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Macri fends off Larson, big crashes, and more from High Limit Tuesday | Daily 4-26-2023
Today we go full ham on last night's High Limit show, plus news from Bridgeport, the Summer Nationals and more. Let's go!
It's Wednesday, April 26th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
High Limit round two is in the books, and last night at 34 Raceway in Iowa it was Anthony Macri going to victory lane. He took the lead from Buddy Kofoid past half way and held Kyle Larson off at the end for the $23,000 win. Zeb Wise ended up second and Larson third. Larson tried to make something happen on the top into turn one on the final lap and jumped the cushion. It ended his bid for the win and allowed Zeb to get by. I sat this morning and watched basically the whole program to see what progress was made from the first show at Lakeside. There were definitely changes and improvements, including a new choose cone that had a light on it to make it easier for the drivers to see. The announcing from Vince and Dillon Welch was better, although Vince still needs to work on driver names. It might not be a terrible idea either to introduce some music to the shows. There is definitely a lot of quiet time. Overall though, the show was efficient, and they did get better. Still missing some of those big event elements though. There were also no takers again on the post-dash dice roll. I'm sure that won't change going forward, unless the track is really right. They ended up with 51 cars, and that did include Outlaw drivers Kasey Kahne and Brock Zearfoss. Zearfoss did not race at Lakeside though. The night included some pretty nasty incidents, including a heat race crash that junked cars for both Conner Morrell and Alex Bowman. Morrell wheelied a bit out of four early in heat one and the car took off a bit down the track. Bowman had no where to go, and both drivers went for wild rides. Morrell's car was absolutely destroyed and both were done for the night. We also saw Ian Madsen go for a tumble, and Blake Hahn and Kasey Kahne got together in the feature. That Hahn/Kahne deal was a little strange, with the drivers sharing words after the incident. Not sure what was said, but neither appeared super happy about it. Kahne didn't really look like he had an escape route to avoid the spinning Hahn, with Brady Bacon and Bill Balog to the top and Danny Dietrich and Justin Peck underneath. Back to the racing out front, Kofoid tweeted after the race that he was running out of fuel at the end, which was why he went from the lead to seventh at the checkered. He was in the mix, and then suddenly gone. And for Macri, this one felt to me like a big win for new crew chief Joe Mooney. Macri had never seen 34 Raceway before, but Mooney certainly has. He moved over in the offseason to crew chief the 39M after several years car chiefing Brad Sweet's 49 at KKR. Brad's last two finishes at 34 were a win in 2021 and a third in 2020. Mooney clearly knew what he needed to put under Macri to get him going. And as I said before the season started, that's why you bring in a guy like Mooney. Macri is going to travel more and more, and Mooney's knowledge of these other tracks will pay dividends.
Some other random thoughts from last night. Cole Macedo is definitely racking up the frequent flyer miles. He was in California over the weekend in the Tarlton car, at High Limit last night with Philip Dietz, he's been in Ohio, and we'll see him continue to travel a lot going forward. The crowd last night wasn't super big, hopefully that's not a trend that continues going forward. That field and the money being paid out deserves better. Chase Randall was fast again, but had issues with the right rear wheel packing mud and ended up out of contention. He's going to run the Outlaw show Friday at Granite City, then be at Knoxville Saturday in the 360. And I'm getting big feast or famine vibes right now from Justin Peck. That dude seems like he's either winning and up front, or spinning out three times in a main event and finishing 21st. His balls out mentality is why he's fun to watch, but a little consistency and some better decision making will go a long way I think. High Limit is back at it again next Tuesday night at Kokomo.
I did want to bring this up as well today. Just something I'm curious about. Last night's total High Limit broadcast on FloRacing was about five hours. For those that tune in, how much of these broadcasts are you actually watching? Do you go right from the start, jump in and out, or just watch the feature? Leave me a comment about your viewing habits.
Before we move on to some news items today, big shoutout to new channel members BJ, Andrew, Steven, Randy, and Ryan. Your added support for what I'm doing here is very much appreciated. If you want to check out the channel membership program which includes some added perks for a few dollars a month, click the join buttons on these videos, or go to youtube.com/dirtrackr/join.
I mentioned on yesterday's show that USAC had cancelled the Wednesday sprint car show at Texarkana 67 Speedway, and they have also now cancelled the Thursday show at Rocket Raceway Park. The national sprint cars still have two weekend shows coming up at Devil's Bowl, so hopefully they are able to get those in. To see more details, head over to usacracing.com.
Up in the northeast there have been some developments in New Jersey between a few of the race tracks, and one of them has decided to roll back some recent changes. Mat Williamson won the Sunday Super DIRTcar Series show at Bridgeport, and afterwards didn't do a great job hiding his distaste for the race track surface in his post race interview. Between that, other feedback, and some recent shots across the bow from New Egypt Speedway, Bridgeport has decided to remove their new clay. They had put the new surface down in the offseason, and like we've seen at other tracks in the past few years, things just haven't gone well. So they are removing the new stuff, and will race the rest of the season on the old surface. They do plan on revisting the project in the future. No timetable was given on the project, and we'll see how this affects the racing and car counts in the area going forward. Never a lack of drama around the northeast.
I did want to touch on the DIRTcar and Summer Nationals money today too. Just a few days ago, DIRTcar announced they are adding $142,000 to the payouts for the regional and national points standings. It's the first significant bump in quite a few years. Every division and all positions will get an increase, which will certainly help out all of the local racers. You can find full rundowns on the payouts over at dirtcar.com. This very much feels like the DIRTVision effect. A healthy World Racing Group means more money to spread around. When we talk about streaming revenue and sharing cash, this is the type of stuff that gets overlooked.
As for the Summer Nationals, WRG continues to try and find a model that works better for everyone involved. We've seen different points payouts, schedule setups, and tow money added, and things are changing again for 2023. This season, the $125,000 point fund will be distributed on a weekly basis now. Overall standings will still be tabulated, but the money will now get paid out each week to those finishers. According to the release, at the end of each week of racing, the top 10 in points will be awarded checks from $10,000 for winning, down to $500 for 10th. The tow money is still available as well, but this should open up some more flexibility for competitors amid an ever growing late model schedule around the country. You can find full details over at dirtcarsummernationals.com.
Around the other dirt racing podcasts this week, Winged Nation has Kyle Larson and Danny Dietrich. LoudPedal has Zeb Wise, Passing Points has Craig Mintz, Quicktime has Eric Arnold, Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks has Scott Daloisio and Matt Mitchell, All Gas No Brakes has Tristin Moran, Todd Cooney and others. Hoogie's Garage has Daryn Pittman, Brian Schnee, and Dan Griep, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters, the Dirt Nerds, and Dirt Track Confessions. To see the full list of shows, check out dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
Just DIRTVision Now and FloRacing 24/7 happening on the streaming services today. To see the full daily streaming schedule, head over to dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Hope you guys have a good Wednesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow.