My observation as a pavement fan and sometimes pavement sprint car racer is the real difference in the cost of running dirt vs. pavement is the tires. Engines are basically the same. Pavement cars are a little more expensive initially because of some of the required parts but at the present time it's a buyers market for used cars and there are some real deals out there.

The rate at which you burn through tires on pavement is a real problem. At minimum, you need to buy a new right rear and either a right front or left rear a night, or all three if you have the money. Each heat cycle is detrimental to grip, so new tires are a real advantage. Spartan and MTS have the pavement guys on an M55 (pavement silver crown RR) and I intend to try running a second night on one at Spartan next season to see how much you're really giving up...a hard tire should be less sensitive to heat cycles. I help a buddy with a dirt car, and he's running the same front tires for the whole season (unless there's a flat) and buying a tire here or there as they wear out. He has a lot more inventory to be able to change stagger as the night goes on and track conditions change, but running a used tire is not a performance disadvantage unless it's completely worn out.

At the end of pavement sprints being part of the USAC National Championship (not as a separate division) there were no rules on the number of tires used in a night. Pretty much all the competitive cars were buying two sets of tires per night. I saw guys bolt four sticker tires on for a semi feature. This was all nuts when you consider most features paid $4,000 to win and $400 to start at that time. You would have to run 2nd or 3rd in the feature to win enough to cover the tire bill.

One big nail in the coffin of the pavement sprints was when they were split into their own division. Six or eight cars got parked because guys no longer needed to run them for points and couldn't justify the expense. The Toledo show went from having a 20 car field the year before the split to 13 or 14 the year after. I believe that the year the pavement cars were a separate division they tried to put in some rules on tire consumption (had to run the same RR for qualifying, heat, and feature) but it was too little, too late.

Probably the best tire rule that I have experience with was what the MSA supermodified guys used a few years ago, where you were limited to two new tires per night after the first two races. It wasn't perfect. There was constant complaining when a new car showed up (with no stenciled used tires) and always suspicion that people were faking the stencils to have more new tires than they were allowed. But, it was an honest effort to try to keep the tire expenses in check and keep the playing field level.

I don't know what the right answer is to get pavement racing back to where it was a few years ago. All forms of pavement open wheel racing are hurting right now for a variety of reasons. It is rare to see car counts over 20 for any series. Even the ISMA supermodifieds are having trouble getting more than 20 cars at some of the races that are far from New York and New England. USSA has dropped their sprint car division due to lack of cars and lack of tracks wanting to schedule races. Getting a handle on tire expenses would certainly be a step in the correct direction and would help the guys that are left continue to race.