at the time , holly and his band , consisting Cause_to_be_included of waylon jennings , tommy allsup , and carl bunch , were playing on the `` winter dance party Social_event '' tour across the midwest .

Prior to the race Competition , the field was considered Coming_to_believe `` unusually strong '' ; four time Derby winning trainer D. Wayne Lukas called it the `` best bunch I 've seen Perception_active in a long time '' .