DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Christopher Bell back on dirt, Kerry Madsen powers to Jackson Outlaw win | DIRTRACKR Daily 6/25/21
It is Friday, June 25th, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Today we've got news on Christopher Bell's return to dirt, we are talking last night's World of Outlaws and Dirt Cup action, and we look ahead to the weekend. Let's jump in.
I said back on Tuesday's show that I thought Kerry Madsen could sneak up and win a race this week with the World of Outlaws, and that came true last night. A 14th place starting spot on the grid was no match for the Mad Man who incredibly drove from 14th to second in just seven laps, and from there he was after Logan Schuchart for the lead. Social media was abuzz last night with Madsen's incredible lap 26 slide job that saw him get by both Schuchart and lap car Justin Henderson in one big move. Into turn three he went full send mode on the bottom and cleared both the 1S and 7 on corner exit. He then survived a late restart to bag his 26th career Outlaw victory and first since 2018. Schuchart ended up second, David Gravel third, James McFadden fourth, and Carson Macedo was fifth. The win from 14th was good for the night's hard charger as well, which was only the fourth time over the previous 239 Outlaw races that the winner was also the hard charger. The last time a winner came from that far back in a World of Outlaws race was Logan Schuchart at Charlotte in May of 2019. Social media was also lit up about last night's passing points format. Heat races were inverted eight cars and points set the feature and dash lineups. It was a similar setup to what we see at the Knoxville Nationals, but opinions were very mixed from watchers. Some even blamed the heat race two crash for Donny Schatz on the way the heats were lined up. In the end though, we were treated to some fantastic racing, with more to come tonight and tomorrow. Gravel's third and Brad Sweet's seventh see the points lead now shrink to 48. With as good as he's been and as hooked up as that car was last night, everyone might be chasing Madsen and Ricky Warner for the rest of the weekend. Watch the action live tonight and tomorrow on DIRTVision.
In last night's Firecracker 100 opener for the World of Outlaws Late Model Series, it was all Brandon Sheppard. He was second quick in his group, bagged a heat race win, and drew the pole for the feature. That setup a 30 lap, flag to flag win for the Rocket house car. Chris Madden, Scott Bloomquist, Tyler Bruening, and Spencer Hughes completed the top five. The win was BShepp's second official Outlaw win of the year, and his points lead grew to 56 now over Madden. Sheppard's seemingly lack of performance in 2021 has been a topic of discussion on this show plenty this season, but things are getting better. And I do say that a bit tongue in cheek. He is still significantly off the pace of 2019 and 2021, but obviously he's been good enough to maintain the points lead. He has less wins, less top fives, and less top tens than we'd expect. But he does have nine finishes of fourth or better over his last 11 starts, including those two wins. His top five and top ten efficiencies for the season are also at 100% currently and he leads the series in those stats. This feels a little right now like Madden really needs to be capitalizing on some of these down weeks. And by down weeks, I mean when the one car isn't winning. Madden has been solid this season, and even with four wins, can't seem to run down Sheppy. If that Rocket team gets hot into the summer here, which we've seen them do plenty of times in the past, Madden could be in trouble for the championship. For tonight and Saturday, Mike Norris and Sheppard remain at the top of the win chances list from the dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula. Make sure to tune in live all weekend on DIRTVision.
Pennsylvania Speedweek gets underway tonight at Williams Grove, and we found out about a surprise entrant yesterday, not for tonight's show, but for later in the week. Back in April, Christopher Bell put it out there that he had sold his sprint car and was going to focus on his NASCAR Cup efforts this season with Joe Gibbs Racing. That dirt racing hiatus didn't last long though. We'll see Bell behind the wheel of the Swindell SpeedLab 39 on Monday at Lincoln and Tuesday at Grandview. Bell is no stranger to the Kevin and Jordan Swindell owned team, having raced for them plenty in past seasons, including at DIRTcar Nationals. So far this season we've seen both Daryn Pittman and Buddy Kofoid in the 39, so Bell adds to an already stout driver lineup. If I'm remembering correctly, Bell hasn't been on dirt since the big flip in the feature at the Chili Bowl. His last Outlaw and All Star starts were in October of last year. Following Grandview on Tuesday, Pittman will take over for the next four nights at Port Royal, Hagerstown, Williams Grove and Port Royal. With having been away for over eight months, I wouldn't expect Bell to go out and win these shows, but it will be good to see him back on dirt again. We'll have more on speedweek on Monday.
