Posted By: vande77 on July 07 2014 at 02:17:07 PM
take a look at the cars in the 360 and 410 ranks. Some of them were 305 drivers and teams (that were at English Creek before that, moved to 305 and then moved up again. A couple straight from 305's to 410's. Some have moved straight from English Creek to 360's but very few and they probably would have benefitted from going to 305's for a season or two.
Hate to break this news to you, but I think if you did a survey of those that attend the races @ Knoxville weekly, that less than 20% get their infor from the internet, radio or MavTV (probably less than that % honestly). Most go to the races and only listen to the radio when weather is an issue (to see if it rained out or stay home and listen to the races instead of actually attending).
There are many that don't even know you can save $$$ off your tickets weekly by bringing a Casey's receipt or being an employee of Nationwide Insurance or Pella Corporation and they put that out there on the net for the last 3 years or more. And say it on the PA system AT THE RACES when those people are in the stands.
You have to "build" an event up for WEEKS (and sometimes year to year) and repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat it over and over on the PA every week for it to sink in before the "casual fans" realize that it's happening (and those casual fans are the ones that only come to Twin Features Night or the World of Outlaws or other special nights at racetracks, the hard-core fans go every week and it being "twin features" or mid-season championship or any other special promotion is a "bonus" as they wold be there no matter what anyway.
As a fan, I would love for twin features to be re-scheduled. As a person that works for a large corporation, I understand WHY they wouldn't. There is no upside to re-scheduling. The fans that come weekly are still going to show up over teh next 3 weeks leading up to Nationals. The "casual fans" that only come once or twice a year start showing up the last few weeks before Nationals anyway.
As a competitor, other than the payout, there is ZERO upside to running two features the same night IMO. Twice as much wear and tear on your motor and if you crash or lose a motor in the first feature and can't start the 2nd it's like missing an entire weekend of racing. You can go from 30 pts ahead of someone to 350 point behind them (200 points to win a feature and 15 for last and you get ZERO points if you don't start the 2nd feature). 350 points can mean you drop from 2nd to 9th (Justin Henderson is 2nd in points now and a crash and finishing last and not starting the 2nd feature could mean that Bronson Maeschen (9th in points) could outpoint him by enough that night to pass him (as could all the other drivers between them) -- all mathmetically of course).
Now, it's great for someone like McCarl that is in the point lead to not re-schedule as that's 2 less chances for someone to catch him in the points. He benefits from it being a rain-out. Could it have bit him, yes, but he also could have extened his lead to where he could lock up the title before Nationals (and still could as he's 193 points ahead and the most anyone can earn in a night is 360. He could have left twin features night with a 538 point lead (winning both features, quicktime and winning his heat and Ian Madsen timing 10th, winning his heat, running 2nd and 24th (kinda how he "lost" last years chance of winning a point title).
Do we the fans win on twin feature night? Somewhat, we get to see 2 features, but all the drama of the season can be killed off that night too (how many season championship nights have lack-luster crowds because the point title is locked up? quite a few of them).
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