Wanted to share a few thoughts real quick:
1. nice to see you again spfldmile, the 43 pits was the place to be until security got an attitude and kicked us out, I guess Heart and the Bangels didn't want us to hear their extremely loud sound check anymore
2. besides horrendous track prep that I'm telling you is ruining SC racing, the race itself had some good, actually real good battles in it...Darland, Fike, Hines, that group was going at it the ENTIRE race! not necessarily a lot of passing, but damn close racing in that group!
3. how impressed I was with Whitt for his first SC race, he drove a great race and had the field covered! that car was actually an old Stewart Team Eagle that Josh Wise used to run (really well in fact) that Kunz tracked down from some guy and put a Foxco in it for Whitt-this info from my brother Mike
4. I thought the crowd was OK from our stand-point, they don't pack em in like they used to...a) the ticket price has risen from $8 around 1990 to $25 now but the purse is the same?, b)the car count has gone from high 40's around 1990 to 27 today (sorry mike you were 1 off from your previous post, c) the track WAS DRY SLICK AND TAKING RUBBER by the second set of hotlaps (as I predicted), I mean it rained there ALL WEEK and the track took rubber BEFORE time trials!

-but I'm with spfldmile, I dont mean to bash this too much, I am just a very concerned fan of this sport and want nothing more than to see this series flourish! I mean, we run a car (sometimes) in this and would love nothing more than to see 40-50 cars show up, have two grooves(at least) of racing so we can see some moves being made, not guys getting penalized by losing a couple spots because they dare go more then one car length off the pole, and have a qualifier to earn your way into one of the most prestigous races in the country, not just show up and run! Shouldn't this be the promoters goal!!! Thats why I harp on Sargent so much...you would think that he would want as racey of a surface as possible, as I've said before...THAT'S WHAT WILL PUT PEOPLE BACK IN THE STANDS. Word of mouth spreads faster then a california wildfire! Just ask anyone who was lucky enough to be at Oskaloosa! Sargent can't do anything about car counts, but he could prepare the track so that they put on a good race and the word will spread!!

p.s. I agree with the guy talking about Tylers "smoke job", we too would have been black flagged quicker then you can say "Money Talks"

-Joe Stroehle (Head Tire Changer/Fuel Runner-literally-/Human ATV/Team Manager) ThrowBack Racing Team

I spotted for Nix and Elliot today. Thought they ran 10th. Didn't realize Wise wasn't lapped. Tony ran as hard as the car would go and during a portion of the race was running lap times comparable with Whitt. Just couldn't do it consistantly.

Personally,I thought it was a great effort at putting on a great track prep. They watered it at least 3 times during the day. It was rolled in tight, but if they wouldn't have and they had a big storm; then we would have had the same problem as 1994(I believe) when it was like the Baja it was so rough. I too would have liked a cushion, but they just couldn't get it to come in.

I really think they tried, hard to do with the wind and sun and the tires that are used.

Track was extremely fast as the fast cars were in the 29 sec. bracket. Nearly every lap I timed Whitt during the race, he was in the low-mid 30 second bracket. I agree it was too one groove, but that happens.

It saddened me to see the smallish crowd that has started to become the norm for there. Scares me some. To overcome the lost revenue in ticket sales, the tickets would have to be 25 dollars more. I don't know what the answer is, but it appears that the fair itself has gotten smaller over the years as well.

I personally thought USAC did a great job. Ran the show off well. The smoking car to me wasn't an issue as it's dirt. Yes it is packed/hard dirt, but black flagging a car on dirt for smoking isn't to me the right thing to do. Unless it is laying a strip along with it. I know they were looking to see if it was laying a strip on the track, but it wasn't. Sucked for Dave, but as long as he has raced I am sure the shoe has been on the other foot. I don't agree that they got special treatment.

Like I said, I feel Sargent did his best today,track wasn't there groove wise.

I thought most of the drivers did and excellent job. Eric Todd did great for his first SC Race and Zach Daum showed alot of speed and is gaining poise. Whitt was great.

AJ Fike had the best save of the day that almost no one saw. In the first session of hotlaps, the RR tire came off the bead going into one and he saved it with little problems. Could have been bad.

USAC ran off a great show, great work by the flagman(As usual) and communication with the spotters was good as well. I have been as big a rock thrower at USAC as anyone, but I have to say job well done Sat. USAC even loaned Nix a radio because they had problems with one of theirs.

Car count is off some, but I was very encouraged by some newer cars today and the fact that there were around 6-8 cars capable of being there, but weren't. I feel for Chris Urish as I am sure that he was crushed he couldn't be there because of the storm that hurt his shop.

All in all, there are very few things that would have made me give up going to Springfield today and I am glad none of them came up. I enjoyed it.

Do you think the crowd today was hurt at all by not one but two 10,000 to win sprint shows tonight?

Great to see and visit with Jack Hewitt today.... And he was DRIVING the **** out of the 2-seater with passengers

More later.....

Possible. I'm sure that took away a 100 or 200, maybe 300 but what I have noticied is that many of the longtime supporters of the racing are either passed away or don't go because of age or because they don't know the drivers. We are talking 1000's of fans are gone in the last 10 years.

So many of the long timers are gone and no one is there to replace them. Many of our families long time friends just don't go anymore. If thats true for us,it's true for many.

Springfield has been off dramatically for the last few years. Duquoin seems to be on the upswing. Are people choosing one over the other?

The Gurneys,Shumans,McSpaddens,Sniders,Parsons, etc... aren't there anymore. Those guys were big draws. I think there are many good drivers now, but not that many legends. The biggest cheers of the day were for Hewitt and Darland. Bonafide racing heros. Tracy,Jones,Coons and Elliot are right there as well, but not as popular.

I do hate to see some tough shoes like Kuhn,Hess,Clauson etc.... Not being there.

I don't know what the answer is.

Congrats Cole, and way to go JS what a run

No he didn't. He started 19th and ran 20 or so laps. Something broke and he spun and hit the wall in turn 3.