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A few of my thoughts on the weekend…
Hats off to Logan Seavey. He becomes the third driver in Eldora history to win three USAC division mains in one night during the 4-Crown. He joins at elite list with Jack Hewitt and Kyle Larson. That was great to witness in person.
The crowd: I went Friday and Saturday. The crowd both nights was larger than I can remember for a 4-Crown weekend. I’m sure the great weather helped. Is it a King’s Royal crowd? No. But the North Lot was chock full of campers and from where I was sitting, the spectator count looked pretty darn good Friday and even bigger on Saturday.
Speaking of places to sit - Sitting in the turn three bleachers is the way to go. I felt I had a much better view there then anywhere I’ve ever sat at Eldora. And I've sat everywhere at that place. Plus, with the wind coming out of the east both nights, dust wasn’t an issue. At all. In all the years I’d been coming to Eldora, it was the first time I didn’t need goggles.
I might get vilified here, but I thought both the WoO feature Friday and the ASCoC feature Saturday were the two best mains of the weekend. The ASCoC also had some intense drama with the driver and owner's point championships on the line. Watching both Rico and Zeb Wise run against that wall Saturday night was just spectacular. Until...it bit Rico with four laps to go.
Of all the USAC main events, I thought Saturday night’s midget feature was the best one. For a brief moment, it looked like Bryant Wiederman just might make the bottom work and pull off a win. However, Logan said it best in victory lane “You don’t win Eldora by running the bottom.” That quote should be etched in stone at the pit gate.
As for the midgets, I know Eldora has never drawn a great field. They’ve always struggled to get 20 cars for as long as I can remember. I wish something could be done to help draw more midgets as their racing can be just spectacular at Eldora. The big questions of the weekend were “Where was Buddy Kofoid?" and "Where was Cannon McIntosh?”
A couple of other stories from the Silver Crown race: 1. PA’s Chase Dietz qualifying fifth and leading the first 9 laps of the Silver Crown feature, eventually coming home with a third place finish. 2. Tyler Courtney, starting dead last in the field as a last-minute sub for Brady Bacon and methodically working his way up to an 8th place finish.
Even with the Silver Crown feature taking the checkered at 1AM, most of the crowd stayed to the very end. And I didn't hear anyone complaining as there was just non-stop racing and very little downtime. There must be a lot of people there at Eldora who are just like me. They know racing season is almost over. You just want to see every lap while you still can.
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