By T.J. Buffenbarger
(July 18, 2025) — After a night of wild racing with significant carnage at Eldora Speedway, here are my takeaways from the Joker’s Jackpot.
- Watching Kyle Larson drive a race car perfectly setup is entertaining. It typically results in him destroying the field in the same manner we all witnessed during the second half of the Knoxville Nationals last year.
Watching Larson drive an imperfect car is also entertaining. Thursday night Larson had a clear disadvantage on restarts. During the early stages of that feature, Rico Abreu would motor away due to Larson’s engine stumbling on restarts. Somehow, Larson managed somehow to keep the rest of the field behind him, never dropping past third position.
While Paul Silva had Larson’s car dialed in handling, the race may have played out differently had more drivers been able to take advantage of the restarts to get by Larson. Knowing he would have single file restarts with 10 laps to go, Larson managed the situation and was home free once he got to that point in the feature because of the change to the restarts and since there was only a dozen cars left running at that point in the feature and slower traffic would not be a factor (More on this later).
I realize there might be some fan apathy with Larson winning these major sprint car races frequently, but it’s worth stepping back for a moment and realize what witnessing. I’ve written countless sentences in this space specifically about Larson’s talent, his ability to break down and recall the amazing things he does on track with the media after the races is remarkable.
I find myself in this post race situation at times struggling to figure out what to ask the guy that is carving up the best sprint car drivers in the country at their biggest events as a side quest. At some point you just want to ask how in the world does he do it when the answer is in front of us based on how Larson processes and recalls information.
- When I can’t be at the racetrack on a Saturday night one of my favorite things to watch is Anthony Macri beating down the fence at Port Royal Speedway. Macri’s ability to run the top at that track is one of the most entertaining things to watch in sprint car racing.
I always felt if Macri got enough track time and comfortable on a slick Eldora with the cushion right up by the fence, he could do the same thing at the Big E. Thursday night was a big step in that direction for the soft-spoken driver from Dillsburg, Pennsylvania.
How Macri went about earning that second place finish was the impressive thing to me. Biding his time and minimizing mistakes while others fell by the wayside, which is not what you think of when you see the way Macri rips around the top of certain racetracks.
Macri came on in the late stages of Thursday’s 40 lap feature at Eldora, eventually ending up in the runner up position. While I thought we would be seeing these types of runs out of Macri at the Big E sooner, I don’t think it’s out of bounds to name him as driver that could be in contention on Saturday to wear the crown. Could you imagine the reaction from the large Pennsylvania contingent seeing Don Kreitz Jr, the 1986 Kings Royal winner who has the honor of crowning this year’s victor, crowning another member of the Pennsylvania Posse? That party would last until the first day of the Knoxville Nationals.
- I’ve been going to sprint car races my entire life and I cannot remember a stretch of races where this much equipment was destroyed, and the accidents had this level of ferocity to them.
The circumstances this week are relatively new to sprint car racing with two six figure paydays during a stretch of races contested over six straight nights throughout Ohio.
Thursday night was brutal with one of the most vicious accidents I’ve seen in my lifetime at Eldora in turn one that took out multiple cars and sent Tyler Courtney to the hospital. By the end of the race only nine cars crossed the finish line, and for most of the feature lapped traffic was not a factor due to so many cars being eliminated from the feature by crashes or mechanical issues.
I’m not sure if it’s from increased driver aggression, better equipment tightening up the field, or some other reasons why there have been so many torn up race cars this week. We are not that far removed from having some Kings Royals where the feature went green to checkered.
This could just be an unfortunate stretch, but it’s been an eye-opening week so far.