10 Things We Learned about Sprint Cars from This Past Week July 18-24th

The hottest weekend of the year showed some of the hottest racing of the year. Along with the most beer consumed in a weekend in Central PA. Summer Nationals weekend did not disappoint. The racing was incredible. The people were incredible. That was just on Friday Night! But as always we did learn a few things this weekend. So here are 10 Things We Learned about Sprint Cars from This Past Week of July 18-24th

1. The Posse have the best local talent in the country. No Arguments

The near mention of the PA Posse on twitter will have people in an uproar. “ They aren’t the best!” “ The Posse Have Nothing on the OUTLAWS!” Well to that. I say to you, look at last week’s standings. Wednesday Night at Port Royal, 2 spots on the podium as well as 6 of the top 10. Friday at the Grove, a clean sweep of the podium.With Brent Marks leading 20 laps and Lance Dewease leading the final 5 laps dominating the feature. Saturday was the only down night but still ended up with Danny Dietrich on the podium. Of the 9 podium spots this past week, Posse had 6 to the outlaws 2. The only non Outlaw or Posse Member was Kyle Larson. Tell me another spot in the country where the local talent can put up a fight against the Outlaws like this. 

NO WHERE! @ ME (@bertwojcik)  ON TWITTER  ! I WILL THROW HANDS ON THIS !!

2. Lance Dewease.. That’s it. That’s the Tweet

Beer Hill was electric on Friday Night. It felt like a true Outlaws vs Posse fight. The only way to put the cherry on top of it. Lance Dewease brings the 69k back to victory lane against the Outlaws since 2019 for his 16th World of Outlaws win. A late race pass on Brent Marks gave the 69k back to back victories at Williams Grove. 

It was a true 69k win as well by Lance Catfishing the bottom and finding speed down there. Talking to Lance in our post race interview he said “ This has been the best the Grove has been in a long time. It’s great to see the work they are putting in.” Ya know what we might have learned something there i could use later ( That’s a teaster folks).

3. Brad Sweet Did What He Had To Do This Weekend.

Last week I was truly worried that Brad Sweets points lead was in parel this past week. Outside of Port Royal Brad Sweet has not been good at Williams Grove. Meanwhile David Gravel, Sheldon Haudenschild, and Carson Macedo all have wins at Williams Grove. All fighting with Sweet for the points lead. That changed Saturday 

Brad Sweet did an epic drive to get around Donny Schatz at Williams Grove. Then chases down Haudenschild for the lead on lap 23 and holds off a late charge by Danny Dietrich to win his first career win at the Grove. Becoming 304th different winner at Williams Grove and getting his first win since March 30 at Vado. But most importantly. He increased his points lead this weekend over Gravel, Haudeschild and Macedo. Things I wasn’t expecting to type this week. 

4. A Much Needed Weekend for Danny Dietrich

Eldora was absolutely HORRIBLE for the Dany and Daddy Show ( Jake Sgrignoli). They weren’t even sure if they were going to make Port Royal Wednesday with the damage from the flip in the B-Main of the Kings Royal. Tuesday Danny Dietrich put out the Gary Kauffman 48 would be in attendance at Port Royal for the $20,000 showdown with the Outlaws. If one Kyle Larson wasn’t there. It would have been a win. 

Started off the night with a heat race of the year contender passing Brad Sweet for the heat win to get in the dash. Starting 4th in the feature. Dietrich made his way up to 2nd but was no match for Larson. A late race yellow might have helped. Friday Night went from 15th to 8th.Saturday Night Started 4th again and needed another lap to run down Brad Sweet. He wrapped up the Weekend with the Kevin Gobrecht Classic win at Baps. A Solid weekend for the 48 

5. Keep Larson out of the Dash and make him work for it !

Once Kyle Larson was starting front row Wednesday night. There was no reason to stay. We all knew he was going to win. He absolutely shellacked the field at Port Royal. That was the only Dash Larson made all week. A 9th and a DNF were his results at the Grove. Sometimes you need to keep the golden horse away from that boy. But he did get a win Thursday Night in a surprise start at Linda’s during 600 Speedweek. So 2 good and 2 not so good nights for Young Money.

