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

Just curious too----the Outlaws are saying they did not see Sheldon spin.  Is it possible they missed the spin, but saw him sitting off the track and thought he simply pulled off and tried to get off the racing surface?  (Asking because I did not see it)

If they didn't see him spin, shame on them. Don't they have spotters other than the flagman watching for safety reasons? Or, do they do a car count at the checkers to see if they've lost any along the way? At our local tracks, if a car tries pulling in off the track and doesn't make it in far enough to be safe, the throw a yellow and push the car in, rather than riask someone getting hurt. 

If they didn't see him spin, they were fine leaving him sitting there where another car could hit him? Seems like an odd explanation. 

I certainly hope the WOO organization puts out a statement.  I'd like to know the spin-out rule/s, followed up by 1)  their thought process for why they didn't through a yellow in this case, and 2)  explain any driver penalty...or lack of.  As fans, we deserve to get this one resolved.

Team Sheldon 100% on this. Its insane to think we now have to debate "safe spaces" off the track for cars to stall, spin, or crash into. Like mentioned before, do we need to throw a red if a driver safely flips over into a "safe space" and is out of the "danger zone"? Just check with him on radio or have somebody quickly attend to him. If fine, keep racing huh??  Good lord. This is such a dumb debate. WoO messed up terribly here and they need to eat the helmet throw IMO. There are NO safe spaces around or just off the track if you didnt willingly go park it there yourself / stalled.  Another car touched Sheldon...enough said.  I mean how they gonna keep racing if 2 cars touch like that and be 100% sure debris isnt on the track or somebody about to break and cause another car to run over their debris?  Those of you saying Sheldon was just fine and no yellow should be thrown are really making me question why you watch racing let alone what you understand or comprehend about competitive 410 sprint car racing. 

How so? He ended up there being pushed there. You telling me that zero others could end up there and youre 100% sure its impossible?  If not, then beat it. And it doesnt matter if he was out of harms way...that is asinine that a driver can get spun into a stall and the race continue.  Just opens up racing to become some sort of rubbing and pushing others off the track (safely of course) to they can pass and end the night for another racer.  Good lord.  There is NO debate on this. None. 

To be clear, I said if he felt he had been wronged. You don't feel he had been wronged. I understand that. And I agree that throwing the helmet was wrong. On that, we agree. 

What, in your opinion should he have done? Just sit there in the car and hope no one else spun off the track and ran into his parked car?

You know, I wonder...

If Danny Dietrich takes out another car on purpose and it flips into the infield and out of harm's way, do they throw a yellow, or just have a WoO official tackle somebody after the race?

Sheldon's reaction had NOTHING to do with him being worried about getting hit by another car. He would probably tell you that himself. All he wanted was to get back out there preferably without going down a lap. Since the WoO has no "two caution rule" there was nothing to lose by throwing a caution which they have done countless times. Throwing the helmet just takes the spotlight off of what the real issue here is and for that I'm sure Sheldon regrets it. When you consider the points hit getting a DNF vs. a top 15ish finish any WoO platinum member should have gotten better treatment. A yellow should have been thrown in line with the WoO "always taking care of their own" which the more experienced fan among us knows actually exists.

Hint, hint????? Not very subtle.....

Have you EVER had any hands on experience prepping a track?

What makes you think you know more than people who've been doing it for years?

No one is going to ever know the real deal..Every body is guessing..Its getting time to shut this one down..

Egras - when and where did the Outlaws say they did not see Sheldon spin ?

On the DV broadcast,  Johnny Gibson said: 

"Caution on the speedway.           Sheldon Haudenschild's car had spun off of the racetrack, was clearly out of danger so we did not wave the caution flag.         Haudenschild has just thrown his helmet on to the racetrack to bring out the caution so there will be disciplinary action taken there."

Johnny was very calm and matter-of-fact.      I've heard Johnny when he was surprised and excited but he was very clear and emphatic when giving this explanation.   

It seems pretty clear to me.    Has their story changed ?      I'm not sure why we can't just go with Johnny's explanation.  

Son of Wild Child needs to tone it down a notch.  No matter what the reason for him going to the infield, you don't throw things on the track.  If that was a fan, they would immediately be detained, arrested, and never allowed back in.  To throw items on the track in anger should never be allowed, especially by a driver, car owner, or crew member.  Irresponsible actions like this should draw a penalty.

Completely mixing streams here, but I will join in.   There was some twitter conversation about this with a fairly easy explanation.   The official in victory lane was actually the flag man.  As you stated he asked if his signals helped.   Apparently, it is the standard for this flagger to use his flags to show the distance between the cars in the top five.   He does it for all of the races he does.   The locals would know to look for it, but an Outlaw would not.   Go onto twitter and search for Paul McMahan to find the thread.   Paul gives his take on what happened. 

He is not the only flagger in the country that does this.   The current flagger at Lakeside (Ks) will do something similar on the white flag lap if the leader has a huge lead.   He has a different motion when the leader has a huge lead and shows them how big the lead is.   If the race is contested, he throws the white flag the same as any other flag. 

I personally think that no flagger should be trying to signal the driver the distance that they are leading.   However, this is one conspiracy that actually favors the local drivers to the Outlaws detriment.  

Stenhouse is a douchebag. If he didn't have money nobody would like him. But since you do Ricky, please keep fielding a WoO team. I promise we'll be nice to your dumb face.

Just canceled Dirtvision until there is a response.

Tackling a crew member also deserves a response. Is violence ok? Or will it not be tolerated?  By an official? Give me a break.

WRG is not a publicly traded company? Could someone tell me what happened there? There symbol is still active.

Starting to look like amateur hour.

Don't want to be a part of it.

Usually when a car starts to spin the caution is thrown or when a car starts to slow down a caution is thrown so pretty irrelevant if he was out of the way or not caution has been thrown 99.9 percent of the time in the last fifty years that time that it wasnt thrown on saturday was the .1!    Helmet throwing uncalled for and the flipping off as well but I can see why sheldon was jacked

World Racing Group is no longer a publicly traded company. 

You still haven't answered what you think Sheldon should have done after he was spun off the track.

The entitled generation as you put it along with the rest of civilization needs a wakeup call!  He was definitely wrong in throwing the helmet but yellow should have been thrown period! 

Thanks for the reply. You would think this would be something that comes up in future pit meetings-what you're expected to do in the futUte if this happens to you. It'll be interesting to see how the WoO handles spins like this in the future with every driver.