A Hoosier 1450- or ultrahard 70-compound right-rear tire? That was the most pressing question in the pit area before the start of Saturday’s third annual Keystone Cup finale at Bedford Speedway.

But Gregg Satterlee and his crew chief, Robby Allen, were two people who didn’t quite understand what all the rubber-intrigue fuss was about. They simply bolted on a 1450 tire, went out for the 60-lap feature and registered a convincing victory worth a healthy $20,000.

“We had talked about a 70, but I’m the one who was like, ‘1450,’ ” Satterlee said while standing in his trailer and rehashing the race. “It’s won like every race here this year, it’s cold (Saturday’s conditions turned chilly), (the track surface was) more wet to start than what it normally is. We just thought (a 1450) was the way to go.

“We ran a 70 here two or three times here this year, and we ran like sixth (on July 31). It was just no good. I think our car’s better tonight, but we had the right tires on tonight. I guess we just made the right call.”

Satterlee, 36, of Indiana, Pa., was unstoppable once he glided by race-long pacesetter Mason Zeigler of Chalk Hill, Pa., to grab the lead on lap 39. He beat Zeigler, who also used a 1450 tire, by a full straightaway margin, and farther back in his dust at the checkered flag were three entrants — third- through fifth-place finishers Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., and Michael Norris of Sarver, Pa. — who opted to utilize 70-compound right-rears akin to asphalt rubber.

In the final analysis, perhaps the best thing Satterlee and Allen did was to stick with their gut instincts. They didn’t dwell on their tire choice and just went on with their business.

“Every race here all year long has been won on a 1450,” Allen said. “I mean, we’ve run 70s here this year, and I don’t know that they were the wrong tire, but it just seemed like they didn’t win.

“(The surface) just needs to be more abrasive (for a 70), and they worked the racetrack so much last night and today that it kept it from getting to be where the tires were gonna be a big issue. And it just seems like when tires aren’t that big of an issue here, that (a 1450) is a better tire.

“Honestly, I don’t know that (the tire choice) matters,” he added. “If we’d had a 70 on, we might’ve still won, and we might not have. I just thought (the track) wasn’t gonna wear tires completely out, and that’s one reason why we put it on. I don’t know if it was necessarily better. You just didn’t need a 70.”

Concluded Allen: “I think the three best cars ran one-two-three, and I don’t think tires mattered that much. I mean, Darrell was ahead of us for half the race and he had a 70 on. He killed his right-front (tire) is why we got by him (for second place on lap 32). Same thing with Zeigler. It wasn’t really the right-rear tires that were the issue. They really worked their right-front tires because they were charging so hard (into the corners).”

A 50-year-old Dirt Late Model lifer who has seen it all while working alongside many of the sport’s biggest names, Allen boiled down Satterlee’s triumph to the fact that he ran a virtually flawless race.

“It would’ve been easy to get out there and screw your tires up, drive all over the track and hurt your tires,” said Allen, who since 2012 has maintained Satterlee’s family-owned equipment at his shop near Hagerstown, Md. “That would’ve been easy to do, so to be patient enough to just keep up with Darrell (while running third) … he probably could’ve pushed it with Darrell harder and raced him harder sooner, but it might have just hurt our tires enough that when we did get by him we couldn’t race Zeigler hard enough.

“I told him he did a good job. He could have over-drove easy.”

Satterlee eagerly accepted the praise from Allen, who is known for his tough-love critiques of Satterlee’s driving. He felt he had indeed done what was needed to emerge victorious.

“That was all tire conservation,” Satterlee said. “I was being pretty gentle, every straightaway, every corner entry. They (Zeigler and Lanigan) were really charging the corners quite a bit harder, but it was hurting them in the center I think. I just wanted to make sure I didn’t hurt my tires.”

Satterlee also knew he didn’t have much room for error with the talented racers that were at the front of the pack.

“We had McCreadie and Darrell and Mason,” Satterlee said. “McCreadie, he’s pretty lethal in longer races, especially when it comes to tire conservation and being at the right place at the right time. There’s not too many guys better than him at that. I don’t know if there’s any guys better than him at that, and there was a lot of that tonight — don’t overdrive your car, drive it right.

“But your car had to be right. I always say when you see guys winning big races, their cars are good. You gotta drive ‘em correctly, but the car’s gotta be capable of doing that. Tonight we were, and we took advantage of it.”

The march to victory in the Keystone Cup was a welcomed development for Satterlee. He has been a familiar face in regional and national events for the better part of the last decade, but securing major wins has been difficult. Satterlee can claim triumphs on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series (two) and World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series (three), but Saturday’s success was just the eighth five-figure score of his career.

In fact, Bedford’s marquee event represented Satterlee’s richest victory, nearly doubling the $12,422 (including more than $8,000 in lap money) he collected for capturing 2015’s Salute to Rodney Franklin at Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway and his $12,000 Lucas Oil Series wins in ’16 at Hagerstown and ’18 at Muskingum County Speedway in Zanesville, Ohio. His largest paychecks actually came in races he didn’t win: second-place finishes in 2017’s Topless 100 and World 100 (both worth $20,000) and a third-place run in 2018’s Dirt Million at Mansfield (Ohio) Motor Speedway ($20,294).

“That’s what I just told him — ‘That’s the most money you’ve ever won for a win,’ ” Allen said. “The top-three money earnings we’ve ever had have been for seconds and thirds.”

Finally landing a 20-grand triumph made the Keystone Cup arguably the most satisfying outing of Satterlee’s career.

“Yeah, I think so,” Satterlee calmly said.

At the same time, though, true to Satterlee’s lowkey nature, he didn’t celebrate wildly after banking the big bucks. He climbed on the roof of his car on the winner’s stage to acknowledge the crowd, but it couldn’t be considered a roof dance nor even a demonstrative action.

“I don’t know what it would take for me to get real excited,” said Satterlee, who is unsure if he’ll extend his 10-win 2020 season with to the Nov. 4-5 WoO doubleheader at The Dirt Track at Charlotte in Concord, N.C. “I try not to get excited in there (the cockpit). I don’t even think about anything until the checkered flag flies. I had myself as relaxed as I could tonight. It took until I was to the scales to realize, ‘I won!’ ”