CONCORD, NC (April 3, 2026) — The American Sprint Car Series (ASCS) celebrates its 35th year of operation in 2026. But it’s more than just another commemorative milestone, it’s a numeric symbol of how 360 Sprint Car racing has forever been impacted.
Established by Chili Bowl Nationals and Tulsa Shootout founder Emmett Hahn, the nationally touring circuit has been providing dirt track racing fans across the country with affordable and entertaining winged open-wheel motorsports events since 1992. In that time, numerous regional counterparts have spawned under the ASCS banner as a result of the demand for more standardized Sprint Car competition around the Midwest.
Today, the flagship “National Tour” is home to some of the best 360 Sprint Car drivers in the nation, and in 35 years as the nation’s top choice for 360 cubic-inch engine racers, has served as the proving ground for many standout 410 Sprint Car talents.
But at the genesis of ASCS, the country’s Sprint Car landscape was messy and difficult for those with ambition to travel and race. So, Hahn decided to do something about it.
“At that time, there were a lot of 360s all over the country, and they had different rules and different (cylinder) heads,” Hahn said. “The 360s were already there, and basically, my goal was to get them all on the same set of rules where you could go anywhere in the country and race.”
By the early 1990s, the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series had established itself as king of the open-wheel dirt track racing world with an elite roster of the sport’s most recognizable names following its schedule. Racing 410 Sprint Cars against the likes of Steve Kinser, Sammy Swindell, Doug Wolfgang and several other Hall-of-Famers at the peak of their dominance at tracks on both coasts, night-after-night, from February to October was simply not possible for the working man.
With the rise in popularity of Sprint Car racing, a solution was needed to give the local and regional racers a traveling tour to follow. As former public relations manager and current Series Director Lonnie Wheatley recalls, the need for a 360-based organization was strong.
“I think, at some point, the 410s were just something the regular guy couldn’t go and do, and this gave people an opportunity where some other things were fading out, particularly around Oklahoma,” Wheatley said. “Andy Hillenburg was off doing a lot of 410 stuff and a lot of World of Outlaws stuff, and there were more and more of the guys around our part of the country that were getting into Sprint Car racing in one form or another. So, the formation of ASCS gave those guys a destination.”
Though joining the 360 ranks was a more practical option for most, the national 410 Sprint Car world remained the ultimate goal for the sport’s most ambitious drivers. To make a living traveling and racing against the best in the nation required a level of exceptional skill, perseverance and preparation that could not be attained from a typical local schedule.
There had to be middle ground — another steppingstone on the path to dirt track racing’s uppermost echelon — and Hahn’s vision for ASCS addressed this need, too.
“People that are looking to go run with the World of Outlaws — this is kind of a training ground for them. It teaches them how to travel going up-and-down the road and work out of a trailer,” Hahn said. “I remember Donny Schatz running with us in Florida, Andy Hillenburg’s run with us. All the big names that’s run — you take Daryn Pittman, Jason Sides, and all the people that have moved from ASCS and been successful with the World of Outlaws.”
With Hahn’s new cylinder head deal with BRODIX complete, the Series contested its first season not as nationally touring schedule but as a collection of regional races featuring tracks in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri. Kansas native Garry Lee Maier was crowned the first national champion on the strength of 17 Feature wins.
Perhaps his biggest came in non-ASCS-sanctioned action in August of that year at Knoxville Raceway. Maier, who had finished runner-up in the inaugural 360 Knoxville Nationals one year prior, returned for the second edition of the marquee event equipped with his ASCS-spec configuration and bested a field of over 60 opponents to score the win.
Maier went on to run it back in 1993, again using ASCS-spec equipment — an accomplishment that may have done as much for Hahn’s new brand as it did for Maier’s own legacy.
“At the time, Garry Lee (Maier) was the Steve Kinser of 360s. He was as tough as they got,” Hahn said. “I think what eventually got ASCS over the hump was when Garry Lee went to the 360 Knoxville Nationals and won it with the spec head. I think that was a big turning point.”
“The first time I won it, it changed a lot of things in my racing,” Maier said. “When you win at Knoxville, it means everything. But like Emmett said, I think it helped ASCS a lot because they’re like, ‘Wow, he ran up here with these 12-headed motors and won.’ I think it changed ASCS a lot. I think it really helped him get on the map.”
As ASCS continued to expand into the 21st century, the names and faces changed right along with the times. The late 1990s were dominated by multi-time champions Tim Crawley and Terry Gray, but as the mid-2000s appeared, one driver they had raced with plenty before was about to begin the most defining years of his legacy.
