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

Anyone else think Friday's racing was better than the Grand Finale Saturday? Heats & mains were great, Henderson/Gravel duel in the A was terrific. World Challenge was excellent too, but when Schatz flew by Sammy, I got the sinking feeling he was just too fast for everyone else.

And Saturday he was.....

Plus, no Kinser or Sammy was a real letdown for me...

Friday was way more ecxiting than Sat. That A main was fantastic! Well all night was great. Had a newbie Sprint car fan (daughters freind) come for Sat and was raving how good the racing was Friday and really seemed like a letdown ..Still good racing but not like Friday.

The racing on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday has always outshone the racing on Saturday forever (mainly becuase by Saturday the cars to beat are already at the front of the race), but maybe take a deeper dive into what you perceive as reality

I look at it like this, the starting positions of the drivers in the top 10 on Saturday Night of Nationals are as follows

5

4

2

9

7

13

1

15

8

22

Only (3) cars that started in the top 10 actually maintained position or lost position during the feature and still finished in the top 10, # of positions lost by Top 10 finishers = 8. # of positions gained by top 10 finishers = 39.

Seems to me like I saw a VERY good race just going off the finishing positions of the top 10.

for comparison, Friday Night the top 10 finishers had starting positions of:

6

1

3

2

13

16

5

14

15

4

(5) cars that started in the top 10 either maintained or lost postions during the feature while finishing in the top 10 total positions lost by top 10 finishers = 10 Total positions gained by top 10 finishers = 35

Friday was 25 laps and Saturday was 50 laps which skews your numbers. Friday was a great night of racing when compared to Friday's of days gone by in my opinion. This was my 16th year...good breakdown of the top 10.

I'm not saying Friday wasn't an improvement over years gone by, it's just amazing to me how people seem to think that Saturday night races were always barnburners back in the day.

The most telling stat to me was when Blake and Dave Rieff talked about average starting position of the winner being 2.6 (and that includes 2 Nationals that had the winners that started 14th) for the first 49 YEARS of the Saturday Night main event and it being 8.2 or something like that the last 3 years.

People have witnessed GREAT racing in the main the last 3 years with winners coming from 8th (2010), 13th (2011) and 5th (2012), but I sat through numerous Nationals where the winner came from the front row (heck, the year Bobby Allen won he started 3rd).

Are the #'s I gave a little skewed due to # of laps, sure I'll give you that, but overall it was still a great race (you just didn't have 3 or 4 guys racing for the lead like you did Friday).

Saturday has been anti-climatic for some time, I know it always was for me the 15 or so years I was there. From the early 90's it seems that it was Steve, the Dude or Donny winning most of the time and often there were not a lot of memorable moments. The 50th year likely being the exception, a race I missed.

Five features, that's all folks, on a Saturday. This after qualifying which meant a ton, 5 Heats and 3 Features on the Wed and Thurs nights that I always believed were the 2 best of the entire year and still do. Saturday was pretty good for one thing though, SALES. People with money left over weren't shy about buying an extra pic or two before heading back to parts unknown and for that I will be forever grateful.....

Oh c'mon! You are simply blacking out '98 which was one of the all time best since your buddy lost it in the last lap. That night was one of my happiest on this earth :-). I have always said that the half-lap after the four-abreast after the lights have been turned out is the most electric atmosphere I have ever experienced and being able to experience it at close range from the infield is something I will never forget. Every driver, belts cinched, locked, and loaded - pure dynamite getting ready to expload just moments away!

Uhhhh, I was there on Friday, and the racing was far better than Saturday. All night, the new format produced thrilling racing. Saturday wasn't great until the B Main and the Paulus/Sides/Sammy battle at the very end. The A Main was also very solid, but Friday was the best night of the week and in my 8 years of going to the Nats, a top 5 night all time for me.

What I would like to see Friday is a wing and a non wing show. Would have nothing to do with Saturday night, all Sat A main qualifying done Wed and Thur.

Have just a big open 25k to win Non-wing and 25k to win wing race.

draw for positions or time by transponders, heats, features. You would draw tons of fans, best of both worlds.

Might as well eliminate Friday alltogether then. No teams will run Friday unless they have to or they do like Lasoski did (he was slated to start 10th in the B with virtually very little chance of transferring given the cars slated to start in front of him), thinking it's their only shot to make the A on Saturday.

Adding non-wing cars to the card wouldn't increase fan count (for my $$, I'd skip out alltogether, the non-wingers just aren't that good at Knoxville (because unless it's a stand alone show, the track isn't wet, rough or tacky enough for good non-wing racing, but if it was, it'd make for TERRIBLE winged racing and a VERY LONNGGGG night of racing).

If they paid $25,000 to win (even just 1 class of cars), you'd see a big ticket price increase (it only paid $4000 for 1st through 4th place this year), and the World Challenge pays $10,000 to win. Where's that extra purse $$ gonna come from, do you think they're just gonna up the purse even though the fan count will stay the same or possibly decrease??

Knoxville has had a non-wing show (during Nationals Week) (and before that a Midget show in June/July), and one thing was very consistent, the fans didn't show up (the racing was good though).

anybody know what the ticket prices would have been during the Nationals if someone walked up the night of the race and needed a ticket?

The races don't sell out so you can just go to the ticket counter and pay face value. What I do is wait until time trials is about over and go up to a scalper. The closer it is to race time the more they are willing to deal.

so what is it usually? $35? More? Less?

Mine were $42 for Wednesday, $42 for Thursday, $44 for Friday and $48 for Saturday - middle tier

So less than 50 bones for tickets to the Grandaddy of them all at one of the finest racing facilities Sprint Car racing has to offer? Interesting.....

doesn't bug me to pay it, I know a majority of my $$ is going into the racers pockets due to the purse being so good.

What I don't get is the $40 and $50 tickets to the standard WoO shows that pay $10,000 to win and $800 for last.

McCool Junction, NE tickets were $30 in advance and $35 at the gate, race paid $6000 to win and $500 to start (typical SLS Promotions ticket prices for the record).

For bang for your buck, the Nationals are one of the cheapest options available (tickets are one of the cheapest expenses I have all week and I live in Knoxville).

That was kinda my point.....

others won't get it though, all they see is $$$ signs and they get scared away.

I saw on another thread that Gold Cup tickets are $50 for the final night, haven't seen a purse posted though.

I Have to say it was a bit sad not seeing kinser and swindell in the nationals they are icons in this sport. But it is nice knowing that at any given night that its anyones race to win, Just wish it wasnt the same winner year after year, although he has that track down to a T hats of to you Donny!! dont think anyone else could of gotten Donny..

Friday nights racing was amazing and fun to watch enjoyed watching everyone give it theyre all!

I enjoyed watching Gravel and Henderson battle. Think these drivers are the future of the sport..and in my opionen was the best race of the nationals. you go Hammer!!!