It is my opinion that more sprint car drivers -- traditional and winged -- make their living today by just racing than at just about any other point in history. You have 10 or 12 guys that do so with USAC. The same number with the Outlaws.

Thirty years ago, very few did. Guys who ran outlaw like Rick Ferkel, Chuck Amati and before that Jan Opperman did. In USAC, no one earned their living just racing midgets, sprints and Silver Crown. Pancho Carter was one of the most successful drivers of the period, but much of his income came from Indy Cars. Same with Tom Bigelow and Gary Bettenhausen. The Kenyons supplemented theirs with their shop in Lebanon. Sheldon Kinser worked construction. Larry Rice taught school. Bob Kinser was a bricklayer.

It was only in the advent of the Outlaws that more than just a handful of sprint car drivers started earning their living racing cars. Whether you like wings or not, they were the catalyst to help make this happen.

Car owners, on the other hand, are a different story. They always amaze me.

And owner-drivers have the toughest row to hoe. The spiraling costs that some teams are willing to pay to win make it very difficult for these folks to survive in the sport they love, a sport that needs these owner-driver teams to survive itself.

Jim Morrison