OVAL NATIONALS FORMAT REVEALED FOR 25TH RUNNING NOV. 4-5-6
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Perris, California (October 19, 2021)………The format has been set for the 25th running of the Heimark/Anheuser Busch Budweiser Oval Nationals presented by All Coast Construction on November 4-5-6 at southern California’s Perris Auto Speedway.
The three-night showdown for both the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship and the AMSOIL USAC CRA Sprint Car Series will have distinct formats for the two “prelim” nights as well as the championship night finale.
On Thursday and Friday, single car qualifying will lead into 10-lap heat races, a 12-lap semi-feature and a 30-lap feature, the “normal” format utilized for the high majority of series events throughout the year.
Total points will be accumulated throughout Thursday and Friday night’s events, the top-six of which will be locked into Saturday night’s 40-lap feature event.
Prior to the feature, those same six will take part in a special six-car, six-lap dash in which the finishing order will determine the starting positions for the first three rows of Saturday night’s $10,000-to-win feature.
Single car qualifying, heat races and a semi-feature will be held solely for all cars not in the top-six of the points during Saturday’s program. Those transfers will slot in behind the top-six in the 25th Oval Nationals feature event.
Thursday and Friday will be full, points-paying events for the USAC’s National and CRA Sprint Car series. Saturday will be feature points only.
Advance tickets for all three nights of the Oval Nationals are on sale now at https://www.tix.com/ticket-sales/pas/7.
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THURSDAY & FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4-5:
QUALIFICATIONS
All cars will qualify two (2) laps. The faster of the two (2) laps will be their qualifying time. If a car misses their qualifying spot by more than three positions, that car goes to the end of the qualifying line and will receive one (1) lap, that car won’t be able to start any higher than 50% of the scheduled feature field.
HEAT RACES
All cars will be in the heat races. There will be a total of four (4) heat races. The top-six qualifiers will be fully inverted and in the event the car count exceeds 36 cars, split qualifying will be used. If the winner of the heat race is not in the top-six of qualifying, that car will line up directly behind the top-six invert in the feature. The top-four in each heat race will transfer to the thirty (30) lap feature event. The cars finishing 5th on back will go straight to the semi-feature. Each heat race will be ten (10) laps.
SEMI-FEATURE
The semi-feature will have a total of 24 cars. All cars finishing 5th on back in the heat races will make up the lineup for the semi-feature. The lineup will be straight-up based on qualifying times. The top-eight (8) cars will transfer to the feature. The semi-feature will be twelve (12) laps.
FEATURE:
The feature will have a total of 24 cars. The fastest six (6) cars that transferred from the heat races will be inverted to make up rows 1-3. Any car that wins a heat race that was not in the top-six (6) in qualifying, will lineup behind the fastest six that transferred from the heat races. The rest of the field will be lined straight up according to qualifying times. The feature will be thirty (30) laps.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6:
SUPER SIX
The top-six in points from Thursday and Friday Night’s program will transfer directly to Saturday’s feature. Any ties in points will be broken by Friday Night’s qualifying times.
QUALIFICATIONS
All cars (except those in the Super Six) will qualify two (2) laps. The faster of the two (2) laps will be their qualifying time. If a car misses their qualifying spot by more than three positions that car goes to the end of the qualifying line and will receive one (1) lap, that car won’t be able to start any higher than 50% of the scheduled feature field.
HEAT RACES
There will be a total of three (3) heat races. The top-six qualifiers will be inverted. The top-four (4) in each heat race will transfer to the forty (40) lap feature event. Cars finishing 5th on back will go to the semi-feature. The 12 transfers will line up by points behind the top-six in positions 7-18. Each heat race will be ten (10) laps.
SUPER SIX DASH:
The top-six in points will be fully inverted and run a six (6) lap dash. The finishing order will determine the first three rows in the feature. The winner of the dash may choose the inside or outside of row 1.
SEMI-FEATURE
The semi-feature will be all the remaining cars that have not transferred to the feature. The semi-feature lineup will be based on total points including Saturday night’s points. The semi-feature will be twelve (12) laps. The top-six (6) finishing cars from the semi-feature will transfer to the feature.
FEATURE:
The feature will have a total of twenty-four (24) cars. The lineup for the first three (3) rows will be determined by the finishing order of the Super Six Dash. Rows 4-9 will be the cars that transferred from the heats, and they will lineup according to their total points. Rows 10-12 will be the cars that transferred from the semi-feature, and they will line up according to how they finished in the semi-feature. The feature will be forty (40) laps.
The Oval Nationals will be governed by the Official Rule Book for the USAC National and CRA Series. Once the first car is pushed off for the feature, a 45-minute clock will begin. Once the clock reaches 45 minutes, the next yellow flag will produce a red flag to allow fuel only to be added to the cars.
For provisional starters in the preliminary mains on Thursday and Friday night’s program, any points earned will only be awarded for USAC National standings and USAC CRA standings. No Oval Nationals points will be awarded for a provisional start. You must earn your way into Thursday and Friday night’s main to earn Oval Nationals points for your starting position on Saturday Night.
