Can you imagine if this race was at kokomo?.... Just saying

There would be less moaning from the Knoxville crowd.

+1. And all the issues have 1 common denominator.

TMEZ Dutcher 17gp for Badlands and Smackdown.

Not true at all. The WoO is responsible for this mess as they agreed to terms with BAdlands last APRIL and then changed their mind (with some pressure from Craftsman) at the last moment. Glad Badlands stood up to them. The payoff has not changed at all just read the Badlands page and you will understand it is NOT based on minimum or maximum cars but GUARANTEED MONEY. One driver was suspended for shoving an official that is not everyone. Chuck Brennan might be lightening rod to some but he has awakened area tracks to decent payoffs for weekly racers and it is only going to get better.

From the way I read it, WoO and ultimately WRG was unhappy with a lot of what was proposed. I don't know the full story and wont speculate. However, if you say you're going to sanction a race, don't pull out a week and a half ahead of time because you're unhappy with the format and whatever else.

You wouldn't get married and then decide you want to get to know your wife afterwards so why would you commit to an event and a track and have everyone from fans to the drivers/teams make plans just to get a divorce from it a week and a half prior?

That said, Brennan may just have the questionable character that he's rumored to have but I do know that he's putting up a ton of money while some tracks are struggling to stay open. Even if some people don't like him I'm sure he'll still draw more than the 17 cars WoO drew last night.

Seems like the disagreement with WoO isn't about money. Money appears to be no obstacle to this guy and if it were, he could afford to eat the cash and go along to get along.

When WoO was at Badlands in July there was what appeared to be a disagreement up in the booth when during the A-Main pace laps, Johnny G announced that there would be provisional starter at the back of the field. To everyone's surprise it wasn't one of the WoO guys, it was T-Mac, a regular BMS 410 driver. As Johnny explained it, there is a rule that if WoO is running on your track on your regular 410 night, the track can allow a provisional for one of its drivers, he seemed surprised that this was in the rules and mentioned he'd not seen a track ever use this provisional. I wonder if the issue with WoO has more to do with the format/rules/suspensions (T-Mac is now suspended for some kind of confrontation with the track prep guy at Badlands) than anything else.

I don't know Brennan, but I get the idea that he is not afraid to stand on his principles, even if he ends up looking like the bad guy. I don't think he allows himself to be pushed around by people and organizations that think they are superior in some way. Whether that is the banking industry, the sprint car sanctioning bodies, drivers, or the track promoters who feel he is stepping on their territory.

Whatever the issue, there is a boatload of his money and a couple of Gold Cups on the line and somebody is taking them home. Should be a completely insane weekend of racing at the Badlands!

Williams Grove uses that rule nearly every year for the National Open! They get 2 provisionals in years past plus the 2 WoO provisionals for a 28 car starting field.

Seems to me the outlaws are keeping their guys from a chance to make a lot of money!

Being going here all season long and money is not nor will it be any problem going forward. It seems that the problem with the WoO had to do with pit passes, online viewing and race procedure. The WoO wanted everything their way in terms of how the race would be run and Brennan has his own online viewing group. Brennan and company figure that this is their big race and would run it the same way they have run all their races this season. And, for the most part, the racing has not been too bad this year. The deal with McCarl, while unfortunate, was rather stupid as McCarl was crabby about track conditions (isn't it the same for everyone out there?) and wound up shoving a track official. Sometimes you have to learn to just shut up and go.

Car count will be pretty good as I know of others that will be there that are not on the pre-entered list yet. Who knows? Maybe with the WoO pulling out, more cars will enter figuring they have a better chance of doing something.