CUMBERLAND, Md. (Oct. 5-6) — At many dirt tracks, a single tire company is dominant by virtue of location, rules or tradition. With the Mid-Atlantic Championship Series bringing its open-tire rule to Allegany County Speedway, there was a rare balance between Hoosiers and American Racers. According to an unofficial count, half of the 52 teams in Friday's Big Kahuna VII action chose American Racers, and half went with Hoosiers. Correspondingly, the 26 feature starters were also split down the middle. American Racers, however, had the edge with seven of the top 10 finishers in Friday's feature, including the top two drivers, winner Jason Covert and runner-up Steve Casebolt. Saturday night's feature had 14 of 25 starters on American Racers — including one driver who gave up his Hoosier Tire sponsorship to run them, runner-up Jeremy Miller. American Racer competitors "were what, the top five cars? And we've been running into that," said Miller, who thanked the Lias Tire crew with helping him get started with the new rubber. "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." Car owner Charles Buckler pointed to his wife Genny when asked who made the decision to try out the American Racers, but Buckler said the 36-year-old Miller's input was crucial because such a decision might affect his career down the line. "It just a business deal," Buckler said. "We just got tired of getting beat by 'em." Miller knows it will be a learning curve as he uses the American Racers, but his experience tells him they perform better on tracks that have looser dirt instead of clay. Miller doesn't have a beef with Hoosier, but simply wants to be competitive even if their tires aren't. "They've been good to me and they've got a great product, but it just wasn't working for me, and I had to make a change to do something," Miller said. "We put a lot of miles on racing this year and we weren't getting the results we feel we can get and should be getting, so we had to make a change."