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

Did Kville up the 1st place winnings to $200,000  to step ahead of the Kings Royal and be the largest payout or has it been that high for a while?

After the answer feel free to turn this thread into the annual how many cars will be there discussion.

Even though I may not know you, I 
care what most of you think!

While Eldora may pay out more to the winner the payouts at the Nats are far and away better than Eldora as I think you get a case of beer for 2nd at Eldora and its 75000 for second at the Nats I believe and the payout throughout the field is much better than Eldora. 

All correct.

Now, let's move on.  How many cars will be there? 

 (Per Rodin's wishes)

I think it was done more in response to fans, drivers, and teams hounding promoters about payouts a number of years ago. For years everyone giped about payouts basically being the same for well over a decade and in the Kings Royal's case it was 50K for over 30yrs. Some tracks did a few things such as in Knoxville and Eldora's case by adding days to the event and adding money throughout the field but some people still got on the tracks by having the winner's share the same even though the total purse was going up substantially.

1 year the 50/50 winner at the Kings Royal took home more than the winner and a lot of people on social media and on here flipped their $h!t. Then a promoter had a race here in Ohio at a track that no longer exists for $100k to win with a decent payout throughout the field although not as good as Eldora and The Nationals and was thought to be a hero, and people trashed Eldora & even Tony. So I think after those few things Eldora said alright then how about this, we are going to have the highest winning share than any track and then some people complained about the drop off between 1st & 2nd even though they had added money throughout the field 2-3yrs prior. No one really chastised Knoxville as they have had as many mentioned the best paying purse through the field every night than any event. I think they just got creative to find a way to have the potential winner make $200k versus making the winners share $200k completely then getting into a pissing match with other events or dealing with some of the negative comments. Plus potentially adding a little more incentive to get to the lead.

And since Rod asked, I'll go with 100 cars. Will be happy for more but not too sad if there are less.

Hmmm...what kind of beer?

Truth of the matter is in order to pay more at the Nationals they will have to start charging more to attend. Payout has increased a few times but ticket prices have been relatively steady. At some point if fans or drivers wanting it to pay out more will have to pony up more for tickets and pit passes. Heck they made the seats more roomy and got rid of 2000 or so seats. Getting sponsors for laps to help boost the purse is a pretty cool incentive.

As for the car count it's usually like 45-47 the first night and 47-52 the next night that actually and get a time in. I'm feeling it a little lighter this year so prob 90-95 is my guess.

They upped the prize for 2nd this year at Eldora from a case of Bud to a more expensive case of craft beer of your choice!      As far as car count i would say 95-100 

I'll guess right at that 100 cars +/- 5 cars as well.  As has been stated in years past, the show it built for 80 cars so anything else is a bonus. 

As far as payouts go, everyone can be as pissed as they want about the payouts, but our economy functions on supply and demand.  If I owned a track, or promoted an event, and the seats and pits were full, as they were in Eldora for those 30 years, I wouldn't feel the need to change a thing either.  JMO 

I always thought the show worked best with 100. But that is also coming from the days of the full 10 car invert. That way with 50 each night you have a full 10 cars in each of the five heat races. With the invert now at 8 I believe 80 works just fine but right at 100 everyone still gets a heat race. Over that and the last few qualifiers tag the tail of the C main. 

I think charging more would be part of it but how Knoxville presents it's package to sponsors as well. If there are no sponsors for the track, and specific event sponsors, the payout would not be what it is. 

Kendra has done a great job of bringing in different sponsors and building upon existing ones since coming to Knoxville. 

Keep It Real

Kudos to both tracks honestly. Eldora has always been top heavy, there were a few years when either the Kings Royal or Historical Big One was the highest winners share in the sport, beating the Nationals easily some years. Finally the Kings Royal purse got adjusted for inflation and then some!

Eldora paying out 2 Kings Royals is amazing, I'm sure everyone would have been excited just to have 1 back on the schedule in 2021. And you can argue it's too top heavy, but when you're paying $175k to win, who cares?

Knoxville has always been the gold standard in terms of dirt track purses. I thought it was funny when I was watching the double DLM Dream this year when they paid out around $800k over the 4 nights. One of the Floracing DLM shills asked "did you ever think a dirt track would pay over $800k over 4 nights of racing?" Knovxville has been paying $1m over 4 nights for over 10 years!

     We have these discussion every year it seems. It's like nobody remembers that there are costs involved in running a business.

Not denying Knoxville makes money for Nationals but in order to increase pay they either charge more, find sponsor, or make less money. With inputs rising each year with inflation and a very steady ticket price Knoxville has really thrown us fans here a bone. As a business my goal each year would be to make more and more money so I wouldnt expect them to take a cut in profits ever. They must be finding a way to make more $ and doing a good job at it. 

I kind of like the back and forth with wanting to be the highest payout in all of sprintcar racing.  Knoxville will always have the prestige, I hope they always remain the highest payout.  As for cars 102.  QUESTION - are there any EHS protocols in place for the nationals?  Masks, proof of vaccination, etc.?  Is Dingus going to be able to have full capacity?  Getting close folks, about a month to go!

Correct, when there was a 10 car invert, 100 cars was the magic number.  Now, 99% of the cars that time 41st or worse on their qualifying night, are a non-factor the rest of the weekend.  The show is now built for the top 40 cars per night.  

Simple math tells you that the sponsers, attendance cost,vendors, and dont forget pit passes pay the purse.Not sure how PPV works but to pay out the kind of purse Eldora and Knoxville and Hussetts/Jackson do you have to have money.Compared to $10K to win Chili Bowl with over 300 entries they do a pretty good job.  Many weekly tracks struggle to break even and I personally know some promoters at local tracks make much more off dems and figuire 8s and enduros one reason is the amount of cars[300entered a $5000 to win enduro]I was told the number of pit passes plus higher entry fee made crowd the profit.

Something else to remember with Knoxville, they don't have a big name who owns other companies, pumping money into the track. The business model that Knoxvile has had for years is remarkable in itself to be able to put up the best weekly purse, and have the purse it does for the entire Nationals week. This is all in addition to how awesome the facility and fairgrounds are which is consistently being upgraded. 

Regardless it's good to see, and dirt track racing seems to have a renewed interest these past few years. 

Keep It Real

And it's in a town of around 8000 people. Not quite the middle of nowhere, but also not benefitting from a huge population base next door. With all the horror stories throughout the country about fairboards driving out promoters, stopping racing altogether, it's remarkable what Knoxville has done.