Changes Revealed for 49th Annual Knoxville Nationals!
Monday, March 23, 2009
Changes Revealed for 49th Annual Knoxville Nationals!
(Bill W) March 18, 2009 - Two format changes are in store for the 49th edition of the SuperClean Knoxville Nationals presented by Lucas Oil. The biggest event in sprint car racing will be held August 12-15, 2009 and will feature a purse exceeding $912,000.
Saturday night’s feature will cover 40 laps! The $473,000 feature event has traditionally run with a 30-lap distance. “The extra ten laps should create a ton of excitement and change some strategy with our competitors too,” says Knoxville’s Race Director, Ralph Capitani.
With tongue in cheek, Cappy says, “If fuel usage is a problem, I guess we’ll have to run all forty laps under caution.”
The other change will occur on Friday night. With the top 50 point getters having locked themselves into Saturday night’s features, the remaining competitors vie for spots to fill the field from mid-pack in the C on back. The traditional format calls for five heats with competitors lined up by points earned. Then a C, B, and feature event were run. That format has changed.
Instead of heat races, competitors will be slotted in two semi-feature events, that will transfer the top twelve in each race to the A main. The top twelve finishers in the first semi will comprise the inside of rows 1-12 in the feature and the second semi will make up the outside of the same rows. The remainder of the finishers in the semis will line up accordingly in Saturday night’s D and E mains. An interesting twist sees the top point getters inverted six spots in each semi, and the winner of each will earn $1,000 and head to the front row of the A main event paying $5,000.
There will be no changes in the Scramble or MyRaceLife.com World Challenge events, but track conditions for those events should improve. “The Dunkin family does a great job with the track, but all that racing has taken its toll on the track at times on Friday,” says Cappy. “This should reduce some laps on the track, plus those semis are going to be a lot more interesting than watching those heats, where the fast guys were starting up front most of the time.”
Tickets are now available for the Nationals with 4-day, 3-day and 2-day options. Just visit www.KnoxvilleRaceway.com and click on the “Tickets” link, or call 641-842-5431!
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