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MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — Saturday night’s 60th running of the Champion Oil Williams Grove National Open at Williams Grove Speedway will pay the winner $75,000 for the second consecutive season.

Carson Macedo claimed the top prize last year.

The National Open has a history as deep as any short-track race in the country and its winners list reads like a who’s who of motorsports history.

Gordon Johncock, who won the first National Open in 1963, went on to win two Indianapolis 500s and is a legend in the IndyCar racing world.

Thirty-four different drivers have won the National Open. Seventeen of those drivers have been enshrined into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and 35 of the 59 runnings have been won by a driver who is in the Hall of Fame.

Unsanctioned through its early years, the 1978 National Open was technically considered a World of Outlaws race, although no Outlaw drivers competed that year. The All Star Circuit of Champions sanctioned the race for the only time in 1981.

The World of Outlaws began their long run as the sanctioning body for the event in 1989. Since that event, only the 1998 and 2008 events were unsanctioned, and in both cases that was because rain washed out the race on its scheduled date.

As many as 50 entries are expected for this weekend’s event with six former race winners among them. 

Ten-time World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series champion Donny Schatz has won the National Open a record six times. Schatz, who won his first National Open in 2000 and his sixth in 2020, will look for victory No. 7 aboard the Tony Stewart Racing No. 15 sprint car.

Defending winner Macedo will wheel the Jason Johnson Racing No. 41, while four-time National Open winner Lance Dewease will pilot the familiar Kreitz Racing No. 69k machine.

Two-time winner David Gravel steers the Big Game Motorsports entry, with 2019 National Open winner Brent Marks driving the familiar Murray-Marks No. 19 car.

Aboard Gary Kauffman’s No. 48 sprinter, Danny Dietrich will look to become the 13th driver to win the National Open more than once.

Other contenders include three-time WoO champion Brad Sweet, who won for the first time at the Grove in July, Anthony Macri, who has a national-best 21 victories this season, Sheldon Haudenschild and Logan Schuchart.

*Denotes Sprint Car Hall of Fame inductee

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