For nearly two decades, the famed Knoxville Nationals was run without wings atop the sprint cars competing on Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway’s half-mile, black-dirt oval.
While that changed following the death of Gary Scott during Knoxville’s opening day in 1982, non-winged sprint car racing has always had deep roots within the venerable track’s storied history.
A brief return by the United States Auto Club in 2010 and ’11 offered hope of a non-winged revival, of sorts, but it fizzled out and led to another six-year hiatus before the AMSOIL USAC National Sprint Car Series made a more triumphant return to Knoxville in 2017.
That event, won by Justin Grant, laid the foundation for something bigger.
While that something took two years to come to fruition, on July 5-6, the inaugural Corn Belt Nationals will finally give non-winged sprint car racing a crown-jewel event at the Marion County Fairgrounds.
The two-day spectacle will be co-sanctioned by USAC and the POWRi Lucas Oil WAR Sprint League. Its aim is to create a new cornerstone for “traditional” sprint car racing.
“Ever since we first announced this event, there has been pride that Knoxville will host another Nationals event, especially one that brings all of us back to the track’s roots of non-winged racing,” said Knoxville Raceway promoter John McCoy. “Non-winged racing opens up our facility to a new group of fans and will bring many existing followers of the traditional sprint cars back to the Midwest. USAC and WAR have both been a great help in getting this event put together and planned, and we appreciate the ongoing support and cooperation from tracks and groups nationwide.
“Our hope from the beginning has been that we will be able to draw cars from across the country to compete in this inaugural event, and we believe we’ll be able to do just that.”
For USAC, the upcoming Corn Belt Nationals provides yet another high-paying race on an already-stacked AMSOIL USAC National Sprint Car Series calendar.
The Knoxville finale will pay $20,000 to the winner, second only to the Budweiser Oval Nationals at Perris (Calif.) Auto Speedway, traditionally run in early November.
“It’s exciting to be part of this historic event at a legendary race track such as Knoxville Raceway,” noted Levi Jones, USAC’s competition director. “The Knoxville staff has treated us very well and we anticipate the USAC sprint car community to rally around this crown-jewel event next summer.”
From the WAR side of the coin, July’s event marks the first time the series will race at Knoxville, something series director Casey Shuman is eagerly anticipating.
“I had talked with John (McCoy) a couple of years ago, when I was still only doing the WAR thing, and we had discussed doing something there with our group,” explained Shuman, who is now also the director of the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series. “It just didn’t work out at the time. Then, when they contacted me about this deal last year and how they wanted to make it one of their Knoxville Nationals … and wanted to get the cooperation of all the larger non-winged groups, that’s something that’s pretty hard to turn down. Why would you, really?
“Knoxville is the mecca of sprint car racing, and to be involved in trying to get non-winged cars back there for something big like this is huge and something I hope a lot of people want to be part of.”
Ten different winners have triumphed in the previous 10 editions of USAC sprint car racing at Knoxville Raceway, nine without a wing and one (Sammy Swindell in 1988) with a wing overhead.
Among that list are current and likely future National Sprint Car Hall of Famers, including Gary Bettenhausen, who won the inaugural race in 1968; Dick Tobias; Sheldon Kinser; and more-recent stars in Bud Kaeding (2010), Brady Bacon (2011) and Justin Grant (2017).