Hailie Deegan SRX Racing
Getty Images

How wild was the SRX racing at Slinger Speedway? There were 38 lead changes through the first 120 laps of the main event Saturday night. Compare that total to NASCAR's Cup Series, where there had been 36 lead changes in the three races heading into Atlanta combined.  

It was short track action at its finest, fender-slamming causing a number of incidents that had the sold-out crowd on their feet.  

"Man, it felt like a boxing match out there," said Ernie Francis, Jr. "I was getting knocked around left, right and center." 

"There's a lot of short track carnage out there and I truly love it," added Hailie Deegan. "I enjoy it so much." 

I'm not sure Paul Tracy feels the same way. In the end, Tracy getting dropkicked courtesy of Deegan's front bumper set up a green-white-checkered battle to the finish. Marco Andretti snuck past 17-year-old Luke Fenhaus, the local All-Star, to earn his first main event win in a mild upset. It's quite a feat for an IndyCar driver to jump from venues like 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway to Slinger, a ¼-mile short track that boasts it's the smallest in the country. 

"Us old guys have to get it when we can," said the 34-year-old Andretti after sneaking by Fenhaus. "He's young, he's got a lot of time ahead of him. I had so much fun." 

Their battle faded into the background post-race as the Deegan-Tracy brouhaha took center stage leaving Slinger. Here are five takeaways from the race and what to watch for heading into the first-season finale at Nashville Fairgrounds next Saturday night. 

1) Paul Tracy becomes the center of controversy… again   

Tracy, once the bad boy of open wheel, has now been involved in an incident during each of SRX's five race weekends. The early issues were with Francis, spinning out after contact between them. Tracy's response was to bang into the side of Francis' No. 2 several times under caution, leading to a heated conversation.  

"Pissed me off a little bit," Francis said after the race, while Tracy claimed he was disappointed by his rival's "dirty racing." 

Turns out that was just the undercard. After racing hard with Deegan, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series rookie took matters into her own hands on the track. The resulting wreck changed the narrative of the race, taking out Tracy while collecting Michael Waltrip, Willy T. Ribbs and Helio Castroneves. 

"Hailie Deegan just flat dumped me," Tracy said afterwards. "People complain that I'm rough and I'm getting spun out… I got turned for no reason." 

Deegan was angry over the way Tracy was racing her, a sentiment shared by others in the SRX field. Both drivers took to Instagram to vent their frustrations with each other, spilling the controversy into social media as Deegan claimed Tracy "chopped her nose off 10 times before [this wreck]."  

What happens next? Who knows? But there's a long line of drivers who've crossed paths with Tracy this season and four of them were explicitly in this wreck. Could Nashville be a race filled with Tracy payback? 

2) Introducing… Luke Fenhaus

This 17-year-old started off the week as a relative unknown out of Wisconsin. He ended it as the youngest Slinger Nationals winner in the history of the race and coming one bad luck caution away from winning the SRX main event he qualified for. Frustrated after coming so close, Fenhaus was gracious in defeat while indicating he felt winner Andretti got a little too aggressive on that final restart. 

"I think he jumped it a little bit, which didn't help me at all," Fenhaus said. "But I was better on the top, I felt like we could roll on the outside.  

"I was just worried that he'd shove me up the racetrack if I went to the outside so probably would have lost either way. He would have ran us hard. So it is what it is. Second place, I can't complain." 

Fenhaus shouldn't hang his head for a second. He spent the main event going toe-to-toe with Tony Stewart up front, thrilling the crowd as they traded the lead back-and-forth while leading nearly 100 laps. The teenager said entering the race how much he loved Stewart's attitude and for the three-time Cup champion? 

That feeling is mutual. 

"It's the most composed 17-year-old kid I've ever seen," Stewart said. "There's kids in the Truck Series and the Xfinity Series that don't have the composure this guy's got. So I hope somebody will give this kid a shot, even if it's a one-race deal." 

3) Marco makes the most of his opportunity and scores one for IndyCar 

I can't help but notice, every week, how much of a blast Andretti is having in these cars. A guy who dropped down to part-time IndyCar competition this year is loving the pressure-free environment of SRX. Now armed with a main event win under his belt, Andretti feels a second wind is close at hand for his racing career. 

Where will he land next? Perhaps in NASCAR where there's been talks of a part-time Xfinity ride. Whatever the next steps are, give a call to a guy outperforming two Indy 500 winners in this series: Castroneves and Tony Kanaan.  

4) NASCAR gets knocked around 

One of many criticisms toward the end of IROC, what SRX is modeled after, was how competition tended to tilt NASCAR's way. You wondered if the stock car experts would run circles around their rivals with six unique dirt and short tracks playing right into their skill set. 

Instead? The opposite has happened. While Tony Stewart leads the standings, he's the only former NASCAR driver to win a main event. Three others have gone to the local All-Star in Doug Coby, a Trans-Am champion in Francis and IndyCar's Andretti: not your first picks when looking over the roster. It's testament to the type of car SRX built, bridging the gap between skill sets from drivers of different backgrounds and putting everyone on an even playing field. 

"To see how easy it's been for guys who aren't used to them," Stewart said. "Figuring them out on dirt and on pavement, it's been so much fun… that's the payoff for all this." 

5) Francis keeps his championship hopes alive 

Francis fought hard through adversity at Slinger to score a sixth-place finish in the main event. That keeps him second in points, 39 behind Stewart heading into Nashville next weekend. With no driver able to score 49 points in each event, that leaves him and Marco Andretti (-44) the only longshots in contention. 

"It's going to be tough," Francis said. "Tony's been so consistent everywhere that he goes. He's really hard to beat out there. We just need everything to go right for us. We need to be on top of it in the heats and in the feature. And honestly, we need some bad luck to happen to Tony out there.  

"But at the end of the day, being in the top 3 in this series for the first year is incredible. Especially with the names of the guys that are out here. So I'm really happy with where we're at and just happy to be racing out here."