The 54th Annual Street Rod Nationals hits Louisville in a few weeks! It is August 3,4,5, and 6. It happens at the Kentucky Expo Center. More than 10,000 cars and trucks will be at the fairgrounds and all over the area. There will be competitions, kids activities, music, swap shops, Women's World, food, and much more! In case it is a little warm outside, the Expo Center will be nice and cool inside! You can get tickets at the Kentucky Expo Center box office. Set the date of your calendar! Click on the NSRA logo to learn more about the huge event and other Street Rod events across the country! You can also win FREE tickets. Check out the Lucas Oil sponsored KMS Giveaway page!
KENTUCKIANA MOTORSPORTS PRESENTED BY LUCAS OIL One of the biggest stock car events of the year hits the High Banks of the Salem Speedway on Sunday. It is the Firecracker 200! Some big names have won this race in years past. If mother nature cooperates, it will be standing room only as the region's best street stock racers battle. Gates open at Noon. There is qualifying and practice before the green flag drops at 5:00 p.m. The day before on Saturday, you can watch practice and see all the teams and drivers during practice. Two-time Salem Track Champion Will Kimmel is the defending title holder of this event. Last year he took the checkered flag as a relief driver for Scott Caudill. Kimmel also won the huge fall Halloween 200 at Salem. The track is about an hour from Louisville in Southern Indiana. For tickets and more information check out www.salemspeedway.com The Sportsdrome Speedway traditionally takes the July 4th holiday weekend off. But the action at the flat short track just outside of Louisville off I-65 resumes on Saturday July 8th. It will be the 34th Annual Twin 45's for the Modified Figure 8 drivers. Many other divisions will also hit the track. Check out: www.sportsdromespeedwayonline.com for more. Track Owner-Operator Mike Gibson will have updates and any special ticket prices on the Sportsdrome Facebook page. Other area tracks have some huge activities scheduled over the 4th holiday and in July. We encourage you to check out the websites and social media. Especially for last minute chnages. The Ponderosa Speedway is known as "Kentucky's Baddest Bullring". It is a short dirt track in central Kentucky at Junction City near Danville (About an hour and fifteen minutes southeast of Louisville). Drive south to Bowling Green (KY) and you'll enjoy Beech Bend. There is an amusement park, camping, and racing. The Beech Bend dragstrip brings in the fans and has a wide range of events. Just outside of Louisville in West Point Kentucky is the Ohio Valley Dragway. It is a 1/8th mile track on Dixie Highway. Ross Chastain took the win at Nashville in the NASCAR Cup Series. Right on his bumper was Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, and several other drivers. At this stage of the season wins are a must in order to make the playoffs. Chastain got his first of the season for Trackhouse Racing. Other drivers had decent points days. We always find out come playoff time, just how important stage wins and top ten finishes are to race teams. After missing a string of races to a non-Cup racing injury, Chase Elliott will pretty much have to win to make the playoffs and continue to collect points. Alex Bowman missed 3 races due to a non-Cup racing incident. He's climbed his way back and has a fighting chance to make the playoffs. to injury. NASCAR decided to remove the summer Daytona race from the July 4th holiday weekend. It's never truly found a replacement race with the same fan impact. NASCAR hopes the Chicago street-race will help lure fans and TV viewers. We've said it before. Chicago has done nothing to deserve this race. It is strictly TV money and greed by the governing body. We predict it will be a fad, and eventually go away. But there will be some curious eyes on it. This weekend the Indy Car Series cranks it back up at Mid-Ohio. If the last event took place at Road America, and was won by Alex Palou. Right behind him was Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden. Pato O' Ward finished 3rd. 3-Time NASCAR Champion and now NHRA Owner Tony Stewart is a little more than excited. His wife and racer, Leah Pruett got her first victory for Tony Stewart Racing the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Nationals in Ohio. Pruett won the Top Fuel prize. Blake Alexander ended a long drought to take the top spot on the podium in Funny Car. In Pro Stock, Matt Hartford earned the victory. And Lucas Oil driver Hector Arana Jr. brought home his first Pro Stock Motorcycle win of the 2023 season. Most events can be viewed on Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2. The NHRA heads to Colorado next July 14-16. Smoke has been featured and appeared on Kentuckiana Motorsports over the years. His recent comments about the state of NASCAR are spot on. When going to the track, 4th of July trips, or driving around town, don't forget to put Lucas Oil Products in your car or truck. They do so much for racing communities across America. Other sponsors of KMS include PNC Bank (Sponsor of Scott Dixon's Indy Car Series Car), Sportsdrome Speedway (Celebrating more than 77 years of Racing!), locally owned Bright Pest Control and Bright Retail in Louisville, (Offering Do-It-Yourself Professional Pest Products with a retail store), and Knox Ford in Radcliff, Kentucky) (It also has a sister dealership, Tri-County Ford in Oldham County, KY). KMS friends also include: VoiceTel Kentucky (Offering telephone service for low as $25.00 a line per month), Temco Roofing, Jim Ellis/Attorney At Law, ICA Dumpsters, Kentucky Raceway Ministries, Nimlok Kentucky, Dynamic Healthcare, Lyndon Mower Repair, and Kentucky Medicare Plans (Serving Kentucky and Southern Indiana with Health and Medicare plans). We also thank our media connections in all series, NASCAR and with NASCAR Media, Indy Car, Monster Jam, ARCA, and NHRA for helping us bring the sport to the fans! Over the summer, more people will be getting outside. When out traveling or on vacation, we encourage you to look around. See the farms and ranches in America. Our farmers and ranchers are doing work hard and need support. Protect the Harvest backs them. It is a Lucas Oil backed initiative. Learn more at: www.protecttheharvest.com We talked about Salem Speedway and the huge Firecracker event. Other action includes the 602 Late Model Series. Southern Indiana's Kimmel Racing is fielding 3 cars: Will Kimmel, Scott Melton, and Mike Basham. Salem Speedway is a legendary track. Check out the Lucas Oil Online Report below for more about the half-mile banked oval!
