It’s time for our weekly Friday tour around the racing world. From hot laps to the main event, here’s what’s on our mind this week.
Hot Laps: More Money
This year’s 63rd running of the NOS Energy Knoxville Nationals will pay $190,000 to win. It will be the largest winner’s purse in the history of the event at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway. The event is scheduled Aug. 7-10.
Qualifying: Where Did The Time Go?
This reporter took a double take when we learned that next season will mark Donny Schatz’s 28th season racing with the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series. We fondly remember our first meeting with Schatz when he was a series rookie. Where did the time go?
First Heat: Coming To America
Three-time Supercar champion Shane van Gisbergen, who shocked the world when he won the Chicago Street Race in his first NASCAR Cup Series race last summer, will be a busy man this season as he embarks on his first full NASCAR season.
Splitting time between Kaulig Racing and Trackhouse Racing, the 34-year-old New Zealand native will run all 33 NASCAR Xfinity Series races and also participate in at least seven NASCAR Cup Series events.
It will be trial by fire for the veteran road racer, who has limited experience on oval tracks.
Second Heat: Hybrid Assist
IndyCar officials have pushed back the launch of hybrid-assist technology in the NTT IndyCar Series until after the Indianapolis 500, and many have speculated that it will not be mandated at all this year.
Does it matter?
I feel like as long as the competition is close, there are numerous winners and the fans are entertained, the technology doesn’t matter to as many folks as some may think.
Third Heat: Seeking Victories
The four drivers — Chase Briscoe, Ryan Preece, Josh Berry and Noah Gragson — wheeling Stewart-Haas Racing Fords in the NASCAR Cup Series this season have one combined victory on NASCAR’s senior circuit.
Briscoe’s lone victory came at Phoenix Raceway in 2022.
Dash: Rumble Time
The 25th annual Rumble in Fort Wayne midget event is scheduled Dec. 29-30 at the War Memorial Coliseum in Ft. Wayne, Ind. Two nights of midget and go-kart racing will take place on the sixth-mile concrete track on the floor of the historic facility.
Catch all the action on SPEED SPORT affiliate PitRow.tv.
B Main: NASCAR Weekly Racers
For decades, NASCAR team owners in the three national touring series mostly ignored NASCAR weekly racing champions, but that’s starting to change.
Layne Riggs, who won the 2022 Advance Auto Parts Weekly Racing title, has landed a full-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series ride with Front Row Motorsports. For Riggs it’s the culmination of a steady climb through the late model ranks.
He follows the footsteps of 2020 weekly champion Josh Berry, who will graduate to the Cup Series next season after three years in the Xfinity Series. Noted NASCAR weekly national champions Lee Pulliam, Philip Morris and Peyton Sellers were never able to land steady rides on the national touring level.
Feature: Who’s Here, Who’s There?
The driver lineups are slowly coming together for the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car Series and the High Limit Racing series and they show a fairly even split among the sport’s drivers with several top-notch racers yet to commit to either national touring series.
The High Limit drivers are Brenham Crouch, Jacob Allen, Spencer Bayston, Parker Price-Miller, Cory Eliason, Kasey Kahne, Justin Peck, Corey Day, Rico Abreu, Chris Windom, Zeb Wise, Sweet and Larson.
Led by 10-time series champion Donny Schatz, the lineup of Outlaws regulars includes Logan Schuchart, David Gravel, Brock Zearfoss, Bill Rose, Landon Crawley, Noah Gass, Bill Balog, Sheldon Haudenschild and Giovanni Scelzi.
Notable winged sprint car drivers who have not yet committed to one group or the other include longtime WoO regular Carson Macedo and his Jason Johnson Racing operation, James McFadden, Tyler Courtney, Brent Marks, Buddy Kofoid, Emerson Axsom, Tanner Holmes, Ryan Timms, Cole Macedo and Sam Hafertepe Jr.