon.

In some late model driver news, it sounds like the Barry Wright house car has a new pilot going forward. Wil Herrington just recently departed JCM Motorsports after a third place finish with the Hunt the Front Series, which included a couple of wins, and now he's off the market. He ran the Powell Family Memorial this past weekend at All-Tech with Barry Wright, and sounds like he'll be there for the foreseeable future. That Barry Wright team has also fielded cars in 2023 for Mason Zeigler and Ross Bailes.

On the open wheel side, we might have our first full time declaration for the 2024 USAC National Midget season. It was released yesterday that Oklahoma driver Hank Davis will run the full season next year in a Triple X powered by SR11 with the Cornell Racing Stables team. The Cornell team has been around a very long time, having previously won USAC races with names like Rich Vogler, and in more recent times has fielded cars in Silver Crown competition for guys like Davey Ray. Davis won a prelim night at the Chili Bowl in 2023, but hasn't made a USAC National Midget appearance since 2020. He is a regular sprint car competitor though, with a bunch of starts this year with series like the ASCS and OCRS. He picked up an ASCS regional win just this past weekend at Creek County. This would normally be the part where I mention the first 2024 race for the series, but it's so early yet, we don't have a schedule to talk about.

That's it for the show today. Not a ton of racing going on this week, but you can catch Millbridge on DIRTVision tonight. See the full stremaing schedule over at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.

Hope you have a great Tuesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow.