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

My research finds that 2018 was the last time a champion had more than 20 wins and won the points race by more than 100 points, with 2018 being over a 200 point spread to second.

Might be, (might not be either) a bit early to crown Gravel a champion but his win percentage is almost at 50% in 12 races.

Will Gravel win?

Will he get 20 plus wins?

Will the point spread be over 200?

Even though I may not know you, I 
care what most of you think!

(Not aimed at you, but a general observation)

The thing I find so interesting in this is the number of fans, on all forms of social media, ready to light themselves on fire, and jump off of a bridge over this.  In reading their comments, this type of total domination is unprecedented, and will lead to the demise of the sport.  "This is no fun anymore."  "Same @#$@, different day"   We're 12 races into the season folks.  

Funny----the stretch you speak of, 2019-2024, has the be the longest 5 year span with that close of an Outlaw title race, in the history of the WoO, doesn't it?   Since 1978, this sport, and this very series has been overwhelmingly dominated by one guy in most years, yet here we are pretending the past 47 years have been the glory days, and the points races were always tight, and down to the wire.  All races were won from 10th or farther back. LMAO.  Most WoO races were won from the front 2 rows, and most points races were over by July-----mostly because many of the early years there were only 3 or 4 guys who raced every event.  

As far as your question, we won't know for quite a while.  Gravel will have a string of bad dash draws just as he's had a string of good ones.  There are plenty of capable cars in beating him night in and night out.  Gio has started slow.  Sheldon has been fairly quiet.  Both of those guys will undoubtably win some races.  Shuchardt and Macedo have been right there.  They will win some races.  Even Balog went up front and flat out beat him in AL.   Too early to tell, but as of right now, he is the guy to beat when it comes to full-time 410 winged sprint car drivers, there is no doubt.  He is better head to head against all HL guys most of the time they are on the same track.  The only guys that can beat him consistently are Day in the 14, and Kyle in whatever car he puts his butt in.  Too early to declare him a 20-30 win champ, so we'll have to stay tuned.  If it happens, nothing wrong with our sport.  He's just the latest guy and team to figure out how to dominate the field until someone else catches up.  Same story, different era.  

Gravel only had 2 wins after July last year and Macedo and Kofoid were the cars to beat after Knoxville. Larson went from not qualifying for the Kings Royal to 2 weeks later being unbeatable. It goes in cycles. 

Gravel is absolutely the favorite to win the title and may win it by a large margin, however I don't think he will keep this pace and others will step up. 

egras and dsc1600 have it right.  12 races in and Gravel looks unbeatable.  I'm a Gravel fan, but I know it won't last.  He'll run into a touch stretch, tear a car up, blow an engine, whatever.

I think he could win 20 races.  It will be how many races does he finish 15th or worse that may determine how much he wins or loses the points battle by.  As with most major racing divisions, you've got to minimize the bad days and take advantage of the times your car is good and maximize your finish.

Is 30 race wins out of the question? 

Keep It Real

Donny only did it once. It would be extremely hard. Assuming they get 75 races in, he'd have to go 25 of 63, nearly a 40% win clip. 

It's not out of the question.  However, winning over 30 races with today's cars, and today's competition, is going to be very tough.  Buddy, Macedo, Gio, Carson, Logan, and Donny----all in top equipment--- are going to make winning 30 races damned near impossible.  The only guy I could see running the entire WoO series, and taking over 30 wins with this field of cars, is Larson.  And 40 would not be out of the question for him.  We'll never know because by the time he decides to run a full-time series, he will likely not be at the level he is right this very second.