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

I haven't kept up on the red flag for fuel rule issue, therefore will someone explain, why on the longer races,say 40 or more laps, they don't simply require a larger tank?  Am I correct that they typically use a 30-33 gallon tank and is that what most were running last night in the 40 lapper?  Are larger tanks available?  Even with larger tanks, they could still determine a maximum lap count before a red but in last nights case the larger tank would have eliminated the need for the fuel stop.  That fuel stop totally changed the outcome of the race and to me that is right.  Comments?
 

Because they were gonna run out of gas.

Also, there would’ve been a red flag even if fuel wasn’t an issue as there was a medical issue in the infield, which was why the open red was as long as it was

Was the red scheduled?  I was under the impression the red happened due to waiting for emergency personel to be able to leave the track due to a medical emergency in the infield.  Seemed legit.  

Anyone clarify?

I really don't get too worked up about open reds.  It's not like they only give certain cars permission to work on their cars and fuel up---------everyone gets to do it.  It gives NO ONE an unfair advantage regardless of the conspiracy theories.  I was pulling for Logan but he had a terrible restart.  That cost him the race, not the red.

Because its a way to make people feel better. “he didn’t really lose, he was cheated!”. 

Schatz was quoted in an article that they burn a ton of fuel on yellows now for whatever reason and he was concerned with running 40 laps on one tank. 

It does sort of put the fantasy of some that Knoxville should cut the number of laps from 50 to some other number to eliminate the fuel stop in perspective. If you can’t go 40 at Eldora, you’re not coming close to 40 at Knoxville which is a considerably larger track. 

I absolutely hate fuels stop and I have always thought they suck and absolutely ruin the last part of the race. I think these long races would be much better with maybe 5 extra laps than a regular feature that they run at that particular place

The caution came out originally for Reutzel then they stopped for an open red stating they had reached the limit of laps to reach the end. They made it an open red and after words they announced they had a medical issue that required the ambulance to cross the track. Personally, after hearing that I think they decided since they didn't know how many laps of caution they were going to run, they just threw the red. I don't think it took anything away from the event, just some people wanting to be upset for the sake of being upset.

I don't mind open reds or schedule reds either. Seems it's one of those things that traditionalist take issue with. To some every race needs to be 30laps and there should be nothing touched on the car once it's pushed off. If everyone is allowed to make changes, like you said it's not an unfair advantage. Unfortunately sprintcar racing is full of conspiracy theories that are unfounded

I think they should do away with these 40-50 lap features on 1/2 miles, because there's too many varibles involved that will require them to stop to refuel, and by stopping the race, that changes the momentum of the race, sprint car racin isn't NASCAR.

Its suppose to be fast, fierce and short.  30-35 laps on a 1/2 mile, 40 on 3/8 and 50 laps on a 1/4 mile seem about right.
I don't understand why they are trying to make the race longer for these cars, they burn enough fuel the way it is, no need to make a marathon out of the features. Just my .02 no harm here, just an observation.

Racing Sprint Cars requires TWO BALLS to drive!
Racing anything else requires NONE!