[Charles Nungester]

Originally Posted by bsmith8 Ur right bud, my bad . I know who the regulars are 3 of the 5 are. I was just talking in general and saying not one of the 5 cars held the show up. I did not want to say they wanted the 12 on the pole rather than the 57 and wanted the 2E pushed back to get some regulars moved up. 2 and 57 did not hold the show up Just Sayin . Good luck to all tonight USAC regulars and locals.

I haven't seen the penalty yet that would of kept a car capable of winning from doing so if the track was raceable in more than one groove.

Shorts run last night and I think it was grant at THAT all gained tons of positions with few cautions. Docking two spots isn't going to keep ya from winning, But it could help others to do so. Who knows if Ballou would have won if he hadn't inherited the front row? Im sure he could of. But we'll never know.

[darnall]

I wasn't there and I have no dog in the fight, but I applaud any track or sanction that cracks down on getting cars to staging in a timely manner.

I get so sick of seeing the following scenario (which seems to be standard operating procedure for 80% of openwheel teams)..... Horn goes off in the pits to tell people they have X amount of minutes to get to staging...many teams use that horn as a "Time to throw a setup on it" alarm... they mill around the car polishing and cleaning during all the down time, then when the horn goes off they change a torsion bar, 3 shocks, jack weight in 2 stops, etc...all the while there are no rear tires on the car or even out of the trailer... wait until the teams on each side of them bolt on tires before they roll theirs out of the trailer....wait until the team beside them rolls the car away from the trailer then pull off 2 of the shocks and one of the torsion bars they put in and replace them again now that their competition has already committed and rolled away...no way they can possibly let the mud scraper from the team next door see what LR bar they plan to run, or which trick grooving/siping pattern they are going to run...can't have them stealing our speed secrets and beating us with them. Nowadays it takes 3 times as long for a driver to squeeze into their full containment seats and get all their belts and devices buckled up, but the teams still wait til the absolute last minute to prep the car for the A anyway.

[LeviJones20]

I love all the conspiracy theories! Point is that USAC takes heat from the tracks to have cars when and where they are supposed to be. If i tell my kids it is time for bed and never do anything if they don't go, they will never go to bed!

[Tim Clauson]

Originally Posted by Charles Nungester I haven't seen the penalty yet that would of kept a car capable of winning from doing so if the track was raceable in more than one groove. Shorts run last night and I think it was grant at THAT all gained tons of positions with few cautions. Docking two spots isn't going to keep ya from winning, But it could help others to do so. Who knows if Ballou would have won if he hadn't inherited the front row? Im sure he could of. But we'll never know.

Ballou helped his cause by heading the 8 minute warning and my opinion was the car to beat from the pole from 3rd or from 11th didn't matter.

I am guessing that those who are commenting had never been in the pits when the officials would come around and 15 to 20 minutes after the teams being told get to staging drivers still milling around not even getting in the cars. The promoters screaming at the the USAC officials to get "Their drivers" moving, Or the worst Seeing a promoter threaten to cnacal or never book another show. The Hoffmans deal was tough as they did have to change engines between the B and the A but if they can change engines do the prep between races and still make it out to be pushed off late or not, and still run top 10 then there is no excuse for any other team being late. This deal of they want to get their regulars up front is total BS speaks to how uniformed some are. USAC is doing this for the fans and whether the racers believe it or not for them as building a show that a promoter wants to book is becoming harder and harder. USAC and its teams and the teams that race with them are professionals it is nice to see the sanctioning body is starting to hold them and more importantly themselves to that standard it has been a long time coming. The last 2 events have been the most efficient entertaining nights of racing I have been to in a long time.

Hell of a second half of Sprint Week 2014 so far, Can't wait to see what Bloomington brings tonight.

Tim Clauson

Here's the deal. I guarantee that USAC wants guys to start where they earned. But at terre haute for example they were told at drivers meeting that there is a cone in staging. A 5 min warning horn will sound and once the officials ride through ours sounding horn it was relayed and the 5 min clock was started. Now here's the problem I know for a fact at terre haute. There were 4 heat races in which 16 of thoses transferred into the Feature. Then they ran 2 mod heats. Sprint b main and mod feature. Took 10 min Brk and sounded the 5 min horn. There was no reason why the first 16 drivers who transferred wasn't in line cause they had plenty time to get there. The last 6 were b main cars to make the. 22 car starting field. Once last car was on the track they cleared crews they pushed of rather quick with 7-8 push trucks. I went to drivers meeting I know a lot drivers didn't go and it was mentioned they'd gonna be some unhappy guys later. You can't fault the sanction group for pushing the show along especially on a week night. Mods were told be in line after sprint qualifying, heats and their bmain. They were all in line on time and ready. Fans want show to keep moving

[Indy1808]

This is about the reinstatement of the horn blowing, timer starting for car staging, prior to racing.

Here is former Illinois midget driver Mike Hess's response to several that were openly opposed.

MHess51: "A rule is a rule. The fans are the ones paying everyone's salary. They'd like to get done to party or get home early. Quit blaming everyone."

USAC has been lax on this since Bill Carey has been gone. 2 thumbs up for whoever brought this structure back.

My regular employment is in the Entertainment Industry.
Backstage when there is a curtain call ALL the cast must be ready. As they say "The show must go on!"
This takes any kind of favoritism out of the picture. The main actor must be ready as well as the stand-ins & walk-ons. If not, the understudy is at the ready or in the case of the race line-up there is a shuffling of the field.

Of course as with any rule in racing, there must be exceptions. Hopefully they will be kept at a very minimum so as not to be abused.

It sure makes a mess of my paperwork when it happens but I welcome it nonetheless.

[SDHill89]

I find it interesting that people ***** and complain about races taking too long and the downtime at races, then USAC starts enforcing a rule that's been in place to to hurry the show,and people ***** and complain. I like several of the drivers that were penalized and it sucks that they were, but they should have gotten to staging on time.

[SteelCore]

With the way the racing was last night I don't think the penalty affected anyone. You had multiple grooves of racing in the feature.

[dustbowl]

Kinda hard for short handed teams