Short Track Nationals – The Ideal Weekend

Lonnie Wheatley

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (September 14, 2016) – An ideal weekend and an unrivaled purse for the 360-ci Sprint Car ranks sets up a tremendous 29^th edition of I-30 Speedway’s COMP Cams Short Track Nationals presented by Hoosier Tires.

After last year’s edition fell victim to Mother Nature, the STN will be back in strong fashion with a $15,000 winner’s share up for grabs at the prestigious event set for November 2-5 in Little Rock, AR, with a minimum of $2,000 just to start the November 5 STN championship finale.

And, in a leap year with schedules jumbled all about, the shift to the first weekend of November should prove advantageous for the storied Short Track Nationals.

All Stars are done two weeks previous at Atomic and World of Outlaws wrap up with World Finals one week earlier at Charlotte. And with an idle week on the ASCS schedule, all winged Sprint Car roads should ultimately lead to Little Rock for Short Track Nationals festivities.

An open weekend this time could easily push the count back to the triple digit range last enjoyed in 2013 when 105 cars flocked to the high-banked ¼-mile for a shot at some serious loot.

The 2013 edition was just one of five times since 2007 that the count has topped 100 cars with a high water mark of 125 in 2010. Only once since 2003 has the count been less than 90.

More than $73,000 will be doled out in the November 5 Short Track Nationals 40-lap championship feature alone with in excess of $100,000 to be distributed over the course of the weekend.

Now a top contender with the Camping World NASCAR Truck series, Christopher Bell still reigns as the defending STN champion after beating Aaron Reutzel and Brian Brown to the stripe in 2014 to become the youngest winner in event history at just 19 years of age.

Bell joined a prestigious list of STN winners that includes names such as Swindell, Kinser, Sweet, Meyers, McMahan, Wright, Crawley, Bruce, Jr., a couple of Johnsons and more.

Aside from 2001 STN champion Jason Sides topping the World of Outlaws at I-30 Speedway in April, veteran STN contender and 1998 champion Tim Crawley has been hard to stop atop the ¼-mile clay oval this season.

The only one to put the brakes on Crawley this year in 360-ci competition at I-30 has been Andy McElhannon, who topped the initial event of the season in March and then put a halt to Crawley’s four-race win streak the last time out on September 3.

Another STN tuneup is on the slate for this Saturday night with a $4,646 winner’s share up for grabs at the Ralph Henson Memorial.

STN entries have already started rolling in, with entry forms for the event available at http://www.i-30speedway.com/flyers/2016%20STN%20Flyer.pdf. Entries received by October 26 just $150, with entries after that at $250.

The Pertinent Info:

The What: 29^th Annual COMP Cams Short Track Nationals presented by Hoosier Tires.

The Where: I-30 Speedway (Little Rock, AR). I-30 Speedway is located seven miles southwest of Little Rock off I-30 Exit 126 (Alexander Road).

The When: November 2-5, 2016.

The Past Winners:

2015-Rained Out

2014-Christopher Bell

2013-Sammy Swindell

2012-Paul McMahan

2011-Sammy Swindell

2010-Brad Sweet

2009-Tony Bruce, Jr.

2008-Tony Bruce, Jr.