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

A few months ago there were thoughts floating around about Kyle returning to sprint car racing and how great it would be.  Well, it can be debated that he has dominated practically every sanctioning body and area that exists (Woo, All Stars, Pa, Ohio, Knoxville.....California is next on his list!) Posting this with just the thought of his racing ability, are your thoughts the same about him wheeling a sprint car? It has been reported that he has 19 wins in his last 32 starts including the last 4 races (the Doty Classic and 3 All Star Races in Pa.) and a tweet stated that he was booed after a victory this past weekend in Pa.  How do feel about Kyle coming back and bringing a dominance in the win cloumn?  Is this a postive or negative for sprint car racing?  Lastly, how soon until we see a banner flying overhead......Anyone but Larson.

If they are starting to boo he is doing something right. Winning. As a larson fan its great.

Saturday at Port I heard a couple boos, bit it was overwhelmingly positive on his behalf. Sunday night I didn't hear a single boo from where I was sitting. 

How do I feel about his dominance? Meh, I'm content. He's fun to watch, plus Silva can get that car handling like a champ. 

Seeing as he's my favorite driver to watch, my thoughts are------it's great!  How is it for sprint car racing?  Sprint car racing has been dominated by someone at almost every moment in it's history.  So, who better to dominate than it's most popular driver?  

Not really ever a fan of when someone dominates too much.

Grew up watching Wolfgang and Kauffman win pretty much every race.

When coming back to watching after a hiatus, it was Schatz, Schatz, and more Schatz.

I know some people like backing the big bull of the woods, but it's just never been for me.

As a sprint car fan, it has been an honor to watch him ply his trade over the last few weeks and it looks like he is enjoying the sucess. I just spent three straight days watching him race at Williams Grove and Port Royal and I did not hear one boo. In fact, I commented to my buddy to take a look at the crowd at Williams Grove and tell me what you see. He looked and said it looks like half the crowd was wearing a Kyle Larson shirt and he was right. Enjoy it while you can. We are witnessing history. His car control ranks up there with the all time best in the sport. He has the whole motorsports community talking about him and sprint cars and that can only be a good thing.

Seems we are witnessing history.  I'm not one to like to see the same guy win all the time but he is a generational talent.  some nights he is doing it from mid pack so he is entertaining to watch.  The charge he put on last night in the first 10 laps was high level stuff.  Also the fact that he is doing this in multiple car classes with midgets and sprints and across different regions is truly special.  Knoxville should be fun to see if he can take the big $$ and sweep the weekend.  Not thw Nationals but seeing if he can continue his dominance will be a big story line. 

Everytime someone wins a lot and dominates they get boo'd. Kinser did, Schatz did/still does. In Western PA Ed Lynch Jr would get a ton of boo's when he won at Lernerville (except the silver cup win), Mercer, or Sharon and cheers if he got beat or had mechanical troubles. Fans generally don't like the same guy winning. The only person Ive seen that never got boo'd that won a lot was Lou Blaney, but I also only caught the homestretch of his career running modifieds in the late 80s till his retirement in the early 2000s so I can't comment about his earlier career.

I'm not sure that I ever saw Steve Kinser get booed. He won a lot but he had a good personality, didn't fued with other drivers, and more or less seemed like a cool guy. 

I think its great! He's an AMAZING driver.... at this point I'm rooting for locals to beat him, but that just makes it more fun

Well tonite they figured out a way to stop him.... DON"T HAVE A RACE!

I wanna see him run USAC wingless sprints (not likely tho)... SPREAD the domination!

I think he won Ultimate Challenge wingless race at Oskaloosa both times I saw him there

http://kylelarsonracing.com/old/2011pr/2011-08-09=Oskaloosa-UltimateChallenge.htm

He was doing this kinda stuff back in 2011-12. 

Everyone loves a winner until the win all the time. The equiptment is all pretty much the same and can all be purchased just takes money.There are also many top crew cheifs probably in same category as Paul Silva such as the Werners but Kyle is one of the best and took quite a paycut to dominate the open wheel scene.He said one word that has allowed us to see what he can do on a fulltime basis. I remember several first time feature winners and how everyone was so happy but it doesnt take long to want a new one.Jack Hewitt said it best cheer or boo but at least you have bought a ticket.