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series takes to the Deer Creek Speedway in Minnesota for two shows starting tonight as part of the Gopher 50. This is a joint Lucas/MLRA weekend. Lucas hasn't raced at Deer Creek since 2018, when Jonathan Davenport was victorious. The last edition of the Gopher 50 was in 2019 when Brandon Sheppard was the winner and this event was a World of Outlaws race. Tonight's full program pays $12,000 to win and Saturday's racing culminates in a $15,000 to win show. Tim McCreadie continues to lead the series points standings over Hudson O'Neal and Jonathan Davenport. JD is coming off that weekend sweep of Magnolia Motor Speedway just one week ago. Even with his recent run of success though, he's still 150 points behind McCreadie. If he continues racing like he has been since night four at East Bay in January, McCreadie will be tough to run down. He's the most consistent driver in any dirt racing series in the country right now, with 16 straight top ten finishes. He has two wins in 2021, and his last five and last ten race moving averages are both trending better. McCreadie ended up second in the standings to Jimmy Owens last year, but he wasn't nearly as consistent as he's been in 2021. That could be a bad sign for his competitors. MAVTV Plus has live streams of both nights.
In Dirt Cup action last night at Skagit Speedway for the ASCS National Tour, Blake Hahn led flag to flag to grab the prelim night win over Dominic Scelzi, Trey Starks, Justin Sanders, and Chase Majdic. The win for Hahn pulled him even for the tour points lead with JJ Hickle. Tonight at Skagit is another prelim night, before the big show gets underway Saturday. MAVTV Plus, RacinBoys, and Speed Sport all have live streams.
The USAC midgets and sprint cars are off this weekend, but we do get to see the Silver Crown cars on dirt again. Kody Swanson won the season opener on the pavement at Lucas Oil Raceway, while Shane Cockrum was the 100 lap winner last weekend at Williams Grove. A big field of 32 cars is expected for Saturday night's race at Eldora, which joins the new SRX series at Tony Stewart's Ohio track. The Silver Crown cars were supposed to race tonight on the pavement at Madison, but that event has been rained out. Brady Bacon is the most recent Silver Crown winner at Eldora, back in 2019, and he'll be in the field along with names like Jason McDougal, Tyler Courtney, Logan Seavey, KTJ, CJ Leary, Robert Ballou, Justin Grant, Chris Windom, and others. If you'd like to watch, FloRacing has you covered.
As we expected yesterday, the Summer Nationals show at Spoon River was rained out. The race will now be run on Wednesday July 7th, which was originally occupied by Belle Clair Speedway. According to a release from the Summer Nationals, Belle Clair isn't opening at all this season, so that race has been cancelled and Spoon River is taking it's place. Looking ahead, the Hell Tour heads to Sycamore Speedway tonight, Pevely on Saturday, and Jacksonville on Sunday to close out the second week of competition. Bobby Pierce leads the way in late model points, and on the strength of six straight wins, Nick Hoffman tops the modified points so far. Brandon Sheppard won the Sycamore and Pevely stops in 2020, while the series didn't compete at Jacksonville. We'll obviously have new winners, as BShepp is at Lernerville this weekend for the Firecracker 100. If you can't attend this weekend, watch the Summer Nationals live on DIRTVision.
As of the recording of this show, there are 36 items on the streaming schedule for today. That includes both World of Outlaws series, Lucas, the ASCS at Skagit, PA Speedweek, and a ton of local and regional racing. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, hope everyone has a good Friday and a good weekend. If you have thoughts about the topics on today's show, leave them in the comments below or tweet at me.
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