Next year? You guys forget that the King of NonWing was rescheduled after the rainout the Saturday before the Patriot. I doubt we see this event scheduled on the same night again.
My take on Saturday... Something happened and has been happening that is not a good trend for sprint car racing.
The modified payout was much higher/good... and cars came out in large numbers (72).
The sprint car payout was basically a regular show payout for feature #1, lower than a regular show for features #2 & 3... and we saw the largest car count (55) at any Indiana sprint car track. Obviously the sprint car count was aided by no other track racing sprint cars.
More sprint cars than any night of the Kokomo Smackdown.
Mix in the fact that 507 modifieds have raced in Indiana versus 241 sprint cars in Indiana.
The cost associated with owning a modified are very close to owning a sprint car (with the only exception being a few top notch sprint car teams).
If you are a sprint car team or fan... It sure sends a bad message to promoters when low payouts for sprint cars(and offering every car a feature) fill up the pits... while higher payouts for modifieds fill up the pits.
If sprint car teams don't support the higher paying events in large numbers... why on earth does a promoter assume the risk of offering more money.
If this trend continues... and if I was a promoter and it was all about my bottomline. I would run higher payouts for modifieds weekly and only host high paying NW sprints as a special show. I'm a big fan of sprint car racing... and that's terrible!