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

Check out RightRear.com for the latest Dave Blaney buzz!

It would be nice to see him back in a sprinter where he can actually get to drive in competition ... parking it every week has to get old (maybe except for the money part).

I was wondering why he didn't attempt the Indy/Charlotte double ... he coulda parked one at Indy with plenty of time to get to Charlotte to park another ....

Phil Taylor

home-theater-systems-advice.com

Tell me now, IF you were able to qualify one of the FRANCECAR look-alikes wouldn't you start and park for $1M a year? I sure would!

TSA...It's not a GROPE...it's a Freedom Pat!

He's made 11 of 13 races this year and the team has earned over $830K so far...I'd say that he cannot afford to return to sprint cars.....

http://www.racing-reference.info/driver?id=blaneda01

Chuck.....

One million is a lot of money but retaining one's dignity is priceless. I hope it's true, it's awfully frustrating to see such a great driver on the sidelines.

Stan Meissner

Agreed, sure would like to see Blaney come back to the Chili Bowl before he is done.....

Top Row Rowdie

The real question is: How long does a driver continue to qualify a car for a nascar race and pull it in after just a few laps for no reason other than to save expenses? And also these kind of results do-not look real well on the resume. What I don't get is why doesn't the owner of Dave's team let him run a full race and see if they can get a better finish and posibly make more $$ than a 40th place finish?

WEll you better ask MR.woodruff that question i beleive he has your answer!!

" retaining one's dignity is priceless. I hope it's true, it's awfully frustrating to see such a great driver on the sidelines."

Gee, his job is to qualify the car. As Chuck pointed out he has done that 11 out of 13 races. Even in modern math that is 85%. I wouldn't consider a success rate of 85% a loss of dignity.

I guess in this "modern age of 100% or nothing" Dave would not be considered a success.

TSA...It's not a GROPE...it's a Freedom Pat!

I don't see how Blaney's start and park arrangement in Cup is the bad deal some of you guys think it is. He is going to make more money than anyone driving a Sprint Car this year. He is also 47 years old now, and has never won in the Cup series. How much of a market do you think is out there in NASCAR for 47 year-old drivers that have never won at the Cup level? Guys a lot younger than that stop getting rides all the time in NASCAR.

That $830K so far this year is probably more than the income of everyone on this forum COMBINED!

TSA...It's not a GROPE...it's a Freedom Pat!

I'm not a fan of the start & park teams... at all. I've seen a lot of debates on how to enforce rules... who knows. When you have no spare tires, no pit crew... I think there is something really wrong about how the situation is being taken advantage of.

Clearly... the purse money is way too high way back in the field.

2nd... some teams aren't qualifying that would run the whole race. Parking them for the weekend so somebody can do 20 laps and claim their transmission is broken... that isn't right. Yes, when you qualify for the race you can do what you want... and that doesn't make it right.

I think the offseason will be interesting. Nascar is watching, has heard the gripes... and I can't help but think something is coming down the road for the teams that have no interest in running. Shorter field, less purse, bonuses for laps completed and $5 to start the race, you are automatically charged for 12 sets of tires if you qualify and must have a minimum of 8 people on your crew at all times... something's gotta give.

The textbook definition of poor sportsmanship. This isn't a case of the little guy trying to get by... this is stupid.

I disagree with you there. If teams want to get in the show and run the entire race, then outqualify the start and park teams. None of the start and park and teams are on the top 35 in points gravy train that automatically puts them in the show no matter how slow they are.

I got a kick out of you mentioning teams running 20 laps and claiming their transmission was broken. For years and years, the biggest start and park Sprint Car race was the WoO show on the Syracuse (N.Y.) Mile. The race was paying $1,000 to take the green over 20 years ago, and the back half of the field was always local ESS 360 teams. The back third of the field would usually pull in after a lap or two. It was always funny looking at the offical summary that DIRT would put out after the race. All the guys at the end of the field were usually listed as "out of fuel," even though they only made one lap. Of course, I guess that probably was the correct reason those cars did not finish. LOL

With the present "health" of NASCAR I think they are happy they can draw enough cars/trucks to fill out a field. They have more serious problems now than the start and park teams.

But I think we see this in almost every level of racing.

I never thought I would see the day where the GSC was not able to field enough cars to fill out an A Main but...unfortunately it is happening.

Time to bring back the open trailers, smaller wings (or better, no wing at all) one car and one motor each night.

TSA...It's not a GROPE...it's a Freedom Pat!

This has been argued back and forth to the point of wearing it out over on the Blaney board. From the standpoint of making a living, in that sense I can't argue with you. On the other hand, his fans that go back to the Sprint Car days are fans of Dave Blaney the racer, not the "valet parking attendant" he has turned into. I still drop by his message board and read the "keep the faith" posts once in a while but he's off my radar as far as being interested in his racing career.

This is going to be a slow recovery according to economists and Dave isn't getting any younger. Sponsors in NASCAR are still hard to come by so at this rate Dave may never actually race again before he hangs up his helmet. That's too bad to the Dave Blaney fan in me. On the other hand the nice guy, do whatever it takes to make a living side says KTF. His board has gone from being a stop for fans of a popular driver to a lurking place for friends and family. Nothing wrong with that I guess but I've got lots of great friends and relatives I can check up on without having to go on the internet.

