KNOXVILLE, Iowa — Winning the NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals is no easy task.
Not only does the winning driver have to have a fast race car and a little good luck along the way, but he or she must embrace and conquer one of the most unique formats in all of motorsports.
With nearly a purse of $1,064,855 for four nights of racing, the 60th annual Knoxville Nationals could pay the winner as much as $200,000 to win Saturday night’s 50-lap main event. The race pays $150,000 to win and an additional $1,000 per lap led. Thus, leading flag to flag, would earn the winning driver $200,000.
But simply making the 24-car field is half the battle. It’s all about earning points. The Knoxville Nationals format pays drivers points every time they go on the track on their qualifying nights.
And while minor tweaks to the format have been made through the years, it has remained relatively unchanged for decades.
Wednesday and Thursday Nights
Order of Events: Hot laps, Qualifications, 5 Heats, C Main, B Main, 25-lap feature.
Qualifications: 200 points are awarded for quick timer, 198 for second quick, 196 for third, etc.
Only the top 50 qualifiers each night make the heats, the rest are put in the last chance heats if needed in which the first eight finishers will fill the back of that night’s C feature (starting in the sixth row). If there are 10 or fewer cars not making the heats, they will line straight up by time starting in the sixth row.  The quickest will be given 50 points, the next 47, etc.
Last Chance Heats (for drivers out of the top 50 in Qual.): 50 points awarded to the winner, 47 for 2nd, etc.
Heats: 100 points are awarded for the heat race winner, points go down by three for each position: 97, 94, 91, 88, etc.
Heats are inverted by eight. For most of the history of this format, the top 10 were inverted. This sets up the best racing of the week as only the top four finishers transfer to the A Main. Fifth through eighth go to the B Main, finishing positions 9-10 go to the C Main.
C Main: Top four finishers go to back of the B. Fifth place is worth 92 pts., 6th is 90, etc.
B Main: The top four finishers transfer to the tail of the A. The B awards 142 points for fifth, 140 for sixth and so on by twos.
A Main: The A Main points are the same as time trials: 200, 198, 196 etc. This explains how a driver cannot make the A, but if he timed well may have more points than someone who did make the A. The invert for the A Main is eight.
First tiebreaker is finish position in respective main event. Next tie breaker is rank in time trial. The third tiebreaker is pill draw. Other tie breaking criteria may be implemented if needed.
A perfect score (quick time, heat win, feature win) is 500.
The top 16 in combined points from Wednesday and Thursday are locked into Saturday’s Championship feature.Â
Teams ranking 17th-26th in points are awarded the first 10 positions in the Saturday B Main. The rest of the field comes back for more racing during Friday’s Hard Knox qualifying program.
Friday – FVP Hard Knox
Drivers who find themselves not locked into Saturday’s A-Main have a second chance to qualify for the finale. The top-four finishers in Friday’s feature event will fill positions 21-24 in Saturday night’s feature lineup.
The top four finishers in Saturday’s B main receive starting spots 17-20.
Friday’s event will consist of split field qualifying, 6 heats, C Main, two B Main’s and the Hard Knox 25-lap feature.
Saturday
Events: 10-lap E Main, 12-lap D Main, 15-lap C Main, 22-lap B Main and the 50-lap Knoxville Nationals Championship feature.
The B, C, D and E Main will take the top four finishers to the tail of the next event (if there are scratches, there may be more taken for a particular event).
The 50-lap feature concludes the week’s racing at the legendary half-mile dirt track.