DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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I think the internet is wrong about the next Crouch driver | Daily 10-30-2023

Cory Eliason is out of the Crouch 11 sprint car, and we'll talk through the whole situation today, including the social media rumors about who might be getting that ride. Plus a big late model win for Chris Madden and more. Let's go!

It's Monday, October 30th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

Today's episode is being brought to you by the subscription service I've built for dirt racing stats and analytics called DIRTRACKR Plus. For $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year, you can get access to all of the numbers and stats I use every day to put these shows together. Grabbing a year gets you two months for free. Right now there are effectively 1800 races worth of results across 12 series and special events. That includes both World of Outlaws series, Lucas, the All Stars, all three USAC national divisions, the Chili Bowl, the ASCS, Xtreme Outlaw midgets, and High Limit. When those pool picks come around, I've got every Saturday Chili Bowl main event in the event's history, plus prelim nights back to 2005. Don't spend all day Googling, just hop over to dirtrackr.com. There are driver pages, series and year by year breakdowns, and added tools like driver side by side comparisons. Want to know how many World of Outlaws features are won off the front row? It's in there. Who has the most top ten features finishes in a row with Lucas? Click on the streakers tab. What is Justin Grant's average sprint car finish at Kokomo? You can find it easily with DIRTRACKR Plus. As more races and stats get added, your subscription gets more valuable with time, and you can cancel whenever you want right from your billing page. To see more details and to sign up, visit dirtrackr.com/getplus, there is a link below in the video description, or click plus in the nav bar at dirtrackr.com.

I spent a good portion of the Sunday show talking through several recent sprint car driver and team changes from the previous few days, with most of them being regional moves. Things in the sprint car racing though continue to be extremely fluid, and the ball kept rolling yesterday with yet another announcement. Crouch Motorsports, who has fielded cars this season for first Buddy Kofoid, then Cory Eliason, along with Brenham Crouch, announced they will move on from Eliason for next season. On social media, team owner Leighton Crouch said quote "I have made the decision to go a different direction with the #11 car in 2024. Cory is a great driver, and an even better person. I thoroughly enjoyed our time together, and appreciate his commitment to CMS throughout the 2023 season. Cory brings immense value to any future team looking for a full time driver! Future plans will be announced at a later date" unquote. In response to the move, Eliason himself said "I'd like to thank Leighton and the entire Crouch family for the opportunity to drive their @cmsracing11 car for a big chunk of 2023! I also want to thank Brad, Stephen, and Adam for all of their hard work at the shop and at the track. I wish the team the very best." If you've been locked into this show recently, this move shouldn't be a big surprise. Back on the October 4th Daily show I mentioned that the rumors were swirling around this team, and unfortunately, they decided that Eliason wasn't the guy. When Buddy Kofoid and the team split earlier this year, Eliason took over the 11 car on May 10th at Lincoln Speedway after starting the year with Bernie and the Indy Race Parts 71. There were some high points along the way, including All Star wins at Weedsport and Dodge County. But there were some low points as well, including some missed features and some finishes down the order. In 54 appearances, Eliason made 49 main events with an average finish of 11.27, the two wins, 12 top fives, and 26 top tens. He finished the year strong with a top five at Devil's Bowl, but before that had finished 17th or worse in four of his previous five races. Leighton Crouch seems to want a team that contends seriously with a touring series like the Outlaws, and there just wasn't enough consistency with that team to make that happen. Eliason only led laps once in an Outlaw show in the 11 car this season. Going forward, I think Eliason will be fine and there will be opportunities out there for a guy with both Outlaw and All Star wins on his resume. As for the CMS 11, I think the internet is a little off on this one with the rumors floating around. Yesterday I saw things like Brenham Crouch just taking over as the 11's driver, but I don't think Crouch needed to clear out Eliason to get Brenham more starts. They ran that second team in 46 races this season, which led to the IRA title for Brenham. It seems pretty clear that two cars isn't a problem and that Brenham will continue on the path they laid out for him. I've also heard and seen the speculation about Donny Schatz to the 11. This rumor has been floating around for a lot of the summer, but while anything is possible, I wouldn't expect this move. I do think Schatz could still be in play for other rides if he decides to leave TSR, but not this one. I say if, because I do still think there is a scenario where Schatz stays driving Tony Stewart's sprint car even with all of the recent changes in that organization. Crouch will want an established driver though, and there are some names out full time with the Outlaws and with big pick and choose teams who are in the mix here. I'm sure also that with the news now public, there are all sorts of other drivers who will be clamoring for that spot. As of this moment, it is the best open 410 sprint car seat in the country. I am a little surprised this happened before World Finals, but more moves are coming for sure, especially once the Outlaw season finishes up after Saturday night. This will continue to be a very active offseason in the sprint car world with this mix of driver moves and the addition of a full season, national High Limit schedule coming for 2024.

At East Alabama last night, Chris Madden put on a dominating performance in the National 100. He started outside front row and led all 100 laps to win the event for the third time in his career. The win was worth a nice $49,000. He topped Jimmy Owens and Kyle Bronson in the final rundown. Brandon Overton started third, ran as high as second, but ended up 10th after a late flat tire derailed his night. The Hunt the Front series sanctioned the National 100, but it was not part of their championship season. The series has one race left in 2023, The Gobbler at Duck River on November 18th. It's also a non-points event. Looking ahead in dirt late model racing, there is a $7500 to win show tomorrow night at Cherokee Speedway that I'm sure would draw some national level teams who will be in the Charlotte area. There are some rain chances tomorrow though for that one, so be mindful of that if you are headed to Cherokee. Then Wednesday, things get rolling at the Dirt Track at Charlotte for World Finals that runs through Saturday night. World Finals is four days, but only three will feature main events. That Wednesday night program is just hot laps and qualifying for all three series.

That's it for the show today. Head over to dirtrackr.com to see all the dirt racing things, including news, stats, the streaming schedule and more.

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