[Stevensville Mike]

I've heard it said many a time that fans have left race tracks and decided to drive by Butler Speedway to try and catch the Sprint Feature due to their lack of timeliness.

Well, tonight I was at Eldora with friends watching the last race of Ohio Sprint Speedweek. Jac Haudenschild was incredible in winning. As he crossed the line I looked at my watch: 9:30 p.m. We had separate cars. I drove alone. I am going to give it a try!

Got in my free car (a story for another day) and headed North. Doing the speed limit..... well.... maybe 5 mph over here and 5 mph over there...... I rolled into the parking lot at Butler Speedway at 11:35 p.m. I could here sprinters on the track. I slinked on in with my Eldora wristband and grabbed a seat just in time for a restart. Doug Zimmerman was leading.

11 laps later the checkered waved for Doug, a Butler icon.

So.... thanks to Butler FINALLY speeding up a show, it bit me. Where was the usual half hour of stall time when I needed it? What? Did they finally run out of modifieds to stop the show like intermittant power outages during a thunderstorm? No. They HAD to be timely tonight. The blind squirrel FINALLY found an acorn!

I can still claim I saw the Feature at Butler after leaving Eldora, though. Well.... maybe with an asterisk. Now I know how Roger Maris felt.

Should have went 10 mph over for awhile.....