Yeah, Doug, it sure could be insurance driven. Track prep driven, too, it a lot of tracks have $1K in prepping a quarter mile track before a car heads down. I'm sure insurance is part of it.

Track prep is much more important than it was, and I get it. An old B body will hook in a grease pit. These modern lightweights on small tires can get hairy.

I really think it's because a lot of the racers of today see it totally different. I don't see the passion in a lot of these guys, I see a pseudo business. When I was a young guy, Keystone ran 3 times a week, and we were there every time they opened the gates. When KRP wasn't open we'd be a Mason Dixon or Quaker City, or somewhere else. We'd race for a bag of chips. Heck, most nostalgia racers of today are the same way. Now, the guys, for the most part are satisfied with one day a week, and not motivated by the same thing.

Even at Keystone....they tried to host a couple of big money, 8th mile races this year and really didn't get much support from the locals. Just the real, real hard cores show up for the money, and there is not enough of them to keep it going. It seems many showed up on Friday night to race for points, then loaded up and went boating or something. I visited the weekend afterward, and the place was deserted, relatively speaking. This cannot continue, these tracks do not have money trees to just pick it off and give it out. It seems to be going on everywhere. I speak to a LOT of track operators that tell me the same thing.

The motivation seems to be completely different. It seems that we were always tinkering to go faster, or quicker, with every different combo and within our budget. Now, that doesn't seem to be the motivation, it seems to be how much money we can win. And, if we can win the same money in 60 foot racing, that is what we want.

Not saying that is a particularly bad thing. But, it's different. But, it's kind of foreign to me.