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

He also stated he has the best equipment money can buy, seems obvious...

Thoughts?  https://speedsport.com/sprints-midgets/world-of-outlaws-sprint-cars/gravel-big-game-motorsports-follow-championship-recipe/

Ascot was the greatest of all time..

West Capital wasn't half bad either..

Life is good...

I understand the dislike because eventually the crowd turns on you when you win too much.  What I don't understand is the instant hatred, and complete disrespect for Gravel from what seems to be 90% of the sprint car world. 

Friendliest guy in the world?  No. But there seems to be a lot more love for old Sammy----and Gravel has more friendliness in his big toe than Sammy has in his whole body. 

Drives dirty?  No.  People want to cherry pick a couple of incidents over the past couple of years, but that car almost always goes back in the trailer in one piece as does every car he passes on the track.  But lets say he did drive dirty---dirtier than above mentioned Sammy?  Sammy has more dirty driving in his big toe than David has in his entire body, and yet to the sprint car world Sammy's just a cute old man.  I could name 20 drivers WAY more "dirty" (or aggressive, whatever you want to call it) on the track than Gravel.  

Over rated?  LMFAO.  I've heard this comment so much over the past 2 years and it makes me laugh so hard I about piss my pants.  The guy is fast in anything he has sat in the past 10+ years.  He even put the Destiny Motorsports car in the Knoxville Nats A-main for God's sake.  I keep hearing comments about how he has the best equipment.  Of course he does.  Dozens of teams have the best equipment money can buy right now.  If I'm David Gravel, I'm not driving anything but the best equipment since I've earned that.  

So, aside from him being a little smug, why the incredible dislike?  I get not liking a driver--I dislike plenty of them.  But it feels like the amount of dislike and disrespect seems a bit over the top for this guy.  There are far less likeable guys than him.   

You gonna be OK?

I saw where gravel has a new merchant trailer that is bigger than his old one. Good thing, now he can stock more crying towels.

I think the gravel dislike is coming more from the fact he is always throwing blame and comes off like a whiner.

The larson deal at eldora was just good hard racing, and clean sliders but he was whining about that. 

Whined about a racing deal the the knoxville nationals. Gravel was coming down and sherenburg was moving up. 

I just watched an interview with gravel after macri beat him at volusia. He mentioned he didn't see the white flag and maybe the flagman threw it late, he would check the video. Macri saw it fine evidently.

At a race late last season he crowded kofoid like crazy which kofoid went spinning. Gravel acted like he did nothing wrong and it was hard racing but he would have had a fit if he was ran like that.

With gravel it's always somebody else's fault.

Careful with using "always". 

Gravel is the best right now and I think is likable. Does well on social media. You put a mic in our faces when we're high on adrenaline and we're likely to say some things we that not everyone loves. 

People said the same thing about Sweet...

Keep It Real

Between Gravel being Gravel combined with his crew chef, Cody Jacobs it makes it really easy to not cheer for them. 

We see the same with almost every driver at some point every season.  Name a single driver that did not blame someone else for a wreck last season.  Just one.  Lots of drivers have exhibited far worse behavior, with a far worse personality than Gravel, and it's been chalked up to "the emotions of racing" and "the heat of the moment."  I don't personally root for Gravel over most other drivers, (I did root for him quite a bit as he was rising to the top) but don't have dislike for him most seem to have right now.  I have more respect for his talent, and I feel like he is one of the cleaner drivers in the country right now.  JMO though.  

I remember Buddy using him up a couple of years ago.  It was obviously a mistake by buddy, and Gravel was clearly upset.  After he exited his car, he walked up to Buddy's car under red, and had a "chat" with him for about 30-60 seconds.  He didn't sucker punch Buddy while strapped in the car.  He wasn't animated.  When he walked away, he was immediately interviewed, and he was calm, upset, but explained what he told Buddy.  What he talked with Buddy about wasn't unreasonable, and he made some good points.  I thought he handled it like a gentelman.  Social media blew up that night and the following days about how much of a whiner he was.  If this is instance made Gravel into a whiner, then every single driver in the world is a whiner, because it was handled about as professionally as I've ever seen.  

To earn respect you have to show respect. David and Cody are probably ones to beat everynight but neither are great interviews.  Rico knows how to promote his team and sport much better. Being part of Tonys team will probably not change much except they are dedicated to HL. Whining and winning too much result in fans rooting for others.

I lost some respect for Gravel when he exposed his entitled attitude complaining that Larson should let him have the preferred lanes cuz Larson is a part timer.

I kinda chuckle when I read or hear someone say they lost respect for a driver because of something they said. I figure a driver is one type of person most of the time, and an entirely different person when racing another driver. When I was a kid, I was a big fan of Darrel Dawley. He was a really aggressive driver who never really said much in the pits. That was OK because I wasn't there to hear him talk.

Last summer, I was in a Jimmy John's for lunch and noticed David Gravel at the next table. He didn't bite anyone in the restaurant. I respect that.