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.

Hunt the Front series full timers, Outlaws messing with wickers, Logan Seavey with a wing on | Daily 1-16-2024

Coming up, Logan Seavey getting some winged sprint car chances, the Outlaws mess with wicker bills, more and Chris Madden and Devon Borden, plus Hunt the Front starts announcing series full timers. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, January 16th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

Fresh off his second Chili Bowl win in a row, it sounds like Logan Seavey will be getting some winged 410 sprint car starts later this year. In this week's edition of Area Auto Racing News, car owner Kevin Swindell said quote "I only ran eight or ten times last year with a lot of guys in and out of the car. This year, we'll probably take Logan to race. All of the schedules are available now, we're going to look at them all and see" unquote. In 2023, the Swindell SpeedLab 39 started the year with Justin Sanders in the seat competing with High Limit, and their big moment of the year came when Hunter Schuerenberg made the main event at the Knoxville Nationals. A popped motor though and some health issues for Kevin kept the team on the shelf for much of the season. Kevin and Jordan Swindell have also been busy building their Victory Fuel beverage business as well, which was featured on the Chili Bowl-winning midget each of the past two years. Seavey's victory in Tulsa in 2023 kicked off what is probably one of the great non-wing seasons to date. He followed that Chili Bowl win with three Silver Crown victories en route to that championship, eight USAC National Midget wins and dominating title run, plus two USAC sprint car victories and a sweep of the non-wing portion of the Four Crown at Eldora. With a wing on, he had a win at Trophy Cup taken away because of being light at the scales, and a top ten with High Limit at Kokomo. Watching what Tyler Courtney has done the last few years, transitioning from non-wing to winged very successfully, I don't see any reason why Seavey couldn't do the same. Hopefully he'll continue to get more chances.

In some sprint car rules news in recent days, the World of Outlaws announced they are going to try a different wing wicker bill setup for races in 2024. If you don't know what a wicker bill is, picture a sprint car wing, and the very rear edge of the flat part of the wing. Teams are allowed to place a piece of metal there to add additional downforce. The Outlaw rulebook allows for a maximum two inch wicker bill, but after working with the industry, they are going to test a maximum 1 inch wicker bill. The Outlaw release says they plan on testing this change at several track types and evaluate feedback before making a rule change, and the first of these tests will take place during the sprint car nights of DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia. The hope is the reduction of the wicker will allow for less dirty air, and make it easier for cars to follow one another. And if they can follow closer, and be less hookedup, that will hopefully lead to better racing. This idea of dirty air and closer racing has been pervasive across world motorsports for the last several years. We've seen both Formula 1 and NASCAR work with things like more ground effect aerodynamics to try and aid in the cars not being so affected by the wake off the car in front. That aerodynamic wake means less downforce on the trailing car, and less downforce means less grip, so harder to pass. Countless millions have been spent on research and development by those series, and it's a problem they have yet to really solve. There have been improvements, but there is still work to do. In the arena of sprint car racing, it sounds like opinions are mixed on if this will make a real difference or not, but some big players appreciate that the effort is being made. Jeremy Elliott at sprintcarunlimited.com wrote a story with reactions from several drivers, including David Gravel and Donny Schatz. Go check that out if you are curious. It will be something to watch at Volusia in a few weeks, as that's a big fast race track, and aero is important there.

I've got a couple of updates on stories we talked about yesterday. First, with Chris Madden. We dove into his status for 2024, with all signs, and his website, pointing towards a return to full time Outlaw competition. And just hours after the Daily went live, Madden was confirmed by the World of Outlaws Late Model Series as returning for 2024. So he is now officially the 18th full time member of the series. A lot of the late model teams will be on track tomorrow night at Volusia for open practice, before this weekend's Sunshine Nationals.

Also, more on Devon Borden's upcoming season with the newly renamed Stehman Motorsports. They didn't share a complete schedule yesterday, but the team did say they will travel more this season, and not run for points anywhere. Borden was the 2023 track champion at Port Royal, but will not persue a title defense there. Borden and the 23 appeared 74 times last season, but outside of a couple of trips to Bridgeport, and the PA Speedweek show at Hagerstown, the only time the team left Central Pennsylvania was the year end run south to Charlotte for World Finals. In 2024, they say they will hit major sprint car races, and go way out west to Skagit for their two big weekends, Super Dirt Cup in June and the Skagit Nationals in August. Those would be trips home for Borden, who is from the Pacific Northwest. I'll be curious to see how the Central PA scene shapes up this season. Less Brent Marks and less Justin Peck because of their full time High Limit campaigns. Anthony Macri probably out and about a lot as well, now Devon Borden traveling more. You'll still have Freddie Rahmer and Danny Dietrich, Lance Dewease, Chase Dietz, and many others, but those top guys getting out and traveling more will open things up. It will create opportunities for others to step up and run well, but does some of that star power missing hurt tracks and attendance, I guess we'll see.

Over to our friends at Hunt the Front, they are still about two months away from their Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series season opener at Talladega in March. But they are starting to release their full timers for the 2024 season. They are going way bigger this year, with 25 races planned, $50,000 to the champion, and a lot of races that pay $10k to win or more. We already knew that Sam Seawright will join the tour this season, and yesterday they announced that Florida driver Clay Harris has signed on. Harris had eight wins a year ago across crate late models and modifieds, and made a handful of super appearances, including seven with Hunt the Front. I'm assuming that Hunt the Front's Joseph Joiner will also chase the championship again this season, so the addition of Harris brings them to three at the moment. Josh Putnam was the series champion a year ago, topping Joiner and Wil Herrington in the final weekend of the season. We'll see who else throws their hat in with the series in the coming weeks.

Before we close out today, keep an eye on the YouTube channel this evening. Late last week I teased a new video series coming, featuring a top sprint car driver, and the first in that series drops later today. I'm excited for you guys to see it and for this new content partnership. Lots of fun stuff coming there, and still more in the works outside of our regularly scheduled programming.

That's it for the Daily today. Make sure to hit the streaming schedule over at dirtrackr.com and sign up for our free email newsletter The Slider. I've got a new piece coming there as well.

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