{"id":5764,"date":"2018-08-08T00:44:33","date_gmt":"2018-08-08T04:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=5764"},"modified":"2018-08-08T00:44:33","modified_gmt":"2018-08-08T04:44:33","slug":"biggest-names-come-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2018\/08\/08\/biggest-names-come-together\/","title":{"rendered":"Racing\u2019s biggest names come together in Knoxville, IA this week"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the second week of August. <\/span>NASCAR<\/strong> is approaching it\u2019s playoff season. The Verizon IndyCar<\/strong> Series is four races from crowning a champion. Things are heating up.\u00a0<\/span>Though, for one week, the racing season worldwide takes a pause, and all eyes turn to Southern Iowa.\u00a0<\/span>Knoxville Raceway<\/strong>, to be exact.<\/span><\/p>\n

Racing\u2019s biggest names come together in Knoxville, IA this week<\/h1>\n

That\u2019s because this week, the track holds it\u2019s annual Knoxville Nationals – the highest paying sprint car race in the world. <\/span>With a purse of over 1 million dollars, and a Saturday feature worth $150,000, it\u2019s easy to see why so many drivers are drawn to Knoxville.<\/span><\/p>\n

The nationals officially start on Wednesday evening, with the first of two qualifying nights that set the top 20 for the main event on Saturday. <\/span>Although, the 410 events kick off as early as Sunday evening.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, former Monster Energy NASCAR<\/strong> Cup Series rookie of the year <\/span>Kasey Kahne<\/b>, drove in Sunday\u2019s race at Watkins Glen<\/strong> International before flying from New York to race at Knoxville.\u00a0<\/span>Kahne is entered into the entire week of events, and he\u2019s not the only big-name driver who will try his luck at the track this year. Another cup series driver <\/span>Kyle Larson <\/b>is on the entry list, along with two-time Chilli Bowl Champion <\/span>Rico Abreu. <\/b><\/p>\n

Top Drivers Arrive To Compete<\/h2>\n

Even drivers from as far as Australia come to Knoxville trying to win the big bucks in the Nationals A-Main. <\/span>However, despite the talent that has come through the Nationals, and the drivers who have tried to master the track, few have been able to conquer the World of Outlaws’\u00a0<\/span>Donny Schatz. <\/b><\/p>\n

Dating back to 2006, Donny Schatz has won every single Knoxville Nationals, except two, losing to Tim Shaffer<\/strong> in 2010 and Jason Johnson<\/strong> in 2016. <\/span>It seems as though Schatz is unbeatable at the track, and he doesn’t plan on slowing down any time soon.<\/p>\n

In the first World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series race at Knoxville this season<\/strong>,<\/a> Schatz was dominant in his victory, taking the win by nearly half a lap at the half-mile, dirt oval. He’s the favorite to win once again this season, but he’ll have to compete with the big names from around the world.<\/p>\n

The Knoxville Nationals kick off on Wednesday. Hot laps will begin at 7:15 p.m. CT.<\/strong><\/p>\n

LWOS will have coverage all week from Knoxville, as our own Connor Ferguson<\/strong> will be posted at the track. Follow our motorsports department on twitter at @LWOS_Motorsport<\/strong> and Connor at @cfchangs9.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the second week of August. NASCAR is approaching it\u2019s playoff season. The Verizon IndyCar Series is four races from crowning a champion. Things are heating up.\u00a0Though, for one week, the racing season worldwide takes a pause, and all eyes turn to Southern Iowa.\u00a0Knoxville Raceway, to be exact. Racing\u2019s biggest names come together in Knoxville, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":315,"featured_media":5051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7,5],"tags":[569,58,1008,62,1009,486],"class_list":["post-5764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dirt","category-more-racing","category-nascar","tag-donny-schatz","tag-kasey-kahne","tag-knoxville-nationals","tag-kyle-larson","tag-sprint-car-racing","tag-world-of-outlaws"],"modified_by":"Sudha Sundar","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/315"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}