I haven't seen much pavement racing in the USA, but a USAC show I saw at Winchester about 7 or 8 years ago was one of the best shows I have seen. There was only about 15 cars, but a great feature.

In the UK about 15 years ago we had similar problems where pavement racing seemed to be dying off as drivers had to have a "Special" to compete. We changed the rules allowing a maximum inside weight, minimum ride height and a few other tweaks in the rules which made asphalt and dirt cars almost identical. It saved pavement racing over here and we now have a healthy turn out of cars on pavement.