Sounds like a wild night from all the posts i'm reading. The long cautions seem to happen at Terre Haute for years no matter who was running the track, they never have enough tow vehicles. The Levi thing sounds like a bad call, this is why i watch TNA wrestling, sometimes it's not much different than watching a race!

And despite all of the negative, but factual, comments above, I'm glad I attended and will again enthusiastically make the long drive across the state anytime USAC sprints run at THAT . Kudos to the track prep team. I had feared a "dust bowl" night after reading comments here about recent TH conditions. Didn't happen. Looking at the track early on I thought it might be rough as a cob all night like it usually was for Sunday afternoon races "back in the day". Didn't happen. Racing surface smoothed out nicely and stayed tacky right to the final checkers. 3 and 4 wide out of turn 4 was the norm with great racing throughout the field with tons of passing.

It was a late arriving crowd but from our perch in the turn 4 stands the place looked pretty well full by heat race time. One small whine here related to parking which they seem to change every time I go. This time no parking AT ALL along the street which runs behind the grandstand. Lowly fans couldn't even pay to park there this time as it was reserved strictly for "VIP's". I don't mind walking but it was interesting to view a mostly empty area where we had parked for many years. I'm guessing that other than Jerry Shaw, SHORTBUS, and WallsRacing, there just aren't that many VIP's in Vigo county.

Chase Stockon, what a drive. Battles he had with Levi, then Coons, then Stanbrough were awesome to watch. Ballou, Weir, and especially Damion were spectacular with their runs to the front, as were several others. My boy Darland had what turned out to be a bad quals draw. Third car out as I recall. Surface conditions steadily improved with more running and next to last timer, Levi, grabbed quick time. Love the looks of that yellow 2B. Must be something about the DD initials as Derek Davidson was also a big favorite of mine.

Sat with some long time, knowledgable, and great racing fan friends. Was fortunate to meet up with Waynenz9, visiting here from New Zealand. Wayne loves midgets and had planned for a long time to come "up" see the Hut 100. We know what happened with that but he came anyway since he also had a hankering to see the dirt cars on the DuQuoin mile.......steeeerike two. He said that he had been having a great time here, but still I'm glad, especially for Wayne, that this show didn't get rained out or otherwise cancelled. Also renewed "howdies" with Professor Joe from another board. And finally, after many years of seeing this guy around the tracks, I got a name, "Tim Wolffrum aka Cowboy", to go with the face.

I should quit now, but I just can't without piling on to the most incompetent wrecker driver I've ever seen in that big yellow rig. One of my friends suggested that he must be getting paid by the hour. I thought maybe he just didn't want to get his truck dirty or maybe he wanted everyone to have a chance to read the company name on the door. Whatever.......I think he was one of the main causes of so many empty fuel tanks with 2 laps to go.

All in all, as I said, I'll be back.

NASCAR wouldnt black flag Dale Jr, Levi is our Dale JR in a way. He was trying to win and hold on to it for a lap or so...Everyone else out there would have done the same thing. Dont bash a guy that puts on a great show for you everytime he is on the track for trying to limp a car to a win.

A friend who lives in Speedway told me that there is a really strong odor of gunsmoke around the corner of 16th and Georgetown today. I told him to read this thread and he would realize that it was merely USAC shooting themselves in the foot again (or maybe still would be appropriate).

USAC------:14

What started to be a good race turned into a comedy act.They seam to find ways to screw up good things.We had a great race track last night then usac didn't make very good decisions last night.Bill Carey needs to never quit his day job because the one he has with usac may not last.And Jason McCord he is just another piece to the side show that goes on at usac.I guess I having been giving Jason way to much credit.I figured being a former race car driver you would have thought he had more common sense then what he has been shown.The last thing usac is making it real easy for Emmit to come in and do a major take over.

When a guy finishes last it is hard to penalize hime positions. I guarantee you had Levi crossed the finish line first he would have had a penalty. You guys all want to ***** about how many laps were ran under yellow. They could of ran more laps waiting to for levi to go the tail. But all anybody wants to do is come on here and bash USAC for everything they do. When last nights situation had no chance to be resolved. All competitors know that they do not through red flags for fuel. And I BET that they continue to not through red flags for fuel. The tanks are big enough so if you are worried through more fuel in.
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Agree with what my bud Fishburger said.

For whatever reason, this became my very first trip to THAT. I don't know whay but I'm finally off the snide. I saw a very good show that got a little crazy at the end. Levi put on a clinic out there any nobody had anything for him. It was a shame the right rear went flat but agree with all who say he had no business out there restarting on a flat RR and should have just sucked it up and tagged the tail with the good tire.

