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

Help me with the math here. If you place top 4 in the "Hard Knox Night" Friday night show you go to back of A main. But you also win $4000 for that night. You add that to minimum finishing position if you dont move up 21-24 and it appears to me you would make more than spots 17-20 if they just made their minimum by finishing where they started. Right? 

Payout for 21-24 is between $16-$15k. But add the $4k they got for  Friday night

Payout for spots 17-20 is $18k - $16,500.  

More than likely the 4 cars that come out of the B were locked into the B from their qualifying points on Wednesday or Thursday and they dont race on friday. That is one less night of wear on the car which is equal to ~$4,000. Also assuming the b main cars dont pass any cars and finish in the same starting position, they get $1,000 for coming out of the B. I'd say it's a wash. If you collected enough points on your qualifying night to lock you into the top 26 cars and dont fall out in the B main on saturday, you are going to make a good ammount of money on the weekend. Cars finishing in the top 5-10 positions on satruday night will break even for the weekend. Some of the cars in the top 30 from Saturday night will break even, but most wont. 

B Main:
1. $1,000 2. $1,000 3. $1,000 4. $1,000 5. $10,000
6. $8,000 7. $7,000 8. $6,000 9. $5,000 10. $3,750 11. $3,250 12. $2,750 13. $2,500 14. $2,250 15. $1,950 16. $1,900 17. $1,850 18. $1,800 19. $1,750 20. $1,700
21. $1,650 22. $1,600 23. $1,550 24. $1,500

Championship A Main:
1. $190,000 2. $85,000 3. $45,000 4. $30,000
5. $25,000 6. $24,000 7. $23,000 8. $22,000
9. $21,000 10. $20,000 11. $19,500 12. $19,250
13. $19,000 14. $18,750 15. $18,500 16. $18,250
17. $18,000 18. $17,500 19. $17,000 20. $16,500
21. $16,000 22. $15,500 23. $15,250 24. $15,000

Yea but they had to race an entire night to earn those spots. Are you advocating not paying them at all? 

I don't think he's advocating, but simply asking a question. I've done the math too, to see if they could potentially make more.  

Keep It Real

They should get a decent check if they finish top 4 on friday.

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

You're not wrong about the money and how it works out. But, I think you're looking at it the wrong way, or at least over-analyzing things a bit. The guys (or gals) who finish in the top 4 on Friday are racers. They finished top 4 for a reason. They're not going to act like CPAs and try to calculate where to finish on Saturday for the best return on investment. They are going to try to race as far forward in the Saturday A feature as they can. And that's why we're fans. 

Nobody racing at Knoxville cares about the money. Their main goals when they pull into the pits are 1 of 3 things.

1.  To Win

2.  To make the Feature.

3.  To say they were a part of the greatest race in the world. 

The money is just a bonus.    

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

What I was going to say.......................ran an entire extra show.  Paid for running that show.  Give all the drivers a choice and I'm sure they choose to watch Friday night from the infield, stands or a suite.  

Correct.  Trip and racing is already budgeted and paid for in almost all cases.  There are no drivers who need a good showing at Knoxville to put food on the table.  If they do, they should bow out now and find a more reliable source of income.  The World Series of Poker would be less of a gamble than trying to come out profitable on a trip to the Nats.