DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Chili Bowl cracks down on cheating with technology sweep | Daily 1-9-2024
Coming up, Chili Bowl officials try to head off cheating with surprise Monday enforcement. We'll get into the details, plus Buddy Kofoid's 2024 plans are official, as is the future for Shane Clanton and Capital Race Cars. Let's go!
It's Tuesday, January 9th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
The first official race night of the Chili Bowl provided us with no lack of things to talk about. From the great racing, to the significant step up in the tech and officiating process. That officiating caught everyone by surprise during the ramp up to the night's feature, when officials approached every car on the track before they were to be pushed off, and started checking drivers for smart devices and swapping out Raceivers. We saw the smart watch situation play out at the Dirt Late Model Dream at Eldora back in June, with officials there concerned that teams were communicating via the devices to the drivers in the car. Using text messaging or bluetooth ear buds, teams can pass along information about racing lines and where other competitors are driving. And apparently those concerns about this type of communication continue to be on the minds of those in the sport. Besides the checks we saw last night, Clinton Boyles talked about it being something that was discussed around the Eldora Million. Along with the watch checks, the Raceiver swaps was something we hadn't seen before. Officials were clearly of the mind that some may have been using their devices to get information from crews, and although the standard Raceiver device is only one channel, the Racing Electronics version has a two channel setup. A driver could potentially have race control on one channel, and under cautions, flip to the second channel to receive communications from their teams. Swapping out those devices would obviously eliminate that. Something to consider here though, is even with the checks for technology, it doesn't end crew guys signaling, which we see plenty of, or the ability to peek at the big screen, which seems to still be happening, even though it was moved. It seems like a difficult thing to completely remove, and I'm not sure where exactly you draw the line on policing this. If this is happening or rumored in dirt late model racing, now midgets, it's clear that the comms stuff is likely happening at all levels and in all divisions, including big time sprint car racing like Boyles mentioned. Chili Bowl officials have also stepped up other checks, with regular tire samples being taken last night, officials making sure guys were on the correct right rear tire, and the top nine were all teched after last night's feature for traction control in their ignition boxes. We've quickly moved on from just checking for safety and the correct fuel color.
As for last night's racing, we had really good action from start to finish. I thought the track prep was on point, and the elbows were out. The feature was controlled by Keith Kunz cars, with Cannon McIntosh out front early from the pole, and then Tanner Carrick charging from fourth to the lead before half way. The real battle for much of the second half of the feature was for the second lock-in spot, with Shane Golobic, McIntosh, Chase Briscoe, and Michael Pickens going to war. Golobic eventually won out, and was even able to challenge Carrick late for the lead. So Tanner Carrick your winner, picking up his second prelim win in three years, and Golobic the other lock-in. Third through eighth, in Michael Pickens, Chase Briscoe, Chris Windom, McIntosh, Trey Marcham, and Joe B Miller go to a Saturday B-Main. Joe B. was the night's big mover, going 11th to second in his B, then 20th to eighth in the main event. Last night's Race of Champions was an interesting preview for later in the week. Chase Briscoe out front early, but Logan Seavey went fourth to the front just past half way. He was gone by the checkered flag, topping Tyler Courtney and McIntosh. That Kevin and Jordan Swindell owned 39 looks to be picking up where the left off last season, as Seavey was also quicktime for the RoC. Seavey won the USAC National Midget championship this year with Abacus Racing on this midget tire, and Clinton Boyles talked about how good Logan is on this tire. The last time though, that the Race of Champions winner went on to win the Chili Bowl that same year was 2013 when Kevin Swindell did it. Not sure if that's a good sign, or a bad one.
Tonight's prelim program will be stacked again with names like Buddy Kofoid, Tanner Holmes, David Gravel, Kevin Thomas Jr., Zach Daum, Hank Davis, Parker Price Miller, Boyles, Chase McDermand, TMez and Jake Andreotti all set to compete. The schedule for today is the same with hot laps scheduled for 4PM central, and racing to start at five.
We talked back on Monday about what the future holds for Roth Motorsports and their national sprint car touring plans for 2024. We got half the answer officially today with the announcement that Buddy Kofoid will indeed tackle the full World of Outlaws schedule this year. This was not unexpected, like we talked about a few days ago, as the deal had been in place with the Outlaws and Kofoid for a few weeks, we were just waiting on the announcement. Kofoid joins the Outlaw rookie class that also includes Landon Crawley and Bill Balog. And this announcement pushes the Outlaw field to 12 total, with Kofoid joining David Gravel, Brock Zearfoss, Donny Schatz, Noah Gass, Carson Macedo, Balog, Crawley, Logan Schuchart, Gio Scelzi, Sheldon Haudenschild, and Bill Rose. Kofoid was one of the busiest 410 racers in the country in 2023, competing 87 times across the Outlaws, All Stars, High Limit, NARC, and more. He ended up with five 410 sprint car victories, including three against the Outlaws. I don't think there is any reason to believe that Kofoid can't challenge for the top five in the Outlaw standings in 2024, especially if the TRD 410 engine gets better and more reliable this year. That reliability did show it's ugly head a few times this past season, including that spectacular rapid unscheduled disassembly Kofoid faced during the big $250k show at Huset's while leading. With Kofoid's plans now known, the focus shifts towards what Roth will do with James McFadden. After Monday's show, I had two industry folks reach out and say that they didn't see a scenario where McFadden went High Limit based on Dennis Roth's feelings and motivations. But other sources still point to that being a possibility. So I'm not sure what to believe at this moment. With about a month to still go here, the days are starting to tick down on time to make selections.
Moving over to some dirt late model news from recent days, we've got clarity now on the future for Shane Clanton. The Georgia driver's 2024 season was in question after he was replaced at Skyline Motorsports by Mike Marlar late in 2023. Along with Clanton's murky situation, there were also a lot of rumors about what would happen with Capital Race Cars, which builds dirt late model chassis. But late last week came word that Clanton and Chad Smith are purchasing Capital Race Cars from Marshall Green. Under the new arrangement, Clanton and Smith will oversee Capital's race car business, but Green and his fabrication company will continue to manufacture the chassis themselves. This means no national tour schedule for the Georgia Bulldog, who will instead be able to spend more time with family while running the business. In the release, Clanton said he'll likely race 20 times this year around the southeast in between testing, development, and customer support at the track. So a big shift for Clanton, and the Capital line stays in business.
That's it for today's Daily show. The weather in the east today is a bit ugly, so stay safe out there friends.
Hope you guys have a great Tuesday, we'll see you back here tomorrow!