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

Exactly!

A

Correct. I meant just their preliminary night, just didn't type it that way - oops.

The reason that the Knoxville Nationals is able to offer the best overall purse (by far) in sprint car racing is that they are able to sell the most tickets and attract the best sponsorship.   The reason they are able to sell the most tickets is that the format provides excitement.   

The only change needed is to go back to 10 car inverts.   If you want to placate the whiners then extend the heat races to 12 laps each.  

Big Tires + Big Wings = Worn out Racetrack!

Sadly Kevin Swindells last tweet before his accident was "Lets hope another terrible draw doesn't ruin our weekend". The outlaws finally changed their format when there is more than 30 cars. Knoxville needs to get with the times. Also double file restarts, the track has plenty of room and grooves in turn 1.

1.)   If they still inverted 10 in the heat races Kevin would have been up front to start the heat race.

2.)  The draw didn't ruin his weekend.    The combination of his bad lap and the 8 car invert did.   There were others that went out late and had better laps.

3.) He got injured at the start of a race that started double file and you want to make every restart double file???

I personally hate double file restarts.    They take up more time because more of them get called back and they create more carnage which wastes more money and provides more opportunity for drivers to get injured.

Other than the fact that they have to qualify again tonight. Ha. Lets face it.. Zomer and Dob cant qualify well ESPECIALLY with a poor draw. I like the format as is but if those 2 dont time in the first 10 cars they dont time extremely well. But man can those two race in the heats and mains.

Now whats also weird is that TK cant qualify well in the Lunstra machine. These are all rides with decent powerplants so what are these teams missing?

Cream always rises to the top, so don't see a need to change. Now u can get at back of A from Friday's show, years ago best you could do on Friday was middle of c main. Plus it's 50 laps folks. Doesn't matter where you start in feature if you have fast car. Get over it that your driver cant time. 

i dont understand this either....why can cars that did horrible during their qualifying night have a chance to race their way in to the a-main tonight, but cars that ran decent in qualifying nights but just missed making the amain for saturday...have no chance tonight and forced to run a bmain saturday? 

Highside the first 10 cars in the B-main all got the choice if they want to run tonight. All 10 chose to stay in the B main on Saturday. 

I am not the biggest fan of double file restarts either but they are nessesary in my opinion. Schatz will be half way down the back stretch before the last place car crosses the start finish line on Saturday night.

did not know that, thanks for the response...so if they wouldve chose to race tonight, would they have lost their pts and starting spot for the b-main?

No kidding! Dobmeier is especially notorious for his inablility to qualify, pretty much anywhere he goes.  At Osky on Monday, he actually ran .2 tenths quicker while winning his heat race than what he qualified at. I was actually looking at lap times of all the other competitors that night during the actual racing.  The 13 turned the single fastest lap over the entire night during racing conditions, by over .15 secs!  He turned that lap while out front leading his heat race - so tell me, what the hell is different between that and your 2 qualifying laps?  How can he NOT get it done during qualifying?  He can't even qualify well at this home track at RCS - he didn't even make the invert at the last WoO show there in June.  He puts himself in such a hole most nights because of his lack of qualifying ability.  Yet, when it comes to racing - he's one of the fastest cars on the track.  He would be in the top 3 in NSL points if he could Q. The only place he has consistently Q'd decent at is Huset's.

I don't get it.  And obviously they can't figure it out either, otherwise it would have been solved by now.  Maybe they just like Hard Charger awards....

While there may not be a “perfect” format, in my opinion the Nationals format is about as close to perfect as it gets.

Every year there is discussion whether there is too much emphasis on qualifying in the points system. I would argue that the points’ emphasis in qualifying assures that everyone is going all-out in their qualifying attempt, which sets the stage for excitement in the heats and urgency for drivers to move from the back to the front. It creates the opportunity for racing. The last thing I think most of us fans would want to see is shifting points from qualifying to the heats and creating a preference to land 21-40 on the qualifying chart in order to start at the front of the heat.

Does a high pill draw for qualifying add additional challenge? Generally, yes. But there are also years that the top 10 in qualifying are equally spread between early and late qualifiers. Would you rather the pill draw set the heat lineups instead? Not me.

We all want as equal a playing field as possible for the competitors. But its dirt track racing, which inherently means the track itself is one of the variables of competition. Temperature, humidity, sun exposure, wind, moisture in the weeks prior, etc. The Dunkin crew is one of, if not the best in the business and no one else I’d rather see prepping the track. They consistently prepare an outstanding racing surface. But it’s a living, breathing, ever changing variable, and one that ultimately cannot be equalized for every competitor or races across one night or across nights in the week.

There is no format that can equalize the variability of the racing surface. The Nationals format may not be able to conquer that variable either but it beats other options hands down and I for one love it!

Correct that is why all of them chose to stay in Bmain

you don't have to make the track better all through qualifying.....you have to make it worse to start with so the drop off isn't so much.

if you started with a worn out 16 plus second track you would keep a more consistent track through qualifying. maybe even get better as it went on. then just do a little track work after qualifying and go racing. they have all freaking night to race.

keeping a good track isn't the trick. make it shitty for everyone. then it is even, and the better set up cars and better drivers can do their thing.

to indy and beyond!!

My point was people are going  to bitch no matter what they do. So I say don't change a thing. The fast guys that have chance to win are going to make it no matter what. 

The driver that crosses the finish line first tomorrow night is the guy that deserved to win.....no matter what format or points structure they use.   It doesn't matter if you time early, late fast or slow.  It doesn't even matter how they do in the heat.....just do what you have to do to be among the 24 cars that get to run 2 25 lap (sorry, it is not a 50 lapper until they do not schedule a half way break)features on Saturday night.  

If someone wants to play the game and try to qualify 31st to 40th to start on the front row of a heat or 21st to 30th to start on the second row of a heat w/o giving up too many points....let them!  

i think the format is fine but the point system needs to change imo qualifying should not give out anywhere near the same amount of points as the feature

If you don't keep the points up on the time trials there will be guys sandbagging so they can start up front in the heat and make the A main.

The current system is perfect as is other than the fact that they need to go back to 10 car inverts in the heat races and qualifying the whole Saturday night A main through the Wed & Thurs qualifiers.