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

Kyle Larson is a great driver but he makes beating the best look so easy that it plays to the NASCAR narrative that Cup Stars are playing around for fun when they race Sprints.  We all know how talented he is and how tough it is for anyone to win any race at the Nationals.  Brace youselves for what the Cup announcer say on Sunday.  

Stan Meissner

I'm going to take a bit of an issue with that entire premise. Nascar has always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with open wheel racing in general. They are green with envy with the whole mistique of Indy, its not a coincidence that Nascar dropped a 600 mile race on the same day as the Indy 500. Mario Andretti, AJ, Dan Gurney and others made winning in Cup cars look easy.

Of course, its not easy, it never was and its not now. Winning at the very highest level of any aspect of this sport requires a ton of God given talent  that most simply do not have. 

What Nascar is right now is a massive vacuume cleaner of driving talent and ever since Jeff Gordon showed that driving a high horsepower basically antique racecar with limited traction on a rapidly changing track surface was the perfect training ground for multi ton antiques with very limited traction, Sprint Car racing has been loosing its young talent.

And because of the influx of Sprint Car guys in Nascar nowadays as well as YouTube, ppv, etc  there is a lot more appreciation than there used to be of what it takes to run these cars, and do it well.

Larson is not a run of the mill driver, not at any level. People realise that, whether they are sitting in the stands at Knoxville or Michigan. Or the announcer's booth for that matter. He is a gifted talent, who can go into the heart of Posse country and kick their asses repeatedly and then  whip the boys and girls on Sunday. There have never been many who can do that. He does not win all the races on Sunday, no more than he wins all the dirt races he enters.

However, what IS going to be tut-tutted about on Sunday is the "risk" he is taking.

 www.memorylaneracing.com

"Every time I pull onto the track with Dad,Uncle
Bobby,Mario,AJ,Gordy,JR...,I get goosebumps. Those
guys are my hero's.They always have been and they
always will be." 
Al Unser Jr.

 

I have no doubt Kyle Petty will be bashing and saying Larson needs to worry about the Cup Championship. At leat you don't have the stupid FOX crew who will just say something dumb thinking they are smart. I remeber talking to a Nascar fan after a Eldora Truck race and he wondered what the cup cars would be like there ,but he was convinced that the cup cars would have to much horsepower for the dirt.

I'm OK if NAPCAR wants to ride the coattails of his success driving REAL racecars.

No one cares what NASCAR narrative there is or isn't. The only thing they have down there is a very lucrative tv deal, everything else is in rapid decline and with Jr retiring its bound to be even worse. Let their rapidly declining fan base and talking heads have whatever ignorant opinions they may have. 

Who cares what the ego maniacs on the sinking ship think about the real racers standing on the beach?

Luna's Ford engine style that won 2 WoO titles and 3 
Kings Royals before a weight rule against the best EVER
in their prime and now DOMINATES super dirt late model
racing is no longer allowed/wanted in a WoO sprint
car.... Was Luna a miracle worker?

Kyle Petty using the phrase "concentrate on a cup championship" = that is some funny shit right there!

Hey Petty...you rode your dad's name into the ground on the track and now you are on TV...

Lincoln 1845 ft/.35 mile T1=118MPH 
Eldora 2287 ft/.43mile T3=135MPH
Port 2716 ft/.51 mile T3=TBD
Grove 2792 ft/.53 mile T3=135MPH
Selinsgrove 2847 ft/.54 mile T1=136MPH
"I didn't move to PA from El Paso in search of better 
weather." Van May

No problem with people taking exception to my opinons, that's what we do here and I'm just putting it up for discussion.  I've only been watching these cars since 1960 when chrome injector stacks and roll hoops were the thing.  I'm just stating my opinion that I'm tired of the NASCAR talking heads brushing off Sprint Cars as if moonlighting drivers are fooling around at the local amusement park kart track.  We get it, the drivers get it, the NASCAR talking heads don't.  A few like Gordon and Kenny Wallace and the Postman get it but not many others do.

Stan Meissner

You  have me beat by two years Saw my first race in the summer of 1962 at the Minnesota State Fair, hopelessly addicted every since. Ran my first race in 1966 on the day I turned 16.

