Splitting the Field

There is always a reaction after we announce the field split for the 360 or 410 Nationals.  Some good, some bad, some drivers and owners upset, but I promise there is a lot of time and thought that goes into the process of splitting the field and balancing things the best we can.  I've been splitting up the fields the past few years now with John McCoy's supervision. 

When teams send in their entry form they have a blank to fill our their preferred night to qualify, but that doesn't mean anyone is guaranteed that night.  Most teams realize that the show has to be split evenly.  And typically 70-75% of the entries pick the first night, usually the reason being that they want an extra day to make repairs if something happens.  But 90% of the teams have the same argument with not enough spare parts and such. 

The Promoter of the event has to do it's job to put on a good show for the fans and try to keep the competition levels somewhat even for each night.  But we still try to give as many teams as possible their preferred night to be good hosts if possible. 

Basic Guideline we have. 

1. Prior Nationals A Main Qualifiers.  We try to get as close to 12 and 12 each night, with an extra emphasis on the top 10 cars being split 5 and 5.

2. Split Series' Equally.  We look at points after the Kings Royal weekend from all series and try to split the World of Outlaws teams, Top 10 Knoxville teams, All-Star teams, PA teams, California Teams, Top 10 ASCS teams, etc. equally. It is in everyone's best interest to split all these cars equally.  This hopefully gives fans the same amount of cars to follow each night from each series, it helps represent each series well, and gives everyone the best chance to qualify well and not beat each other up all on one night.  We wouldn't put the top 7 or 8 Outlaw point teams on one night in the 410 Nationals because we would have fans and teams upset about the balance there for sure. 

3. Split teammates.  You will notice that the KKR 9 and 49, Shark Racing 1a and 1s, Big Game Sponsored teams, etc. will be split to different nights. The car owner gets a break for entering two cars, and it lets each team help each other on their separate nights.

4. We do tend to give former event champions their preferred night. We don't play favorites, not even with our weekly competitors.  But former champions have earned that luxury. Former champions are also guaranteed to get their car number without adding an "X" to it for example. Donny Schatz has picked Wednesday Night for a LONG time and he will always get it.  But we are also mindful that not all former champions end up on the same night.  This usually is never an issue, but for years and years Cappy wanted to make sure Steve and Sammy were on separate nights and that was obviously a good idea.

5. We have looked at power rankings and using those as well, but that is hard to back up with data because power rankings are opinions.  We like to use numbers that data can support and we can defend our reasoning better for splitting. 

When deciding who has to move from one night to the next is the agonizing part, because you know you can't make everyone happy.  But someone has to move.  Each year we get 10-12 teams call and complain, give us reasons why, and its usually the same excuses with not wanting to race back to back nights.  However you do get some teams at the last minute that need to switch to the second night because of travel issues, engine is still in the shop, etc.  And some teams prefer the  second night because they can use one less day of vacation or have an extra day to get here.

There is no perfect system, but I believe what we use is as fair as we can get. And I'll defend the system we have.  We try to be flexible to peoples needs, but at times you have to hold your ground.  I've had a lot of people ask how we do this, and I thought I might as well be transparent and explain it.  But if you are one of the complainers about it not being even, I have a crap load of data to back up what we do, and I probably spend WAY more time on this than they did. So criticism doesn't bother me. 

Have a happy and safe Nationals!