51st 410 Knoxville Nationals this weekend!

First of all, congrats to Shane Stewart who once again is 360 Nationals champion. Rain plagued the entire weekend bunching up the heat races at the Knoxville Raceway.

Now there's another Knoxville Nationals, and this time it's the 51st installment of the 410 Nationals, starting Wednesday and featuring all your favorite heavy hitters of the winged sprint car world, including some former winners of this event.

Speaking of those heavy hitters, the Wednesday and Thursday qualifiers are here. It should be live on Speed and on kniakrls.com, where there's great live streaming too!

360 Knoxville (IA) Nationals This Weekend!

The best time of year to be a sprint car fan, no matter if it's wings or non-wings. The first of two back to back Knoxville Nationals begins Thursday night, with the 360 ci Nationals. Mostly American Sprint Car Series (ASCS) touring series drivers, this will be just the right treat before the 410s begin on Wednesday night, the 10th.

Some of the best 360 racers will be there including the "Cajun Sensation" Jason Johnson, multi-time ASCS national tour champ Gary Wright, as well as a bunch of others. Even the "Dude" Danny Lasoski, a former Nationals winner (410s), will be there too.

Here are the entries and all the lowdown, including the qualifiers on Thursday and Friday!

Hideki Irabu Died.

Apparent suicide, aged 42.

Irabu came to the states in the late '90s with the Yankees after a successful career back home in Japan, one of the world's biggest baseball markets. After a few seasons he was traded to the Expos (Nationals) and then to the Rangers.

34-35 overall record, 5.15 earned run average until 2002, his last year at the Rangers. He had some off-field trouble that hampered his career.