If You Don’t Consider the Knoxville Nationals a Great Race, Reconsider.

The building of a tradition is a slow and exhaustive process that can change as circumstances require while years turn into decades. For motorsports, the Great Races are named as such because they share similar characteristics surrounding them and their appeal to racers around the world.

Several characteristics go into defining what makes up a Great Race. A Great Race must have longevity, with traceable roots going back long ago. Such races must take place at a venue with the grandeur that only a select few racetracks contain.

The competitive field must compete at a high skill level because of what is at stake in the event. Sometimes the race doesn’t offer a big purse – such as Le Mans and the Chili Bowl – but the challenge of getting to the finish of both races is part of what makes them so unique and grand in the motorsports landscape.

Lastly, a Great Race must be unique in its chosen discipline. Whether through extra practice sessions, a qualifying format or how the race is structured, there has to be something about the procedure that sets it apart from a normal race.

All of the above is true for the Knoxville Nationals.

Any dirt racing enthusiast will tell you that’s obvious, but many racing fans may not be aware. There’s a massive racing world out there and dirt racing has a subset of extremely passionate fans that make Knoxville a special event.

Those four special days in the middle of Iowa prove it to anyone lucky enough to be making their first trip.

The Knoxville Nationals has longevity, stretching back to the 1960s when it was originally a dirt supermodified race lasting one day before eventually becoming a sprint car race with four days of competition.

Then we have to look at the venue. Knoxville Raceway at the Marion County Fairgrounds is a half-mile dirt track on the inside groove and measures at 5/8ths of a mile at the outside wall. The track has over 20,000 permanent seats and is also home to the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum outside of Turn 2, where several suites are located. Only Eldora Speedway can boast a higher seating capacity at a dirt oval in America.

Sprint car racers come to Knoxville to compete for one of the richest cash prizes in racing, with $190,000 going to the winner of the Saturday night’s 50-lap A-Main. This year that prize went to Kyle Larson, who took home an additional $12,000 for a win in Thursday’s preliminary feature, boosting his total weekend…