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

I see a lot of discussion about sprint car purses being high than they used to be. If the engines are now $70,000 verses $50,000, isn't the sport going backwards? If the sanctioning bodies figured out how to lower the cost of racing, wouldn't that have the same effect as raising the payouts?

What are they doing differently in late model racing that's attracting more cars and bigger crowds to more high-paying shows?

More cars because they go slower and you feel safer in them. My guess.

Very few have what it takes to drive a sprinter. Crowds, ??? Maybe because there are more locals.

Well for one there's more cars and more tracks that run late models. And if you check what the top teams are paying for motors these days it isn't much cheaper than Sprint cars. Late models are just more common than Sprint cars across the country. I will say the tracks running super Lates are dwindling. Only Port Royal and Bedford run them weekly in central Pa anymore.

Back about 10 years ago, I was at Park Jefferson Speedway in South Dakota to watch the USMTS, the elite modified organization and the MSTS 360 sprint cars.  They did an autograph signing before the races and Rodney Sanders and Jack Dover were sitting there signing autographs.  I spoke with them both and asked Jack if Rodney could get some seat time.  Jack was fully supportive and said that if the track would allow it, they could turn laps after the night.  Rodney's wife was right there and said ABSOLUTELY NOT!!.  I then asked Rodney if he ever had raced them and he said no, he was a bit intimidated by the crashes.  Later that night, when the USMTS was on the track, you would only see 3-4 sprint car driver watching.  But when the 360 sprint cars were on the track, every single USMTS driver was up against the fence and glued to the action.

The moral is, it takes a really big set of balls to driver a sprint car, and even the best drivers in other disciplines are intimidated of the violence of a sprint car.

Everytime i look at the left side of a sprint car i say to myself i may be crazy but i "aint" stupid.  the term open cockpit still applies after all these years.....

i'm bias but there is nothing in the world of auto racing more exciting to me than a machine with a minimum weight of 1,425lbs now pushing over 900HP.

I hold my breath and pray everytime a car flips - but when they get hit by another car i'm mortified until they climb out.

They may have more 50k to win shows than sprints but the money is about equal. No $250k, $200k to win shows in LM land. As far as crowds, sprint cars have bigger crowds on the whole. 

This take was probably more relevant in 2022 than it is today. 

 As far as crowds, sprint cars have bigger crowds on the whole. 

Ha ha ha. No that is funny. 

I see you haven't been to a lot of late model shows. And to the original poster, yes they have $70,000 engines. I know this for an absolute fact. I'm a late model fan but love all types of racing and i'm not bias either. Please tell me why the World 100 at ELDORA  literally SOLD OUT to a capicity crown of over 25,000  back in early September and FANS and driver consistantly show out fot late model shows. They litterally stopped selling tickets and pit passes for the Saturday show. I like all divisions of racing but that was funny. There are more big late model shows because the fans support them.

I'll give the current state of dirt late model racing one thing, they have morphed what used to be very good looking cars into the ugliest race cars ever built. I hate what they've become.

To be fair, it could be worse. I kind of remember reading that at one time the body styles were turning into sheetmetal door wedges. Calmer heads in the sport changed that.

Is it the bodies you don't like, or how they look when the chassis stands up and it looks like the car is going left and the body is going right?

ps dirt modifieds are uglier, especially in the low-end classes where they just pound out all the sheetmetal to get ready for next weekend. 

Ok.....

Eldora seats 17k people, admittedly with more room for lawn chairs etc beneath. We don't really know how many people it can fit. So your 25k was pulled from somewhere between a press release and your ass. 

Secondly the 2023 Kings Royal was for a time the largest crowd in the history of Eldora. So it's not like the late models are outdrawing sprint cars by the thousands. 

Thirdly, I highly doubt either the World 100 or Kings Royal has more people than the Knoxville Nationals. 

Lastly, several "big" LM shows likes the ones at Husets and Port are subsidized by LucasOil, or where. The crowds at those shows are much too small to pay a big purse.