You know Spridge, when I started working on cars back in 2000, the Sprint Week opener at North Vernon had close to 70 cars give or take. Opening night at Lawrenceburg ten years later did not even have 50. It really is sad. You used to go to a USAC race around Indiana anytime and there would be at least 40 cars in the pits. Those days have long since passed, and I hate it for the sport. I thought the car counts for the Buckeye Nationals the first year were great, but they fell off quite a bit thereafter.

You really have to look at the economic factor more so than anything. If you look at Gas City, Bloomington, Lawrenceburg, and Lincoln Park for example on a weekly basis, most of the racers are geographically close. (within an hour to hour and half) Granted you have a few that make a longer tow to run a specific track, but for the most part everyone is fairly close. Some owners have called it quits or scaled it down, a lot of the sponsorship dollars have gone away, and the weekly teams aren't equipped like some of the USAC guys. You used to always be able to count on Bill Biddle having a couple of cars, god rest his soul. KKR scaled back it's USAC involvement, Bud Kaeding stays out west, and Chad Boat and Cole Whitt have moved on. You see some corporate dollars on the TSR car, but the Hoffman's lost their deal. The days of a guy throwing $10,000 at his buddies car are gone. They have to make payroll. Some local guys have great stuff, but not the 850-950 hp motors that some teams have. The best thing I seen this last weekend was Dickie Gaines, proving that a local guy can still get the job done against the big boys. The bottom line is, that is the first time for a while you have seen a true local racer win a national race for a long time.

You also hear that some folks feel that USAC has a lot of ******** that nobody wants to get involved in. I know you work for USAC Kirk, and whether there really is or not, I don't know. But, when Don Short gets on here and makes a statement about it, you have to wonder. I have not personally seen it, but I have not been with a team that has run a lot of USAC since about 2005. By saying this, I am no way slamming USAC, just stating feelings that I have heard, and I commend those folks for speaking their heart.

I love this sport, and I really hope things come back around. I hope that in 10 years, the sport still has at least the viablility it has today, but it would be nice to see it the way it was 10 years ago.

When I think Knoxville, I think wings. If Indiana has the best tracks, the best "real" sprint cars and the best drivers why haul out to Iowa? If you look at the entry lists for the 360/410 nationals it's drivers from all over the country. Because there is winged "fake" sprint cars all over the country.

It's also taken 50 years to get to that point. No Indiana promotor or sanctioning body would want to have a $50,000 dollar race in Indiana that took three days, because other tracks would schedule a pavement/dirt/midget/sprint/whatever race to steal cars/fans/drivers. This would need to be consistent. It would take years to establish, I notice all of the "traditional" Indiana races seem to either not run for a year, change format, change weekends, change car types.... the only certain think is they change.

I have always felt that 3 divisions of cars running two surfaces is cutting it a little thin. Also as another post was questioning long term sponsors. If wings do anything, it's to provide a place for someone to lean on while they are writing a check to sponsor "fake" sprint cars...

Maybe people think "traditional" sprints cars are old, out of date, slow... The truth is there is a whole lot other states who do just fine with wings. Yes they miss out. USAC races sprints in 10 states. WoO in 20 states and 3 provinces.

Lets put it in blue collar " field filler " terms . Would I tow my backhoe 10+(20 round trip) hours to dig in lateral lines for 5000.00 ? That`s a big no . I can tow an hour or two for half that and my pocket is fuller. USAC can`t be fixed until Nascar gets fixed. Why were those pits full of cars 10 years ago? All the aspiring Jeff`s and Tony`s were fast tracking to Nascar. When you can`t give away tickets to one of Nascar`s biggies ,to people from Indiana who will stop and watch two kids race tricycles, then it`s broken. There you go ... I know some long haired professor in an MBA program could ramble for hours in eloquent terms about the economics of racing . Take it from a bald fat guy with a sprint car , if you don`t go out the gate with a 1000.00 , you paid to race that night. It doesn`t take too long paying for the show and there is no show because the dummy paying to play has went broke.

I have been going to Osky since they started the tuesday night non wing racing has always been well attended and over thirty cars every year best format for racing anywhere.I hope they do the same deal at Knoxville and it gets started off on a good note and builds into something bigger.There are a couple more drivers not listed that are planning on going to these two shows.But with wanting to grow bigger you have to the owners and drivers to do this and right now with the way the economy is, it would be better to stay around the area and get the house in order close to home before venturing out to far.

And you'll never get 1000.00 out the gate, if you keep showing up with less than 40 cars at 10,000 to win races less than 2 hours away. Those races should get 60+ without batting an eye but no, you end up with no more cars than you would for a regular USAC show.

Oskaloosa will pay 15,000 and they won't get more than 35 cars. Oskaloosa used to pay 30,000 and the most they got was 41 cars.

41 cars for the biggest paying non-wing race in the country.

And you guys wonder why you're still racing for 4,000 to win on a national level.

I would love to race the rest of USAC Schedule or anywhere... So please anyone complaining about cars counts, If you want to do your part to help the car counts and are willing to pay my teams expenses I will be there!

Lets see how many people want to fund a car for a weekend....

P.S. You pay all the cost you can keep all purse money...

More in Ohio? How about Columbus, Eldora, Toledo and K-C on this Saturday night? There could be more and I would like more, but I'll take what I can get and be happy with it. Back in the day I went to Dayton, Cincinnati Racebowl, Kil-Kare, New Bremen (thanks Earl), Glen Este, Springfield, Etc,. I think all but one of those are gone now.

Is Moler still running? If so, I'm not paying attention because it must be all fendered stuff?

Great Post. I'd go and race for no profit, just as long as I didnt go in the hole on expenses.

I live North, and you live South, we don't see them up here within three or four hours of the MI/OH state line. I think Moler runs Mods and Late Models. Correct in them running midgets at Columbus, but it's once a year, pavement and the car counts are usually down. I still think the three different series are confusing to new/undecided fans. Midgets run twice in August? It's hard to schedule competing shows against your own other series, which share drivers. I'd like to see USAC sprints run Attica, Fremont and Waynesfield in one weekend, or the Toledo weekend could include Sandusky. It's a one of a kind situation that Indiana has. The National series runs at home most of the time and there is a ton of competition diluting the purses. I'd say race in a little larger radius around Indy to start out, shows where you can come home the same night. Just look how successful the Fast series is in Fremont and Attica with the cooperation of those two tracks. Now they have 305's running there as well.

I don't race, but I almost think this is the most reasonable expectation for many racers. Racing for a living would require a set of nerves most of us don't have, not to mention the skill to back it up. Most WoO and Late Model guys race for themselves, where as a non wing guy has to race for 2-3 owners, because to race 90-110 times in a year you need 6 different cars which is highly improbable for a single person to own. The logistics are just tough.

That sounded eloquent enough for me