DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
Dirt racing news, results, discussion, analytics. Sprint cars, late models, modifieds, you name it. From national series, to top local shows. Brought to you five days a week. Email the show at info@dirtrackr.com.
Ford expands sprint car engine deal, obstacles remain for Bloomquist revival | Daily 11-6-2023
Coming up, Ford signs another sprint car team to campaign it's engines, CJB is keeping Spencer Bayston, Scott Bloomquist's difficult road ahead, and did Jake Swanson get fired? Let's go!
It's Monday, November 6th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
I want to jump back to some news that came out on Saturday at World Finals, with the Rudeen 26 team deciding to go all in on a deal for Ford engines for 2024. Ford's sprint car engines have been in development for several seasons now, but outside of Tony Stewart Racing, hadn't really been used by many other teams. We know the McCandless 29 team used Ford power at various points this season, and that the 26 experimented with them down the stretch. The speed they found with the blue oval under the hood seemed to propel them to the All Star championship. Wins at Selinsgrove, Port Royal, Fremont, and Eldora late in the year helped push Zeb Wise just clear of Tyler Courtney at the end. And Zeb went on to win the Saturday night Outlaw show at Port Royal as well. World Finals obviously came to a bit of a scary end, but there's no reason to think this team won't continue to be fast into next year, whether that means a jump to High Limit or some other version of a schedule. With crew chief Tyler Tessemaker and Zeb really finding their footing, the Ford engine added just that little bit of extra performance to the team. But the success Rudeen had with Ford was a stark comparison to what we've seen the last few seasons from Donny Schatz and the TSR 15. I've had dozens of comments on my shows in recent years about the problems for Donny, with many saying if they'd just switch back to Chevy power, things would be fixed. And maybe that's true. But Donny has won races with the Ford engines, including the Knoxville Nationals in 2022, and the Kings Royal this year. And the strong results from Zeb and Rudeen seem to indicate maybe the Ford engines aren't so bad after all. This is an interesting example of perception. On one side these engines caused a spark that propelled a team to a title, and on the other they are viewed as the sole reason one of the greatest ever has struggled to compete. In a piece at sprintcarunlimited.com, Jeremy Elliott says despite some rumors, Rudeen and TSR will remain separate teams for next year, but there will be some measure of cooperation. Shaver will continue to build the Ford pieces, providing engines for TSR and the 26.
Before we move on, I know a bunch of you in my audience are pretty active on Facebook, and I'm working right now to ramp up the DIRTRACKR Facebook page for you guys. The page has been in existence since the beginning of this project, but I've not done a great job in keeping it filled up with good stuff. Moving forward, you'll see me posting more often over there, including when shows drop each day like I had been, plus episode clips and other content like photos. If you don't already, head over to facebook.com/dirtrackr and like and follow that page. My hope is to continue to find ways to make it as easy as possible for you guys to keep up with everything that's going on across dirt racing.
We talked yesterday on the show about the future for CJB Motorsports and driver Spencer Bayston. Rumors recently pointed to that team possibly looking for a new driver to fill the seat of the five car for 2024, especially as Spencer Bayston hadn't really made improvements from his first year to year two as a full time Outlaw driver. In 2022, it was two wins and 41 top tens in 72 races, while this year it was one win and 41 top tens in 73 races. Eighth in the standings both years, but a step back in all the major averages. The five had a worse average finish, worse average start, and a dramatically worse qualifying average in 2023 versus 2022. We've discussed some teams struggling this year with the change to the new Hoosier sprint car tire, and it's possible this group was one affected by the swap. But either the rumors weren't true, or the team decided in recent days to keep things the same. In the midst of the World of Outlaws banquet last night, CJB shared to social media that Bayston will remain in the car next year. Their post didn't mention anything about series or schedule plans, but I still think this team is a candidate to flip from the Outlaws to High Limit on a full time basis for 2024.
For my late model guys, if you're a FloRacing or Dirt on Dirt member, I'd encourage you to go check out the piece from Kyle McFadden about Scott Bloomquist and his recent return to competition. After sitting out most of 2023 with various ailments, including prostate cancer, numbness in his right foot and leg, and back and shoulder issues, Bloomer was back in a car at Eldora for the Dirt Track World Championship. He ended the event seventh in a B-Main, missing out on a feature transfer. Just a week later, there was chatter he would be at East Alabama for the National 100, but despite his car being there, it was Richie Stephens in the seat and not Bloomquist. But rewinding to last week at Charlotte, Bloomquist was signed in for World Finals and ended up running all four days. He even shocked the sport with a quick time for Friday's portion of the event. He missed the Thursday feature, but rode that quick time to a seventh on Friday, and backed it up with another feature appearance Saturday and a 15th place result. It was easily the best pace we've seen from him in a long time, going back maybe two years. And he did all of it with a broken left foot that was suffered in advance of Eldora. In Kyle's lengthy piece, Bloomquist addresses a lot of his struggles, talks the dirt late model tire, and still somehow found a way to take more digs at Ricky Thornton Jr. He maintains that he's not done racing yet, but besides dealing with his now broken foot, he also needs imminent shoulder surgery which could sideline him another four or five months. And he admitted to mounting financial issues. I know he wants to come back to regular competition, and under the right circumstances can still be fast. But it's clear that the near future for Bloomer is going to remain difficult and the path riddled with obstacles.
One other note for you today, and actually really more of a question. Did Team AZ axe Jake Swanson from their sprint car team? This past weekend at Cocopah, Daison Pursley swept the Western World features in the 21AZ, and I thought maybe this was a one off deal. But Swanson was also at Cocopah, driving the JFM 73 car. Swanson ended the USAC National Sprint Car season fourth in the final standings, and into the summer was in the mix for the championship. At one point, he had six straight podiums, which included three wins. There were some ups and downs through the season, but they finished strong with a seventh at Eldora and third at Lawrenceburg. Neither Team AZ or Swanson appears to have addressed this publicly anywhere, but it looks as though they've split. I hope Jake is able to find a new deal if this is indeed the case, and you'd hope he'd have suitors coming off a year with five USAC national wins.
That's it for the Daily today. The streaming schedule is quiet, but there will be a few things on it in the coming days. You can find it at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Hope you have a great Monday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow.