As it heads into its second season Tod Quiring's National Sprint League is smack dab in the middle of a couple of major showdowns in the world of winged sprint car racing. Other than the fact that the 81 Speedway in Park City, Kansas, announced this week that the "Air Capital Shootout" will be the first event for the inaugural National Sprint League 360 National Tour on the final weekend in March, we are still waiting on additional dates, both national and regional, as the NSL squares off with the ASCS in the battle for 360 supremacy. Meanwhile, in the 410 ranks, it is now clear to see that the NSL is standing tall with the Knoxville Raceway as the historic oval now faces an upstart challenge for Saturday night sprint cars and their fans from the Badlands Motor Speedway, formerly known as Husets Speedway, in Brandon, South Dakota.
The unusual release this week of a partial schedule that had more than twenty events listed, but at just two tracks Knoxville and Jackson, made more sense once I looked up the Badlands website for the first time. With Quiring now a principal at the facility, the Jackson Speedway in south central Minnesota will now race weekly on Friday nights with Sprint Cars only, 410's and 360's, while they will continue to run a Saturday night show consisting of five IMCA sanctioned divisions. Those Friday night races will now run in tandem with Knoxville's Saturday night program with the incentive being that drivers who run at all of the NSL shows will be racing for more money each night than will the drivers who do not race the entire series.
That incentive has created quite a buzz on the Hoseheads forum board with one argument being that it is not fair for drivers who only have the budget to race at either Knoxville or Jackson and not both although it is quickly defended by pointing out that, without the incentive, drivers are racing for the some money at Knoxville as they did in 2015. As I typed in the NSL schedule I wondered why the NSL would not make an appearance there until May 21st, knowing that Knoxville usually kicks off its season the final weekend in April, but then would be there nearly every regular season race night after that including the August 27th season championship event. That question was answered as soon as I popped open the Badlands schedule showing their Sprint Car opener on, you guessed it, Saturday night May 21st.
It should be noted that, like Jackson, Badlands will be racing two nights weekly with 305 Sprints and Street Stocks joining the 410's on Saturday nights while the weekly Sunday show will feature 360's, Micro Sprints and Hobby Stocks. So essentially adding two more nights of weekly racing in a region that we noted as possibly having too much going on already with weekly shows on every night but Monday.
Anyway, the question I now have is this. What other tracks will be included on the NSL schedule? Will we get to have them back to 34 Raceway in Burlington in early April, the track that did such a great job with the League's inaugural event this season? This year we knew that Saturday nights were off limits from late April through August so as to not compete with Knoxville and so the NSL had Friday night stops scheduled at Eagle, Jacksonville, Moberly, Park Jefferson, I-80 and Fairmont, but in 2016 those Friday dates will be reserved for Jackson from mid-May through Labor Day. Essentially the "National" Sprint League is now a two-track point fund with some early and late season shows at other venues to be added.
Earlier the League indicated that it would have over 150 regional events scheduled for the 360's by December 10th so that drivers can then meet then membership deadline of December 15th so look for plenty of press releases over the next eight weeks from PR pro Bill Wright.
While the already released Sprint Car schedules definitely have an air of calculated planning behind them, the one national touring Late Model schedule that has already been announced will create a scramble for some traditional September events here in Iowa. The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series has switched the order of the two events that have traditionally followed the World 100 giving the Knoxville Raceway the earlier date that they wanted to hopefully lock in better weather in mid-September for the Late Model Nationals and to give the Brownstown Speedway in Indiana the chance to have the fans in that region to take a weekend off and reload their wallets before heading out to another major Late Model event since the south central Indiana track is only a couple of hours from Eldora. No spite, not a calculated move to damage another track, just a national series doing what they felt best for two of their premier shows. They did not consider what else was going on in the region, nor should they have.
What this does now is to put the Knoxville Late Model Nationals on the traditional weekend used by both the Farley Speedway for the Yankee Dirt Classic and the Marshalltown Speedway for the Modified World Nationals. The dilemma for the Yankee is more clear cut as I believe nine Late Model drivers raced at both events on separate weekends this year and even more importantly it is the Dirt Late Model fans that would be in high demand if the two were running head to head. For Marshalltown, it might not be a problem and promoter Toby Kruse may stick with the same weekend thinking that it won't have much of an effect on his fan base with the Late Model show running just an hour south of his Modified headliner. However, by this time last year the 2015 schedule for the Marshalltown Speedway had been released, so perhaps his options are still being weighed.
Yes, it will be an interesting off season compiling the new schedules as they are being released and what I have for 2016 so far can be seen below.
Update: About five hours after this entry of the Back Stretch was posted, a spokesman for Simmons Promotions Kevin Feller posted this message on the iowastockcars.com forum board. "With Knoxville Raceway moving there Late Model Nationals race to the date the Yankee has had for 38 years, SPI has decided to move to a new date so fans will be able to attend both events.The 39th Annual Yankee Dirt Track Classic will be Wednesday,August 31,2016 thru Saturday,September 3,2016.The Liberty 100 at West Liberty Raceway will be now on Friday and Saturday ,September 23rd and 24th. More news on these events and 2016 race schedule will be posted in the future."
At this point it looks like I will be taking the coming weekend off from racing as my son and his wife return home from Texas for the weekend, although if they end up with other plans on Saturday night you might just catch me in Memphis, Missouri. Next week I look forward to Shiverfest at the Lee County Speedway on Saturday and then perhaps another scenic drive to Wisconsin for the "Falloween 100" at the Dells Raceway Park on Sunday.
And finally, in case you didn't notice, we have welcomed Ed Reichert to our Positively Racing family of writers so make sure that you check into One Fan's Travels often!
| Special Events Calendar | ||||
| * Schedules subject to change without notice. PositivelyRacing.com is not responsible for the accuracy of this schedule. | ||||
| Day | Date | Track | Location | Event |
| Friday | April 29 | Tri-City Speedway | Pontoon Beach IL | Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series |
| Saturday | April 30 | Macon Speedway | Macon IL | Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series |
| Friday | May 13 | Jackson Speedway | Jackson MN | National Sprint League 410's |
| Friday | May 20 | Oshkosh Speedzone Raceway | Oshkosh WI | Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series |
| Friday | May 20 | Jackson Speedway | Jackson MN | National Sprint League 410's |
| Saturday | May 21 | LaSalle Speedway | LaSalle IL | Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series |
| Saturday | May 21 | Knoxville Raceway | Knoxville IA | National Sprint League 410's |
| Saturday | May 21 | Badlands Motor Speedway | Brandon SD | $100,000 Silver Shootout |
| Friday | May 27 | Lucas Oil Speedway | Wheatland MO | Show Me 100 - Lucas Oil Late Model Series |
| Friday | May 27 | Jackson Speedway | Jackson MN | National Sprint League 410's |
| Saturday | May 28 | Lucas Oil Speedway | Wheatland MO | Show Me 100 - Lucas Oil Late Model Series |
| Saturday | May 28 | Knoxville Raceway | Knoxville IA | National Sprint League 410's |
| Friday | June 3 | Jackson Speedway | Jackson MN | National Sprint League 410's |
| Saturday | June 4 | Knoxville Raceway | Knoxville IA | National Sprint League 410's |
| Friday | June 17 | Jackson Speedway | Jackson MN | National Sprint League 410's |
| Saturday | June 18 | Knoxville Raceway | Knoxville IA | National Sprint League 410's |
| Friday | June 24 | Jackson Speedway | Jackson MN | World of Outlaws and NSL Sprint Cars |
| Saturday | June 25 | Knoxville Raceway | Knoxville IA | National Sprint League 410's |
| Friday | July 1 | Knoxville Raceway | Knoxville IA | National Sprint League 410's |
| Saturday | July 2 | Knoxville Raceway | Knoxville IA | National Sprint League 410's |
| Saturday | July 2 | Badlands Motor Speedway | Brandon SD | World of Outlaws Sprint Cars |
| Sunday | July 3 | Badlands Motor Speedway | Brandon SD | World of Outlaws Sprint Cars |
| Friday | July 8 | Jackson Speedway | Jackson MN | National Sprint League 410's |
| Saturday | July 9 | Knoxville Raceway | Knoxville IA | National Sprint League 410's |
| Friday | July 15 | Tri-City Speedway | Pontoon Beach IL | Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series |
| Saturday | July 16 | Lucas Oil Speedway | Wheatland MO | Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series |
| Friday | July 22 | I-80 Speedway | Greenwood NE | Silver Dollar Nationals |
| Friday | July 22 | Jackson Speedway | Jackson MN | National Sprint League 410's |
| Saturday | July 23 | I-80 Speedway | Greenwood NE | Silver Dollar Nationals |
| Saturday | July 23 | Knoxville Raceway | Knoxville IA | National Sprint League 410's |
| Friday | July 29 | Jackson Speedway | Jackson MN | National Sprint League 410's |
| Saturday | July 30 | Knoxville Raceway | Knoxville IA | National Sprint League 410's |
| Wednesday | August 10 | Knoxville Raceway | Knoxville IA | 56th Annual FVP Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's |
| Thursday | August 11 | Knoxville Raceway | Knoxville IA | 56th Annual FVP Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's |
| Friday | August 12 | Knoxville Raceway | Knoxville IA | 56th Annual FVP Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's |
| Saturday | August 13 | Knoxville Raceway | Knoxville IA | 56th Annual FVP Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's |
| Friday | August 19 | Badlands Motor Speedway | Brandon SD | Gold Cup: Winged 410 Qualifying Night |
| Saturday | August 20 | Badlands Motor Speedway | Brandon SD | Gold Cup: Non-Winged 410 Qualifying Night |
| Sunday | August 21 | Badlands Motor Speedway | Brandon SD | Gold Cup Championships |
| Saturday | August 27 | Knoxville Raceway | Knoxville IA | National Sprint League 410's |
| Thursday | September 1 | Jackson Speedway | Jackson MN | Jackson Nationals - National Sprint League 410's |
| Friday | September 2 | Jackson Speedway | Jackson MN | Jackson Nationals - National Sprint League 410's |
| Saturday | September 3 | Jackson Speedway | Jackson MN | Jackson Nationals - National Sprint League 410's |
| Thursday | September 15 | Knoxville Raceway | Knoxville IA | Lucas Oil Knoxville Late Model Nationals |
| Friday | September 16 | Knoxville Raceway | Knoxville IA | Lucas Oil Knoxville Late Model Nationals |
| Saturday | September 17 | Knoxville Raceway | Knoxville IA | Lucas Oil Knoxville Late Model Nationals |
| Saturday | September 17 | Badlands Motor Speedway | Brandon SD | National Cheaters Day Competition |
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