[dsc1600]

The comparison between wing and non-wing is pointless at this point. That ship has sailed and winged racing won. The thing to work on now is getting non-winged racing bigger than it is and getting these racers who risk life and limb more money. Hearing Wood say "I hope somebody shows up" at the Winged Nation thing made me kind of sad. While there's no way I can make it out to Husets in Sept, I'm tempted to buy a ticket regardless. In some small way, we can all do our part.

[flagboy55]

1600 is not necessarily wrong. I’m glad someone brought this up again. I’ve almost given up on trying to beat the wingless drum. However the winner is not always the best. Take the NASCAR revolution in its prime. It was never the best racing but it was well sold and nowadays some folks will believe anything. I recently got in a wing vs non wing debate on Twitter with a very prominent racing personality. There’s no way I could win. No one bites the hand that feeds, but one of his points was that wingless doesn’t have to deal with dirty air. A problem easily solved!

[WingedFan2019]

Wing is way better. Winged drivers make the same moves Non-wing drivers make, except theyre a second or 2 faster a lap. also, there's more young talent in Winged racing right now than there is in non-wing. We've seen non-wing guys attempt to use a wing and theyre just not competitive. (with the exception of Tyler Courtney, who is having a great year) Now there are some tracks where non-wing sprints are better than wing. Gas City is an example of this. But when a non-wing sprints on a track bigger than a 3/10" its just so boring to me. Not much passing happens and it seems like theyre moving in slow motion. Whereas Winged racing can be exciting on all track sizes since they are faster and there's actually a sense of danger.

Im not trying to bash on non wing because ive seen some great races, but its just not as good as winged.

[treecitytornado]

The car count at Circle City was a real shame for $3100 to Win & $400 to start! Kevin & Jonathan have worked hard to promote & give Race Teams & Fans a place to Race & watch Racing!!

[oppweld]

Currently all advantages exist in the wing world. Most onlookers or marginal race fans only know wings. Both classes excel at different tracks. The cars seemingly appear the same except for the billboard, they are driven very differently. Wings are faster and drivers have to react quicker, as opposed to sprint cars have to be driven. Most anyone could run Terre Haute flat out with a Wing, take it off and see how fast they really are.

[dsc1600]

I also think if Larson wouldn't have been almost seriously injured in that wreck at Eldora, which made him give up non-winged sprints and I think put off Rico as well, then non-winged sprints would probably have similar momentum as midgets do now. Still not as popular as winged sprints, but more mainstream attention etc...

[Charles Nungester]

Name me the exclusively Winged drivers excelling at any other type of motorsports?

I'll wait.

[Rhody]

Once a guy takes the wing off you guys claim him, so it's a no win situation for the wing crowd. Kyle, came from wing cars, got in a NW car, kicked ass; Rico, came from winged cars, got in a NW, kicked ass; Christopher Bell, came from wing cars, took wing off, kicked ass. Stevie Smith, took wing off for the first time and ran 2nd to Jac (wing racer) in the biggest Non wing race ever. Just because you're not paying attention to what happens in winged racing, doesn't mean that a guys career started when he got into a midget in Indiana for the first time.

[captrat]

Originally Posted by Rhody Once a guy takes the wing off you guys claim him, so it's a no win situation for the wing crowd. Kyle, came from wing cars, got in a NW car, kicked ass; Rico, came from winged cars, got in a NW, kicked ass; Christopher Bell, came from wing cars, took wing off, kicked ass. Stevie Smith, took wing off for the first time and ran 2nd to Jac (wing racer) in the biggest Non wing race ever. Just because you're not paying attention to what happens in winged racing, doesn't mean that a guys career started when he got into a midget in Indiana for the first time.

Anecdotal examples does not make a trend.

[spankytoo]

Originally Posted by Hubie48 The economics of non wing racing has never made any sense to me. Some truly outstanding talent in terms of drivers and teams have come thru Non Wing Sprint car racing, Clauson included. If I were a young driver or car owner without insane personal wealth, I am afraid I would have to look at Wing racing. USAC has some GREAT talent right now! Swanson, Bacon, Seavey, Grant, Windom, Thomas Jr. They hold up six thousand dollar checks and smile while sitting on a 100k dollar race car! You don't have to go to an Ivy League School to question the math!

Not directed at you, just more or less building on your topic Hubie48..

So then why do these guys continue to show up to races that pay less than $5-6K to win? We commonly see Grant, Leary, Bacon, Ktj, Seavy, Ballou, etc. showing up to local races which pay $1,500 to win. Maybe one thought.. USAC doesn't keep them busy enough.

As a USAC guy showing up to a local race, they probably have: $150 in pit passes, $100 in truck fuel, approximately 3 new tires they throw away at the end of the day($750), and maybe another $50 in racecar fuel. So they have to win to make money (~$400). Anything less and it is a loss. And this doesn't even account for cost of a motor rebuild at ~$300 per race.

Now a local competitor (depending on the track) will have the same expenses, except will try to salvage tires a little more. For them, 4th-5th place probably gets them to break even.

I don't think most people realize the cost of the sport and how much more money wing racing gets just to show up. Wing racing has set a precedent for how much money they will race for. Why should local Indiana tracks raise their pay when top level talent continues to come for the measly $1400-$1500 to win and $200 to start?