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

Okay, we're about a month out from the greatest 10 days of the year. 

What's everyone's pick for:

410 Nationals Winner

360 Nationals Winner

Nationals Rookie of the Year

Surprise finish in the A

Keep It Real

I'll go....

Gravel

TMAC

Not sure who will be Nationals rookies but I say a suprise of the week could be Jacob Allen. Not only to make the A main, but a top 10. Shark racing gets around Knoxville well and Jacob should have good momentum coming into Knoxville right after Pevely. (Probably his best track). Hope Brown does something for once but not holding my breath. And also..Brent Marks will win either the HBO or Kings Royal. Those are my picks. LFG. Have a good weekend. 

It's a strange year. Typically you have an obvious Outlaw team (Schatz, Sweet, Gravel) or 2 that are favorites with 1 or 2 obvious non-Outlaw favorties (be it Larson, Brown, Shane Stewart when he was in the 57). This year the top Outlaws are Sheldon and Macedo, but I wouldn't call them likely winners. Sweet, Schatz and Gravel have had alot of Knoxville success but are slower this year. 

The top Non-Outlaw team other than Larson is Brent Marks and while he could surprise, I'm not ready to call him a favorite either. 

That leaves Larson and Silva, and I think that's my pick. 

410 Nationals

5 - Allen

4 - Larsen

3 - Sweet

2 - Gravel

1 - Schatz (one last win for his Dad, crazy pick, I'm not even a fan of his)

As close as the top 5 or 7 are this year, this has the makings of an all-time great week.

360 Nationals

5 - Henderson

4 - Hafertepe

3 - Pittman

2 - Johnson

1 - Brownie

Schatz holds off a charging Larson to win his final Nationals------and most of the crowd actually cheers him.  (and, I'm' not a fan either)

Jacob Allen rounds out the podium

360 Nats----Brownie

Not sure about rookies yet

Biggest surprise of the Nats----I only eat 6 tenderloins

1.  If Schatz wins it is fixed!  One of the top 5 outlaws or Larson will win.

2. Who cares, Nobody really follows the limited sprints anymore.

3. Need to do some research for this year.  Ryan Timms in 2023.

4. Ayrton Gennetten

I don't think you and Rolldog are crazy at all about Schatz winning it.   Who was side by side with Larson coming out of four to take the checkers last year?    I expect him to do well at Knoxville.   The crowd cheering him?   There's where you may be just a bit crazy Egras!    

He will not have Ricky this year.  That is a huge difference from last year!!

Let's go Sprint Car Racing!

Knoxville - Best Track In the USA!
Eldora - 2nd Best Track in the USA!

If that's the only thing that makes me crazy, I'll take it!!! 

410

It's Macedo or Sweet

odds are Sweet, I'll take Carson 

I think the crowd might cheer a Schatz win.  I think everyone recognizes that he is no longer at the top of the heap (I say this respectfully, Kinser fan here who had to watch a LONG descent from the top) and while he isn't an underdog, he isn't the first guy that comes to mind when talking the Nationals.

I would cheer!

Kinda like my first big sprint car race.... WG National Open in about 2010 when Sammy won it. Crowd started chanting "Sammy, Sammy, Sammy", even tho he's far from being Posse!

Holy cow rolldog, you get it!  I can't believe how many keep asking the questions:  "what's wrong with Donny?"  "Why is Sammy so slow?"  and  "It's obvious Karl Kinser is who made Steve because he was not near as fast in his 40's"-----------they all slow down as father time catches up.  Nothing's wrong with Donny.  Yes, Ricky was fantastic, but even with Ricky turning wrenches, Donny would still be backing up to these young guns.  Sorry, no way around it.  

The nice thing about Sammy, Kinser, and Donny is, they did not fall fast.  Sammy and Kinser both gave us some great moments when it appeared that time had passed.  Kinser won a King's Royal late in his career.  Sammy gave us a great 2010 National's showing, and won a King's Royal a couple of years later.  Donny will give us a few more as well, assuming he wants to.  (I could see him riding off in the sunset and driving his late-model in the upper-midwest)  However, he is clearly not going to compete like he used to and it has little to do with the blue oval on the car or the lack of Ricky.  He's getting to the age where ALL drivers begin to slow down.  Sorry for the bad news.  Rolldog gets it.  

Steve won 177 (ish) WoO shows after he turned 44/45 which is where Schatz is now. Steve actually dominated from 2002-05 like the old times but I think that had more to do with alot of the older guys leaving the sport or going part time that would have theoretically ruled the sport (Hillenburg, Stevie Smith, Mark Kinser,) and the young guys were too young to move in (Schatz, Saldana etc..) 

I don't think you'll see similar numbers for Donny simply because he probably won't do it as long as Steve did, the competition in sprint car racing is at a level not seen in many years and while Donny is on Mt Rushmore, Steve was the King. 

Going to say Sweet or Macedo gets it done. I would not be surprised though if Donny is able to do it as well though. It is weird how things turn around and people change because I remember my first Nationals in 17 people had their middle fingers in the air when he won and were cussing him out. In 18 people were jumping up and down celebrating when Sweet beat him to the line. In 19 when he had some mechanical issues at the beginning there was a loud roar as well. In 2020 when he came from what the C people were pulling for him in the B to make the A. When he was moving up in the A people were just shaking their head in amazement. Then last year when he was basically written off for the most part I saw and heard/saw some of the same people that had two middle fingers in the air 4yrs earlier pulling for him to get around Larson. Then last night at Attica I saw more people pulling for him in the final 10 to get the win. Even I was pulling for him and I never really had the hate or distain for him that other people had for him but just preferred someone else to win.

I'm going with 

Winner: Larson

360; Brownie

Rookie: just based upon entries so far; Garrett Williamson who currently runs in the 360 class so will likely have the most laps, just not in a 410. Also saw Cory Day, and will be interesting to see if the guys out west can keep the car straight enough going into the turns. 

Surpise: Only a handful (3-4) of WOO make the top 16, will have to run Friday's show to fill out the rest of the field. 

Keep It Real

I can see that YungWun, Except I might go with Buddy Kofoid for Rookie. Have not seen Cory Day race though but have heard a lot of good things.

Aaron Reutzel would be a good pick for 360 Nats as well. He's been looking real strong.

Please forgive me for replying to my own post but if you'll please refer to the 3rd to last sentence in the above paragraph ^^^^

Thank you very much. Even though a blind man could see that the 19m is capable of winning any race in the country this year. But I'd like to point out that.. this guy owns the team, pays the bills, crew chiefs the car, drives the car, and then drives the fucking rig home. We've had alot of badass guys in sprint car racing over the years and Marks is right up there with all of em. 

Please forgive me for pointing out that Brent Marks has also won the Kings Royal. Have a good weekend.