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

Here of late, the Outlaw shows have been really good.  Didn't catch much of Saturday but I heard the track was a bit of a disaster that night.  Other than that, the nights in PA, Friday's A at Charlotte & last night were excellent.  And the Bridgeport show last Tuesday might be the best sprint car race all year.  

I'm not an Outlaw homer.  In fact, I'm just as a big a fan of full fendered (late models & mods) as open wheel.  I have the Dirtvision pass for the sprint series.  Just amazed at the night by night high caliber shows they are producing.  

Was disappointing to see the Bell and Larson incident last night. Not sure how to properly analyze what I saw. Was Larson in the wrong and responsible for putting Bell over the berm and into the wall? Looked bad, but then again I don't really know. Perhaps he just didn't know Bell was right there on his back right wheel and didn't know to leave him any room. 

Overall have agree with the shows as of late. I haven't missed any in quite some time. Been some awesome racing. 

Dirtvision has showcased how good the racing is and how many good drivers there are in sprint car racing, not just the Outlaws but everyone from locals to guys who follow a true Outlaw schedule.

The coverage is second to none as far as dirt racing goes. 

Agreed on the Dirtvision coverage.  Their stream is so consistently good.  It is basically like turning the tv to a certain channel each night & it comes in in high quality HD picture.  And Johnny Gibson is a great presenter of the show.  Knowledgeable and has some flair to jazz it up a bit.  

Hard call... there was no contact, both guys going for the same lane

"Racing thing"?

Hard to believe.... Gravel & Schuchart both have more WoO wins than The Mighty Schatz, 3 to 2

Lance Dewease has as many as Donnie, & only entered 3 races....

I wonder if Donnie will "run the table" after Knoxville, as per usual?

Donnie will heat up with the weather and win about 12-14 races this year including the Kings Royal & the Nationals on his way to another title. 

Pretty much, looked like Bell got over the cushion and into the wall but there wasn't any contact that I can see in the video. Larson does drive pretty aggressively against these guys considering he's doing it for fun on his "off days" and most of the others are doing it for a living. He puts on show though. The man can wheel a sprint car.

A

Kyle seems to have a special rivalry with his Kunz teammate Bell (last 2 Chili Bowls?)

He said that Bell is the guy he hates to lose to the most

I don't think anything was intentional but watch the in car video from Bell and you will clearly see Larson's right rear hitting Bell's left front.  That's enough to send the front out of whack and send him over the cushion.  But it was just hard racing, nothing more.  Too bad, I wanted to see Bell in VL and get Kevin his first WoO win. 

I did the same thing to a guy a last month, and the first thing I did after the race was go over and apologize.  It may not have been intentional, but it sure was sloppy.

When Larson got crossed up a little on the straight and went to the bottom on the straight he should have entered on the low side in 1. He did move up slowly anticipating someone may be there and there was. It's not like it was terrible and he stuffed him bad. It wasnt a horrible move but he really should have entered low in 1.

if you watch the video he pulled the same deal on stewart but he cut his former boss some slack most prob would have dumped him but the in car from swindell shows larson sliding up into left front and knocking him up in the junk.  I like larson and he is exciting but he does alot of dumb shit and costs other people money.

Be sure to tell Larson on Twitter how he should drive. That comment made me laugh.

Larson had Bell passed clean in 3 and 4, and going down the frontstretch he was clearly ahead of Bell. It is the job of the guy behind to figure out how to pass you, not your's as the leader.

Anytime these two are in the same race, no matter what division, it's gonna be a show. Appreciate it while you can.

Had to laugh at that comment as well. It's a bad situation all around. Should Kyle have gone to the bottom? Maybe. Should Chris have known Kyle was gonna go to the top? Maybe. We can all sit here and put our 2 cents in after it happens, but at the end of the day this happened in real time at the end of a straight-away at a bad ass fast track. Shit happens when people race as hard as these 2 do .... 

Absolutely not being a smartass at all but spoken as a racecar driver not an armchair racer. If a driver does that in front of me and I can punt them without crashing I'm gonna do it

Has anybody seen comments from Larson or Bell?

One of the biggest benefits Larson gets is his ability to run an ultra aggressive style as he's not a points chaser. Bell benefits from it as well. And it's irritating because while each are incredibly talented, it just riles up the NASCAR fan base that their drivers are superior to top-level sprint car drivers without telling the complete story. 

I don't think Kyle did Chris dirty, but I don't necessarily think it was clean. I can't imagine it was something Chris would speak up on but I'm sure inside he probably wasn't too happy with it. It also seems that Kevin Swindell has matured quite a bit. Feel like a few years ago, this would've gotten the full blown Twitter treatment.

Swindells quiet only because of who it is. He won’t say anything if it’s a top name, but best bet if that was a local or regional car he would’ve flipped shit

As far as the Outlaw racing part, I know this is not a popular opinion but I have felt that since the Outlaws have gone to lining up the heats straight up from qualifying the competition level in the features has been far better. That's not to say there has been more "passing," but the challenge and competition for position has been a little more intense than prior. Heat races are basically the same for the big tracks but some of the smaller bull rings they seem to be a little more competitive since you can advance your starting position by 4 positions with each pass. I know a lot of people enjoy the invert because the thought process is that slower cars start up front and the faster cars will pass them creating excitment but with the equipment & drivers today I do not think that is the case anymore.

A number of years ago when the invert was happening people had 2 knocks against it, drivers would sandbag in qualifying to try to get a front row spot in the heat and get into the dash. Some people made it clear that a driver would qualify between 13th-16th, win the feature and not pass a car the whole night or only 1 or 2 since they started on the pole of the heat, would draw the pole or up front in the dash, then lead the feature. The other knock was front row winners and guys from the front 2 rows won 60-70% if the races & they weren't competitve.

Under the new format, it seems that there is always a challenge for the front positions & guys coming from the back of the field. Now I am not saying that the drivers of today are better than Kinser, Swindell, Wolfgang, etc from the 80's & 90's, but I think the equipment has closed the gap between the top drivers and bottom. I think maybe it was Brad Doty on winged nation a few years ago had stated that back when he raced some of the guys had the same horsepower thats the equivlant of a 305 by today's standards. With the equipment now, the know-how available, and how tight the qualifying times are they days of multiple drivers coming from the back to the front consistently might be over. However putting the faster cars up front might get them into traffic a lap or two faster and create more guys racing for position in traffic.