The COVID outbreak that took out the entirety of the rest of the Knoxville Raceway season was something that nobody wanted to see.
It seemingly left a lot of open weeks for late model drivers around the United States that otherwise would have been filled by the annual Knoxville Late Model Nationals.
Now, this isn’t the biggest late model race on the planet.
There are a dozen events out there that pay $10,000 more, at least, than the Knoxville event.
However, it’s still the only time all year at fans can see the late models wheel at the famed half-mile oval that is dedicated to sprint car racing.
For a personal note – that was big for me. I got the chance to see late models race in person for the first time this year, and with the abbreviated college football season, I was excited to see the event finally fall on a light weekend for me.
Nonetheless, I’m amped for what this weekend will bring for the Lucas Oil Late Models, thanks to I-80 Speedway.
The Greenwood, Nebraska track is set to host a three-day replacement event with a comparable purse ($30,000 instead of $40,000 to the winner) to replace the lost dates at Knoxville.
I-80 is home to the annual Silver Dollar Nationals and hosted the event in July this year with Brandon Sheppard bringing home the big trophy at the end of the weekend.
Sheppard has been maybe the most dominant driver in his type of vehicle all season, checking off boxes in the World of Outlaws tour as well as select Lucas Dirt series events this year.
Across the two tours, Sheppard has collected 17 wins this year, and finished in the top 10 in all but one start with the Lucas tour.
He’s been the best driver overall, but Jimmy Owens will have a say in what goes down this weekend as well.
Owens is the Lucas Dirt tour’s points leader and collected the win on the prelim night at this year’s Silver Dollar Nationals, too.
The two have seen some fierce battles this year, and you can bet it will be a good race if they face off this Saturday.
The pair has been in the spotlight for a large chunk of the season this year for how much success they’ve seen, although this weekend should welcome back another two drivers that have been on the minds of many this year.
Bobby Pierce and Tyler Erb are both likely to compete this weekend – both of which were involved with an on-track incident earlier this summer.
Pierce was the winner of last year’s Silver Dollar Nationals and hopes to return to victory lane this weekend.
Erb, meanwhile, has been banned from any World of Outlaws and WRG sanctioned events for a minimum of 12 months since the date of the incident.
He’ll, of course, stay locked in to Lucas Dirt schedule and compete for the top prize this weekend as well.
Full coverage of the event can be seen and streamed live on DirtonDirt.com and we’ll have continuous updates over our Twitter feed at @AlwaysRaceDay.
