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

I am happy for Tim so please don't think this is an attempt to take anything away from him. I just wonder if what occurred at Knoxville really was a feature race or if it was twin 25s. With the range of adjustments that were permitted, it seems we got two entirely different races. I'm not crazy about sprint car races with pit stops. The changing dynamic of the surface is one of the most interesting aspects of this sport. I feel like we forfeited that this year, even though the elements obviously still played an important role. Congrats to Tim. I doubt if any of us can imagine how gratifying this must be for him and his team.

"I'd pay $15 to watch a sprint car sit still."

So do you consider the Daytona 500 8 or 10 separate races? They make a lot of stops & can change anything they want. Teams only had 5 min and had to change tires & fuel the car. Doubt if anyone tried to change too much. They couldn't know what the driver wanted till they got to the car anyhow.

Member of this message board since 1997

Congrats to Tim. I doubt if any of us can imagine how gratifying this must be for him and his team.

LOL! I doubt Tim knew until this morning... at least that is how he sounded last night!

go ou

Daytona is a stock car race.

Knoxville is SUPPOSED to be a SPRINT car race sans the pit stop.

You saw two 25 lap races. Just the 1st one didn't pay anything, it was just for the lineup of the second race.

I would have to say anybody left still pissing and moaning about the "pit stop" wasn't there. I don't care if i saw two 25 lap segments or not. It was some of if not the best 50 laps of sprint car racing I have ever seen!!!

Felt like one 50 lap feature to me. Best race I've ever seen. I didn't see or hear anyone complain.

Knoxville...please keep it this way. I sure hope 50 laps are here to stay.

i dont think that knoxville will go back to 50 laps, i think 30-35 laps is plenty, there were alot of people complaining about the 50 lap race, and at the same time there were alot who liked it, its all about who you talk to, im sure Shaffer and is fan group had no problem with it! next year let the drivers vote to see how many laps they want

OK so a 30 lap A main with a crash on lap 15 with an open red allowing teams to work on the cars would be considered by you as 2 15 lap mains?

oswald, how dare you try and put logic in some of the people's heads that post here!! haha

I would rather see 2 25 lap features than 2 15 lap features.

-Austin Rankin

Doesn't matter how you dissect it, the 50th Knoxville Nationals will go down in history as the most dramatic race they've ever run, Maybe if Doug Wolfgang had completed the alphabet and won from the "D", could Saturday nights race have been outdone.

It was a necessary stop & it was such a mad scramble in such a small area . The teams that didnt make tire changes wish now they would have.

Ask Sammy what a $150,000 LR tire looks like.

Sammy didn't change tires?

Ask Steve or Donny or several others what a $150,000 motor looks like.

If Donny had not dropped a cly we would all be mad (after Sammy lost a tire)

Most of the crews were done way before the 5 minutes were up

Could of would of should of but Tim still won and he played by the same rules as everybody else.

By the way who did not change tires as it sounds like you talked to all of them

A red flag caused by a racing incident, regardless of the lap count can be neither predicted, anticipated, or avoided, and is just that...a racing incident.

A predetermined red flag condition, on a known lap count, serves to break a 50 lap race into 2 25 segments. Period.

Forget logic, try common sense.

Sat there & watched, about 50-75 yds across the track.

RR changed by several teams.

Everybody had to wait to do anything to their cars as Sammy stayed on the track 2-3 extra laps until he was finally motioned into the infield by someone.

So your saying that 25,000 people got excieted over nothing because it was not a real 50 lap race. Don't tell them because they think they had fun and could come back and support your favorate sport by buying a ticket.

Unless you tell them it was just two 25's Should we try to get our money back.

By the way if there had been a red on 23 that would have been the stop not, predetermined.

I'm saying they got excited at the end of the second 25 lap race.

Before trying to get money back about Sat night I'd try to get money back for the 3 previous nights.

The Wed and Thurs night were not FULLY inverted heat races and Fri's show while I agree with not running them did not have scrambles that were paid for by ridiculously high ticket prices.

That may be true about lap 23 but the fact is that there wasn't a red at lap 23 and the pit stop was a predetermined stop in a race that is supposed to be a SPRINT car race.

Did I say any of that?

Take a deep breath and clear your mind. I am happy for Tim Shaffer, and believe the 50th Nationals filled the bill as the Crown Jewel of sprint car racing. As for the 25,000 fans, I hope they all got their money's worth, and spread the gospel of sprint car racing in general, and the Nationals specifically.

Should you try and get your money back? Why...were you unsatisfied with the program? Separate the results from the process. Was it a 50 lap race? Yes. The winner was the driver to cross the finish line first on the 50th lap. I never said it wasn't.

BTW..if there was red flag on lap 23, there still would have been one on lap 25. Your point?

A red flag within the context of a race, is very different that a predetermined/fixed red flag. Common sense. Did it change the outcome of the race? No, because it was a known quantity within the race, and it was the same for everyone. Notice I said segments, and not Features...words have meanings.

I did not refer to the Nationals as 2 25 lap features, I referred to it as 2 25 lap segments.

I started this thread and let me state that I was not at Knoxville. I don't doubt that it was a thrilling race. Every account I have read refers to it as such. I have to believe the same might have been true had it been 30-35 laps, but who knows. The excitement of this year's National's aside, it is not the sprint car racing most of us watch on a weekly basis or fell in love with over the years.

But I am sure it was exciting and I think it's great that Tim Shaffer got the win. Would have liked to have seen that third-place Okie get up there for first, but third in that deal ain't bad.

For Oswald, the fact that you could compare sprint car racing's biggest night with a NASCAR race pretty much verifies that it's at least fair to question the format of this year's National's.

"I'd pay $15 to watch a sprint car sit still."