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

Hey Donny fans--the reason Donny lost the championship:

1.  Horrible points system?  No. 

2.  Bad start to the season?  No.

3.  Sandbagging to hit an invert in the heats and swingning and missing?   DING DING DING DING DING!!!

You run one of the top 4 funded teams on the entire planet and your average qualifying spot is 10th?   (4 spots behind Pittman) 

Seems to me Pittman went after those bonus points for qualifying every night and it paid off huge. 

Sorry Donny fans--he did it to himself. 

I like both Pittman and Donny.   So this is an unbiased opinion.  Maybe Donny is just really bad at qualifying.  He can't be perfect at everything.   Steve Kinser had the same problem back in the day.  A reporter asked Kinser how he could win so many races, but never was good at qualifying.  He had a simple answer.  "I can't race myself."

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

Sandbagging? are you kidding me? hahahaha 

and im not a Schatz fan by the way, try sandbagging in a sprint car and let me know how it goes!

have thought the same thing for years how the hell do you sand bag a couple tenths  or less most nights

And you have facts to back this up Im sure.  Please share the facts that you have to prove what you are saying.  You would never come on a public message board without facts so please give us the facts so we can all move on knowing that the great egras has it all figured out.  PLEASE dont tell me this is just another terribly wrong opinion of another Donny hater.  Please tell me he sangbagged at the Knoxville Nationals also and that you have facts to back that up.  Just put the facts on here and the topic will be closed.  Thanks egras as we know this shouldnt be one bit of a problem for such a smart and knowldgable person like yourself.  And please don't be a coward and not reply at all, as I am anxious to see your facts.

Oh--sorry--i thought forums and message boards were for opinions--which i have clearly voiced.  If you are looking for facts, please attend your local community college (if you can get accepted) and take a history lesson. 

My opinion--I've seen Donny race a number of times--I think he aims for the 10th-16th spot.  If you think those teams aren't good enought to shave a few tenths off of their time, you are nuts.  He absolutely does not come out and aim for quick time.  And hey, there's nothing wrong with him doing it--it seems to work well for him as he is a multiple time WOO champion.   He has been the master at hitting upper-mid-pack qualifying times, getting a front 2 row heat race start and tranferring to the A-main.  No doubt about it.  Some teams have different approaches to putting their car in the show.  Some go balls out every lap of every event on the track.  He's a clever dude and plays with the numbers.  (my opinion only--i have no newspaper articles or quotes from Donny to back this up--only my eyes and thoughts--which are not going to live up to your standards anyways)

And, if I really need to give you some facts:  Pittman won the championship because he gained more qualifying points than Donny did.  Sorry, did you miss that.  Pittman gained more qualifying points than Donny did.  That is a fact.

I guess you missed this post on facebook by Donny

"The 2013 World of outlaws season is over. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't disappointed not winning the championship. This team performed to the best of its abilities. I'm very proud to be a part of this group of people. Please dont question or doubt the WoO point system, it is not broken. It rewards consistency as it should. We we're beat by 14 points, by a great racer and a great race team. Congratulations to Daryn Pittman and KKR. It was the time of my life being able to race as hard as I could right down to the last corner of the last lap. I know if it was that much fun for me, you fans had to enjoy it. Thank you everyone who attends, listens, and watches sprint car races. Without your involvement (whether or not you love or hate me) this sport would not allow us to do what we love! Thank you All!! 

Donny Schatz"

Schatz admits he's a bit awkward socially to begin with, though he's gotten better at it over the years, and he's super intense at the race track. His reaction was completely understandable after the race, and as he had time to settle down, his Facebook post is classy.

Good post by Donny.  Mine wasn't aimed at him--aimed at fans who have been bashing points system. 

  Well said.  Anyone who thinks with the testing these guys do that dialing out 2tenths wouldn't be easy are not part of a team. Two pill sizes fat/ smaller headers/extra wing angle/4 degrees timing out/dragging the brake and on and on.

I'm not saying they did it but it would be easy for a team good enough to win lots of woo race's to do so. I've been watching it happen at a local level for 2 years. I wouldn't want a microphone stuck in my face after a good day at  my work!

While im tired of seeing Donny win all the time he has always had my respect. But after this revelation of his ability to shave of a couple tenths while man handling this ill tempered beast called a sprint car , i stand corrected !!!  He could be and probably is the greatest sprint car driver EVER !!!!  No Chief i havent started drinking again. Chief you r the leader of his fan club , did you know about this and didnt tell me ?  

Isee it this way he lost because of qualifying so why would he sandbag? It seems to me that he is way smarter than that. I talked to him at knoxville trust me he doesnt like to run bad he wants to win everytime in a race car just like any other driver in this world. If anyone can knock a tenth or two off a sprint car in qualifying then they are a driving machine!

I also find it hard to believe anyone could sandbag to hundredths of a second

after watching both Schatz and Pittman for several years, it comes down to this...I have cheered for the Posse to beat Schatz for years when I was convinced I didn't like Schatz.

Having listened to him talk in the pits at the Grove about his engine program research and the absurdity of some of the very rules that I think ruined racing, I no longer dislike the guy..especially after watching him pass more cars in one night than Pittman could pass in a month of racing.

I will still cheer for the Posse to beat Schatz...but there is no Pittman shirt in my closet, nor will there be.

And I am not saying either one is a "bad guy".

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

Dang, BRR, maybe your best ever post.  Ask Donny when he had the piece of pizza tossed at him from Beer Hill, funny story and one of the reasons it made him want to win there so much.  After winning he began to make some Posse friends and enjoyed it even more.  Most Posse fans would love the guy if they ever met him, maybe some day?

Shaving qualifying times to stroke an invert is nothing new at all.....according to the newest Racer on Racer article in SC&M magazine Bubby Jones was the master at qualifying 8th at ASCOT to earn a front row start for the main...and he even tried to teach Brad Noffsinger how to do it... they used a 2 lap time, so Bubby would just look at the scoreboard when he pitched the car into turn one and decide if he needed to back up his entry into turn 3 and by how much to knock off a tenth or 2..

Does this mean Donny does it intentionally at every Outlaw show??? NO.

Does it mean it's possible to do with regularity....Hell yes it is. 

Loose is when you hit the wall with the rear of the
car, tight is when you hit the wall with the front of
the car. Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and
torque is how far you move the wall.

To add to this--i also don't believe he does it at every show.  Lots of factors--car count--track condition, etc.  And don't think for a second he is the only one doing it.  Remember--drivers always say a "good" qualifying lap is key.  To me, "good" means not too fast.   At Knoxville on the other hand, I think they go for it.  Too many points left on the table for that show if you don't lay it down.   If you can tune your car and change your line to pick up those 2 or 3 tenths, you are surely good enough to "un-tune" your car and change your line to lose them. 

Dang MSPN, maybe your worst post ever. "made him want to win there soo much". Here's a tip, tune in to CBS Sports and see one of the greatest in Motorsports ever win. 87 Wins to Donny's what? 18. Quite a staggering number indeed isn't it. If Donny ran Williams Grove on a weekly basis for the rest his career he would never come close to that number. 

I was always a Rahmer fan but when he competes at the Grove against the big boys he has about half as many wins as Donny, oops.....

You being serious?