Stan Meissner

Thanks, singlefile, for pointing out the facts; any team can keep Dave Blaney out of the race - just outqualify his team!

Dave's doing what he needs to do to make a living; would he rather run a whole race? Undoubtably....but look at a race purse. The difference between last and tenth isnt all that much, especially when tires are "leased" for $1600/set, and a crew costs a lot of money. If the team chooses to "start and park"rather than buy 10 or more sets of tires, well, there's not a lot that NASCAR can do about it. And while his fans and family would like to see Dave "race" more, the facts are that his Cup career stats aren't all that great. Just be happy that he's made it to Cup, and can earn a living, and that he still has a ride...

Chuck.....

On Sunday, Dave' team was paid $83,800 for 25 laps in 43rd place. JJ Yeley's team was paid $84,500 for 393 laps in 34th place. Bill Elliot was paid $85,850 for 397 laps in 27th place. If you are racing just for the prize money, and are not interested in obtaining a sponsor, 43rd place has a better Return on Investment than 27th place.

You can argue that it is not racing, you can argue that it is hurting the sport, but you can not argue with the math.

That is funny! The guy has to be sick of it by now. He likes money I guess. But going from wide open on the cushion at Eldora lapping the field in the Casey Luna Ford to parking a fake JAP COT turd must be at least a little disheartening.

Luna's Ford engine style that won 2 WoO titles and 3 
Kings Royals before a weight rule against the best EVER
in their prime and now DOMINATES super dirt late model
racing is no longer allowed/wanted in a WoO sprint
car.... Was Luna a miracle worker?

Singlefile & Sprinter25 just won a bunch of points with me (not that it matters to anyone). They respectfully disagreed and backed it up with why they disagree. Nice to see some people have at least a double digit i.q. AND own a computer AND go to sprint car message boards! lol Didn't know there were many of us left based on the attitude and logic on this board lately!

I understand both your arguments but they don't make the situation right.

The economics of racing don't make sense and likely never will. I'm actually happy that the ESS teams that were viewed as moving speed bumps at Syracuse pulled off instead of becoming a launching pad for Haudenschild, Kinser, Swindell, et all. They made an economic decision to run the race. If someone is dumb enough to throw money out there... an enterprising racer will find a way to snatch it.

Right now I'm thinking about the local racer. It isn't about the purse or often the points. It's about racing. You get into the sport to go faster than someone else and a few people end up faster than anyone. That's what it's all about. It's sad when something as frivilous and completely voluntary like racing becomes an economic choice vs. a sport we are all passionate about where we give it our all.

I've been on multiple racing teams... we never one time thought about "start & park." We were there to race. We weren't stupid... we didn't have the time, effort & expense invested in that team to show up and park.

Two series that I'm familiar with would be full-blown midgets or top-fuel boats. The $30k or $40k midget motors... running for $1k or $1500 to win? Rebuild after a handful of racing nights?

Top fuel boats run the same motors as John Force and have a rebuild after every pass. $5k or $10k to win the event? If you WIN... you might cover expenses for 1 or 2 passes... and only had another 5 or 6 you ran for free.

Both are examples of "racing is supposed to be fun." Otherwise... it makes no sense.

I love baseball cards. All my life. The passion left the sport all because of the allmighty dollar. Instead of kids opening packs looking for their favorite player or team... it's all about the "book value" and getting the high dollar cards. Forget the FUN of it.

The almighty dollar takes the fun out of things that used to be fun. You do what you have to do for that almighty dollar and to pay the bills.. and it just isn't fun anymore.

Hopefully someday people realize that we need more ways to bring the fun back into our hobbies. At the end of it all... who really cares how much $ you accumulated if you didn't have any fun along the way? You only live once, friends.

So what do you propose the guys do that can't afford a $30-$40k motor and rebuild it every few nights or can't afford a John Force motor and rebuild it every pass?? Quit? Stay home? Give up on their dreams? There's a lot more guys in that position than can afford the above I can promise you that.

Fun?? I'd venture a guess that nearly all of the low budget guys are having a lot more fun than most of the highly funded teams. These guys spend every dime they can get their hands on doing something they love. They know before they leave the house they're going to be at a disadvantage and probably have little chance to actually win. Do you think they'd be doing that if it wasn't fun?

I pay part of the expenses on a winged sprint car. I know what it costs. I know how much fun we can afford to have. There's been an occassion or two where we've made the decision to load up and go home. Did we WANT to do that? Of course not. We'd ALWAYS like to run every lap. But that would have meant several hundred dollars worth of tires or an extreme chance of tearing up equipment. Things that we don't have extra money sitting around for. We wanted to race again so we cut the loss and saved it for next week. I'm quite sure Dave and his team feel the same way. They're doing all they can with what they have while keeping next week in mind. I don't have a problem with it because I know how they feel.

You've voiced your opinion on this several times in the past and I always respect it. But you're making it sound as though the ones who can't afford to do it 100% all the time shouldn't be there at all. Is that how you really feel? You'd just as soon the little guys stay away? Seriously??