DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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DYK: The 2023 Lucas Late Model class is without a rookie right now | Daily 12-28-2022
Today on the show we'll talk about the 2023 Lucas field that doesn't include a single rookie, the opening night of the Tulsa Shootout, and my mistakes from the Tuesday show. Let's go!
It's Wednesday, December 28th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
I always try and help promote those out there who are making content around dirt racing, and just this morning I added three more creators to the channels section at youtube.com/dirtrackr. Billy Dietrich has been doing stuff for a while around his Central PA based sprint car racing, he's there now. I also added Old No. 7 Garage. Modified racer Tim Nash and his family have built a sizeable following, over 30,000 subscribers, documenting their racing adventures. And Chase Dietz is getting a new YouTube channel rolling as he starts his own sprint car team. He's been doing really cool stuff on TikTok, and now he's crossing over to YouTube as well. So those three channels have been added, plus Sheldon Haudenschild has dropped another video in the last 24 hours as well. They are really high quality from Jesse and Dirt Co Media. It shows how content continues to advance and grow in importance, and it's an incredible way to share ideas and the cool ass stuff these drivers and teams are doing. If you are a racer or team and want to step up your content for 2023 like all these examples I just mentioned, check out today's show sponsor MSP Mounts. These mounts were created by sprint car racer Dan McCarron, and will work to capture video for whatever you race. Perfect for action cameras, they'll fit a wide range of tubing and bar sizes, and are easy to use. You won't spend a lot of time between on-track sessions moving this thing from one position to the next, or digging through the toolbox for a screwdriver. Just spin the clamp off, pick a new spot, and spin the clamp back on. Super simple. These are used by some of the top creators in dirt racing, and when you buy from Dan, you are supporting a business in the dirt racing community. As a special offer just for the DIRTRACKR audience, you can get 10% off your order over at mspmounts.com. Just make sure to use code "DIRTRACKR" at checkout. That's D I R T R A C K R at checkout for 10% off your order at mspmounts.com. If you're watching the Shootout this week, or tune into the Chili Bowl, you'll definitely see some of these in action.
Speaking of indoor racing, the Tulsa Shootout is underway as of last night. They had a bunch of practice sessions through the day yesterday, and got into heat races last night. We saw names like Blake Hahn, Chance Crum, McKenna Haase, Emerson Axsom, Ricky Thornton Jr., Logan Seavey, Brent Crews, Noah Gass, Shane Stewart, and Logan Seavey compete. The Wednesday schedule includes more heat races for outlaw non-wing, restricted A-Class, A-Class winged, and junior sprints, followed by D and C mains for outlaw winged. If you don't know what the Tulsa Shootout is, it's like the Chili Bowl, but instead of midgets, it's micro sprints. Multiple classes, and a crap load of cars inside the Tulsa Expo. Last night's racing was marred by an ugly fight at the top of the ramp following a winged outlaw heat. Nick Howard and Blake Scott got together battling for the lead, and afterwards there was basically a full on brawl between the two sides. In the aftermath, Blake Scott has been DQ'd for the remainder of the week. Completely unnecessary behavior over a micro sprint heat race. I have no problem if people want to be mad about what happens on track, and hell, even if the drivers want to duke it out or push and shove. I don't care. But the scene we saw last night was disgusting and has no place in dirt racing or anywhere else for that matter. It was an embarrassing display, and I'm glad the Shootout officials took action. You can watch the Shootout all week on FloRacing, and keep up with results and news at tulsashootout.com. Keep an eye on Walkapedia on Twitter as well, as BWalks is in the building and live tweeting the action.
As of today, we are about a week and a half away from the start of the 2023 dirt late model season. The Wild West Shootout starts on January 7th at Vado, and then the World of Outlaws and Lucas start not long after in Florida and Georgia. We've been documenting the growing full time fields for each series, and there is something a bit interesting happening with Lucas. As of right now, the full time Lucas field looks like this. Tim McCreadie is back to defend his championship, and he'll be joined by Jonathan Davenport, Devin Moran, Ricky Thornton Jr., Hudson O'Neal, Tyler Erb, Earl Pearson Jr., Garrett Alberson, Daulton Wilson, Ross Robinson, and then most likely Kyle Bronson and Spencer Hughes. There haven't been official announcements from some of these guys, but schedules on websites and other things are pointing in this direction. That's 12, and there are a few others we don't know plans for. I'm thinking about guys like Shane Clanton and Tyler Bruening, and Jimmy Owens. In all of these names, unlike the World of Outlaws, there isn't a single rookie driver. The Outlaws right now have potentially five rookies in Payton Freeman, Nick Hoffman, Todd Cooney, Dustin Walker, and Logan Martin. But after having four rookies finish the season in 2022, Lucas has none declared for 2023. In the 18 year history of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, they have never not awarded a rookie of the year. Back in 2005 it was Scott James, and this season it was Garrett Alberson. Other notable Lucas rookies of the year include Jonathan Davenport, Brandon Sheppard, Hudson O'Neal, and Tyler Erb. There are still a few weeks for drivers to decide, and this could potentially change come Speedweeks, but as of right now, we could be looking at a rookie class of zero. The Lucas rule book isn't clear on this, and maybe someone in the audience could educate me, but I wonder if they would default down the order to a young driver who maybe ran a bunch of races to be top rookie, even if they weren't full time. If I get any clarity here, I'll let you know.
I do want to correct a couple of mistakes from yesterday's show. I did say that High Limit races were $23,000 to start and $1500 to win. I obviously just got my words jumbled up on that one. There were a bunch of comments about it. What's interesting though, is the entire comment section missed the much larger mistake I made yesterday in confusing Parker Martin and Logan Martin. I mistakenly said Parker Martin was joining the World of Outlaws Late Model field for 2023, when it's actually Logan Martin. And all I had was one Facebook comment. Some of you are really asleep at the wheel out there. Logan Martin made 11 starts with the Outlaws in 2022, with a best finish of 14th at Volusia. He did lead some laps and finish top five at Boone in 2021. Racing elsewhere this past season, he had two wins with the Comp Cams Super Dirt Series, and a late season victory with the MLRA. My apologies to Logan on the confusion.
If you're looking for other podcast episodes this week, Ohio Dirt has Trey Jacobs, Hoogie's Garage has Shawn Neisteadt, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters and Passing Points Down Under. To see the full list of shows and episodes, head over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
Three items on the streaming schedule today. FloRacing has day two of the Tulsa Shootout and Flo 24/7. There is also DIRTVision Now. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Alright, that's it for the show today. Have a good Wednesday. Thanks everyone for tuning in. We'll be back here on Monday for more DIRTRACKR Daily.