Observations on THAT. This is the first race I have attended as a spectator in quite awhile.

First off whoever did the track prep nailed it. That is the best I have seen TH in about 15 years. The rough stuff down low in 1 had me nervous through qualifying as did the hump just off of 4 that had cars pulling wheelies down the front stretch. All the drivers did a masterful job negotiating these area although I am sure the pucker factor was pretty high a few times. By feature time the track was absolutely flawless. Two enthusiastic thumbs up.

The push trucks and wrecker drivers did make most of the yellows take way longer than they should have. Curt Gross sat against the front stretch wall for 4 laps before the wrecker ever moved. When he did go he went all the way around the track instead of going down the infield pit lane and coming out at turn 4. It took another 5 laps to get him off the track. After Whitt drilled Damion into the turn 2 wall it took seven laps before they hooked his car up and many more to move it. I suspect that there may have been some radio communication on this one as this is when Levi had his issue. Another thing I noticed was the push trucks were starting the cars way to slowly. I saw many incidents of driveline chatter because the trucks were pushing so slow. I guess they don't know how hard that is on rear ends, driveshafts and cranks. Could very well have contributed to Windom's stripped a driveline in the feature.

Now to the fuel issue. There absolutely should have been a fuel stop due to all the extended cautions. I do not say this because I wanted a different guy to win or run up front. There were just way to many caution flag laps to not have one. In my heart I believe that USAC did not have a fuel stop because of the backlash they would have received on here. They were pretty much damned if they did and damned if they didn't. No win situation. They were absolutely irresponsible for not having one though. It is extremely dangerous for cars to be running out of fuel in front of someone who is running at full speed directly behind them. Cudos to the drivers for not crashing into dead stick cars.

Levi should have been black flagged for the flat right rear. That is in the rule book. No car is allowed to run on a flat tire other than the left front. While I guess technically his tire was not completely devoid of all air, there was not enough in it to complete the race safely. Also passing the pace car is in the rule book. I have to assume that he was told he could do this on the radio. I wasn't wearing a headset so I cannot say for sure. If race control told him to do this, that person should be fired or removed from that position for directly ordering someone to violate the club rules. Then also allowing him to restart in front of the entire field on that tire after passing the pace car was totally out of line as well as endangering himself, other racers and worst of all the fans. He is very lucky that tire blew on the front stretch and not entering a turn.

Congrats to Stanbrough and the Fox Racing team. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Those boys are always prepared, the opportunity finally presented itself to them.