DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Donny Schatz addresses rumors, Rico Abreu talks High Limit vs. Outlaws | Daily 11-2-2023

Donny Schatz has headlined a lot of sprint car rumors lately, but he's made his decision for 2024. We'll talk about that, plus what Rico Abreu has to say about whether he could be a series full timer next season and a lot more today on the show. Let's go!

It's Thursday, November 2nd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

Over in the merch shop this week, there are plenty of good DIRTRACKR items to pick up. I've got the three shirt options, with the late model ones discounted to just $7. Both the logo shirts are $24.99, with sizes small to 2X available. I've also got plenty of koozies in the four different color options, those are $4 each. And if you want a sticker, you've got four choices there. The late model versions were just recently restocked, to go with the under the lights and midget stickers. I've also got the new sprint car sticker as well. You can check out the merch store any time over at shop.dirtrackr.com, or click the links below this video.

The sport of dirt racing is very much focused on World Finals this week here in Charlotte. I know it's not technically the end of the season, but for many teams it will be their final races of the season. There are also no lack of storylines to follow, and the media has descended on the dirt track to take advantage of everyone gathering in one spot. There are a couple of sprint car pieces to check out today that have been posted in recent hours from things around Charlotte, and the first is from Jeremy Elliott. He posted a story to Sprintcarunlimited.com just this morning about Donny Schatz's future plans. If you remember back to Monday this week, we talked about Cory Eliason's departure from the Crouch Motorsports 11, and talked through a few of the internet rumors about who would be taking that seat. At the center of a lot of that chatter was Schatz. I had several people in the comments saying it as well, and one even offered to bet me a beer he'd be there. In that episode I pushed back on that narrative, saying that I thought there was a scenario where Schatz stayed in the Tony Stewart Racing 15 for next season. And thanks to Jeremy's story, that's basically been confirmed. Schatz said quote "When Tony and I started on this journey, we both had an agreement that he would keep me in the car as long as I wanted to race, and I told him I would stay here as long as he wanted to do it. So, I haven't decided to do anything different." He also said "my plan is to stay right where I'm at. Do I wish the performance was better? Absolutely. Is it frustrating? Beyond belief." Schatz also confirmed that he'd fielded calls from other owners, which is what we'd been hearing, but clearly those deals weren't what he was looking for. So this will put to bed the Schatz rumors, and also a few others that had been floating around for scenarios that could have happened if Schatz left. One of those being that Tyler Courtney was the top candidate to fill the 15 when Donny departed. Sunshine though will continue to be in the rumor mill with his current situation for next season unknown. I wonder if I'll get that beer from that commenter and his wager... Go check out that story at sprintcarunlimited.com as it has a bunch more stuff in there from Schatz about this tough stretch as of late.

The other story to read today is from Matt Weaver over at SportsNaut. Weaver has contributed to my email newsletter this season, The Slider, and he got a bunch of quotes yesterday from a number of players involved in the upcoming High Limit slash World of Outlaws showdown. He talked to Brad Sweet, Brian Carter, and a number of drivers about the situation. It's lengthy, but provides a ton of information about how both sides are approaching this, and what a number of competitors think about how this is set to play out. Weaver covers a lot of the things we've been talking about here, including midweek races, trips to the west coast, Brad and Kasey Kahne going full time High Limit, and more. I'll link to it below in the video description. One thing in there that stood out to me were comments from Rico Abreu. As this split plays out in the coming weeks and months, both sides will be pushing to lock up full time teams for next season, and a big hurdle for High Limit will be who they can convince to break away and race with them. 11 midweek races where you have Kyle Larson showing up all the time are much easier to promote, versus a Friday or Saturday show with much more competition, and no Yung Money in the pit area. Some star power would certainly help that, and a guy like Rico could be a big get for either side. But despite conversations in the past, Rico has never made the move to a full series run, instead choosing to make his own schedule. Rico did run the full High Limit season in 2023, but it was because those 11 races fit well into his existing plans. He told Weaver quote "I want to see what the World of Outlaws present all the drivers and I want to see what High Limit presents all the drivers before I make a decision at the end of the day. But I'll ultimately be a true outlaw and just keep building this brand that I've built in the Sprint Car industry" unquote. So unless either side comes out with something crazy for compensation, it sounds like Rico won't go either direction next year. That's not surprising given his past, but if I'm with High Limit or the Outlaws, I'm staying in touch with Rico all winter just to make sure there isn't a chance he changes his mind. His performance and fan base would be a big boost if you could convince him to join.

At World Finals last night, it was just hot laps and qualifying for all three series. Racing gets going for real today. Because of cold temps, start times have been pushed up a little earlier each day, with opening ceremonies set for 4pm today and tomorrow, and 3pm for Saturday. Matt Sheppard and Jimmy Phelps led Super DIRTcar Series qualifying. Sheldon Haudenschild and Tyler Courtney were fast for Thursday sprint car time trials, while David Gravel and Brent Marks went quickest for Friday. On the late model side, Thursday's program was led by Mike Marlar and Brandon Overton, and Friday was topped by Scott Bloomquist and Dale McDowell. If you can't get to Charlotte this weekend, you can watch all of it live on DIRTVision.

Some other sprint car racing to watch for this weekend is happening out west. Both the NARC 410 series and the 360 Sprint Car Challenge Tour end their seasons on Saturday at Stockton. Justyn Cox leads the SCCT standings over Dylan Bloomfield and Kaleb Montgomery, and Corey Day appears to be on his way to the NARC title over Justin Sanders and Dominic Scelzi. Should be a great night for racing.

Also, the USAC CRA sprint cars have just three races left. Two of those will happen Friday and Saturday at Cocopah Speedway for the Western World Championships. Brody Roa already has eight series wins this season, and a sizeable lead in the championship over Tommy Malcolm and Austin Williams. The CRA competitors will close out 2023 on November 11th at Perris.

Down under, Perth Motorplex is off and running for their season, and they'll be in action this weekend. Dayne Kingshott picked up a sprint car win there a few weeks ago over James Inglis and Jamie Veal, and their show on November 4th will also feature late models, midgets, non-wing, and sedans. Clay-Per-View will have live coverage of that one.

That's it for the show this week. Thanks to everyone that tunes in regularly and shares and comments on the shows. The support does not go unnoticed.

Hope you have a great Thursday out there, we'll see you back here on Sunday.