DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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One day this won't happen, but that day isn't today | Daily 6-26-2024
Huset's reschedules and everyone's mad, news from Ponderosa and JJ Hickle, Daniel Hilsabeck's scary helicopter ride, Outlaw teams invading tonight's High Limit show and a lot more. Let's go!
It's Wednesday, June 26th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
Get ready race fans, Pennsylvania Speedweek presented by Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and Brews is here! The fastest 10 days of summer kicks off this Friday, June 28 at Williams Grove Speedway. This high-octane trip through the Keystone State runs from Friday at the Grove through Sunday, July 7! Make sure you don't miss any of the action as some of the best sprint car drivers in the nation battle it out on Pennsylvania's most iconic dirt tracks. This year each race pays a minimum of $10,000 to win with the Mitch Smith Memorial at Williams Grove on July 5 paying $20,000 to win and Lincoln Speedway's Kevin Gobrecht Memorial on June 29th paying a record $25,000 to win! In the heart of the PA Posse's home, Central PA's marquee event, Pennsylvania Sprint Speedweek, has a storied history of being the most anticipated week of racing. Sprint car racing's biggest stars have Speedweek wins and championships on their resumes including Fred Rahmer, Greg Hodnett, Danny Dietrich and Lance Dewease. 2021 NASCAR Champion Kyle Larson is a PA Speedweek Champion. In addition to his championship, Larson and fellow NASCAR star, Christopher Bell, are on the Speedweek all-time win list. Bring the whole family and don't miss the most electrifying week in racing. Pennsylvania Speedweek – ten nights, seven tracks, one unforgettable experience. For more information and to stay up to date on all things Speedweek go to pa speedweeks dot com or find them on Facebook and X! Thanks again to the folks at PA Speedweek for supporting the Daily show the last few weeks.
First up today is the Huset's reschedule for the World of Outlaws. The High Bank Nationals will now be run August 30th through September 1st, which basically overwrites the Huset's Shootout that was already scheduled for those dates. The Friday show will pay $25,000 to win and $2000 to start, and the Sunday race is $100,000 to win and $2500 to start. I did not see anywhere what the Saturday program pays. Tickets for the High Bank Nationals will be good for the reschedule, and full details are available at husetsspeedway.com. I'm not really interested in the silly conspiracies around the reschedule, but if I don't at least mention them, no doubt I will get ridiculous comments about how I'm trying to help WRG just paper over the whole thing. So here we go. Brian Carter used his weather machine to flood Huset's, ruin the racing, and destroy property and equipment so he could take control of Tod Quiring's event and reschedule it for a weekend where the High Limit teams were on the west coast and couldn't compete so he wouldn't have to pay them. I think that's right. Now, for all of you rational and reasonable human beings, this whole thing is just bad luck. I'm going to use a bad word here, but this is a classic sh*t sandwich. We've got damage likely to the speedway, we've got flooded campers and cars and equipment, and tens of thousands of dollars of lost revenue because of the rainout. Insurance companies will be involved, and the track and the World of Outlaws are just trying to piece something back together here. I get that folks are upset about ticket refunds and lower purses, and by all means, be upset. But understand that Quiring is taking it in the shorts on this one. His year-defining weekend not only rained out, but there was a lot of damage done in the process, not to mention the local communities that are trying to dry out from all of the flooding. Also, knowing that the series promised a week off for the fourth of July, I'd challenge you to find a week on the schedule where this could have been put that the High Limit teams would have been available for. I'll give you a hint... There isn't one. One day we'll finally learn that when weather happens, everyone loses, but that day isn't today.
A couple of other news items for you. First, the 2024 season has very abruptly come to an end at Ponderosa Speedway. Track officials shared yesterday that the lease has been sold to a new operator and that details on any future events will be revealed by the new owners. This comes on the heels of the World of Outlaws Late Model series event this past Friday night. The rest of the Ponderosa schedule for the year included their July special on the fifth, BOSS sprint cars also in July, and their Fall Classic in September. That is now all off the schedule. The track likely won't reopen until 2025 under the new group. So I guess we'll all just wait to see what future details look like.