By this time, American Sprint Car Series fans were already familiar with Hooks, TX-native, Gary Wright. The veteran already owned the Series’ all-time wins record but had never raced in pursuit of the national championship. That was until 2003 — a season in which he set the single-season wins record at 15 but fell one spot short of the points title after a traffic accident enroute to the track prevented him from competing in one event.
However, Wright avenged the missed opportunity the following season, clinching his first of four consecutive ASCS national championships and pushing his Feature wins total up to 119 by the end of 2007. At that point, the National Sprint Car Hall-of-Famer had learned countless things about many different tracks — another advantage racing the ASCS circuit offered to the up-and-comers.
“When you go to a little bullring 1/4-mile, and the next night you’re at a 1/2-mile, you’ve got to be versatile with getting your car right and you driving,” Wright said. “The young guys, like Daryn Pittman, Jason Johnson, Jason Sides, Wayne Johnson, Sam Hafertepe Jr, and Aaron Reutzel, they all started in ASCS.”
By the time Wright saw ASCS Victory Lane for the 128th and final time in 2011, another young Texan was beginning his own climb up the Sprint Car ladder — Aaron Reutzel. Only four years removed from his rookie ASCS campaign, Reutzel captured his first national ASCS crown in 2015 after several years on the grind.
“When he started, we had a mutual friend that said, ‘You need to help Aaron.’ It was just him and his dad, Aaron was very young,” Wright said. “They tried to run the national tour, and we helped them as much as we could to get them up to speed, but they beat him down. But then he went back home and ran a couple years in the Gulf South Region of ASCS. When he came back to the national series, he was ready to go then.
“I’m very good friends with Aaron and tickled to death at the success he’s having, but he learned how to travel and race with ASCS.”
As the Series marches on into the 2020s, the entertainment value with present-day stars Sam Hafertepe Jr, Matt Covington and Seth Bergman has stayed consistent. It’s a product that drivers, tracks and fans can afford to get involved with — exactly as its founding father intended at its inception, now 35 years ago.
“We’ve seen it all,” Hahn said. “We’ve raced on horse tracks. When Knoxville sanctioned with us years ago, that helped put us on the map. California was probably one of the later places to go with ASCS. Back in the heyday when we were running the national tour, we had like seven regions around the country at one time, and we had about 1,300 racecars on our engine rules.
“It’s gratifying to see what it’s done in 35 years.”
ASCS 35: How the American Sprint Car Series Helped to Transform the Open-Wheel Landscape
CONCORD, NC (April 3, 2026) — The American Sprint Car Series (ASCS) celebrates its 35th year of operation in 2026. But it’s more than just another commemorative milestone, it’s a numeric symbol of how 360 Sprint Car racing has forever been impacted.
Established by Chili Bowl Nationals and Tulsa Shootout founder Emmett Hahn, the nationally touring circuit has been providing dirt track racing fans across the country with affordable and entertaining winged open-wheel motorsports events since 1992. In that time, numerous regional counterparts have spawned under the ASCS banner as a result of the demand for more standardized Sprint Car competition around the Midwest.
Today, the flagship “National Tour” is home to some of the best 360 Sprint Car drivers in the nation, and in 35 years as the nation’s top choice for 360 cubic-inch engine racers, has served as the proving ground for many standout 410 Sprint Car talents.
But at the genesis of ASCS, the country’s Sprint Car landscape was messy and difficult for those with ambition to travel and race. So, Hahn decided to do something about it.
“At that time, there were a lot of 360s all over the country, and they had different rules and different (cylinder) heads,” Hahn said. “The 360s were already there, and basically, my goal was to get them all on the same set of rules where you could go anywhere in the country and race.”
By the early 1990s, the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series had established itself as king of the open-wheel dirt track racing world with an elite roster of the sport’s most recognizable names following its schedule. Racing 410 Sprint Cars against the likes of Steve Kinser, Sammy Swindell, Doug Wolfgang and several other Hall-of-Famers at the peak of their dominance at tracks on both coasts, night-after-night, from February to October was simply not possible for the working man.
With the rise in popularity of Sprint Car racing, a solution was needed to give the local and regional racers a traveling tour to follow. As former public relations manager and current Series Director Lonnie Wheatley recalls, the need for a 360-based organization was strong.
“I think, at some point, the 410s were just something the regular guy couldn’t go and do, and this gave people an opportunity where some other things were fading out, particularly around Oklahoma,” Wheatley said. “Andy Hillenburg was off doing a lot of 410 stuff and a lot of World of Outlaws stuff, and there were more and more of the guys around our part of the country that were getting into Sprint Car racing in one form or another. So, the formation of ASCS gave those guys a destination.”