We fully expected to see Chase Shockton fade to the lower reaches of the top ten about a third of the way into the race. Not so. Chase gave the best out there everything they could handle. I just wish his finish better reflected his great effort of the night. It was fun watching Ballou, Whitt and the Demon advance through the field. I didn't see the issue with Whitt and Gardner so I will reserve judgement.

I don't like to knock anyone that is trying to do their job but the yellow tow truck driver was in absolute slow motion all night. It took about 5 minutes for him to got to a disabled Kurt Gross on the front stretch. Kurt could have smoked a cigerette and played a couple of games of solitare while waiting if he was so inclined. Was he stuck in a low gear or what? It makes me appreciate the Hardintown Towing guys.

Was happy to see and talk to Waynenz9 as well. and was happy to swap lies with Fishburger and all our other knowledgable colleagues in the bleachers.

Observations on THAT. This is the first race I have attended as a spectator in quite awhile.

First off whoever did the track prep nailed it. That is the best I have seen TH in about 15 years. The rough stuff down low in 1 had me nervous through qualifying as did the hump just off of 4 that had cars pulling wheelies down the front stretch. All the drivers did a masterful job negotiating these area although I am sure the pucker factor was pretty high a few times. By feature time the track was absolutely flawless. Two enthusiastic thumbs up.

The push trucks and wrecker drivers did make most of the yellows take way longer than they should have. Curt Gross sat against the front stretch wall for 4 laps before the wrecker ever moved. When he did go he went all the way around the track instead of going down the infield pit lane and coming out at turn 4. It took another 5 laps to get him off the track. After Whitt drilled Damion into the turn 2 wall it took seven laps before they hooked his car up and many more to move it. I suspect that there may have been some radio communication on this one as this is when Levi had his issue. Another thing I noticed was the push trucks were starting the cars way to slowly. I saw many incidents of driveline chatter because the trucks were pushing so slow. I guess they don't know how hard that is on rear ends, driveshafts and cranks. Could very well have contributed to Windom's stripped a driveline in the feature.

Now to the fuel issue. There absolutely should have been a fuel stop due to all the extended cautions. I do not say this because I wanted a different guy to win or run up front. There were just way to many caution flag laps to not have one. In my heart I believe that USAC did not have a fuel stop because of the backlash they would have received on here. They were pretty much damned if they did and damned if they didn't. No win situation. They were absolutely irresponsible for not having one though. It is extremely dangerous for cars to be running out of fuel in front of someone who is running at full speed directly behind them. Cudos to the drivers for not crashing into dead stick cars.

Levi should have been black flagged for the flat right rear. That is in the rule book. No car is allowed to run on a flat tire other than the left front. While I guess technically his tire was not completely devoid of all air, there was not enough in it to complete the race safely. Also passing the pace car is in the rule book. I have to assume that he was told he could do this on the radio. I wasn't wearing a headset so I cannot say for sure. If race control told him to do this, that person should be fired or removed from that position for directly ordering someone to violate the club rules. Then also allowing him to restart in front of the entire field on that tire after passing the pace car was totally out of line as well as endangering himself, other racers and worst of all the fans. He is very lucky that tire blew on the front stretch and not entering a turn.

Congrats to Stanbrough and the Fox Racing team. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Those boys are always prepared, the opportunity finally presented itself to them.

I am not going to complain about anything that went on at Terre Haute....... Honestly, it was what I expected! With the current state of USAC and it ongoing debacle of problems, who would expect anything less. Also The Action Track seems to be more worried about dragging out a program instead of getting the races over and getting the fans home at a reasonable time. It is the track"s responsibility to have propper wrecker service, and appearently these high profile promoters at THAT don't have a clue as what they need.... ATTN: Davey Hamilton....I think you should know how to resolve the problems since you are a racer and have probably seen all of these problems at tracks that you have raced at through the years.

If USAC, the sanctioning body that RUNS THE SHOW, would have stepped up and taken care of the tow truck situation earlier in the night, fuel would have never been an issue. Yes, people should probly prepare and run 33 gallon tanks, but they would have been fine if this race was run under normal circumstances. USAC is the sanctioning body, it is their responsibility to run the show in a safe, timely, and fair manner, and it wasnt done, plain and simple. I like Levi, and would have done the exact thing he did in that situation, but I guarentee Tommy Estes would have black flagged him the moment he passed the pace car, flat tire or not, and he wouldnt have let him roll around for 4 or 5 laps out in front of the pace car hoping for a fuel stop.

On a lighter note, on the way home last night, I could have swear I saw Kevin Miller at the 24 hr. Kinkos making copies of job applications...

haha funny everyone, calm down