I do hear what you are saying about Nascar's talking heads. Some are worse offenders then others, Kyle Petty being the worse. His Daddy was king of the strokers, which back then was not a bad thing, he drove just fast enough to stay in contention and then when everyone else starting dropping out he would make his move. Today Petty (both of them) would be dueling with the diva for 20th place week to week.

The Petty's opinion of Open Wheel racers has always more or less mirrored that of Nascar, a mixture of awe, envy and a bit of contempt, the old "rubbins' racin' ", never mind there is more contact in the average 30 lap Sprint Car race then in many 500 races.

the Saturday before the 1967 Daytona 500 Richard Petty said, "If that Eye-talian boy don't kill himself he is going to win that race tomorrow".

I will never forget that...Was in the infield, right between turns one and two, I can still see Mario's Ford in a four wheel drift inches from the wall, he was sawing the wheel as if he was on the dirt, that is how he ran the entire race, he blew them away.

I do think a lot of the resentment is fading, I think  knowlage is bringing both sides closer together.

 www.memorylaneracing.com

"Every time I pull onto the track with Dad,Uncle
Bobby,Mario,AJ,Gordy,JR...,I get goosebumps. Those
guys are my hero's.They always have been and they
always will be." 
Al Unser Jr.

 

Amen!    Good one BRR.   I'd love to see Kyle Petty strung up in a tree by his awful looking ponytail and turn a bunch of people loose with stick and tell them he's a pinata....

I think a good portion of the hatred that the NASCAR world has for open wheel stems from the mid 50s when Big Bill France was given the cold shoulder by AAA and kicked out of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway by Chief Steward Harry McQuinn.    NASCAR and the France family have had their revenge for a long time now and time seems to be healing all wounds. 

Kenny Wallace will certianly praise Knoxville and Larson (and hopefully Ganassi for allowing) on Sunday,   I think Latarte and the Sunday bunch will as well.  

Not a huge Kyle Pretty fan, but wasn't he originally part of the NST deal and his charity involved with Lasoski and Stewart? Could his comments be less "looking down" on dirt track racing and more about being focused on the big picture. Larson has publicly admitted his day job is about the money. Championships lead to more money in sponsorship and endorsement. Hope he races Saturday, but I can see what they're talking about. A little added history reminder, it wasn't that long ago that Larson passed out at s public event if I remember correctly and they chalked it up to exhaustion. 

kyle petty won one race in nasnap.........oh the humanity!

just like wreckadanny, the win was given to them!!

Ascot was the greatest of all time..

West Capital wasn't half bad either..

Life is good...

He actually won 8 Cup races, but don't let facts get in the way of a good old fashioned hatred

I don't care what Cup announcers say cause I don't watch it, but the fact is that Larson is Larson, does not represent any other NASCAR drivers. How often does Kasey Kahne win on dirt? Not much... Tony Stewart? I  just saw him do a mediocre job at Allstar races in upstate NY. First night he was 2nd fast qualifier, but his car wouldn't start for A-Main. Old Sammy won. Next nite, Stewart was no better than Allstars or local guys (Dietrich won, I fergit where Smoke finished, nothing special at all)

Tony had his day, but in 2017, Larson stands alone. What did he do earlier this summer? Win 2 dirt races in Ohio (or 3?) win NASCAR, then 3 in a row at Pa. Speedweek?

Just checked. At Lebanon Valley, Smoke started 7th, finished 5th...no big deal (although passing 2 cars at that track takes some doing....) 

My first race 1960, Twin City Speedway in Blaine, MN, and I grew up three blocks from the Fairgrounds over by Como Park.  We walked similar paths to get to where we are today.

Probably if the announcers would admit how difficult it is to win a Sprint Car race and that a good portion of the Cup drivers wouldn't come within 100' of one and the skill required to step in as a part timer and win I'd chill a litte. 

Stan Meissner

How did this go from me making an observation to hatred for NASCAR and bad mouthing everything else on here?  I don't recall doing any of those things....ever. 

Stan Meissner

That, my friend, is darn near always the underlying 60 million dollar question. But, hey, at least we're still on subject

I have only seen a few guys drive a sprint car the way Kyle does, but I was there wednesday, only one guy there made sprint car racing look easy that night and he's sitting on the front row with a shot at his 10th Knoxville Nationals.