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

Has anyone ever looked at how many laps of green flag racing The World Of Outlaws does compared to NAPCAR? Between racing more than 1 time a week all of the heat races, possibly B-mains, dashes and A mains for the WOO and all of the non-green flag laps Nascar has I wonder just how many more laps NASCAR gets.

I always shake my head when the commentators for Nascar say how grueling the schedule is for them.

Apples to Apples:::

Professional sprintcar driver races anywhere from 80-100 nites a year. Most times at 2-3 differents places a weekend, with about 14-20 hr turn around time to get the car ready for the next show. Normally with a crew of 3-4 people to shoulder the workload.

Nascar 36 races with no travel time needed between events. Crews of 10-12 people or more to shoulder the workload.

So who should be more exhausted???

Pretty simple answer I believe!!!

I believe its about 200laps on a weekend if you count heats,b-main,dash,a-main. One problem is that not all of the drivers are racing all of those laps ask some might transfer directly to the A out of the heat and not have to race again until the main. What makes it challenging for sprint car teams is typically, they are either traveling to 2 or 3 different tracks over the course of the week and working out of the hauler vs Nascar teams getting to stay in a nice cozy garage the whole place. I know some sprint car teams actually sleep in the hauler vs staying in a hotel room over the weekend. I believe Brad Doty said it on Speed this past weekend that sometimes teams are away from their shops for a couple of months at a time. That has to be grueling away from home that long with no opportunity to go home. In most full time sprint car drivers cases, if they do not race, their family does not eat.

Racing wise, it is without a doubt more grueling for the Outlaws than Nascar. I think most of your big name Nascar drivers get in a helicopter within 1 hour of the race end, and are on a plane within 2 hours of the race being over with and are home in a few hours. Most do not show up at the racetrack again until Thursday. I don't believe the schedule, once they get to the track, is all too grueling either. They probably spend more time in front of a microphone, at a sponsor plugging, or in interviews than they do with their race teams. I know this is not true ALL of the time, (Stewart, Kahne, etc.) but I don't think drivers like Johnson and Gordon put in a 40 hour week. I would say 20-30 sounds more like it at best. You can tell drivers like Kyle and Kurt Busch don't spend any time with their teams the way they treat their equipment. Just wreck it, get out of the car and throw a fit, and go home while someone else cleans up the mess.

Never hit stationary objects!

I think, because of the tremendous dollars involved, much more pressure is placed upon the NASCAR boys from the sponsor standpoint. Many of the drivers spend Mon-Wed making appearances for their various sponsors...and not necessarily in their home town! There are also commercials to be cut and the ever-present TV camera with some reporter foaming at the mouth to do an interview. You might be surprised at what the "upper echelon" drivers in NASCAR do during the week. Few, if any, just "hang out" at the race shop from Monday morning until they leave on Thursday.

 
I LEARNED ESP FROM MY MOM

"PUT YOUR SWEATER ON: DON'T YOU THINK I KNOW WHEN 
YOU'RE COLD?"

I know it isn't alway relaxation and not all drivers have the same schedules. But, I am pretty sure most of the "upper echelon" drivers don't do any "work" from Sunday night through Thursday morning. And I think all of the "hard work" they put in, is a little overblown. Not like the hard work most of the rest of us put in during a normal week. More power to them, I would take advantage of that situation too.

i'm pretty sure most upper tier drivers are busy almost 7 days a week. they have appearances and don't forget testing. these guys are in a car almost every day somewhere. they don't just sit around.

still, it is the people in the shop, the truck drivers and the motor home drivers that have a lot of pressure on them.

to indy and beyond!!

Most top tier drivers do not do their own testing. For instance, Dale Earnhardt's cars were tested by Neil Bonnett and Dave Marcus. I will guarantee you this, Jeff Gordon's car may be in the process of testing right now, but he is no where near the track it is being tested at. Will he need to make an appearance or two this week? Maybe, maybe not. But don't confuse making an appearance with exhausting 10 hour work days. They are not the same thing. Make no mistake about it, some of these drivers work damned hard and put in a lot of hours, but the vast majority let someone else take care of the work and step into their "office" for a few hours per day on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. They are the ones who are good enough to write things like this into their contracts. Remember Roger Clemens deal with the Astros? He didn't even travel with the teams to away games. Written in his contract. If I were one of the top 10 drivers in the sport, it would be written in my contract how many appearances I needed to make on and off the track.

i never said they put in "exhausting" 10 hr days.

still these guys are in a race car more than you think, as well as involved in other commitments.

didn't you hear dale jr saying that steve letarte was making him be more involved with the team on a regular basis.

i did hear tony stewart say that being an owner gave him an advantage over the other drivers in the fact he could tell his team to "find someone else to test, i'm gonna go run my sprinter".

to indy and beyond!!

I think Tony is one of the exceptions I speak of. But I think he does it truly out of addiction to racing. A lot of these drivers will claim a 100 hour work week because that is the amount of time they are at the track. But in all actuality, it is nothing like that.

36 races x 3 laps (which are the last 3 laps of the race worth even watching) = 108 laps.

Sorry but other than Daytona in the Spring and the last few laps of the Talladega races I have no time for NASCAR.