DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Decades long Rocket streak ends, Kyle Larson back in a late model, sprint cars invade a road course | Daily 11-13-2023

After several decades in a Rocket, one national tour driver is swapping to Longhorns. We've got the details on that today, plus Kyle Larson's early 2024 racing plans, more Outlaw nights at Volusia, and sprint cars on the pavement at Sonoma. Let's go!

It's Monday, November 13th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

While the sprint car world remains in a state of constant flux at the moment, things have been fairly quiet on the late model side of the sport. There haven't been a ton of changes announced for 2024, and while I do think a few more are possible, I would not expect anywhere near the level we've seen on the open wheel front. We have talked about a lot of the moves that have happened to this point, including Brandon Sheppard's announcement as the Longhorn house car driver, Spencer Hughes going from PCC to JCM Motorsports, Wil Herrington going to the Barry Wright house team, and the changes at Skyline with Shane Clanton out and Mike Marlar in. Marlar had a strong debut at World Finals, but we don't know what the future holds for Shane Clanton. Another change we'd previously discussed was the move for Max Blair from Boom Briggs' team over to Centerline Motorsports for next season. Blair was the Lucas rookie of the year in 2023, but team owner and teammate Boom Briggs decided to scale back his operation for next year, leaving Blair without a ride. Enter the Pennsylvania-based Centerline, and the plan for Blair next season is to continue on one of the national tours. Obviously 2023 was spent out with Lucas, but Blair was a full time Outlaw driver in 2022, where he finished third in the standings with two victories. The reason I'm talking about Blair here though, and a move that was announced back in September, is because another key element is changing for Max going forward. Over the weekend, the team showed off their new wrap as part of their racing party, and across the rear spoiler is Longhorn and Bilstein. Blair was previously in Rocket Chassis with Boom and his team before that in Viper Motorports, but will flip allegiances with Centerline. This will end something like a 20 or 30 year run for Max driving Rockets. As for those national touring plans, in the comments on the Blair Facebook post, it was revealed that the team is planning on another full season with Lucas. In the Briggs car, Blair ended up ninth in the Lucas standings with 24 top tens in 53 races, including a split field prelim win at Lernerville during the Firecracker. The race is on at the moment between Rick Schwallie and Steve Francis to see who can snag drivers for their respective series for next year, and I've heard some big names could potentially be in play for swaps. We'll see how it plays out.

The 2024 dirt late model season will kick off in January at Vado Speedway Park for the unsanctioned Wild West Shootout. And that event has already started trickling out entries. Names to expect there include Bobby Pierce, Brandon Sheppard, Mike Marlar, Ricky Weiss, Garrett Alberson, Chase Junghans, Stormy Scott, and Gordy Gundaker with plenty more announcements to come. The other driver who will return to the event is Kyle Larson. I spoke to Kevin Rumley at World Finals about it, and the plan was publicly confirmed on Friday via the Wild West Shootout social media accounts. Back in January, Larson competed all six nights, with three second place runs, and no finishes worse than sixth. It was notable in 2023, because deciding to race the late model meant no Larson at the Chili Bowl. And that will obviously continue in 2024. With Rico Abreu racing down under, Larson in the late model, and Christopher Bell not allowed to run dirt because of his NASCAR career, things at the Chili Bowl will remain wide open for other potential winners. Those three drivers represent seven of the last nine Golden Drillers won. We did have first time winners each of the last two years in Tulsa, with Tanner Thorson and Logan Seavey earning drillers.

With the High Limit acquisition of the All Stars, we expected there would be some changes to the sprint car portion of DIRTcar Nationals and we got some clarity on that situation in recent days. In the past, that first week of DCN would feature two nights of All Star sanctioned racing, before we got three races to kick off the World of Outlaws season. But in 2024, the entire week will be devoted to Outlaw action. DCN will start with UMP modifieds on Monday, and then modifieds and sprint car practice on Tuesday. From there, Wednesday through Saturday will now all be Outlaw nights with the modifieds also on the card. So four total Outlaw feature programs instead of three, and no other series. I was told by some friends that High Limit did not even inquire with WRG about keeping what were those All Star Volusia nights on the schedule. Take that for what it's worth. At this moment we are currently 84 days from the start of DIRTcar Nationals.

In some Sunday night racing action, Stewart Friesen grabbed the final Short Track Super Series victory of the year. He started third and picked up the $10,000 win at the Orange County Fair Speedway, topping Anthony Perrego and Andy Bachetti. Matt Sheppard ended up way down in 24th, but still landed the north region championship and $15,000. In his post race interview, Friesen pointed to the future for OCFS as it apparently isn't looking good. Last night's modified show could potentially be the final ever race at the five eighths in Middletown, New York. We also found out recently about the end for 411 Motor Speedway in Tennessee, which appears to have been a victim of Copart, who we've talked about plenty here in the past.

At Tulsa Speedway last night, the Ridge and Sons sprint car team stayed hot, closing out the POWRi winged 410 year with a one two lockout. Aaron Reutzel won his second feature of the weekend, with Cory Eliason finishing second. Brenham Crouch completed the night's podium. Ayrton Gennetten finished sixth and picked up the season long championship.

Before we close out today, hat tip to Chase Johnson, and Billy Aton and Joel Myers Jr. for their sprint car exhibition over the weekend at Sonoma Raceway. As part of the Velocity Invitational, they turned the final corners in front of pit road at Sonoma into an oval track and went full send with their sprint cars. We've seen sprint cars raced on pavement plenty before, and there are even series dedicated to it. But it was still really cool to see those guys drifting them around at a track more known for NASCAR, NHRA, and other road racing. It was a great chance to expose some other racing fans to how cool sprint cars are. There are videos and photos of the laps circulating on social media, and I believe CaliDirt Videos on YouTube will have some footage posted soon as well.

That's it for the show today. Keep an eye out later this afternoon, as there will be a new hat option available in the DIRTRACKR merch shop. I'm headed up to Mooresville to pick them up after I get done recording and posting this episode. I also hope to have hoodies available in the coming weeks as well.

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