NASCAR and iRacing introduced Saturday Night Thunder in the beginning of April to allow drivers from all series to race during the real-time racing break. The inaugural event at Bristol Motor Speedway ARCA cars. This weekend’s race at virtual Dover will mark the fourth installment of the event and use NASCAR Xfinity Series cars including the Supra, Mustang and Camaro.
The Saturday Night Thunder entry list includes drivers from the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series, ARCA Menards Series, NASCAR PEAK Mexico Series and NASCAR Whelen Euro Series.
This weekend Saturday Night Thunder will return for a 125-lap main feature at virtual Dover International Speedway.
This weekend iRacing is also introducing webcams into the stream for the first time.
The top-five finishers from last weekend’s race at virtual Talladega will start at the rear of the field (Landon Huffman, Josh Berry, Joe Graf Jr., Tommy Joe Martins, Spencer Boyd.) The field of drivers will have one hour-long practice and a one-lap, single-car qualifying effort.
From there, the format will feature four 10-lap heat races with 12 cars possible in each heat. Six cars advance to the main event from each heat. There will also be one 15-lap last chance qualifier with two drivers transferring. In the case there are is an entry list of more than 40 drivers, there will be a second LCQ. The main event will have an entry list of 26 cars. The event will be live streamed at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday, May 2, on enascar.com/live, and on NASCAR’s YouTube channel.
The format will be as follows (all times ET): 7 p.m.: One-hour practice session8 p.m.: Stream starts on eNASCAR.com/NASCAR YouTube Channel
8:05 p.m.: Three-minute, one-lap single-car qualifying session. This will set the starting grid for the heats.8:08 p.m.:
- Heat 1 starts. All heats will be 10 laps with no cautions and one reset. There will be four heats and 20 cars will advance from each heat.
- Top six drivers will advance depending on how many cars enter.
- Heats will set the starting grid for main race with a field of 26 cars.
- Heats will be followed by a 15-lap last chance qualifier. There will only be a second one if over 40 cars are entered.
- · Main event will be 125 laps with manual cautions and one reset. There will also be three attempts at a green-white-checkered finish.
Saturday Night Thunder entry lists
| NAME | CAR # |
| Alex Labbe | 90 |
| Angela Ruch | 00 |
| Anthony Alfredo | 33 |
| Austin Cindric | 22 |
| Bayley Currey | 74 |
| Blake Koch | 57 |
| Brandon Brown | 68 |
| Brett Moffitt | 23 |
| Chase Briscoe | 98 |
| Chase Cabre | 4 |
| Christian Eckes | 81 |
| CJ Mclaughlin | 39 |
| Derek Kraus | 19 |
| Donny Lia | 07 |
| Drew Dollar | 015 |
| Drew Herring | 3 |
| Elliott Sadler | 099 |
| Gus Dean | 56 |
| Jeb Burton | 8 |
| Jeffrey Earnhardt | 50 |
| Jesse Iwuji | 36 |
| Joe Graf Jr. | 80 |
| Josh Berry | 88 |
| Josh Bilicki | 99 |
| Josh Williams | 92 |
| Justin Allgaier | 7 |
| Justin Haley | 11 |
| Kaz Grala | 29 |
| Landon Huffman | 75 |
| Logan Seavey | 67 |
| Matt Mills | 5 |
| Michael Annett | 1 |
| Myatt Snider | 93 |
| Noah Gragson | 9 |
| Raphael Lessard | 04 |
| Ruben Garcia | 27 |
| Ryan Ellis | 78 |
| Ryan Truex | 40 |
| Ryan Vargas | 51 |
| Sam Mayer | 21 |
| Scott Stenzel | 63 |
| Sheldon Creed | 74 |
| Spencer Boyd | 02 |
| Stephen Leicht | 25 |
| Stewart Friesen | 52 |
| Thad Moffitt | 46 |
| Todd Gilliland | 38 |
| Tommy Joe Martin | 44 |
| Ty Majeski | 45 |
| Tyler Ankrum | 26 |
| Will Rodgers | 55 |
