Short-track, dirt-track season nears its peak and three of the biggest events of the summer are on tap this weekend with the 360 Knoxville Nationals, the Ironman 55 and the USA Nationals.
As well, IndyCar makes its annual trek to Nashville and NASCAR visits Michigan Int’l Speedway.
Here’s what to watch for.
360 Nationals
The biggest two weeks in sprint car racing will kick off Thursday night with the first of three nights of racing for the 33rd annual Knoxville 360 Nationals at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway.
Two nights of preliminary action will set the stage for Saturday night’s $20,000-to-win main event.
Aaron Reutzel is the defending race winner and he is among the nearly 100 entries.
The 410 winged sprint cars then take to the big, half-mile track for Sunday night’s Capitani Classic, which is the last chance to tune up for the Aug. 9-12 Knoxville Nationals.
Ironman 55
Fifty-five laps on a quarter-mile oval can be grueling for both man and machine, as the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series visits Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 in Pevely, Mo., for the popular pre-Knoxville Nationals Ironman 55 weekend.
The winged sprints race for $10,000 to win on Friday night with a $20,000 winner’s check on the line for Saturday’s 55-lap race. Brad Sweet is the defending winner of the Ironman 55.
The Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series will also be on the card both nights.
USA Nationals
The 36th annual USA Nationals at Wisconsin’s Cedar Lake Speedway features three nights of racing for the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Late Model Series.
A pair of $6,000-to-win features will be run Thursday and Friday with the Every Point Matters format used to determine the starting lineup for Saturday night’s 100-lap USA Nationals feature that pays $50,000 to win.
Music City
The NTT IndyCar Series returns to Nashville for the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix. For three days, the streets of downtown will come alive with the sounds of music, food and racing. This temporary street circuit takes racers by Nissan Stadium, home of the NFL Tennessee Titans, and over the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge into downtown Nashville, the first motorsports course of its kind in the world to cross a major body of water.
Alex Palou enters the weekend with an 80-point lead over Josef Newgarden. Both drivers have won four races this season.
Irish Hills
The Irish Hills of Michigan will welcome the NASCAR Cup Series for its annual visit to the two-mile Michigan Int’l Speedway.
It will be the 23rd race of the season and one of only four races remaining in the regular season for the series. Kevin Harvick was last year’s winner at Michigan.
The Xfinity Series will race on Saturday and the ARCA Menards Series hits the track on Friday.
Road America
Road America, one of America’s most scenic road courses, will host its annual IMSA Sportscar Weekend with a 2 hour and 45-minute test for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship headlining the card on Sunday afternoon with the GTP, LMP2, LMP3, GTD Pro and GTD classes all in competition.
Also on the weekend card at the 4-mile road course will be the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series, Mazda MX-5 Cup and Lamborghini Super Trofeo.
Silver Crown
Toledo (Ohio) Speedway will host the sixth race of the USAC Silver Crown Series on Saturday night. It will be the third consecutive race on a paved race track with Kody Swanson having won the events at Madison (Wis.) Int’l Speedway and Winchester (Ind.) Speedway.
Swanson, who won last year’s race at the half-mile track, leads the standings 16 points over Logan Seavey.