[Lincoln Chapple]

Weir had a perfect opportunity to give payback last night and chose not to. He is a good definition of true Indiana sprint car racing.

If you really pay attention over the years, and cut through some of the theatrics, I would challenge you to find a cleaner racer than T-Mez. He will push guys to there limits, but if he puts anyone in a bad spot, it is more himself than his competitors.

Ballou, Cottle, Cockrum, Darland, T-Mez, Weir, Westfall, Cummins, Bilbee, Mattox, Shuman, Short….need more of them to keep the true grit of traditional sprint car racing….less of the holding soda cans, same old interviews, and BS personalities. I suppose times change.

I hope young men with the talent of Bibent and Rogers lean toward acting more like the above men, then some of the “stars of usac”, for the future of the product to the general public.

Racers will sort it out, but always fun to throw out an opinion.

Everyone that straps in to these things are a badass in my book, but alot less of them are the same badasses outside the cockpit.

[Truphy]

Now I have never been in a race car or even had a full racing helmet on. Between the noise, the speed, and lack of vision how aware are you of the cars are you? Is that even a viable excuse to say “ I didn’t realize he was there.”?

[captrat]

Originally Posted by sw1911 #12?

Yes, he was sat down, but not for on track conduct.

[nathans1012]

Originally Posted by jonboat15 It seems to be the "professional" racers vs. the "hobby" racers. The serious pros do this for a living and don't care about the local or lower budget teams and don't care if they run them out of parts. Its sad but its been that way for decades. I don't like it and would like to see the top dogs drive a little more cleanly, since they claim to be the best. Disappointed in Bacon and JG but I won't quit wearing their shirts, even Tmez talks his jazz and then runs into people. I really feel for the lower budget teams, I was there once. When I see a crash all I see is dollar signs after the driver gets out and hope that that team has the resources to continue racing. I hear that KTJ's dad has paid for some of the damage his son has caused? It might be old school but maybe there should be some black eyes and fat lips passed around to deter some of the on track contact. How come no one pulls BS moves on Shane Cottle?

That last sentence.
It as rare as anything in dirt racing that someone would pull a B.S move on Shane Cottle. There are a few instances of him being very pissed off. I think most drivers know that and wouldn't pull a dirty slider on Shane any time soon. In the early 2000's Shane drive a red 78# Modified for my close friend Mike Hollifield at Buzzard Race Cars and raced as hard as any driver but race as clean as he could with respect for the other drivers on the track and got a bunch of feature wins out of it.

[popham]

All it would take is for USAC to start Disqualifing there favorites instead of looking the other way, which is telling them this kind of ******** driving is ok. When the locals quit supporting the USAC shows and than the crowds quit coming they will figure it out.

[chillyrn]

Originally Posted by jonboat15 How come no one pulls BS moves on Shane Cottle?

Brad Kuhn tried at the B Main of the Chili Bowl that one year... that didn't end well for him!

Your point is well taken! That is old school, and I'm guessing most on here would like to see more of it when 'incidents' of this nature occur.

I don't think Bacon and Grant are 'dirty' drivers... but are certainly aggressive. There is a fine line there though. As others have said, both of those guys are too talented to not have the patience to wait another lap or two to make a clean pass.

Looking forward to hitting the road to see how this plays out Wed-Fri!

[JarrettFarms73]

I’m kinda on the fence. I didn’t see Grant/ Rogers so I have no opinion one way or the other. As for Bacon/Weir, there’s no doubt Bacon getting into Weir was a mistake on Bacons part. Scott had zero blame in that.

But here’s my question: What constitutes a “hard racing deal”? Personally, i think it’s possible for a driver to be 100% at fault for the impact, but it be 00% intentional, malicious or lacking respect.

Seems like when there’s contact these days, let alone a move that just didn’t work, we as fans can’t wait to point our finger and condemn their parents for raising an ungrateful little snot. Bad judgement and mistakes have now been replaced with Judge, Jury and Executioner social media death sentences. We’ll happily ignore the hundreds of clean passes or those without contact but as soon as contact is made- CRUCIFY THE RICH UNGRATEFUL LITTLE #%*#!!!

So i guess all those flip sequences i looked at in Open Wheel mag growing up must’ve been drivers just hooking the cushion. Seriously though, since we are in a litigious society these days and throwing fists is not a real option, i would be ok with a two spot penalty being imposed for an obvious failed move causing a yellow and being sent to the tail for causing a red. I wouldn’t call Bacon/ Weir malicious but i would definitely call it a failed move.

As usual, just my initial thought to the convo. Take it with a grain of salt.

[hoscalecody]

I used to be a pretty big fan of Grant, especially when he was just locally racing in Indiana and Ohio. Then his driving started getting really dirty and I stopped being a fan. Gave away my shirts etc..

My opinion is sliders are fine, I've thrown them plenty of times, I've had them thrown on me plenty of times. Only time they're not fine is when someone doesn't clear it and destroys a guy because of it.

On the slider, in my opinion the fault of the contact, is the one throwing it if it doesn't clear. What I mean clear is, rear bumper passes cleanly ahead of the other cars front bumper. Without forcing the other car to hit the brakes to clear them. If you can get your rear bumper ahead of the other cars front bumper then, you cleared it and it's the other guys job to hit the brake or crossover. Unless you're doing 50 mph less then them and they have no where to go.

So I don't agree with Grants comments of him only being sorry, if there wasn't a chance Jadon could hit the brakes. No you clear him and until then it's your fault. A guy shouldn't have to hit the brakes for you to clear him. If Grant cleared him, then Jadon just drove through Grant's tail tank and took Grant out or whatever that'd be different.

[tdt636]

Rogers wasn't a slower car...they were racing for position

[Charles Nungester]

Originally Posted by kinser You lost me at “Bacon does not have any history of dirty driving”. I’ve seen him dump several people down through the years.

Not saying Bacon doesn't get into people. The Weir Kokomo thing was clearly such. But it's rare. Sure several on here will point out a half a dozen other instances over the past ten years and three hundred races that he took someone out.

But he hasn't won three championships making it a common occurrence. The 2016 Championship was run with the same car for every race. I think they pulled the backup once just to be certain that night. The Backup had one race in USAC competition.

Anyway. He's done so, By qualifying well and being top five darn near every night. Grant and others are playing ketchup when they start being the eight ball. Added pressure yeah. But you gotta finish to get anything.

I look at KTJ and I don't see him going around blaming, making excuses. Never seen someone so hard on himself when he doesn't win That's a competitor to me.