No clarification needed. Just keep posting.

One of the several things I hate about the pill draw is when one of the heats is loaded with quality cars and driving talent, resulting in several hot dogs being relegated to the "B". Meanwhile, a heat full of......ummm, less expensive rides and less experienced shoes is transferring four of them to line up in front for the feetch. I've seen some hellacious tangles result from that.

Another bothersome thing is when one of my boys (see Logan Hupp, Landon Simon, Chad Boespflug, and others) are consistenly drawing a bad pill. Maybe a course in effective pill drawing would help.

A note to Bill "The Boss" Gardner: The "Like This Post" feature doesn't seem to be working for Mr. Thunderhead. Might want to look into that.

Marv, I think one of the things people don't undertand about qualifying, is as someone else mentioned before, back a few years, more than some are old, when you went to a Sprint car race, or a Midget race, that's about all that was there, not 5-8 divisions, just one, maybe 2 on a special occassion, and qualifying was how you got your starting position for the heat races, and it was not only expected, it was required. Now days with all the different divisions, and fewer cars, and even fewer butts on the boards, to expedite the events of the evening, has come the pill draw, which even some drivers like, because they don't qualify well, myself, I prefer to run where they qualify, which in my case, is mostly all the fair grounds tracks, and we are maybe the only racing on the card, one thing about it, if you screw yourself qualifying, you don't have anyone to blame but yourself, yes to some it may be boring, but to me, it's my one chance at the track, by myself, or my drivers, to see what we've got under us for setup for the evening. With our method of pill draw and heat race scoring, it isn't real bad to pill draw, but even then, sometimes you just can't overcome a high 50's draw! JMHO. Bob

the first time I saw the pill draw vs. the time trial was back in the 60's when I went back east and made it to some big-time eastcoast style modified shows, I liked it immediately/ race your way in!

and guys you're still drawing a pill for your slot for time trialing, and your odds of drawing a bad slot (I. e. a late slot if the track is drying out, or an early slot if the track is too wet; either way, when the track is slower) are the same as drawing a bad starting position.

I can live with time trialing, I just prefer the pill draw/ I hate seeing the fastest guys always starting up front in the b-mains and a-mains, they will prolly still end up winning, because they are faster, but lets make the racing more exciting while making them work for it and giving the rest of the field a little better shot at it!

p.s.; and yes bill "the boss" gardner, by all means, please fix that like button!


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Picture this. You finally talked someone who has never seen a sprint car race into going. Cars come out and proceed to circle in groups and the green flag drops. The newbie asks "what is going on". You reply " they are qualifying now". "Really, but how do I know who is doing what, this is my first time; it seems very confusing".

Single car qualifying helps to set the stage, is a great buildup and particularly helps those who are new to match driver and car. Many time I have taken newbies, helped with names and numbers as hot laps are pushed off and then watched the new fan enjoy qualifying because they now have a frame of reference.

Doing away with single car qualifying delegitimizes the sport, confuses the newbie and shortchanges the fan and the competitor if Lady Luck does not shine on their draw. Yes, you can have a poor draw even when qualifying is used, but at least you have a chance to compete.

In the words of Tom Carnegie "Its a new track record" can go along way in building anticipation and enthusiasm!

As someone said earlier the real problem of worn out surface is related to weather, start times, and yes, big, fat soft tires.

you can never hear the name of the driver (let alone the sponsorship list) during time trials, as the next car comes out and lets rip before the last car has left the track. even if there should be a break in between, most track announcers are too busy talking about some silliness rather than utilizing the time to advise who is up next; so that is a rather moot point in favor of time trialing i'd say.

as far as new track records go/ I suppose there are some tracks where you still get them, but over the years, there's been a lot of effort spent in slowing the cars down and in filling in the bottoms of high-banked dirt tracks to lessen the degree of banking in order to slow them down too

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Two of the best announcers for giving driver information had to be Jack Miller and Dave Van Patten.

I would rather know more about a driver than what chassis or shocks he is running.

I'd like to meet the person who thought it was a good idea to do a pill draw for sprint car racing.

My foot needs to perform a colonoscopy.

QUALIFYING = RACE YOUR WAY IN!

I would like to see 1 lap qualifications for the sprint car division. It gives the fans the opportunity to know exactly who is in what car for that particular race event, gives a moment for exclusive sponsorship recognition, and even a moment for a driver little known fact, among other possibilities.
As a driver, it allowed me to gauge my week to week performance, and to see if various set-up changes made a difference. It also made for more evenly matched heat races based on the staggering of the qualification results. ( instead of stacked heats/ weaker heats, as is often the case). Also, you didn't know who was going to be your competition in your heat race until it was determined by qualifying (performance). Whereas with pill draw or group quals, you already know beforehand.
BTW, only having 1 lap quals will not be as significant of a detriment in the event that a late qualifying effort is required.
Advertise qualifications starting at a certain time. If fans choose not to arrive until the advertised race time, that is at their discretion.
QUICK TIME!!! sounds much more exciting than "good draw, dude". lol


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Invert the heat race starting positions, either 4 or 6, depending on car count. (could be the fast qualifier draws for the invert). B Main starts straight up per qualifying times. If you run the B Main, you cannot start any better than 10th for the A Main. Have the quickest qualifier already in the A Main draw for the A Main invert ( 4,6, or 8).
Just my thoughts...

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Amazing though how the best racers always seem to be able to qualify toward the front even with a bad pill draw.

It seems that in most parts of the country they keep trying to change racing to make it easier and more about the money a racer spends instead of how much talent he has. Then after they have taken the spectator appeal out of it people wonder why the stands got so empty