DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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More 2024 late model moves, sprint car dates becoming public | Daily 11-15-2023
A bunch of dirt late model team and driver updates for you today, including some making series decisions. Plus some sprint car schedule news between the Outlaws and High Limit, Logan Seavey's hot streak, and more. Let's go!
It's Wednesday, November 15th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
We'll kick this Wednesday show off with a few dirt late model odds and ends from recent days. We talked earlier this week about Max Blair's flip from Rockets to Longhorns, and the Centerline Motorsports' team plan to run full time with Lucas next year. I don't think we've had any other drivers and teams announce for Lucas just yet. If you know of any, let me know below in the comments. On the Outlaw side, we already knew that Todd Cooney and Ryan Gustin will be back, as they are teaming up for a two-car team with the Outlaws in 2024. And we can now add a third team eyeing a full Outlaw run next season. In their post World Finals release spotlighting Nick Hoffman's rookie of the year run, it was revealed that Hoffman will return to the Outlaws full time with the Tye Twarog owned nine machine. Besides rookie of the year, Hoffman ended the season fifth in the standings with a win and 24 top tens in 38 races. Overall, in 72 starts, Hoffman ended with four total late model wins, including that Outlaw score, plus two XR Workin Man victories, and one with the Ironman Series. Hoffman's winter plans include the Gateway Dome race, then the Chili Bowl in January, before getting ready for the 2024 late model season.
In regional news, Logan Roberson and the Brodnax Shaker team have parted ways, with Roberson returning to his family owned car next year. Roberson plans a crate schedule, while Brodnax Shaker is supposedly scaling back. Driver Trevor Gundaker will also return to his family team after spending 2023 driving for Reid Millard. Millard will sponsor Gundaker though going forward, and Trevor is also among the entries for the Dome coming up in December. And in the southeast, Sam Seawright is partnering up with Troy Baird Racing for a few late season events, before going full time with the Hunt the Front series in 2024. Seawright ran about half the Hunt the Front schedule this year, and I believe is the first driver to declare. Hunt the Front is bumping their championship payout to $50,000 for next year, and I think it will draw in quite a few teams. Hunt the Front's final sanctioned race of 2023 is this weekend at Duck River. They've got $10,000 to win for The Gobbler.
Before we move on, if you missed it yesterday, we've got new DIRTRACKR logo hats in stock over at shop.dirtrackr.com. They are navy colored, snapback rope hats. The first round of orders was dropped at the post office this morning, so thanks to those of you who snagged one already. The new hats will pair nicely with a shirt or sticker as well, and if you order today, I will ship today. Browse the DIRTRACKR gear any time over at shop.dirtrackr.com.
We are still waiting on full schedules for both sprint car series, but more hints and dates have been revealed in recent days. At Knoxville, we know they won't host High Limit in 2024, but they will have plenty of World of Outlaws dates. As previously revealed, the Knoxville Nationals are August 7th through the 10th in 2024. And Knoxville will host the Outlaws for two other weekends, April 26th and 27th, plus June 14th and 15th. That June weekend coincides with the first ever NASCAR Cup Series race at the Iowa Speedway in nearby Newton. Also on the Outlaw schedule, Wilmot Raceway in Wisconsin returns with a two night show July 12th and 13th. Wilmot has been a regular series stop for many years and is part of the SLS Promotions part of the schedule. There was some chatter around the Wilmot deal about whether or not High Limit and the Outlaws were making tracks choose between the two series. It definitely seems like it is a factor for some dates, but don't forget that places like Eldora and Port Royal will host both series next year. So it's clearly not an official policy on either side. Wilmot will also have a World of Outlaws Late Model show on July 29th.
With High Limit, we now know the northeast will be part of their schedule for 2024. Dates were not shared, but both Utica Rome and Fonda shared to social media on Tuesday they will have High Limit dates. Utica Rome hosted the All Stars in 2023 and 2022, but there hasn't been big time 410 sprint car racing at Fonda since the All Stars were there in 2013. Fonda was on the All Star schedule for 2023, but that race was cancelled because of weather. The World of Outlaws have never officially been to Fonda, although the Gumout Series raced there in 2002. The track is a regular stop though for the 360 Empire Super Sprints. Both of these tracks are promoted by Brett Deyo, who also owns the Short Track Super Series. It's an easy connection with High Limit, as Deyo has an existing relationship with FloRacing, and hasn't always gotten along well with World Racing Group. We continue to wait on the full release of both series schedules for next year.
Also in the northeast, Bridgeport has decided to add more sprint car racing to their weekly shows, with the NEWS non-wing cars and MASS 305 winged cars appearing more often. The New Jersey track will host the USAC East Coast series and the USAC National Sprint Cars in 2024, along with their unsanctioned winged 410 events in April and October. The track revealed to Area Auto that they are still working on other 410 racing for next year, meaning one of the national series. The last Outlaw show at Bridgeport was in 2022, and the track hosted both the All Stars and High Limit in 2023.
At Bakersfield last night, the USAC midgets kicked off their final stretch of the schedule and their west coast swing. Emerson Axsom led the most laps from the pole, but it was championship leader Logan Seavey who went ninth to the lead and picked up his seventh win of the season. Axsom settled for second, with the other front row starter in Justin Grant completing the night's podium. Looking at Seavey's numbers through 2023, it's not hard to figure out why he's running away with this championship. Since finishing 20th at Circle City in June during Indiana Midget Week, Seavey has gone 17 straight races finishing in the top ten. Over this stretch, his worst finish is seventh, included are all seven wins, plus 14 podiums, and 16 top fives. He's on an absolute heater. Headed to Placerville this weekend, his championship advantage is now 230 points over Grant. As for TMez, it was a rough debut for his new MF1 chassis. During the night's semi-feature, Chance Crum and Daniel Whitley got together, and TMez was collected, ending his night. He had pretty hard contact, and Whitley had a big ride himself. The midget teams have today and Thursday off, and the Hangtown 100 weekend starts Friday at Placerville.
If you want to get into some other dirt racing content this week, there are plenty of new podcast episodes. Winged Nation has their roundtable dicussions, plus an interview with Brad Sweet. Passing Points has Johnny Kent, Hoogie's Garage has three new interviews including Marlon Jones, Dunewich on Dirt has James Dedmon, and Across the Groove has Alex Nieten. There are also new episodes of Dirt on Dirt's Dirt Reporters, Quicktime, and Dirt Track Confessions. I've also got a new addition for you on the podcasts page at dirtrackr.com. Brad Strawser does his Racing Roundup show around the Port Royal Speedway and racing in Central Pennsylvania. He also does a bunch of interviews. You can find that show now, along with new episodes, and all the others I've mentioned at dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
That's it for today's Daily. The streaming schedule is quiet today, but there is plenty of other cool stuff to check out over at dirtrackr.com.
Hope you guys have a great Wednesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow.