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

This has probably never happened before and may never happen again, but Schuchart winning the A main on Wed and not being locked in is a bit silly. I propose a small change to the format which I love. If the winner of the preliminary feature is not in the top 16, he's locked in at 17. Friday night, you take 3 instead of 4. It's a much bigger accomplishment to win a prelim night than to finish up front in a watered down Friday field and should be rewarded accordingly. 

Nope,  qualify better during time trials.....problem solved!! 

He started up front for 2 reasons.  

1. He ran a average time trail.

2. There is an 8 invert for the feature.

I like Logan - No way should the winner get a free pass into the dance without scoring enough points.

Let's go Sprint Car Racing!

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

No, not when he was inverted to a qualifying spot in his heat and inverterted again to the pole of the A main, passed nobody for position all night. Like I said in the other thread, invert all 20 heat qualifiers and make the A main 30 laps. Increase passing points. Lets see who can pass when the track gets racey. Everyone wants big inverts for the heats when it's tough if not impossible to pass, but they only invert 8 for the A main. Both prelim nights won from the front row by guys who timed in the 20's and led every lap.  

A

this happening has more to do with the track conditions and the number of really good car/driver combinations out there right now. no need to rework something that everyone looks forward to every year. and some of the fun is the starnge format. it's why the eldora specials are so much fun.

leave it be.

doug-

Leave the format alone. Every year there is someone big name of whom the format bites (Schuchart this year). The same format, however also provides some underdogs to make the Championship Feature as in JJ Hickle and Tasker Phillips this year. The amount of sentiment to change the system each year has a direct correlation to how popular the driver is who gets bitten. Shark racing in general is popular, and for good reason, hence how worked up Social Media is over this. Had it been Brad Sweet, Donny Schatz or someone looked upon as a "heel" it would be rather silent. On the same token, dear God can you imagine had The Annointed One Kyle Larson got bit in the ass by the system...Ou the humanity of it all. Lol. Leave it alone. It works. Can you imagine if the invert of the heats was still 10 how folks would gripe?

Nope, leave the format alone.  It is fine just the way it is.  

Yes, and we also had cars charging from the back of the pack into a qualifying position for Saturday both nights!!  Great features both nights!!

Let's go Sprint Car Racing!

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

The format is perfect. It's not supposed to be easy and no mulligans.

Points are earned every time a car is on the track, so drivers/crews need to be on their game each time they are pushed off. 

As King Karl said, you're not going to win sitting around eating hamburgers and drinking a  coke, or in this day and age, looking at your cell phone to see how many likes you have from your latest post.

Historically they inverted 10 and changed to 8. 

The greatest sprint car event in the world is perfect the way it is.

JP

No. Leave it alone

I like the format, quite a bit actually, however, I suggest one minor change. I'd take the top 8 from each night Wednesday and Thursday. This is because weather, track conditions, etc. are out of the drivers control. Wednesday and Thursday aren't always equal. I would think it's pretty close to 8 and 8 most years anyway but this world level the field. 

The format is fine. Look at the 20 names that are locked in, besides Tasker Phillips are their any huge surprises? I don't think so. Hickle is a slight surprise, but he has run pretty well this year. Sanders might be a for some, but it wasn't for me as he runs well in California. Besides that, it's pretty much what you'd expect. Every year, you'll have a surpise or two make the field and that is what makes it fun. Lee Jacobs in 2014, Jeff Swindell in the 47 in 2016... those are just two that pop into my head. 

Two thoughts: 1) Tasker's run on Thursday was awesome and fun to watch. 2) California is having a great showing with Sanders, Kofoid, and Day all as rookies running very well. Day tips it over and still drives up to 7th? As a 16 year old? Great job.

To reiterate, leave the format alone.

It's interesting to see the responses especially the "no mulligans" comments when Fridays whole concept is offering a mulligan to 70 plus cars. I'll still say keeping Donny Schatz behind you and winning the prelim night is a far bigger accomplishment than finishing top 4 on Friday, and should be rewarded as such. 

To be fully truthful, I don't hate your idea at all. It's reasonable. They used to start the Friday cars ahead of the B-Main transfers in Saturday A-main lineup but changed that. I'm just wary of the slippery slope. I mean Logan went out to time one spot behind Schatz and ahead of Gio who finished ahead of him in points. One question for your proposal: is there a points position cut-off?

Schuchart was 18th in points, so would there be a cut-off as to points position? Top-20 with a win and you're in? Top-25 with a win and you're in?

Gun to my head though? Leave it alone and Logan should have timed better.

I've never liked any format that allows a guy who timed mid-pack win a feature without passing anybody all night due to inverts. He earned 12G for his prelim win and made up a lot of points so don't thnk he should als be gifted an A main spot over guys who have more points. I also think the Friday night mulligan was the best change ever made to the nationals format.  

A

I like your idea.  I think we should also give anyone who's quick time and doesn't race their way in an automatic spot in the A, maybe only quick time isn't fair, how about the top 10 in time trials on both nights are automatically given a spot in the A.  Then I think we should have all heat winners who don't race their way in given a spot in the A.  Then we should give winners of B and C features on wednesday a spot in the A.  That's not really fair though, it seems a bit silly that the guy who wins the C main on Friday night doesn't have a spot in the A on Saturday night so we should definitely put him and the guy who wins the B on Friday in the A on Saturday too.  But it seems a bit "silly" to not have all of the WOO cars in A, so I think we should just put them in because that's what fans want to see.  We should probably throw the all stars in there too.  And why not all the Knoxville regulars?  That would only be fair right?  Also we should probably add the drivers who have best appearing car and best dressed crew in there also, it would be silly not to.  Maybe a fan vote too?  That would be fun.  Better idea, how about we do away with the B,C,D and E mains on Saturday and just put everyone in the A?  It's only 100 cars and this way nobody's feelings are hurt and all the fans see who they want in the A main.  Great idea.

There is no such thing as passing points at the Nationals. Format is fine. Passing points suck.