Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

We all know a sprint car or late model driver that is touring in a national traveling tour, who came from a family with lots of money.  Of course, most families made it the old fashioned way, they earned it, good for them, though some inherited their wealth.  Most drivers (I think) came up the hard way, they had to make it mostly on their own with a little help from family.  Any guess as to what percent of drivers on the WoO sprint car tour, WoO late model tour and the Lucas Oil late model tour, that benefited big time by having a wealthy family paying the bills as their son (or daughter) made his way to the "big time".  It certainly helps a driver who has some talent, to have a family pay the bills that allows them to travel long distances to races to get that experience.  Drivers who can't afford to travel dozens of hours a week in a big hauler or toter home, full of parts/engines/spare this and that, have to rely on getting their experience at their local track for the most part.  Reading a story in Sprint Car and Midget magazine a couple months ago made me think about this.  It was about a California driver from a very wealty farm family who only has to show up at the tracks,  with the car ready to go. They have a well-known crew chief who is on salary with the family business, repairing their farm equipment (they have 13 half- a-million harvesters and 60+ heavy trucks) when not working on the race car.  He drives the hauler to the track and the driver is there waiting to strap into it.  Again, more power to the family for making a lot of money.  In this case, the family became wealthy due to starting small and over the years getting big, all on their own smarts.  

Lawlessness + liberalism = HELL -  NYC, Detroit, Chicago, 
Seattle, LA  Who the H runs those cities. 

Any guess as to what percent of drivers on the WoO sprint car tour, WoO late model tour and the Lucas Oil late model tour, that benefited big time by having a wealthy family paying the bills as their son (or daughter) made his way to the "big time" 

99.9% of them!

Let me guess....88N?

So what? If you work hard you can still make it.

I disagree. The Shark team, for example, throws your percentages right out the window.

How many blue collar workers/factory workers can afford to run what fans consider a "low budget" team? Not me! Dustin Selvage said he spends $2000/wk  to go racing at Knoxville. How many factory workers, car dealership mechanics or body men can afford to spend $2000/wk 4 weeks a month to go racing? Just pointing out big budget/small budget are relative terms in racing. To me, $8000 a month would be a real big budget (more than I make per month) but to Tony Stewart its probably peanuts!

What is crazy is spending $50,000  on an engine and at end of year refresh engine for $8,000 plus but totsl purse collected at end of year was $7,000.  You did not make enough to pay for refresh and you had all the other costs you paid for.  Just think about it, a rain out saved you alot of money.  You have to enter racing as a hobby because 90% are not going to break even.

I stand behind my comment, it doesnt matter if you are low buck or big buck in sprint car racing especially at the 410 level. It is out of reach for most everyday people. 

What the shark team has done in the past on their budget is truly amazing! I am a huge fan! 

They have something like 10-15 engines for the two cars and im sure they are not all $70,000 hitters, but thats still ~$500,000 worth of engines sitting in the shop/trailer. 99.9% of people involved in racing cant do that.

     I can't argue with that. Racing has never been cheap and is getting more out of hand every year. 99.9% is still high. I don't know anything about WoO late models but there are a lot of WoO sprint drivers that didn't get where they are with Daddy's money- Schuchart, Allen, Shaffer, Haudenschield, Madsen(x2) etc.

     Looking back on all the Knoxville Natioanl winners, Only Schatz and Sweet(maybe? I dunno) had family money. Kinser(x2), Swindell, Wolfgang, Weld, Allen, Shuman, Blaney, Saldana and a bunch of other guys I can't remember did OK without family money.

Makes you wonder how many teams will be affected or forced to fold up due the the Countries issues we are dealing with right now..

This will be a humungous monetary kick in the ball sack for many.

I could probably create a Knoxville Nationals A through D main lineup of people over the years who had all the money you would think it took to go very far in this sport but lacked the talent to actually get it done. I respect the hell out of what the Shark team has accomplished and am amazed that they keep doing it that way.

Sweet did not come from money so you can take his name off that list.

     If you put a coversheet on that report, would it include a photo of Tyler Walker?

No. Tyler had all the talent in the world but couldn't keep his demons at bay.

Well I'm not 100%  on the year but sweet came out into the camping area at the 4 crown in a Chevy s-10 I think with his seat riding shotgun. He didn't have any place to stay so he crawled in a pop-up camper & crashed for the night. Who knows if he even remembers that!

Frank

True, but didn't he get his start with family money?

Brad Sweet? Definitely not. The story above about the 4 Crown is most likely true and knowing Bradley he probably remembers it very well.

I don't necessarily look at drivers based on the amount of money they had growing up or if they buy rides. If you have the resources to use, by all means use it. Just don't do interviews acting like you had it as rough as others. The Dillion boys in Nascar come to my mind that seem like they started life on 3rd base but act like they hit a triple. 

If your talented & good to fans and can perform then I have no problem. Carson Macedo comes to mind as someone who probably brings money from his uncle to a deal. He's a good kid, has won races, can compete, still learning, and someone I pull for to get better. Would I like to see someone like a Lee Jacobs, Cole Duncan, Cap Henry, etc get the same opportunity and best driver gets the ride? Absolutely but unfortunately life isn't fair & neither is racing & it has been that way for awhile. 

Sorry, we lost something in translation. I was talking about whetherTyler Walker got his start with family money.

Oh! No doubt but you won't catch me questioning the amount of talent he had and I was able to witness it first hand from the very beginning.