6. Fight Nice Boys But let’s get out of the car first. 

First off I don’t condone fighting in the pits at the race track. It’s not a great look. But with that being said. Who doesn’t love a good fight ? We all do. If you guys see the video of what looks like David Gravel running in the pits at the grove with a smile on his face. That’s all of us ! This week seems to be more intense in a while. Most notably Freddie Rahmer and Danny Dietrich at the Grove. Then you had Robert Ballou get dropped kicked in the car by Cj Leary. That was pretty impressive to be honest. I’ll even throw in the late model incident with Aston Winger and Mack McCarter at I-75. 

I won’t go into whose fault it is who for any of the incidents. But let’s get the guys out of the cars folks if we’re gonna have a scrap. I know the heat of the moment. But I’ve never been a fan of going after someone in the car yet. Let them get out of the car and settle it. Is it ideal for the sport? No. But it does give us that feeling of a rivalry that can give us some epic racing and moments that will be talked about forever. 

7. The Grove is the best it’s been in awhile.

 I know Its cooler to bash Williams Grove on the internet saying it sucks and it’s not good racing. But have you been there in person? This week was a prime example of how good the Grove can still be. Both Friday and Saturday nights had excellent surfaces. Even with the hot sun and wind. Friday got a little too wide but it still featured 3 lanes of racing for most of the race. 

Saturday was just awesome. The rain delay did more help than harm for once. It made it one of the more epic Summer Nationals features in the last few seasons. With a nice cushion and a track you could pass anywhere on. But the Grove has been like this all season. The issue is you can only see so much through the camera lense. So until you get there in person and see the racing. Get off the bashing the Grove bandwagon. 

8. 2 forms of Sunshine heat up Lake Ozark

Near 115° heat scorched Lake Ozark  Missouri this week with the All Stars. The only thing that was hotter was Tyler Courtney. Sunshine sweeps the All Star Weekend and adds to his commanding points lead heading into a triple header weekend in Iowa. 

9. Bridgeport is such a Badass Sprint Car Track.

 I have yet to see a bad sprint car race at The new Bridgeport configuration. The URC feature on Saturday was just another example of what a great decision it was to reconfigure in 2020. While yes I do miss the ⅝ big track. This new track has simply been outstanding. Whether it’s the sprint cars or modified and even late models now. It’s been spectacular racing.

Jason Shultz beat Tyler Ross to the line by .098 in a fun battle towards the end. Cameron Merriman had his best run of his career finishing 3rd to Shultz and Ross. Merriman ran most of the race in 2nd until about 5 to go when Ross finally tracked him down to get around him. Shultz’s 3rd URC win of the year increases his points lead as the series heads to Grandview this weekend. 

10. It’s not wise to go up against the Outlaws. In this economy anyways. 

Both Bridgeport and Selinsgrove went up directly against the Outlaws on Saturday night. Drawing 17 360s to Bridgeport and 15 410s to Selinsgrove. Baps had the Kevin Gobrecht Classic which was supposed to be run in May. But it rained out like every 410 show they tried to run so far in 2022. They finally got a sunny day to run. It just happened to be the hottest day of the year. 15 cars showed up there. A race that usually pulls a full field. 

With the way the economy is right now. Plus the tire situation. It just wasn’t the best idea to go up against the Outlaws in Central  PA. But I give major props to the tracks that tried. 

You have to try something to see if it worked. Now in years past when Selinsgrove has done this. They have gotten better car counts. Bridgeport was a semi successful event. Sure the car count could have been better. But that’s a quality over quantity type deal there. Baps was more everyone being tired and worn out from a long weekend. It’s not the worst idea to try and catch people going home. But not in this economy. 

But the one thing it circles back to is tires. Of course Hoosier hog tires this weekend for the Outlaws and there’s some worry about next weekend with them being in New York for a 2 days show. What’s that mean down here? That remains to be seen. But we’ve been saying that every weekend.