Also, Sandvig Motorsports revealed they have parted ways with sprint car driver JJ Hickle. Hickle had been running some midwest shows with Sandvig, which included a best finish of 9th at Knoxville on June 8th. He was most recently in the car during the World of Outlaws event at Knoxville a few weeks ago, but the team struggled to keep the car on track, and Hickle was basically a DNS. In the meantime, Hickle drove with a different team during the IRA and Maverick shows, running Lincoln Park, Bloomington and Haubstadt. Looking at the Sandvig Facebook page, it seems as though they have struggled lately, as they were looking for added sponsorship not long ago. Both sides were complimentary in their posts, so hopefully everything works out in the future.
I also wanted to double back to Daniel Hilsabeck, who is off tour with the World of Outlaws late models after recently suffering a broken arm in a heat race crash where he got tangled in the steering wheel. Hilsabeck was airlifted to an Indianapolis hospital because of the injury, and he revealed on social media yesterday that medical personnel were intially concerned because they couldn't find a pulse in his hand. That was the reason for the helicopter ride. No pulse could have turned into Hilsabeck losing the hand or fingers, but the flight nurse was able to clear him on that front. He's now set for surgery to get his wrist repaired, and hopes to return to racing soon. That is certainly good news from what could have been a very bad situation.
In racing action last night, Bobby Pierce made it two in a row with the World of Outlaws. Tyler Bruening and Brandon Sheppard led laps early at Hamilton County, but from lap eight on it was all Pierce out front. That was Outlaw victory number five on the season. Brian Shirley ended up second with BShepp third. That was Shirley's first Outlaw podium since Atomic Speedway last September. We did have a change in the standings, as Pierce jumped over Cade Dillard for third. Dillard DNF'd after losing his rear end and drive shaft. So BShepp leads, Hoffman second 20 points back, and Pierce now third, 114 behind. I want to spotlight Max McLaughlin as well. This dude really looks like he's starting to figure the late model out in this first full season. He was a Summer Nationals winner last week, and now has three straight top nine finishes with the Outlaws, including a fourth at Brownstown, and a fifth last night. The Outlaw teams are off today, but a busy stretch of racing continues tomorrow at I-94 in Minnesota.
Tuesday's Summer Nationals win at Springfield went to Ashton Winger. The season long champ from a year ago hadn't yet made an appearance with the Hell Tour in 2024, but now he's one for one. He topped Dillon McCowan and Tyler Erb. Winger has been running full time with the Hunt the Front series this season, where he's currently third in the standings. That series doesn't race again until July 6th, so plenty of opportunities for him to get some more Summer Nationals wins before then. Today's race at Tri-City has already been rained out, so no action today. The Summer Nationals will try again tomorrow at Macon for the Herald and Review 100.
And at Albany Saratoga, Mat Williamson was the Super DIRTcar Series winner. After leading early, and then fading back to third at the lap 46 break, Williamson drove back to the lead and picked up the $7600 win. Alex Yankowski grabbed that lap 46 $2000 bonus, and finished third after having to restart sixth following a six car invert. Williamson's win puts him atop the SDS standings right now, with Anthony Perrego and Matt Sheppard each single digits behind. The Super DIRTcar Series is back July 4th at Land of Legends.
If you want some racing tonight, the Kubota High Limit sprint cars are back after a few weeks off. They've got $20,000 to win at Lake Ozark and another midweek championship series race. They should have 40 plus sprint cars on the property, with all of the usual suspects. That is except for two. Carson Macedo and Gio Scelzi are listed as entries for tonight. They'll each burn World of Outlaws freebie number two, as both were also at Eagle Raceway in June. That will leave both the 41 and 18 two more, which they will likely use for the High Limit races at Eldora leading into the Kings Royal. Lake Ozark hasn't been particularly kind to Macedo, with his last race there being a 16th place finish in 2022. The track though, is only about 20 minutes from the JJR shop in Rocky Mount. Tyler Courtney currently leads the midweek standings, and he's coming off three straight wins, including that prelim at Huset's with the Outlaws, and the final two nights of the IRA Maverick speedweek. Brad Sweet leads the overall championship. They had some weather overnight, but things are good to go for today's sprint car only show. You can watch it live on FloRacing if you aren't headed there.
That's the daily for today. You do have other options on the streaming schedule, so make sure to hit up dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Hope you guys have a great Wednesday out there, we'll be back as usual, tomorrow!
