I was very happy to trade the All-Stars B-main for a USAC sprint car C-main.

I enjoyed watching on PPV this year & the one time I attended. I'm not complaining, they did a great job this year. The time I went, I kept falling asleep during Silver Crown A Main & decided to leave before it was over so I wouldn't fall asleep at the wheel.... no big deal, I saw plenty of good racing

Atomic, $3000 to win
Fremont weekly show.
WoO at Lernerville.
Big motor track, some teams don’t want to run.
End of the season with some cars out of money or broke in some way, good car count at 24.

To put this thread back to it's original question, I too was surprised to see only 20 cars participate. And it caused me to do what I do in the off season (we may race 1 more time, weather permitting, but it's pretty much "off season" for us...), and that is to over analyze data, looking for some meaningless answer.

Of the dirt events on the USAC Midget National schedule prior to the 4-Crown Nationals, 21 drivers and 19 cars have made at least half the shows, and 13 cars and drivers have made almost every show. Of those 13, only 1 didn't participate at The Big E.

Of the USAC top 25 National Midget points drivers, 9 didn't participate.

2 of the participants appear to be in "one off" deals for Eldora only.

Only one other USAC National Midget show had as low a car count (20). Curiously it was the Kokomo GP over the April 30th - May 1st weekend. No national show has had fewer than 20 cars take time.

POWRi did not have a national event scheduled against the show, and in fact, of the POWRi top 25 points drivers, the points leader along with 7 other drivers participated.

What you didn't see was the multitude of local, regional, and part time drivers & cars that come out for Indiana Midget Week or the BC39. Again, maybe it's the track size, or maybe it's the payout? At $40k for a "fresh", used, national engine, can everyone with a midget afford to chew it up running Eldora? Apparently not, but I would have thought that SOME of these cars would have been willing to be field fillers, if for nothing more than to say "I raced the 4-Crown". 70 cars came to The Dirt Track for the BC39.

That said, was the racing worse because there were 50 fewer participants than at the BC39? Not likely. But at some point, the Midget Crown of the 4-Crown could find itself in the same jeopardy as the Belleville Nationals and Hut 100 if something isn't done to boost car count, at least a little...

Pretty much the same this year as it's been for several years now.

4-Crown Midget Car Counts:
2009: 21
2010: 19
2011: 19
2012: 17
2013: 20
2014: 18
2015: 21
2016: 25
2017: 18
2018: 24
2019: 20
2020: No Race
2021: 20

That’s somewhat distressing.

In the past I would of said yes, Size of track, hard on motors but past ten years. I've seen video in car from Tmez that never has him past half throttle on the straights.

Think it's more purse and time of year as it's placed right around several big paying races although the Midgets were always the least supported at the four crown.

Just like you can't judge the growth of midgets on the Chili Bowl, you cant judge the death of midgets at Eldora. There is a real reluctance of midget drivers to run on the bigger tracks. While some people may say it is about straining the motor, I truly believe it is a comfort/safety factor.

For both POWRi and USAC, when they travel to any track larger than a 1/4 mile, they have a hard time getting a large field.

I once asked a driver who gets in a sprint and SC at Eldora if he would have a midget ride for the 4 Crown. He paused and looked at me and said “I am not sure I want to get in a midget at Eldora”. He could have a ride if he wanted, I am fairly confident of that, so perhaps there is truth in the safety factor.

One thing about USAC and POWRI that is troubling is that they basically share the same teams back and forth. Whichever group is running that night that's where the teams go. We need growth in Midget racing not this shuffling of the same teams back and forth. If you want to grow Midget racing it needs to be done outside of USAC & POWRI. You need local organizations run in regional areas with rules that cut the costs for the guy that works 40 hours a week. There is a reason USAC only brought 18 of their regular cars to Angell Park and on the same night Badger had 35.