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

Not sure if the track and owner justify bringing this topic up on a sprint car forum but....

124 cars at Eldora for the million. Probably almost that many stay for the weekend. The RICO thread questions the payouts of LM to Sprints. To me there seems to be a lot more LM in the system. So could eldora handle 120 Sprints on one night? Could the USA provide 120 sprints at one location? Would a million dollar prize bring them out like it does late models? I suspect a small handful of drivers realistically thought they could win it and the other 100 or so wanted to be part of somethung special with the unlikely chance they were in a good spot at the right time to capitalize on someone else's misfortune. It is true you won't win if you dont show up.

Even though I may not know you, I 
care what most of you think!

There are only a few tracks in the country that could handle 100 or more sprint cars.   The two that I know are....

1. Knoxville - The Nationals normally draws around 95 to 110 every year.  They split them in half for the qualifing nights.        These Nationals used to get in upwards of 150 cars.

2. Eldora - They already get between 50 and 60 for the Kings Royal.

As far as I know I don't know of another track in the USA that could handle 100+ sprinters.

Let's go Sprint Car Racing!

Knoxville - Best Track In the USA!
Eldora - 2nd Best Track in the USA!

While not known as a sprint car track, I imagine Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland could too. 

Although it was different classes Eldora has had over 120 sprints before for their old sprintacular show that they use to do in October every year. It was made up of All Stars, 360 Sprint Invaders, and BOSS non wing. I think the first year that 4crown had the All Stars there was well over 120 cars in the pits and even had to have some teams pit outside of the track behind turn 3. As far as a 410 wing million dollar race I would say that a place like Eldora or Knoxville can handle it and as far as Eldora goes they could probably get 120cars. I would say if you had a Million Dollar to win race you probably would not have a problem getting 120cars.

And Bristol, I suppose. 

There was 235 cars for the original Million in 2001. 

I think if you had a format like the LMs where there are 2 A mains per evening for prelims you could get 100 cars at Eldora. But people are acting like it's a prerequisite. If you had a million dollar race at Eldora for sprint cars you'd have to turn people away at the gate, the crowd would be insane. 

I think you can call Lucas oil speedway a sprint car track . Plus can come up with two more tracks Jackson Motorplex Jackson Mn. And Husets speedway Brandon Sd all three are top-notch. All three are better in many ways than Knoxville. Plenty of parking plenty of camping right at the track and best of all they have shortertracks for better racing   Glen Murra

Cedar Lake's Legendary 100 season ending race draws over 100.  The pit are can easily handle that many cars.  The biggest challenge up here would be to get teams to travel "way up north".  Jackson and Husets would have no problem but there are race teams that probably wouldn't come this far even for a million bucks.  There is a tipping point where the cost of travel and a teams prospect of actually being competitive overrides the purse.

Stan Meissner

Well. If you are going to count different classes. I have seen it before and I have never been to Knoxville and only to Eldora one time and it wasn't there. I also only paid $22 admission.

235 late models at first million and most of the worlds back in the 90s but open trailers were used then so totally different these days in both divisions with the huge haulers eldora and knoxville for sure and I guess williams grove could buy up more fields to house more cars.  

Pretty damn harsh there ghayden more passing in a late model event than a sprint car event and lots more money to be won in late models than sprints and I enjoy them both just saying!

Thanks to most of you for good conversation.

Even though I may not know you, I 
care what most of you think!

The Knoxville nationals usually pull close to or over 100 cars, I'd imagine a million dollar winners share would entice a few other cars to show up. That said, I do wonder if such a race would draw more if it were held at Eldora, as that's much closer for Ohio and PA teams to travel to. Also the novelty of it being the first million to win sprint race would draw entries just to be apart of it. As far as late models vs sprints, the ecosystems are different. There's a lot more tracks that run late models on a weekly basis, though I really don't think there's any with weekly payouts like there is at Knoxville, Central PA, or even some of the Ohio tracks for LM's. LM's also have a much larger geographic footprint for where they are popular.

I agree. Two Kings Royals drew 61 cars I think last year and there was a lot more money being offered than in previous years. I think it's a very optimistic stretch to speculate that almost twice as many cars would show up for a million. I don't think they would for several different reasons. 

See I disagree. The Royals were offering 175k to win, obviously a lot of money but not life changing like a million. The Royals also only payed 20k for 2nd and 3k to start. The eldora million purse was 100k for 2nd and over 5k to start. I think a similar purse structure at Eldora would draw a similar amount of cars as the LM race did

I think the payouts for the last half of the field would make a bigger difference in car counts. If you can make more for starting the feature than you can for winning at home you'll probably go. It is a lot easier to start a feature than win one.

Even though I may not know you, I 
care what most of you think!

I misunderstood you then. I thought you were implying the opposite. My reading comprehension isn't that good sometimes I guess. My apologies. I stand by what I said though. I don't think they would get close to 120 cars. I remember in years past when less cars would show up for a 100k to win race than a 50k one at Eldora. Its not always about the money.  I can only hope I am proven wrong one day and there is a million dollar sprint car race with 120 cars at Eldora. I've  been going there for almost 50 years and I certainly wouldn't miss it. 

I went to the non-wing Million in 2003.  If memory serves me there were 138 Sprints.

Stan Meissner

Port Royal and Charlotte can both hold over 120 cars in the pits.

I wonder if there were more on the prelinary night.  138 stands out to me but 120, 138, still over 100 and similar to this weeks Late Model numbers.  The older I get the more I like 24-35 good quality cars.  Three Heats, a dash, B Main and Feature and home before midnight.  

Stan Meissner