MOPAR MILLION SPRINT FORMAT TOUGH

ROSSBURG, OH (Aug. 11) -- Getting into September’s Mopar Million Sprint at Eldora Speedway is going to be no easy task for any of the 150 entered teams. The complicated formula for the rich September 19 and 20, run under the sanctioning eye of the United States Auto Club (USAC), event is very fan-friendly, but grueling for the teams.

One-million dollars will be on the line for non-winged Sprint Cars, with the 40 lap finale offering a previously unheard of $200,000 to the victory and $10,000 to the 24th place finishers. The total payoff is far and away the highest in the history of Sprint Car racing, either winged or non-winged.

Perhaps the toughest task at hand will be the time trial runs on Friday night, September 19. Two single-lap runs will determine the starting line-ups for the heat races that will follow.

Ten heat races, lined-up with the fastest six drivers of each heat inverted and the rest straight up by times, will determine the first 20 positions in the prestigious Mopar Million Sprint at Eldora. Finishers one and two from each heat will transer to the 40 lap finale on Saturday night, while finishers three through twelve will line up in one of Saturday’s progressive F - B Mains.

Beginning with the F-Main, four finishers will advance to the next Main, right up to the lucrative Mopar Million, where the first four finishers of the B-Main will join the rewarding A-Main, along with the fastest two time-trailers that didn’t advance through the heat races - to make for a 26-car starting grid on the one-half mile clay oval.

Indeed the formula is tough and a tremendous challenge is at hand.

So challenging is the task that many of the entered owners have already changed, or are considering changing, drivers in an effort to come up with the right combination to make the cut into the starting grid of the Mopar Million Sprint at Eldora.

Their final decision will be made on Friday afternoon, as when that team passes through inspection and draws their qualifying round numbers, they must announce their choice of drivers and from that point forward, there are no driver changes.

It could prove to be interesting.