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

First of all, I'm a fan of all motorsports. My first love is and always will be sprintcars. I do watch Nascar races when I have time, but have found them boring the last few years (and I'm not a wreck guy....I watch because I love good racing).

So- Outstanding night last night! Best Nascar race of the year by far! Shame the commentators didn't know how to talk about dirt racing though. Overall, it was a brilliant night and Nascar, Tony and the Eldora crew put on a hell of a show.

I would suggest a couple of changes to the format for next year. Either run the last segment with cautions not counting or run the format in reverse 40-50-60. The cautions in the last segment burnt up a lot of good racing laps. Overall it was brilliant! Now let's see Nationwide run here or Knoxville next year. 

Message to Bruton Smith and Nascar- Move the spring Bristol cup race to a little later in the spring in 2015 and cover it with dirt and you will sell every seat you have like you used to for the spring race. No reason why it couldn't be run like a cup race with pit stops etc. Maybe shorten the race to 350 laps though. Run it in prime time on a Monday night and bring millions of new fans and re-engage millions of old fans with Nascar.

No need to go crazy with schedule changes, but Nascar needs to do something to bring back some good racing and un-stick the cars. For the record, in my opinion the best cup race this year was California. That track now has the perfect surface for racing. The cars are not as locked down and the racing's great. Adding a dirt race would be awesome!

My .02 cents!

  It seems silly to me to have a race where the 200k racecar enters the corner at 71 mph. I would use brand new camaros and make the racing faster...btw I don't get racing trucks on circle tracks.

My thoughts on the Eldora Truck race are:

Overall it was the most I was glued to a truck race since it first started and raced the little Cali tracks like Mesa Marin & the one I got to go to, Saugus (I went to Magic Mountain the same day. Wally World from N.Lampoons Vacation). I was on the edge of myseat lap after lap last night.

Nascar should get rid of all those 1.5 mile tracks and run more dirt races. My opinion is Knoxville would have better restarts and side by side racing.

I wish Nascar would have left it up to the drivers when they started racing in trafic around lap 90. Larson looses the lead in traffic, gets it back, then they through a yellow for debris when there was not any just to keep their chosen boy in the lead. The race was over at that point.

Biggest gripe I heard was counting laps under yellow. Let them Race!

They should throw some dirt on top of North Wilkesboro and race there. 

For a racefan, it was refreshing to see something new.  It really does not matter about the speed itself as it is all realative when they are on the track.  There is NO substitute for close racing and that is what we actually got.  Yes the track was really dry/slick but give Smokle and his crew props, it was NOT dusty!  He gave them exactly what they wanted which for an experiment, seemingly could not have gone any better.  The drivers adapted well and raced.  More importantly, they seemed to be having fun!  For that matter, it appeared that everyone for the most part was having fun.  It was nice to see. 

It will be interesting to see how Knoxville counters for the 2014 season!  In all honesty and they seemed to set it up last night, it would be good to see a couple dirt races on the schedule, possible one in Eldora and then come back with another at Knoxville and then even possible Bristol.   I think NASCAR walked away with a smile last night and generally speaking, a sucessful proposition usually means duplication in the future.

Paul

Just my $.02 worth.

Agree with you on every point 100%!!!!  Get outta my head man!!!  Any dirt fan that did not enjoy that last night--you just didn't enjoy it because your going to be stubborn because its Nascar!    Add 2 Nationwide and 2 Sprint cup races per year on dirt and you will start to grow your fan base rather than retract it. 

The most interesting part about the entire thing was the conversation with Mike Helton.  Sounds like they finally did a dirt race so Smoke would stop bugging them about it.  Smoke is a much, much better business man than most of us ever thought.  I have been yelling for a dirt race in Nascar for years!!  Unfortunately, who the hell am I?

It was a huge success--cover Bristol with dirt (like you said) and you will fill every seat in that place again!  While your at it, how about a thursday night WOO sprint car race, a Friday night truck or Nationwide race and a Saturday night Sprint cup race!
  

the charlotte dirt track is sitting right there, in plain view...

Lincoln 1845 ft/.35 mile T1=118MPH 
Eldora 2287 ft/.43mile T3=135MPH
Port 2716 ft/.51 mile T3=TBD
Grove 2792 ft/.53 mile T3=135MPH
Selinsgrove 2847 ft/.54 mile T1=136MPH
"I didn't move to PA from El Paso in search of better 
weather." Van May

I couldn't agree MORE, to your post and the initial post.

I agree on all points. I'm a big motorsports fan as well just like you. For me I much rather see side by side action the whole time instead of a crashfest anyday. Last night was outstanding and probably the best race of the year.

I think everyone agrees with the Bristol idea simply because it has been done before in 2000 and 2001 I believe. They tapped off a lot of the stands so people could see better but I'm sure if they made more seats available they would have sold those too. I read an article a year ago about the reason why they do not do it anymore and the reason was about the roads leading into the track could not support all the dump trucks driving back and forth hauling the dirt and saw dust. Don't count on Bruton doing anything smart like this because in my opinion he is the biggest idiot in all of racing. He's the one that has a great racing facility like North Wilkesboro and refuses to come down on the selling price, refuses to run it, lease it, or open it up to any other type of racing. Then he has designed how many tracks the same shape now? Pissed off Humpy Wheeler who is probably the best promoter Nascar has ever had, and ruined another jewel of racing, Bristol.

Schedule 2 point races a year on a Dirt Track, As deep as NASCARS pockets are they could surely afford to stable 2 NASCAR  race cars set up to run on unimproved surfaces in their garages just for these races. Personally I NEVER watch NASCAR accept for Daytona or sometimes Tallegega but last night even though it was not Sprint Car fast, It was still pretty darn entertaining. 

The more nascar races on dirt, the more I will stay awake for. That was a great race. I wanted it to go 500 laps.

Northern California Sprintcars

# 1

Ascot was the greatest of all time..

West Capital wasn't half bad either..

Life is good...

Great facility. Track prep team is a joke. I like the idea of having a triple crown. Eldora, Knoxville, Williams Grove.

-Austin Rankin

You won't ever see Bristol covered with dirt again because of the overwhelming cost.... but I bet you'll see Nationwide on dirt within the next 2 years.

I think they should leave the dirt to Eldora.  If you have 2 or 3 of them a year then it is not nearly as special, see Brickyard.

Now that they have a handle on what the weight of the trucks will do I think the tires will be much better going forward and will provide better raceing.

BTW, Bloomquist stunk it up.

DA

I think the overwhelming cost could be made up with 2 nights of 1/2 filled stands and 1 night of full stands.  Maybe even 3 nights of full stands.  ?    They only had 40,000 (?) for the WOO shows if memory serves me correctly.  I think Bristol holds well into the 100,000's for people.  I think it would be a no brainer.  You might be right--but I would think it would be possible to come out in the black on that.

And yes--Nationwide on dirt within the next year or 2 for sure.

Loved the racing on dirt but I do think they should hold the next one on a track where they know how to prepare it for good racing, say like Knoxville? Dry slick surface is NOT conducive to much passing as was evident last night. Knoxville can get their track prepared so that there truly are 3 grooves & then we'll see some real racing...IMHO.

Belleville would be a good track for the trucks

ANY dirt track hosting a NASCAR race would be prepared exactly as Eldora was prepared last night.  Keep in mind those cars/trucks run full windshields.  Unless NASCAR would waive that rule, there's no chance of seeing more "typical" track conditions. 

They also ran during daylight hours... which baked the track... and would bake any dirt track.