You are exactly correct. My father was the Chief Steward of the midgets then and tech inspector for the Sprints and Crown cars. USAC had to guarantee a certain number of cars per race to keep TNT and Open Wheel Wednesday on the air. The owners were heavily involved and pulled some big time sponsors for it. It was very tough to keep it up for everyone. It was shortly after this time when certain owners made dedicated pavement and dirt cars and the cost difference started to show. A lot of the smaller budget teams couldn't afford the dedicated pavement cars to stay competitive. Guys like Eric Gordon, and Robbie Stanley who were masters of the pavement really helped keep it going as long as it did. I would love to see it back to its glory days but without some work from all ends it won't happen over night.

Just my 2 cents and some things I remember from conversations with my dad.