Fall of 360 Racing?

With so many rumors being circulated right now with the direction of 360 sprint car racing, I decided to look back at a article I wrote in March 2011 for Flat Out Magazine.  I compared costs of 410 and 360 racing with Tyler Swank at the time. Remember in 2010 when the 360 appeared to be winning the balance of car counts at races over 410?  At the end of the 2010 season both Steve Kinser and Donny Schatz raced and won some ASCS events.  At that moment I thought 360's might be tipping the scale for good. Maybe the WoO would change to 360 engines as a cost savings measure. That didn't happen and the balance has swung back in favor of 410 racing the past couple of years. The ASCS hNational series has cut back their schedule the past couple of years (67 in 2012, 54 in 2013, 46 in 2014). So what happened?  What changed?  Maybe I was on to something back then because it didn't make sense then why there were more 360 cars, and still doesn't today looking back.  A couple of things have happened over the past few years.  Engine costs for 360's has increased to be the equivalent of 410's, the 360 purse's haven't gone up to compete with 410 races, and the emergence of 305 sprint cars.  The answer isn't an easy one but it's in that combination somewhere I believe.  Enjoy this trip down memory lane...


Flat Out Magazine story from February 2011

I'm a guy who likes to look at numbers, stats, history and such. So last fall when the Short Track Nationals in Little Rock attracted 125 cars to a race that paid $15,000 to win and $2,300 to start I was left scratching my head. The Knoxville Nationals a couple of months before had 100 cars for a $1,000,000 purse. Now while I think car count is over rated to how entertaining a race event is, my gut reaction was that 360 racing must be less expensive to compete in than a 410. And that perception has rung true for as long as 360 racing has been around. Everyone knows that racing isn’t cheap, no matter if we’re talking about 410, 360, Late Models, Modifieds, or the local Figure 8 guy in your hometown. But is a 360 so much less that 25 more cars are willing to travel to a race that pays $2,300 to start compared to the Knoxville Nationals that paid $9,500 to start? And why are drivers like Steve Kinser, Donny Schatz, and Joey Saldana racing with ASCS after the Outlaws season ended? What did they have to gain? I decided to do some digging.

To help with my investigation I made contact with a crew chief who has worked on 360 and 410 cars with the World of Outlaws, ASCS, and locally at Knoxville, Tyler Swank who is from my hometown of Newton, IA. So thank you Tyler for your time and help. The chassis, wings, front ends, rear ends, are the same for both. Engines are slightly different. But I learned something interesting about tires. At an ASCS event teams are allowed to change tires before any race, where most other sanctioning bodies require teams to use the same tire for qualifying, heat race, and A-main. The cost difference between an ASCS Hoosier right rear tire and a WoO Goodyear right rear is roughly $13. There are some teams at an ASCS event that can afford to bolt on a new right rear before their heat, qualifying heat, and their main, that’s three tires per night compared to one at a WoO event.

A new 410 engine will cost $45,000, with a $6,500 rebuild every 8-10 races on the WoO tour and 12-15 races for most local racers. A new 360 engine will cost $37,000-$40,000, with a $6,000 rebuild every 20-25 races, but the top teams are only going 10-12 races between rebuilds. The Outlaws race roughly 70 nights a year, while ASCS races a 37 times. So with only half as many races to run that cuts down some travel expenses, however ASCS has three swings to the western states. For what used to be labeled as the working man’s series, ASCS has become extremely hard for members of a race team to be full time “swing the hammer guy” during the week and a racer on the weekends.

 

The more I look into Tyler’s numbers you can certainly make a case that it’s not a whole lot cheaper to run 37 ASCS shows compared to 70 Outlaw shows. A team that changes three right rear tires for 37 nights compared to a team that runs the same tire for 70 nights, an Outlaw team will save roughly $7,500 a year in tires compared to a top ASCS team. And guess who gets a kickback from Hoosier on each tire sold on the on during an ASCS event, of course ASCS themselves.

On engines the numbers come out to roughly $175,000 a year for an Outlaw team if you figure 3 new engines and 7 rebuilds. An ASCS team on 2 new engines and 2 rebuilds, comes out to $96,000. That’s a difference of $78,000 on your engine budget per year to race with the Outlaws. But if you look at the purse money you race for there is a shortage as an Outlaws A-Main pays out $47,800 total, $10,000 to win, $2,000 for 10th, and $800 to start. Compare that to ASCS’s purse of $29,900, $6,000 to win, $850 for 10th, and $600 to start. If you take the average finish of tenth place over the entire season, a WoO competitor would make $140,000 where an ASCS competitor would make $31,450, a difference of $108,550. This more than makes up for the need to have an additional engine and more rebuilds.

When it comes to pit passes the World of Outlaw teams get three or four free pit passes, plus some discounted price passes depending what type of membership package they opt for at the beginning of the year. In ASCS all team members must purchase a $25 pit pass and you must pay a $10 entry fee to draw your pill. Figure an extra $60 to $110 per owner, per race, that could add up to $2,200 to $4,070 per year to get in the back gate. Three trips to the west coast will add up the fuel bill in a hurry. And you throw in the draw for heats with slow cars in the front row fairly often, you can count on a one or two torn up cars in a year.

Last year Knoxville started qualifying the 360 cars and it made the racing so much more competitive and balanced. No longer did we have heat races where the top four cars in points were grouped together by the luck of a draw. With time trials and inverts, the show becomes more fair, safer for the competitors, and more entertaining in my opinion. While the draw may be fair in some people’s eyes, and the perception to some fans is that it saves them the agony of watching time trials in exchange for seeing more racing on the track, I think it would be a better show if somehow the top point drivers we seeded into heat races if they won’t time them so we don’t see a heat race loaded with Jason Johnson, Shane Stewart, Brady Bacon, and Gary Wright multiple times a year.

No one can argue that what Emmet Hahn has created with the ASCS over the last two decades has been successful. But if there is a promoter in this country who has made more money than Emmett Hahn with the kickbacks at the back gate, pill draws, ASCS spec heads, and tires, someone let me know. Hahn is a smart business man. He has a good product, good car counts, some name drivers, but to say it’s the working man’s series or less expensive compared to the Outlaws, well that’s for you to decide. Maybe the perception that the average 360 car owner doesn’t have to race against Steve Kinser, Donny Schatz, or Jason Meyers for a win makes them feel like the competition is closer to them, and they have a chance to win a race. Maybe it’s that the rules are more to their liking. I’m not trying to tarnish the ASCS name, I enjoy their races and would recommend their shows to any sprint car fan, but I wish car owners would think twice about racing a 410 instead of a 360. Like I said before, racing isn’t cheap any way you look at. But why not go race where you have the opportunity to pick up more money at the pay window at a 410 race or the Knoxville Nationals?