THIS WEEK: iRacing Knoxville Nationals Presented by SimpleTire | Special Event
August 3rd, 2026 by Justin Melillo
iRacing’s Special Event calendar features a selection of the world’s most compelling races across numerous disciplines. Whether you’re interested in stock cars or sports cars, open-wheel formula cars or sprint cars, sticking to pavement or playing in the dirt, running solo or racing with a team of your closest friends, our Special Events have something for everyone!
This week, the iRacing Knoxville Nationals Presented by SimpleTire takes the spotlight with Winged 410 Sprint Cars taking on the famed dirt oval known as Knoxville Raceway.
Here’s everything you need to know about participating in this iRacing Special Event.
TRACK: KNOXVILLE RACEWAY
CAR COMPETING
BROADCAST DETAILS
There will be a broadcast of the Top Split broadcast for the second and final Super Session time slot, the Sunday 01:00 GMT, or Saturday 9 p.m. ET event. RACESPOT will be handling the call of the action. The show will be available at iRacing.com/live.
TIMES TO RACE | SUPERSESSION QUALIFIERS (AUGUST 4th to AUGUST 9th)
- Monday through Friday: 9 p.m. ET each day (Tuesday through Saturday at 01:00 GMT)
TIMES TO RACE | SUPER SESSIONS
- Saturday at 11 a.m. ET (15:00 GMT)
- Saturday at 9 p.m. ET (01:00 GMT Sunday)
ABOUT THE 2026 iRACING KNOXVILLE NATIONALS
The Knoxville Nationals is one of the biggest and most prestigious Sprint Car events of the year. The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series event is held annually at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa. Since making its debut in 1961, the event has gradually expanded over the years to four days of competition, offering a purse of over a million dollars. Legends of the sport like Steve Kinser, Danny Lasoski, and Donny Schatz have each taken their 410 Sprint Cars to the winner’s circle multiple times in the event.
This race will be scheduled in the sim for August 15th on the Late Afternoon preset. This event utilizes iRacing Super Sessions, and the Saturday Super Sessions will take the top 60 in overall points from the race week.
This event also uses a Heat racing format, with Split Sizes of 60, a three-minute qualifying to set those Heats, then six 10-lap Heat races where the top-three finishers in each Heat advance to the Main event. The event then breaks into lettered Mains, known to some as the Alphabet Soup, with the non-advanced finishers of the heats stacked in letters B through E, with the E-Main being the lowest of those finishers. Essentially, the soup plays a role as a Last Chance qualifier, with drivers able to advance up the alphabet as long as they finish inside the top-four in each race, although it may be a daunting task since advanced drivers line up at the back of the next lettered race, and will have to fight to a top-four all the same.
- The E-Main is 10 laps and the top 4 advance to the D-Main
- The D-Main is 12 laps and the top 4 advance to the C-Main
- The C-Main is 14 laps and the top 4 advance to the B-Main
- The B-Main is 16 laps and the top 4 advance to the A-Main
The A-Main, a 35 lap event, consists of 22 drivers, 18 advanced from the earlier Heats and four more from the B-Main. Caution laps will not count in the A-Main
This event is open to iRacing members that have an Dirt Oval license at Class C or higher, or at Class D with a 4.0 Safety Rating. Super Session Qualifier Splits will be determined by iRating. Splits can have up to 60 drivers, and a disqualification limit has been set at 17 incident points, or 17X.
ABOUT SUPER SESSIONS
ABOUT KNOXVILLE
Located at the Marion County Fairgrounds in Knoxville, Iowa, USA, this half-mile dirt oval raceway is revered as the “Sprint Car Capital of the World”. Every August the Knoxville Nationals, the paramount sprint car event in the United States, is held at Knoxville Raceway. The event takes place over four days and now features a nearly one-million-dollar prize purse. The track was originally built in the late 1800s as a horse racing venue and has progressed from racing stock cars to modifieds to supermodifieds to its current sprint cars.
To learn more about the event and join in on the discussion, visit our Special Events page and head over to the iRacing Forums.
For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit iRacing.com.
You may also like...
OFFICIAL PARTNERS:
