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

Schatz living in your head rent free too. Get over it.

The guy walked up and basically put the microphone in Donny's face in the middle of an Open Red of a Feature at Terre Haute where Donny was coming from the back of the field. The reporter is new to this, I get it, but Driver's have more important things to communicate to their team to adjust than answer questions for a rookie reporter on a website.

Strawser...you are crazy if you think Schatz is a sore loser.  Biggest stage in sprint car racing, the Nationals, he just lost to JJ and he gave a very good interview.  But idiots see things the way they want to.  Im surprised you took time off of bashing track prep to actually talk about a driver.  Branching out are we?

I have been that guy doing interviews when I helped out my publisher when he was able to put together a racing show for a local over the air channel in 2003.  It was a low budget deal where he talked his writers into being interviewers with the promise that if there was any sponsor money left at the end of the season he would split it amongst us.  He sold the paper years ago and I never saw a cent but it was an interesting experience.

I was thrust into the position of having to interview drivers immediately after the race (without any prior experience or practice) and it wasn't always an easy task.  My first interviews were a couple of local drivers I knew so it went easy, the second week was Matt Kenseth and Dave Blaney and I didn't follow NASCAR enough and fell on my face with Kenseth but the Blaney was fun. 

People used to talk about how tough certain drivers were and I looked at it differently from my interviewing perspective.   I interviewed a mix of local and traveling drivers and I interviewed the biggest names in Sprint Cars and Late Models (Kinser, Bloomquist, etc.) and had my own personal list of who was most likely approachable after a bad race.  I won't say any names but for the purpose of what I was doing I referred to the list of negatives as my "asshole list".  Not because they weren't great drivers or the fans didn't love them but they were the ones most likely to bark at me so I knew to proceed with caution.  These people doing the interviews are simply trying to do a job and from personal experience for most it's likely a side job akin to volunteer work as no local racing media person is getting rich as a dirt track pit reporter.

I didn't catch the young man's name who is doing them for Dirtvision but that is likely a compensated position where he has other responsibilities away from the track but I am not an insider on their work arrangement.  I do enjoy his interviews because he seems to have a good grasp of the mechanical side and that is what fascinates me about Sprint Cars is how they're put together and how they work.  My relatives were car owners so I have always been as big if not a bigger fan of the cars.  My cousin when he owned Sprint Cars used to say to his driver in jest "if you don't bend it and do good I will let you drive it again next week".  That pretty much shaped my interests and I didn't have much respect for drivers who couldn't give a one minute damn interview without barking at me.  That's just my take on interviewing at a less than ideal time.  We all had bad days at work but we're still obligated to conduct ourselves in a respectful manner.  With that said Donny Schatz was always a good interview so it must have been an especially tough night for him to make a quick escape. 

PS, there are times when an interviewer should wait for a driver to cool down and they should never get in a drivers face when they're in the work area.  That is one area I stayed clear of.  I get that they want to provide fans with a close up experience but some situations need to be off limits.  My interviews were always post race either top three in victory lane or at their haulers if I couldn't get to all of them.  I had some interesting experiences doing the interviews that I'd only tell around the fire in the campground.  ;)

Stan Meissner

I do like the young pit reporter DirtVision is using.   He is well spoken and seems to know the cars pretty well as you say Stan.   I understand that's never an easy job to do since drivers sometimes aren't having the best night.   At least I wouldn't want to do it.   

"I do enjoy his interviews"... he's OK with me, & he had the sense to back off without putting Donny in a position where he might "bark" at him

Actually, I can't believe this is even an issue...

What is this, "Real Housewives of the Dirt Track"??? ;)

Pot meet kettle. You bitch and whine on a weekly basis about the track prep at a track that you claim that you won't even go to anymore. Who the hell are you to call anyone out for complaining? You literally do it more than anyone I've seen. Not only are you stupid, but you're also a hypocrite. How about you clean your own house before bitching about how someone else lives.

Let me tell you a story.  When I was a kid I was a big Kinser fan.  I had a ton of his cars.  I only got to go to one outlaw race a year (at Husets).  My parents would only let me bring one car to have him sign, which is fair.  I can't remember if it was in his last year in the Valvoline car or when he came back from NASCAR in the Quaker State car but if memory serves me correct he crashed in the heat or the dash and didn't race in the feature.  Of coarse we went down to the pits afterwards and to his trailer and waited around for quite a while waiting to get his autorgraph and there was quite a crowd gathering.  He never did show up and nobody said anything about him not being there or that he wasn't coming.  On our way out of the track we drove by a bunch of motorhomes and my step dad says " there he is" and I look up and Steve Kinser is sitting in the driver's seat of his motorhome.  I begged him to stop and ask him to sign my car, which he wouldn't.  My point is I understand the disappointment.  On the other hand I'm nearly 40 now and I wouldn't say it has affected my life to badly lol.  I got over it.  But to say he always had time for his fans is a stretch.

Yes, but that was before the internet so you weren't able to tell thousands of people how that one instance ruined your life. See how far we've come?  ;)

Wrong

He didn't have any time for the fans the night Kreitz passed him on the last lap to win at the Grove. He went straight to the trailer and wouldn't talk to anyone.

A

Lost oil pressure

We have advanced so far haven't we?  I don't think anyone can enjoy anything anymore can they?  It seems to me since social media became a thing, people just dwell on the negative.  You rarely read anything about any kind of event where the people just had a good time.  Either the event sucked, concessions are too expensive, someone was rude, it went too late, it was too loud.  It's almost like people think if they don't find something wrong with whatever event they're attending, they're not paying attention.  I don't think everyone feels this way but it seems the loudest voices are the complainers.

For

Old

Retired

Dudes

Because it's the last truck you will ever need!

DS is intense, if he wasn't he won't be were he's at today. When you know your car feels good and your fast you get this high knowing I'm going to pass some cars tonight. Leading a race for 12 laps and coming out of turn 4 only to have a LR go flat which took out the radius rod and locked the rear end up. You get so angry that some guys just cannot be approached,  it's a heat of the moment thing. When DS walked into the trailer nobody from his crew even approached him. Some guys are like that because they are just so intense behind the wheel.  

DS is intense, if he wasn't he won't be were he's at today. When you know your car feels good and your fast you get this high knowing I'm going to pass some cars tonight. Leading a race for 12 laps and coming out of turn 4 only to have a LR go flat which took out the radius rod and locked the rear end up. You get so angry that some guys just cannot be approached,  it's a heat of the moment thing. When DS walked into the trailer nobody from his crew even approached him. Some guys are like that because they are just so intense behind the wheel.  

And he does a double post, geeesh

People on here take everything literally don't they. I think when he was saying it he was playing it up like announcers do. Likely he was in the infield part of the Grove so he likely didn't make it across the bridge where Donny was parked. How often do you see the pit reporter on dirtvison interview someone mid race after they broke? Hardly ever. 

Yeah, his name is Chase Raudman. He did play by play for USAC/CRA races, he's still learning so there will be awkward moments like what happened at Terre Haute, plus having microphones around these dirt guys is something new. They're not used to it every race either.