One of the things I love about sprint car racing is that winning races matters.
Winning is important in all forms of racing, but over time it has evolved in some places where championships have overtaken victories as the most-coveted prize.
In sprint car racing, one race win is the biggest accomplishment a driver can achieve. And then there are a few other races that are also more prominent and important than a championship.
The phrase “good point night” is never heard at these bigger races and honestly not heard much across the board in sprint car racing. And that’s good, fans don’t flock to dirt tracks to watch a “good point night”.
Greg Hodnett is a perfect example of that in 2018. He leads points at Williams Grove, Port Royal and the overall Champion Racing Oil/Stirling Lubricants Central PA Sprint Cars, presented by Hoseheads point series. Yet, the season is a struggle.
“Our standards are pretty high,” said Hodnett who is an annual double-digit race winner. “When you are not winning 20, last year we won 11. We are leading all the points, but we only have a couple of wins (1 410/ 1 URC) and it doesn’t come across as being very successful.
“We are consistently okay, but that’s not what we are striving for. We are trying to get better and trying to beat the likes of Donny and Lance.”
Ahh, Donny and Lance; the two drivers everyone is gunning for.
Talk to a racer on the World of Outlaws tour and they are striving to beat Donny Schatz. In Pennsylvania, the measuring stick is Lance Dewease.
They are winning; that matters.
While a World of Outlaws Championship is a major accomplishment and the $20,000 championship honors at Williams Grove moves the checkbook needle; it’s largely not what we look at in determining success versus struggle.
In sprint car racing it’s about winning races — the big one in Knoxville and the big one tonight or tomorrow night.
