Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
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I have a few questions about the ASCS National Tour (ASCoT) and the USCS 360 series.

1. At the last ASCS National event there were 3 drivers missing that had been touring with the series. 1) Darren Stewert 2)Andy Shouse 3) Chris Schmelzle Where were they and if they are not touring anymore, what happened?

2. If the above drivers are not touring anymore that only leaves 5 drivers touring with the ASCoT. Why so few? Is ASCS not paying enough tow money and taking care of the traveling teams?

3. I've been noticing lately that the USCS car counts are getting smaller and a handful of races have been cancelled (and it wasn't due to weather). What's the reason for the low car counts? Did the formation of the ASCS Rebel and ASCS Coastal regions hurt the USCS?

I am an avid 360 fan and pay attention to all of the results and like to take in as many races in a year that I can, but it looks to me like these two prominent 360 groups are struggling.

great questions man. Whereas I can't answer those with any sort of clarity I could give you an opinion.

There are many reason for 5 touring guys with ascs. Not in particular order.....there is a gonna be a race at Devil's Bowl WinterNationals where the winner will win a WESMAR motor. The top 2 in all regions (including National) get invitations. So if you look under the surface this provides very good drivers with a chance to win this brand new motor----AND still race closer to home. Also remember that 4 WoO rookie contenders were ascs regs last season (Bruce, Hafertepe, Martin, and Chappell). You have other drivers like Dustin Daggett and Chuck Swenson just to name a few who have started to run the National Tour the last couple of seasons.....but a combination of bad luck and more importantly high quality drivers like Gary Wright made it near impossible to be in the points chase after a few months. And right there is another reason.....Gary Wright, Travis Rilat, JASON JOHNSON, and Wayne Johnson. Man it would take a stroke of luck to beat any 1 let alone all of those guys in a points battle. Add that in with the distances traveled and it's even tougher. Thats the one thing I don't care for at all when it comes to ascs national tour. North to Minnesota......East to New York (the worst).......South is Texas but always has been but now there is Florida and Alabama.......and west to Arizona. I understand that it is bringin quality races and drivers to that area.....but that is not really an area that is needing it. They have ESS, URC, and most importantly CENTRAL PA. You would have to win the 50K championship AND the Wesmar motor just to break even runnin that schedule. Personally I think they should go back to runnin east to memphis.....west to....well....not arizona.........south to texas (take uscs territory out of the national schedule) and then I can understand runnin all over the northern midwest. National Tour usually does very well up into south dakota, nebraska, missouri, and so on. But when they are traveling these crazu distances you can't expect very many to be able to do it. This is not the World of Outlaws. As far as the loss of 3 drivers here lately. Per David Smith Darren Stewart's car owner has an illness in the family......Andy Shouse is rumored to have quit racing (not much of a suprise to many of us okies) and Chris Scmelzle (IMO) has probably lost about half a million dollars traveling all the way from Canada (even worse it's north of washington in Canada...lol) and has probably decided to stick to racing at Skagit (he ran the Dirt Cup this past weekend). But notice if you will.......other than denison, Iowa the national tour still has good car counts at most of their races.....especially when they run through places that have already have regions......Oklahoma (Sooner).....up north there is the midwest and northern plains regions....and the Missouri races always work out well because they are co-sanctioned with the Winged Outlaw Warriors. Also notice most of the regions have high car counts....which I think is because of the wesmar motor race. The Rebel and Coastal Regions I don't think take away from uscs. but at the same time I think maybe they are designed to....or at least provide another series for those who want it. it's hard to say.

USCS National runs both dirt AND asphalt. Not sure if that has anything to do with it, but it might. I thought up until this year the reason they did not have more cars was kinda like ASCS.......USCS had Kenny Adams and Terry Gray.......2 very very good racers. But unlike ascs their car counts overall were still very low. In the end there just aren't a lot of sprinters in that area of the country. Whereas with ascs races.....there may not be a lot of touing stars.......but they still have high car counts at most of the races because they run PRIMARILY in regions that have a good amount of cars.

Hope that helps. I know it's long enough.lol.

How much would could a wouldchuck chuck if a 
wouldchuck could chuck would

the cylinder heads might have something to do with it also as the ascs has the brodix spec head and uscs is trying to convert over to the afr heads i believe and i thought that i read within another year or two that you had to have the afr heads to run with pete i may be mistaken but i thought i read that somewhere but if you have never ran the uscs deal pete is a good guy to work with you should try it sometime

USCS had some pretty good car counts 2-3 years ago despite the darth of sprint cars in the deep south. There was some suspect as to rule bending for Pete's stars and that, along with the economy probably reduced the car counts. Now ASCS has split the cars along with $3 gas. Pete pays quite a bit more to the racers than ASCS but I'm afraid that both series in for a tough fit to remain a viable series. When USCS started there were two weekly sprint car tracks in the deep south, both in Florida. Today there are zero and neither series can produce a 20 car field for mosy shows. Sad news for the future.

The statement that New York does not need ASCS National events is completely false.

Cross out Central PA, because that is too far for most sprint fans in the Northeast, so that applies for URC as well. ESS is a regular group, like ASCS' Patriot Region, same with URC- so there needs to be bigger events out this way.

The 8 National Drivers that did tow out this way were very much appreciated by the fans and had it not been for losing a race at the last second and getting the big one at Virginia rained out, probably would have been a nice trip out.

