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

I was thinking after the Doty race last night what a great rivalry Schatz and Larson would have going right now if Kyle ran WoO fulltime. It would be the best we'd seen since the Steve and Sammy days of the 80s. Joey Saldana was absolutely correct in saying they are the two best sprint car drivers in the world right now.

Totally agree

I also agree.

At the risk of being ridden out of town on a rail by the locals, I'll go a step further:  I believe Larson is the best sprint car driver in the world.  I know, Schatz beat Larson last night, and he also stayed ahead of him at the Nationals last year.  But, if you watch the way those two cars were handling last year at the Nationals on Saturday night, it is unbelievable Larson was able to even pull up next to him on the final set of turns.  I also think Larson has an incredible amount of respect for Donny.  If that were anyone else leading the race, he would have gone to the edge to pass him.  He seems to put his car in much tighter spaces when he's not racing Schatz.  

Other than the two races I just mentioned, Larson almost always finishes ahead of Donny when they meet head to head.  I think a Steve and Sammy type rivalry would be a great comparison.  

Anyone else agree?

Schatz wins from 4th, Larson reaches 2nd from 15th.... very entertaining

They also had a good duel going at Lawrenceburg a few weeks ago, fighting for 2nd & 3rd, until Kyle spun out

Larson said a while back in an interview that he'd love to run WoO season some day. I guess that could happen when he's made enough NASCAR $$$ to feel financially secure for life.... I hope Schatz is still at the top of his game if that ever happens....

Larson in a sprint car is extraordinary and I think he would be tops in the business if he ran all the time. And I do think a Schatz vs Larson rivalry would be amazing. 

I stop short of saying he’s better than Schatz in a sprint car right now. Larson picks and chooses the races he wants to run and that’s a lot different than racing a sprint car 80-90 times per year. 

Also, I challenge the point that Larson beats Schatz almost all the time. I think they’ve raced a few times this year in Florida and Indiana and he’s only beaten him once. 

That may be correct.  I did not take the time to dig up the facts this year.  I believe Larson and Schatz met a number of times last season and Donny only bested him at the Nationals and maybe 1 or 2 other times.  (sorry if that's incorrect but that's what my memory tells me)

I would also disagree that Larson picks and chooses his races.  His Nascar schedule does that for him.  I believe if Larson were running all 80-90 races, he would be even better than he is now-----which would be scary for all involved trying to beat him.  I think if the track has dirt and is in the shape of a circle, elipse, or any other closed shape with round turns, he will figure it out and be tough to beat.  

JMO though.  Nothing against yours.  

Hopefully Larson makes good on that desire to be full time WoO by the time he is 40.  Granted that is a ways off.  If Nascar continues to circle the drain, the earnings potential difference between WoO & Nascar will get closer & may make accelerate the timeline for such a decision.  Of course, Nascar would always pay more, but he may get to a point where the difference is small enough & he has enough $ stashed away to feel comfortable in making the move.  We can only hope!

IMO, it is a bit of a shame to see a talent of his level being wasted in the circus of today's Nascar.  The sport has completely lost it's way in a sea of gimmicks.  

I'm hoping he can rip off a couple of good seasons, (like we all know he is capable of) wins a championship, and is back to sprint cars in 5 years.  (that's just me hoping though)    He definitely deserves to make the best living possible and make that his first priority.  But, I can't wait until we see this headline  "Larson to run full WoO schedule".   

"earnings potential difference between WoO & Nascar will get closer"... yea, right

Like if the stock market goes down & i get my annual 2% (or whatever trifle it is) Social security increase... I'll be closer to Warren Buffett... wonder if he'll trade places?

But i guess you can only hope!

Here we go again.......lol........no one should be surprised that Larson did so well on a short track starting past halfway back. IMO he's better on short tracks than he is the 1/2 mile tracks. Most (not all) 1/2 mile tracks are won from the first or second row.  My observation was that Larson was balls out behind the wheel, and Donny appeared to be on a Sunday drive. If a driver is going to beat Schatz by passing him on any kind of a regular basis, then the pass had better come on the last lap a hell of a lot more times than on any other lap. We don't see Donny "elbows up" very often because he manages his pace just too damn well, and nearly always knows where on the track he can go to finish a race. How many times have we all seen Donny appear to be stronger the last ten laps of a race, and pass two or three drivers to win? And even then, he appears to be having an easy time of it. Like Wolfgang said about Steve Kinser once, "if you're going to beat Kinser your best chance is to pass him on the last lap."

If he ran the whole schedule and had to be more mindful of making equipment last he couldn't go all out every time he raced.  No sense arguing about speculation though.  Well go with your opinion on this one.

Stan Meissner

I agree with you blazer on all counts. Donny has an amazing ability to pace himself and only goes balls out when necessary.  That ability is what has also allowed him to be one of the cleanest drivers out there (yadda yadda yadda, I can already hear those yelling about the incident with Jeffrey at Knoxville a week or so ago, even the best make a mistake now and again....case in point about Schatz being clean, I'm guessing you'd only need two hands to count the 15's wrinkled top wings in the last 5-10 years.)  Larson, while hitting shows here and there, not worrying about points, allows him to go balls out each and every night...and to win a title one has to be able to pace themselves and be consistent.  That being said, it wouldn't take Larson long to figure that out and be up front on a regular basis.  Donnys consistency isn't just his driving. The entire team from him, to Warner, to chassis, motors, etc has remained a constant for years...thats why he is so good. In a nutshell,  Schatz doesn't kill em with speed and being balls out every night, he just lulls everyone to death with his consistency which is why I respect the he'll outta him. Doesn't mean I don't like to see him get beat, and I'd love to see him and Larson battle it out every night.

Blazer, your Wolfgang quote was spot on!

True................assuming Larson were worried about winning a championship.  

Money and equipment would not be of the same concern to him as to other teams on the outlaw circuit, so I think that goes out the window.  He would drive his own equipment like he stole it night in and night out.  That might change after a couple of years, but don't expect it early on.  I would expect "Donny Like" numbers when it comes to wins and top 5's.  

The cool thing is, we get to sit here and speculate.     The bad thing is, we have to sit here and speculate. 

Totally agree and as far as what happened between Donny and Lynton, all one has to do is watch the video and listen to what Lynton had to say afterwards. Not too often you hear a driver talk like that after getting their ass busted due to a mistake from another competitor. That just goes to show how universally respected Donny is. 

I don't think there was ill intent on Donny's part.  However, I was there at the track and was listening to Lynton's interview.  It sounded like he was getting ready to say something negative towards Donny, then thought it out for a second, and finished the conversation by placing the blame on himself.  Anyone else catch that?  Not starting a pissing match here, just wanted to know if anyone else thought the interview was going the other direction at first.

boy you arent kidding. ive been watching kyle race sprintcars since he was 14. we'd have to travel to the far depths of the pits after the race to find this scrawny, curly-haired dirty face kid. when you saw him you thought "no way" this guy was just out there mixing it up with grown men, veterans of the sport. wasnt too long before he was beating everyone. it was a great 5 or so years we got to witness all this, it ended too soon as far as us cali fans were concerned. all you fine folks in ohio & pa. get to see him race a lot more than we do. i'm envious!!! in the end, i'm confident we'll see him mixin' it up with the best on dirt before he's 40. not factual, jmo

Like some went looking for Jeff Gordon back in his early days..........difference was that he left sprints and never came back. I guess he wasn't the "true racer" guys like Larson, Kahne, Blaney and some others are. Jeff was maybe just too much the "pretty boy" imo.