The news cycle and responsibilities updating SPEEDSPORT.com kept us busy this morning, but now it’s time for a slightly delayed edition of our weekly Friday morning tour around the racing world. From hot laps to the main event, here’s what’s on our mind this week.
Hot Laps: Driving Style
When teenager Corey Day was fighting Kyle Larson for every inch of the race track during Tuesday’s Brad Doty Classic at Attica Raceway Park, we wondered what Larson was thinking? Because all I could think of was, “Man, that kid drives the same way Larson does.”
Qualifying: Officiating
I’d never make it as a race official. When viewing nearly identical race footage, it’s always difficult for me to understand why one instance results in a penalty and a seemingly identical occurrence does not.
First Heat: Cream Rises
There may be two prominent traveling national sprint car series at this point in time, but when the two come together, the results look pretty much as they have in recent years. Thursday’s Joker’s Jackpot at Eldora Speedway saw David Gravel, Donny Schatz and Brad Sweet fill the top three positions.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Second Heat: Brickyard Memories
It hardly seems possible it’s been 30 years since longtime SPEED SPORT writer Ron Lemasters Jr. and I made the trek from New Jersey to work the inaugural Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
That weekend is among my favorite memories in 33 years covering motorsports.
Third Heat: The Doty
Twenty years ago, sprint car racers would travel 10 to 15 hours out of their way to compete in the Brad Doty Classic, which honors one of the sport’s greatest ambassadors. This week many of the sport’s top touring teams were less than two hours away, yet sat out the event, which still attracted 46 competitors under the World of Outlaws banner.
Fourth Heat: Summer Nationals
Just when you thought the DIRTcar Summer Nationals was over, there’s another event — a Thursday night makeup race won by Jason Feger. Before long the schedule for the midsummer dirt late model series will be longer than the entire NTT IndyCar Series season.
Dash: Supercars At Night
If you are a fan of the Bristol Night Race for the NASCAR Cup Series, leave yourself an early wake up call and catch the annual Supercars event — Sydney SuperNight under the lights — Saturday morning on SPEED SPORT 1.
C Main: Where’s Tony?
The 41st Kings Royal will be run at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway on Saturday and Stewart-Haas Racing will compete for the final time at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, and Tony Stewart, who owns Eldora and is co-owner of Stewart-Haas, will be at Pacific Raceways driving a Top Fuel dragster in NHRA competition. Tell me you had that on your bingo card 10 years ago!
B Main: Eldora Field
A 64-car field of winged sprint cars invaded Eldora Speedway this week for two High Limit Racing events, followed by two World of Outlaws races. With only a few notable exceptions, the best sprint car racers in the country were there.
All High Limit and World of Outlaws drivers were on hand, along with top guns from coast to coast including Brian Brown, Anthony Macri, Garett Williamson, Aaron Reutzel, Scott Bogucki, Chase Randall, Emerson Axsom and more.
Feature: Two Series
Admittedly, I’m still not convinced sprint car racing can support two national touring series (World of Outlaws and High Limit Racing) in the long run. That said, there are plenty of signs I may be wrong about that, and there is no doubt both have provided entertaining racing throughout the first half of this season.
As well, the midsummer gathering of the clans that is occurring this week at Eldora Speedway, has been intriguing (man, I wish I’d made the trip) to watch from afar.
Through the first two nights, I was impressed with the way the High Limit folks presented information in an objective manner and candidly referred to their guests as World of Outlaws racers, acknowledging their accomplishments in the “rival” series.
And it is a rival series, no matter what anyone says, the series are in competition with each other and the drivers want bragging rights. World of Outlaws point leader David Gravel made that clear when he won Thursday’s Joker’s Jackpot under the High Limit banner.
“Taking some of that High Limit money, that’s pretty nice,” Gravel said.
It’s also ironic that Kings Royal Week comes the same week as Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game. This week at Eldora has a very similar feel to the Midsummer Classic, back when it meant something to win it.
It clearly means a lot to win at Eldora this week, and we’ll be watching to see who gets the upper hand during the final two nights.