After reading a lot of comments, both on here and on Facebook, I hear a resounding theme from a small percentage of fans:  "I'm a long-time sprint car fan and Kyle winning is bad for the sport"

How can you be a long-time sprint car fan AND think Kyle winning is bad for the sport?  The sport has thrived over the last 40+ years, and all there has ever been is pockets of domination by one or two drivers at a time.  If domination by one man was bad for the sport, this sport would have fizzled out decades ago.  What makes this so much more fun is he's driving one of the old true outlaw schedules.  He's not messing up the World of Outlaw or All-Star points.  He's just hitting areas where he can race night in and night out.   Add to that the fact that he is the most likable driver in the country.  

I hope he does not get a Nascar ride yet next year and he decides to run the World of Outlaws for one season while in his prime.  

I think its real simple.  He makes sprint car / midget racing so fun to watch. If you have watched him in person or on video he really puts on a show and makes it exciting.  He is just not passing people in the middle of the back stretch.  He is on the wheel and most time creates a very exciting race finish which is what we all want.  At Grandview, during PA Speedweek I was rooting for Freddie Rahmer to win as the underdog even though he was leading the race.  If he won, it was a great race as Larson was right on him at the end, and he beats Larson.  Although Rahmer lost it was still a great race because you saw Larson track him down and make an amazing pass.  He is just so skilled.  The talent he was born with, all the years he drove those those cool QRC California outlaw karts, small rough California tracks, and obvious passion for open wheel racing has made him a unique talent. 

I believe Jeff Gordon would have been very similiar but once he made it to Nascar it didn't seem like he had the passion/desire or was allowed to run sprint cars.  Ironically the focus Gordon put into Nascar could have very well been the reason he was so successfull whether we liked it or not.    

I say bring it on.  Kyle is an excellent driver and his car control is as good as anyone else in the open wheel world.  He's fan friendly and well spoken (most of the time anyway!).  You want to be the best?  Then beat the best.  We'll worry about the "he wins too much" problem after he has done it for 4-5 years.  Something makes me think he will take another NASCAR sabbatical before that happens. 

I think it is an awesome time in open wheel racing now.  There are so many talented drivers - Sweet, Schuchart, Schatz, Pitman, Thorson, Larson, Scelzi, Macedo, Gravel, Grant, Sunshine, Windom, Bacon, Bell, Seavey, Meseraull, Kofoid, etc.  It seems to me that there are more highly talented racers out there now than there were 5-8 years ago.  I may be wrong, no way to quantify it, but it is an exciting time in sprint car/midget racing.

Fans always have odd ways of choosing favorite drivers or disliking others. On one side of the spectrum there are people who will love for a winner no matter what. The driver could be cocky, arrogant, ignorant, grade A A-holem stand offish, etc but fans will like a driver no matter what. Conversly, people will hate a winner no matter what even if said driver donates his money, great with children, friendly, takes time out for the fans, etc but no matter what people will hate them just because they win a lot (basically because their favorite didn't win).

With that said, I have no problem with Larson winning as much as he has and probably will not get tired of it as he is one of my favorites. I do like other drivers more but if Larson wins, I do not feel like it is a bad night at the races. There will always be haters for every driver no matter what just because some people have to go against the crowd or have this whole scale of who is allowed to when set amount of races or money. Best example of that for me was the past 2 Nationals when in 2018 my buddy was cheering on Brad Sweet with the rest of the stands to win and erupted like everyone else. Fast forward a year in 2019 he tells me, " Well I know one thing, I don't want Sweet to win." I asked why? He stated "he's already won enough the past couple years and won the Kings Royal this year, I want someone else to win and win the money. I want anyone to win except for him and Schatz." I was like WTF you were sitting there clapping a year ago but all of a sudden he wins a couple more big shows and you turn on him. I wonder how many fans of Larson now that may cheer for him due to certain circumstances but may not neccessarily have any type of fan loyality to him like others.

Still think the dominators of all dominators are Steve and Karl Kinser.

Still think they did it on a lower budget than many who tried to beat them.