Here's another task for Richie: Has any provisional entrant won the race? Who? If not, what's the best anyone has done? Maybe he'll have a little time after Sprint Week, but more likely after the season.

I do like the top 6 inverted in heats. I like the fact that a heat race winner can be the 24th qualifier and start potentially 7th in the feature. No worse than 10th. I think they are making these guys be aggressive and race with these rules. Qualifying is where you start in your heat not in the feature always. You have to race to earn a good feature start is where I see the good logic. I love watching sprint car qualifying in usac. The woo and wing groups reward starting spots too much on their dashes with little passing. I have been and watched 2 or 3 hundred wing races. Usac races are in my opinion the top sprint car series and best racing overall.

That’s a great question! You might have to send him a PM or start a new topic.

If they split the field into two qualifying flights they do not line the semi or feature up by overall qualifying times. They use the positions of the qualifying flights.

1st, 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd, 4th, 4th, 5th, 5th, 6th, 6th, 7th, 7th, 8th, 8th…

The fastest overall qualifier determines which qualifying flight is ranked first. After that the actual times don’t matter.

Because the driver gave up his/her 4th seed by not transferring through his heat. The first three rows are reserved for the fastest six in time trials who also transferred through their heat. In the case of this question say the 4th we are talking about gave up his seeded spot that would put the 7th fastest guy on the pole for feature. Spots 7-10 are reserved for any heat winner who wasn't a top six qualifier. If all four of those spots are used the fastest qualifier to transfer from B-main starts 12th.

Around here we have to try and explain why a racers night is pretty much determined by a gambling process of drawing a pill. And why most of the fastest cars are all in the same heat. Then you usually get to watch 1 loaded heat and 1 or 2 weak heats. All this on hardpan rubbered down track or cars idling the bottom of the turns.

The USAC format gives the fans the best chance of 4 competitive exciting heats. I do like that if you win your heat and are not a top qualifier you get rewarded by starting in the top 10.

I understand it's different for most of you because USAC is basically a local special. But for those of us who wait all year for them to come to our area or drive 8-12 hours a few times a year to see the best drivers in the country we see it different. I know the format is slanted toward the top teams but we don't get to see racing that often where it's about the fastest racers for the whole night.

And every time you know there is that chance that a "local" will get all elbows up and take to the stars of our sport. I live a few miles from where Jesse had his breakthrough run at Lakeside Speedway (I know it was not a USAC race) to whoop the best. Those nights only make it more special for us non Hoosiers.

I somewhat remember several years ago Terry Pletch used a provisional or came from the B to win a feature @ THAT,maybe someone has more info on this one?

Terry Pletch transferred out of the old non-qualifiers race, which was a 6-lap event for drivers who didn't qualify in the top-32 to make the heats. The top-two finishers from the non-qualifiers race(s) started at the tail of the heat races.

Pletch qualified 33rd, won the non-qualifiers race and finished 3rd in the heat. He started 21st in the feature and won, which still is the furthest back any driver has won a USAC National Sprint Car feature from.

A provisional starter has never won a USAC National Sprint Car feature.

However, Darren Hagen did win a USAC National Midget feature at Perris in 2009 after using a provisional.

That is a jacked up system

Way too confusing for us fans. And us here on the forum, are the "fans". It needs to be simplified. Don't make it convoluted. Simplify it. But as for this topic, I am preaching to the choir.