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.

Kyle Larson's superpower on full display in dominant Knoxville Nationals win | Daily 8-13-2023

Kyle Larson did it again. We'll talk about his dominant Knoxville Nationals win and his insane versatility, plus lots of other notes from the weekend, including some driver news, a track needing a promoter, and Bobby Pierce winning again. Let's go!

It's Sunday, August 13th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

Back on Friday I got DIRTRACKR logo hats back in stock. They are the dark gray Flexfits with the black logo. I do have two sizes, with both the large/extra large and small/mediums available. You can get one now over at shop.dirtrackr.com with free shipping in the US. You can grab a sticker, shirt, or koozie with your order as well. These never seem to last very long, so don't wait around if you want one.

A bunch of stuff to talk about from the last few days, we'll go heavy on the Knoxville Nationals to start today. Kyle Larson a dominating win from the pole, leading all 50 laps on the night. It was Larson's second career Knoxville Nationals score, and just the second time since the race was lengthened that the winner went flag-to-flag. The other was Donny Schatz in 2015. Over the last several seasons, I think we've run out of nice things to say about what Kyle Larson can do behind the wheel of a race car, but I feel like the thing I keep going back to that I'm most impressed with is his versatility. I don't know that anybody on earth can hop car types and track surfaces with so much ease as he can. Think about the last week. He went from finishing top five in the Cup race at Michigan on Monday, to Oskaloosa that night where he started sixth in the front row challenge. Who knows where he might have finished had they not had mechanical troubles. Thursday at Knoxville he had a hellacious seventh to the lead run in the heat race and finished second in the Knoxville prelim feature. Saturday he's at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and ends up second in practice on the road course with the Cup car, and qualifies sixth for the race. Then hops a plane back to Knoxville where he promptly dominates the biggest sprint car race on the planet. And today, right back to Indy for the 200 miler of left and right turns. It's one thing to go attempt it. We've seen that plenty. But Larson is on a completely different level. To make a comparison to a different sport, it feels like Shohei Ohtani with the Angels in baseball. He gets compared to the best hitters, and compared to the best pitchers, and he's the only guy that can do both. Larson is getting talked about this morning among the best to ever drive a sprint car, and later today will be wheeling a stock car on a road course, and he's one of the best over there too. After today, he'll have a quiet Monday, then be right back in the sprint car come Tuesday for the High Limit show at Huset's. It's absolutely unbelievable.

Behind Larson's win, David Gravel charged from 22nd to second, after needing a Hard Knox Friday transfer. He probably needed a caution, or a few more laps to really try and challenge the 57 out front. Gravel did appear to dodge a bullet though, as he did hit the restart cone late in the race and was not penalized for it. Donny Schatz ended up third after starting third and running up front the whole feature. Some other feature notes, nice top five run for Gio Scelzi. Brad Sweet went 16th to sixth. Sheldon Haudenschild had a 10 position charge, and Logan Schuchart looked like he may have challenged for the win at one point, but hsi night went south with 10 to go when his engine let go. I believe that was their second expired power plant of the week. The other contender who had issues was Rico Abreu. He had a flat right rear under a caution, and had to make a trip to the work area. He looked fast early, but finished seventh after restarting at the tail. And Rico was not the only victim of tire issues this week. I felt like there were quite a few, and some led to significant crashes. Brad Sweet on his prelim night destroyed a car, James McFadden had one go down in the Saturday B-Main that took him out of what would have easily been a feature transfer. Plus Chase Randall, and several others. Tough week to be a Hoosier rear tire for some reason. There were some ugly crashes on Saturday too, especially early in the night. Cody Ihlen went for a big tumble at the start of the E-Main and was transported to a local hospital with what was reported as a leg injury. Matt Covington was also transported after a flip in the D-Main, but it sounds like no real issues for him, just some soreness ahead. So that is certainly better news. Other than that, I thought it was a good week of racing, Knoxville was packed, there were plenty of great battles, and as always the cream rises to the top. I know there are some fans and competitors that continue to not be happy about the format with some of these big shows. I spoke with one crew chief who was frustrated with how the week went. His point was the inverts are fine, but the problem is the cars are so equal now that it's hard to move forward in some of the heats. Which makes sense when you realize that everybody basically can have the same parts and pieces these days. I'm not sure how you solve that one though. Looking ahead, things will stay busy for the sprint car world, as High Limit hits Huset's on Tuesday and then the Outlaws go to Jackson next weekend for the Jackson Nationals. Drop your comments below on Larson's win, what you thought of the week, and anything else on your mind.

A couple of other sprint car news items for you. It sounds like we could see Tyler Courtney back in the Clauson Marshall 7BC as early as next weekend. The All Stars are at Outlaw Motor Speedway on Friday, and Sunshine hopes to be in the car. He said he feels good and the doctors are good with his progress. If that's true, then Anthony Macri will be looking for other opportunities outside of his High Limit ride with Bernie and the Indy Race Parts 71. And in Pennsylvania, Zemco Racing announced on Friday that Hunter Schuerenberg will replace Logan Wagner in the 1Z in the upcoming races at Port Royal, including the Tuscarora 50. Wagner has moved over to the Don Kreitz 69K, replacing Lance Dewease. Schuerenberg was a Knoxville Nationals feature starter, but was out early, and ended up 24th. I did not see or hear what their issue was.

At Florence Speedway last night, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series was in action for the North/South 100. $75,000 to the winner, and we had a hell of a race down the stretch. Five lead changes among four drivers, and basically the top three guys in the sport battling it out to the end. Hudson O'Neal led the most laps, but ended up third behind winner Bobby Pierce and a hard charging Ricky Thornton Jr. RTJ actually got to the front on a restart with 13 to go, but Pierce had the elbows out and was back on top just a few circuits later, and he drove on to the win. Pierce had two Lucas wins entering the weekend, then won both his prelim features Thursday and Friday, and the big money on Saturday. I definitely think he's moved to the top right now, but RTJ is option 1B. That 20RT team did need a provisional to start the main event after issues on the first prelim night, and just missing out on a B-Main transfer on Saturday. As for the battle for that final locked in spot for the Lucas chase, Brandon Overton still has it, but Tim McCreadie and Devin Moran are much closer. McCreadie only trails Overton by 15 points, and Moran is only another 65 back after Overton finished 15th last night. That Wells team definitely has some work to do headed to the Topless 100 this week. Winning the Lucas title this season means doing well at Eldora at the finale, and Overton would be high on the list of favorites there, but it's all for naught if he can't hold on to that final spot. The Topless 100 starts Friday at Batesville.

Before we close out today, the future of Lawrenceburg Speedway is in doubt after the current promoters announced back on Thursday night that they would be retiring from that role following this season. Dave and Kim Rudisell have been operating the track since 2007 and are calling it a career. The town of Lawrenceburg though does hope to find a replacement for the future. The mayor told Local12 news they do want to keep it going. Besides a weekly program, The Burg is home to national stops for the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars, USAC sprint cars, and USAC midgets.

That's it for the show today. There is still some racing happening around the country tonight, so make sure to check out the streaming schedule over at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.

Hope you guys have a good Sunday out there, we'll see you right back here tomorrow.