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Originally Posted by Tumey's 55
....but I wouldn’t view his comments as condemnation of sprint cars, no reason to be defensive.
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Agree 100%.
If we roll back to 2005, the National Sprint Tour was created to rival the WoO. However, prior to that creation, Richard Petty and some associates were trying to form what they were going to call the National Sprint Car League. This didn't pan out and another group formed the NST.
Anyways, if I remember correctly from media press release, Richard was trying to promote "grass roots racing". A good idea, mind you, but splitting the top level sprints into two series...... after CART and the IRL..... I just wanted to throw up.
His attempt might have been to actually PROMOTE a new grass roots series with Steve Kinser and Danny Lasoski as his stars, or maybe he was just going for the quick buck, for everyone likes the dollar. But if he was true with his "grass roots racing" statement, I think he had the passion to make something happen and put the WoO to rest as they were changing ownership.
Either way, I think Richard Petty is wise in the ways of many forms of motorsports, and like I said in an earlier post, when he speaks, fans should listen. He is a history book in himself.
Ironically in all of this was WoO getting a TV contract with The Outdoor Channel. This seemed to be a sticking point with some WoO drivers - Lasoski especially. Looking back, it was a weekly taped delayed broadcast of a race, with a complete feature. Lasoski made a statement of the sort saying, "This is the wrong direction to be going in." No idea what direction he wanted it to go TV-wise, but up until what we have today with internet broadcasts that we can subscribe to, it was probably the best coverage we EVER had. WoO played it right. NST played it wrong.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Sprint_Tour