Story By: SPENCE SMITHBACK / ASCS – KNOXVILLE, IA – The American Sprint Car Series National Tour will invade the mecca of Sprint Car racing this weekend for the Xtream powered by Mediacom 360 Knoxville Nationals presented by Great Southern Bank at Knoxville Raceway.
More than 100 of the top drivers in Sprint Car racing are expected to converge on the “Sprint Car Capital of the World” for the three-day spectacle. In addition to the 15 full-time National Tour teams, the field will include a myriad of 410 stars looking to get laps ahead of next week’s NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s as well as 360 regulars from all regions of the country.
The event will culminate with the largest purse of the season on Saturday night, with the Feature paying $20,000 to win and $1,000 to start. Preliminary Features on Thursday and Friday night will each pay $3,000 to win and $250 to start.
Tickets can be purchased online in advance here, while those unable to make it to the track can catch every lap live on DIRTVision with an annual FAST PASS.
Here are the top storylines entering the weekend:
FORMAT 101: The largest and most prestigious event on the 360 Sprint Car calendar calls for a format unlike anything else the Series faces all season. Drivers earn points each time they hit the track, and those points determine lineups later in the event.
The field will be split in half for preliminary action, with drivers competing on either Thursday or Friday night. After Hot Laps, a driver’s first chance to earn points on their prelim night is Qualifying, which differs from the traditional National Tour format in how competitors will qualify against the entire field. The driver with the overall Quick Time will be awarded 200 points, with a two-point drop for each subsequent position.
If more than 50 cars register for either prelim night, Last Chance Heat Races will be run for those who qualify outside the top 50. Those races will pay 50 points to the winner, 47 for second, 44 for third, and so on.
The Heat Races will utilize a six-car invert to set the starting lineups, with Heat winners receiving 100 points with three-point gaps between positions.
Each driver’s point total on the night will determine their spot in the A, B or C Feature. The top four finishers in the C will transfer to the B, with the C Feature winner receiving 92 points. The B Feature works the same way, with the top four advancing to the A and the winner garnering 142 points. The night concludes with the A Feature, where the winner will gain 200 points.
Prelim night tallies will be used to set the starting lineups for the A, B, C, D and E Feature on Saturday night. No points will be awarded on Saturday; finishing at the front of the pack is the only way to transfer to the next Feature and get one step closer to becoming a 360 Knoxville Nationals champion.
THE SETH & SAM SHOW: Out of the 12 National Tour races run so far this season, all but two of them were claimed by either Seth Bergman or Sam Hafertepe Jr.
Bergman kickstarted the season with a victory at Super Bee Speedway with TwoC Racing before switching teams and picking up three more in the seat of his own No. 23 at Rush County Speedway, Arrowhead Speedway and Tri-State Speedway.
Hafertepe waited until the fourth race of the year at Dodge City Raceway Park to collect his first trophy, but he quickly racked up two more to start ASCS Speedweek at Texarkana 67 Speedway and Creek County Speedway. After losing due to a crash at Arrowhead Speedway and a last-lap pass at Batesville Motor Speedway, Hafertepe will roll into Knoxville on a three-race winning streak after triumphs at Tulsa Speedway, Lakeside Speedway and 81 Speedway.
The gap between leader Bergman and second-place man Hafertepe sits at 96 points, and that will not change this weekend as the event will pay show-up points only for National Tour competitors. However, neither competitor is currently able to call themselves a 360 Knoxville Nationals champion, and the idea of changing that will provide more than enough motivation for both.
MEET THE LOCALS: Knoxville Raceway is home to the toughest weekly field in 360 Sprint Car racing, and they will be out in force to challenge the National Tour this weekend.
Although Jamie Ball has only won once this season at Knoxville, a string of consistent runs has put him atop the standings by 308 markers over Clint Garner. Aaron Reutzel leads the win total this season at five, with one each going to Chase Randall, Nathan Mills, Tasker Phillips, Sawyer Phillips, Austin McCarl, Emerson Axsom and Ball, all of whom will be in attendance to try and defend their home turf.
Several members of the track’s 410 division will be bolting a 360 engine between the frame rails and joining the fun, including Terry, Austin and Carson McCarl, Brian Brown, Dusty Zomer and Matt Juhl.
THE INVADERS: The remainder of the entry list is filled with the best talent Sprint Car racing has to offer in both the 410 and 360 ranks.
The roster will include past World of Outlaws winners such as 2013 World of Outlaws champion Daryn Pittman, Tyler Courtney, Zeb Wise, Tim Shaffer, Brooke Tatnell and Parker Price-Miller, while former National Tour winners including Scott Bogucki and JJ Hickle will be making their returns to the Series that helped launch their Sprint Car careers.
The Pennsylvania Posse will be well represented in Iowa, with Danny Dietrich and Devon Borden both expected to make the tow. Other big names to keep an eye out for include 18-time NASCAR Cup Series winner Kasey Kahne, west coast superstar Tanner Holmes, reigning IRA champion Brenham Crouch and 2022 Attica-Fremont Championship Series champion Cole Macedo.
WHEN AND WHERE:
Thursday through Saturday, Aug. 1-3, at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, IA
AROUND THE TURN: The American Sprint Car Series National Tour contests its first of three consecutive weekends of racing with a doubleheader beginning Friday, Aug. 16 at Dodge City Raceway Park and concluding at Lincoln County Raceway on Saturday, Aug. 17.