Sprint cars are small, high-powered race cars designed primarily for the purpose of running in short races (generally, five to fifty miles) on short tracks, which are often not paved ("dirt tracks"). The high power-to-weight ratio makes sprint car racing exciting; it often also makes it very dangerous. The safety record of sprint car racing in recent years has been greatly improved by the use of roll cages to protect the drivers, which are often joined by wings mounted on top of the cars to give them sufficient downforce so as not to become airborne as readily as was previously the case. Many great drivers got their start in sprint car racing; some still drive sprint races when the opportunity arises.
For many years, sprint car racing in the United States was chiefly sanctioned by USAC; in recent years its leading promotional and sanctioning body has been the somewhat ironically-named World of Outlaws which broke with USAC in a somewhat similar way to that which CART once did. Sprint cars often look like small Champcars with the addition of the roll cage, and, increasingly, the wing. An interesting aspect of sprint car racing is that due to the short overall length of the races laps run under caution do not generally count against the total of laps to be completed.
External links
