Dirt Late Models 2021

Just read that Ben Shelton is reporting that Earl Pearson Jr. and Black Diamond race cars are parting ways after the Hillbilly this weekend. Apparently the house car still plans to run a tour next year, and it sounds like, according to DOD, that Jason Papich is going to field a car for EPJ for the remainder of the year.
 
Not surprising on either account. As a team, they have run terribly the last couple of years. Black Diamond has some younger drivers running well in their cars. I don't know if they'll turn to one of them or somewhere else. Papich's company name has been on EPJ's car for some time. It will be interesting to see how he runs in someone else's equipment.
 
Cherokee is not the best race track. The groove is narrow and around the bottom, and it chews up tires once the rubber is down. Still intense though, as the battles up front were tight. Larson started on the pole, but they beat him. He wasn't as fast as others, and after leading the first half of the 60 lap race, Davenport got around him. Then Overton and Madden did as well. Overton finally figured out how to get around JD on the top, which was quite a feat on that track.

T-Mac, Davenport, and Chris Ferguson all popped tires late while running in the top four, as did a bunch of others, bringing out a rash of cautions. This allowed Larson to get back into the top five.

1. Brandon Overton
2. Chris Madden
3. Jimmy Owens
4. Trent Ivey
5. Kyle Larson
 
Tim Hitt @ Cherokee. Not his favorite track after that.
 

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I have a friend who loves that place. I ask him why. I rarely see anything good at that track. I did see the ending of the street stock (or whatever they call it when 3 cars were close at the line for the win, 2 of them were wrecking each other.
 
That was a marathon and slog to get through. Was funny they were trying to beat the rain. Thought maybe Moran was going to have something for McCreadie, but nope. RTJ was impressive getting back to third.

Going to watch the WoO late models at Volunteer unless it interferes with WoO sprints.
 
They've tried to start the WoO race three times without getting a lap in. Utter chaos on the last tone with pole sitter Madden and third starter Weiss getting hooked together and causing a chain reaction pileup.
 
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Somehow they gave Madden and Weiss their spots back after they wrecked, I'm pretty sure WoO is just making it up as they go.
 
If there is a multi-car wreck on the start, everybody gets their spot back. But Madden should have been DQed for getting out of his car. That's the rule. Plenty of upset drivers over that.
 
Tim_Richmond_Fan said:
World 100 week is here, and Flo is killing it in the run up. "The road to Eldora" series has been excellent and this video gave me goosebumps. So pumped for this week.

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If Flo had a monthly option I would have stayed signed up. Don't like the unexpected $160 debit when it renews. Had to get my bank involved in cancelling my sub. Used it ONE night. Took 2 months to cancel. Not good.
 
The first of two World 100s this week are tonight at Eldora. Last night's results set the line-ups for tonight's heats with two twin 25 lap features (field was split into two groups. The first feature felt a lot more stacked than the second one, with Johnny Scott getting the surprise win over a bunch heavy hitters. Tim McCreadie started ninth in the second feature and blasted past everyone, looked like he was in his zip code.

 
Great race in the middle portion until the track locked down with rubber. Brandon Overton is no surprise as a winner, taking another crown jewel to add to his phenomenal year. Tim McCreadie finishes second from the 19th starting spot. Dale McDowell third and Davenport fourth.
 
Joseph Joiner of Hunt The Front (flat black #10) made the race. Finished 19th I think with 12 year old Draime motor. It was freshened over the winter. 857HP against the new style spread bores that make 950ish. Got smoked pretty bad early but was completely competitive once it slicked off. Bet he's better tonight. Main thing I see is these guys that run the big series are SUPER aggressive at drop of flag. They throw it in the first turn and KNOW it's gonna stick. He's only run 3-4 races against these guys. Big step up.
 
The people running WoO/DirtCAR/WRG are catching a lot of flack over their calls on drivers jumping starts/not jumping starts. Penalizing drivers after the race is over is something not done in dirt late model racing.
 
MRM said:
The people running WoO/DirtCAR/WRG are catching a lot of flack over their calls on drivers jumping starts/not jumping starts. Penalizing drivers after the race is over is something not done in dirt late model racing.
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Not familiar with the incidents in question. Is this a Casey Shuman thing, or is it higher up the chain at WRG than that?
 
The first incident was the WoO race at Volunteer on Saturday night. Weiss jumped the start and crashed into Madden who was the pole sitter. That caused a big crash. Some say Madden was brake checking and Weiss ran into Madden because he knew he'd be penalized if he got out of line. The kicker was Madden got out of his car, which is an automatic DQ. They allowed him to race.

There have been a few issues at Eldora already this week. Dale McDowell was penalized AFTER the race for jumping a start. I have never seen that in dirt late model racing. They usually throw a caution and either warn the driver and send him back a row. Other drivers looked as though they jumped starts and were not penalized. It hasn't been announced by WoO yet, but they are losing an upcoming date because the track owner is also a car owner and had his car junked in the Volunteer crash and then saw the nonsense at Eldora.
 
Just my opinion, but what I saw at Volunteer was Madden playing games from the pole because he knew he had Sheppard right beside him and needed help. Madden at the very least had them way stacked up compared to the outside lane. The lack of enforcing that rule about not exiting the car isn't proper.
 
Can anyone beat Overton tonight? I would like to see someone get it done.
 
The sheer amount of pileups on starts and restarts lately is not good.
 
Can't get more storybook than the #0 starting on the pole of the 50th World 100. I'm not a fan, but that's cool. Hoping they'll get the track to last longer than it did on Thursday, or otherwise they should make it the World 70.
 
Brandon Overton finally got beat. Jonathan Davenport wins, with Mike Marlar charging from 26th to finish second. Overton led laps, but settles for third. A better World 100 feature overall than Thursday's.
 
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