Though joining the 360 ranks was a more practical option for most, the national 410 Sprint Car world remained the ultimate goal for the sport’s most ambitious drivers. To make a living traveling and racing against the best in the nation required a level of exceptional skill, perseverance and preparation that could not be attained from a typical local schedule.
There had to be middle ground — another steppingstone on the path to dirt track racing’s uppermost echelon — and Hahn’s vision for ASCS addressed this need, too.
“People that are looking to go run with the World of Outlaws — this is kind of a training ground for them. It teaches them how to travel going up-and-down the road and work out of a trailer,” Hahn said. “I remember Donny Schatz running with us in Florida, Andy Hillenburg’s run with us. All the big names that’s run — you take Daryn Pittman, Jason Sides, and all the people that have moved from ASCS and been successful with the World of Outlaws.”
With Hahn’s new cylinder head deal with BRODIX complete, the Series contested its first season not as nationally touring schedule but as a collection of regional races featuring tracks in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri. Kansas native Garry Lee Maier was crowned the first national champion on the strength of 17 Feature wins.
Perhaps his biggest came in non-ASCS-sanctioned action in August of that year at Knoxville Raceway. Maier, who had finished runner-up in the inaugural 360 Knoxville Nationals one year prior, returned for the second edition of the marquee event equipped with his ASCS-spec configuration and bested a field of over 60 opponents to score the win.
Maier went on to run it back in 1993, again using ASCS-spec equipment — an accomplishment that may have done as much for Hahn’s new brand as it did for Maier’s own legacy.
“At the time, Garry Lee (Maier) was the Steve Kinser of 360s. He was as tough as they got,” Hahn said. “I think what eventually got ASCS over the hump was when Garry Lee went to the 360 Knoxville Nationals and won it with the spec head. I think that was a big turning point.”
“The first time I won it, it changed a lot of things in my racing,” Maier said. “When you win at Knoxville, it means everything. But like Emmett said, I think it helped ASCS a lot because they’re like, ‘Wow, he ran up here with these 12-headed motors and won.’ I think it changed ASCS a lot. I think it really helped him get on the map.”
As ASCS continued to expand into the 21st century, the names and faces changed right along with the times. The late 1990s were dominated by multi-time champions Tim Crawley and Terry Gray, but as the mid-2000s appeared, one driver they had raced with plenty before was about to begin the most defining years of his legacy.
By this time, American Sprint Car Series fans were already familiar with Hooks, TX-native, Gary Wright. The veteran already owned the Series’ all-time wins record but had never raced in pursuit of the national championship. That was until 2003 — a season in which he set the single-season wins record at 15 but fell one spot short of the points title after a traffic accident enroute to the track prevented him from competing in one event.
However, Wright avenged the missed opportunity the following season, clinching his first of four consecutive ASCS national championships and pushing his Feature wins total up to 119 by the end of 2007. At that point, the National Sprint Car Hall-of-Famer had learned countless things about many different tracks — another advantage racing the ASCS circuit offered to the up-and-comers.
“When you go to a little bullring 1/4-mile, and the next night you’re at a 1/2-mile, you’ve got to be versatile with getting your car right and you driving,” Wright said. “The young guys, like Daryn Pittman, Jason Johnson, Jason Sides, Wayne Johnson, Sam Hafertepe Jr, and Aaron Reutzel, they all started in ASCS.”
By the time Wright saw ASCS Victory Lane for the 128th and final time in 2011, another young Texan was beginning his own climb up the Sprint Car ladder — Aaron Reutzel. Only four years removed from his rookie ASCS campaign, Reutzel captured his first national ASCS crown in 2015 after several years on the grind.
“When he started, we had a mutual friend that said, ‘You need to help Aaron.’ It was just him and his dad, Aaron was very young,” Wright said. “They tried to run the national tour, and we helped them as much as we could to get them up to speed, but they beat him down. But then he went back home and ran a couple years in the Gulf South Region of ASCS. When he came back to the national series, he was ready to go then.
“I’m very good friends with Aaron and tickled to death at the success he’s having, but he learned how to travel and race with ASCS.”
As the Series marches on into the 2020s, the entertainment value with present-day stars Sam Hafertepe Jr, Matt Covington and Seth Bergman has stayed consistent. It’s a product that drivers, tracks and fans can afford to get involved with — exactly as its founding father intended at its inception, now 35 years ago.
“We’ve seen it all,” Hahn said. “We’ve raced on horse tracks. When Knoxville sanctioned with us years ago, that helped put us on the map. California was probably one of the later places to go with ASCS. Back in the heyday when we were running the national tour, we had like seven regions around the country at one time, and we had about 1,300 racecars on our engine rules.
“It’s gratifying to see what it’s done in 35 years.”