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

Some thoughts to ponder about when money and politics overshadow racing.

1) If I understand it correctly, some random sprint car diver like Brad Sweet, for example, could win the WoO points championship next year and run all the High Limit races as well. To do that, he would have to not sign anything with the WoO and he would forego a bucket of money from the WoO for tow money and appearance money. Depending on what you hear, that support may be anywhere from $75,000 to $100,000 yearly for top teams. If a racer is good enough to win the WoO title, is he also probably good enough to win $75-$100,000 at non-WoO races? Would he still get the point money for winning the WoO title, or is that tilted towards the Members Only Gang?

2) If you rigged up some phoney playoff season to try and hype your racing series, why are you surprised whne the participants turn it into a roller derby game while playing within the artificial rules you've given them?

3) Suppose some random NASCAR owner like Tony Stewart, for example, got serious about getting out of NASCAR and put all of his money and energy into other things, like Eldora and The Allstars Circuit of Champions. Could a guy like that make a big difference in sprint car racing?

What do you think?

1) If you're not a platinum member, you can't get the point fund. I don't see that changing, even if WRG gives the teams some leeway to run the High Limit series

2) NASCAR is a joke

3) Stewart didn't get rich by plowing a bunch of money into NASCAR, he partners with Gene Haas and has probably made a ton of dough that way. 

About thought 1:  I've wondered the same thing.  For the top teams wouldn't the prize money from running a pick a choose schedule cover the lost point/appearance money?  But--those are also the teams with the most sponsorship $$ at stake.  Maybe the sponsors insist on a full WoO schedule? 

Good point. Maybe it's a matter of making yourself more valuable to a sponsor by doing the true outlaw thing?

If a non-platinum member wins the points championship, but not the points money, who does get the money?

Given some of the recent things that Smoke has said in recent days about NASCAR it's pretty obvious he'd love to be out of it.   He's extremely pissed off and fed up with NASCAR.    I'd love to see him tell him NASCAR to stick it and concentrate on sprint cars and NHRA, which are the things he clearly enjoys.   

Okay, Woo has a driver championship and a team owner championship. Kasey Kahne is the owner of Brad sweets Team. KKR can still be a platinum member and receive tow money ( Brad does not pay the fuel bill for KKR hauler as someone mentioned) and all that good stuff and still win the woo team owner championship. If Brad wins Woo championship next year, kkr will be woo team champions and the driver who finishes 2nd in points will inherit the championship as driver champion but his team owner will still place 2nd. This is what would happen in the scenario brad runs high limit in another car without woo approval and forgoes his woo driver benefits. Hope this helps some understand

One really big thing to consider here. If a guy runs all the Woo races as a platinum member the tow and point money comes at no additional expence. If he isn't a member and wins &75 to !00,000 at other races he has many additional expenses so $100,000 won does not translate to the same money coming from races already run. You are not going to see guys give up appearance and point money to run other races without a deal being made with the Woo and they have no insentive to deal.

NHRA is stupid. It's like the WWE of racing. Smoke is only interestsd because he's being a good husband. 

Are you saying that a driver who's not in the members only club doesn't get points towards the WoO driver's championship?

all you have to do is look at the points, of course anyone who races is on that point total. but the banquet and the point fund is only for platinum members. no one who is not a platium member is going to go to the bad tracks that have no fans, no car counts ,pay is at 10,000 to win. they all have different tracks or hole swings (Series of track and traveling) that they hate.

 just recently for example any non platinum member would have been in PA, in fact they were, Rico, Marks, Macri, GEO, and many more.  Just my opinion 

Could be.   Just going by what I heard him say in a recent interview.    Basically he said he would rather not go to any NASCAR event if he didn't have to and would rather be at NHRA or sprint car races where he enjoys himself.   

Tony is going to be at every nascrap race that those big sponsors want him to be at.  Usually teams are playing host a lot more than people realize.  I friend that used to drive 1 of Jeff Gordons show cars around the country said if a sponsor wanted one of jeff's cars at a function it was there. He was on the road, a lot.