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Win a World of Outlaw championship or Knoxville National?

Brandon McLain
United Sprint Car Series Driver
2014 Season
National Rookie of the Year!
National Points - 8th
Southern Points - 3rd
Asphalt Points - 3rd
18 Races, 3 Top 5's, 14 Top 10's

Rick Ferkel.

He won Western World and Pacific Nationals  The other races of the Big Three at the time.  Many, many other big races  but never Knoxville.   I think top 3 in the World of Outlaws - but I'm not going to look that up in the records right now.   I just know that Rick was not only a helluva racer (and he would never use that adjective) but would help his competitors - especially the young up and coming kids.  Great racer and great person.

Several come to mind:

Joey Saldana - 105 WoO wins, 74 ASCoC wins, and won just about every big race out there: Kings Royal, Gold Cup... 

Stevie Smith - 84 WoO wins

Jac Haudenschild - 74 WoO wins

Jeff Swindell - 51 WoO wins

List could go on and on

You can list dozens of locals here who never spent significant time on the road. Fred Rahmer comes to mind, Lance Dewease etc. No doubt in my mind they could've but they never did. That said, there's only one right answer and that's Joey Saldana. His career numbers are huge and he's won just about everything except for Knoxville (3 second place finishes) and the WoO championship which he probably would've won in 2011 had he not been injured at Eldora. 

Ditto.  Joey and Jac were the first to come to mind.  

Joey or Jac. Joey probably wins this contest because he was really close to winning both. He led a lot of laps at Knoxville and one year was a few laps away from winning before Schatz passed him. In that same era, he was very close to the points lead and got hurt late in the year at Eldora. 
Jac gets honorable mention because in 1998, he basically dominated Knoxville, won nearly every WoO a main but didn't win the Nationals. Plus he's obviously won a bunch of big races at Eldora, much like Saldana.

Gus Schrader

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Saldana would have won Knoxville in 2009 (I believe) - it was a Sunday show after Saturday rained out and Joey was clearly the fastest car until losing a nosewing sideboard late. This was in the KKR 9 Budweiser car. Think this was the same year Kinser pulled a monster wheelstand in Turn 2 and saved it.

As far as the Nationals go, I'd say Terry McCarl. 

Shouldn't being alive when the Nationals were started or Outlaws in existence be a requirement?  To that end, I'm going with AJ Foyt.

As far as Nationals: Bryan Brown & Terry McCarl... Still time but the window of opportunity is closing.

For the WoO = Doug Wolfgang

If being alive when the Nationals or WoO was in existence is the criteria...Tommy Hinnershitz, a hero of both Foyt and Andretti...

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Ron Shuman

.....won the Knoxville Nationals in 1979. He was inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2003, 4 time CRA champion, and about a half dozen Western World Championships at the old Manzanita Speedway.  But he never won a championship in WoO...

I'll throw Steve Smith in the mix. Seemed like he could win or be competitive when he traveled he just didn't travel like an outlaw that much. He has a ton of wins, who know what could have happened had he chosen the outlaw life.

Steve Smith Sr. was who I meant although Stevie fits the bill on this thread too.

Another good one, he would have won in 1993 as he passed Kinser but then it started to rain. Karl got the car better and Steve got back by after the rain delay. 

From the West Coast you could throw Brent Kaeding and Jimmy Sills into the discussion.

I'm certain I saw an article with the stats that showed Stevie Smith Jr and Greg Hodnett had the best records at the Nationals for drivers that never won it.  For the life of me I can't find the article to refrence tho.

Always wanted to see both of them win the thing, just never came together for either.

Don Mack,Jan Opperman

Tyler Walker hahahahha

Stevie Smith gets my vote.

I would go with Joey and Jac as well.

Going with people that have won one but not the other:

Jason Meyers and Daryn Pittman both won Championships but not Nationals: Meyers had it almost in the bag one year had it not been for Walker not pulling in the pit area for some reason. Schatz go around him on the restart. Pittman was fast many years but could not pull off the winning formula.

Probably Wolfgang or maybe Allen as far as winning the Nationals but not a title.