For once I agree with young OKCFan in one aspect. If I'm a good 360 driver, it would be tough for me to tow all over the country trying to beat four 410 veterans (and good ones at that). I know it pays $50K, $25K, $17K, $12,500, or something like that for the championship, but if I'm butting heads against those guys and the glass ceiling every night it's tough, and pickins' would be slim most nights. Why are they out there? Because they are all full-time drivers, and because the point fund is stellar, and they don't have solid 410 options in which they have an opportunity to make more. I've also heard talk of tow money problems leadfoot23. They do put on a good show most nights, though, and they are not hurting for car counts (unless they're going head to head with Eagle, Knoxville and Jackson on the same night).

I also heard Kenny Adams and Bryn Gohn are done with USCS, but I guess that is old news as they haven't raced with them for quite awhile now.

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Let me add a few points to this post,and I can almost bet I might ruffle a few feathers.I have been known to do so in the past, although not intentally. I have had questions as to why ASCS ventured further into what was once soley USCS territory with the Rebel region. It has not really paid dividends yet,other than steal a few drivers on occassion from P-Dub's contingent. The ASCS Southern region is in its second incarnation,(failed once before)is now running some pavement races at place(s) that USCS once ran.(ACE Speedway) I have heard from those in the know at race tracks in the southeast,that Emmett and ole' P-Dub don't see eye to eye,so maybe there is a score to settle. But who is really going to win out?

WHY ARE WE HERE? BECAUSE WE'RE HERE. ROLL THE BONES.-
Neil Peart

I think another thing to consider is there are very few full time racers or even hired drivers in 360 ranks. Even some of the guys who are hired guns I have heard are not getting a 410 percentage to drive. Majority of the teams are family based and everyone has to work a 40 hour week to keep a car on the track. Unless you have a ton of vacation time it would be really tough to get enough days off to follow the national tour. Plus there are so many ASCS regional options to choose from that I am sure many guys run 1 or 2 nights regionally and probably make as much as running mid to the back of the pack at a National show and only have to drive 100-300 miles instead of 1000 miles.

Rich I wasn't trying to say that the 8 ASCS drivers were not appreciated.

The point I was attempting to make was the it probably has a good part in why there are not more national tour drivers.......along with the quality of those drivers of course.

If I lived in New York I would highly appreciate ascs and their drivers comin that far to put on a good show. I just personnaly feel that those long distances those guys have to tow may be detrimental to the overall number of national tour drivers. JMO.

How much would could a wouldchuck chuck if a 
wouldchuck could chuck would

Thank you all for posting replies with your thoughts and opinions. I see that there is not one answer for the decline in ASCoT drivers chasing points and the decline in USCS car counts. But rather a combination of several factors seem to be contributing to these issues.

1 - I hadn't thought about the race for the Wesmar engine having an impact on ASCoT traveling teams...makes sense though since you have to be in the top 2 in the region to get invited. Staying close to home is better for a lot of people, including me, since traveling is not easy for family owned teams with kids at home.

2 - Not knowing what ASCoT races pay (because ASCS doesn't post that information in stats or their website), I just assumed that running top 10 along with tow money would be enough to get some more teams out there than 5. Does anyone know what ASCoT pays from 1st thru 20th?

3 - Why did Kenny Adams quit the USCS? What does USCS pay? Do they pay tow money for their traveling teams?

4 - What's the difference in the ASCS spec head and the USCS spec head?

I know,I know, stats are for geeks,but I just crunched some numbers for you all to compare. Enjoy!!!

ASCS National tour 18 events in 10 states(thru-6-19)

Total cars-723

Average car count-40.16

Largest car count-74 East Bay Raceway

Smallest car count-19 Crawford County Speedway

USCS National/regional tours 18 events in 7 states(thru 6-16)

Total cars-331

Average car count-18.3

Largest car count-29 Riverside Speedway

Smallest car count-14(5-times)

WHY ARE WE HERE? BECAUSE WE'RE HERE. ROLL THE BONES.-
Neil Peart

the biggest difference in the heads are they are made by 2 different companies Brodix and AFR

It might be apples to oranges to compare ASCS National to USCS since USCS is pretty much a reginal series.

and to add a lil somethin to this post the ascs national tour just got whopping total of 21 cars at Brainerd, Minnesota last night. Looks like it was a good race though. Funny enough when talking about the denison show some said it was probably better than the knoxville show.......but in reading the recap (NOT on the ascs website) it looks like it sucked hardcore. no passing. I don;t get why there were only 21 cars last night....I know there are many different reasons for why some couldn;t attend but I really thought they would have 30 at the least. But as long as the fans enjoyed the show last night.........thats what truly matters.

How much would could a wouldchuck chuck if a 
wouldchuck could chuck would

I think it comes down to this,you don't run a mid-week shows in the upper midwest. P-Dub's boys suffered the same fate on there recent speed-week. He garnered an earth-shattering 14 cars in the sprint car hot-bed of Clarksville,Tennessee. Big crowd showed up for the Terry Gray show.

WHY ARE WE HERE? BECAUSE WE'RE HERE. ROLL THE BONES.-
Neil Peart

AFR does not make the "spec" head for USCS anymore and hasn't for a year or two

we havent run with pete for a few years did not realize afr was not the spec head