I've been going since the sixties. It isn't the event I remember then, but still a big event. It used to be so interesting when you would only read about drivers in the Speed Sport. Then the announcer would introduce them, I remember that with Dick Gaines, he was a heck of a driver. The Indiana, Arizona, California, PA, Ohio, plus all the mid-west cars would all be there, maybe not every year. If you were good you usually made it at some point.
I remember on a Nationals qualifying night there was a black and blue #96, the driver really, really got around the track, but it had trouble in hot laps. The announcer later said it was Pancho Carter. I think they headed home.

Eddie Leavitt had won the Nationals two years in a row. I don't think most fans at Knoxville had seen an enclosed trailer until the Siebert Olds Team pulled in. It looked 120 feet long. Eddie drove the yellow Siebert #9, the car seemed super fast. They were knocked out of the race passing cars. I always believed that car could have won the C, B and A. Great memories. Tons of passing in those days.