Grandview Speedway to hold highest-paying sprint car race in track history in 2023

Matthew Knaub, Reading Eagle, Pa.
·3 min read

Dec. 14—Grandview Speedway, in conjunction with the Thunder on the Hill Racing Series, will host the richest sprint car race in the track's 61-year existence in 2023.

The one-third mile dirt racetrack located outside Bechtelsville in Washington Township will host the High Limit Sprint Car Series on Tuesday, July 25, at 7:30 p.m. as part of the new series' inaugural season, with $23,023 going to the winner.

The race comes two days after the NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond and three days after a pair of World of Outlaws Sprint Car races at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg.

"The talent that it's going to attract is certainly a slam dunk," Thunder on the Hill Racing Series promoter Bob Miller said. "I feel extremely proud that Thunder on the Hill and Grandview Speedway were selected to be one of just 12 events taking place throughout the entire country."

Founded earlier this year by 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson and four-time World of Outlaws Sprint Car champion Brad Sweet — Larson's brother-in-law — the High Limit Sprint Car Series was designed to bring high-paying, midweek events to winged 410 sprint car racing. The series held one stand-alone race last season in Indiana, while a second scheduled race in Ohio was canceled due to rain.

Grandview will host race No. 7 of the 12-race season, which runs from spring to fall at tracks across the United States. The event will be a stand-alone sprint car race, as there will be no support division in action.

"Not having a second division should allow for really super track conditions," Miller said. "Just knowing the caliber of drivers that are coming into this event, it's important that the track is in the best shape it can be and that we're running a tight and efficiently well-run event."

Larson is no stranger to Grandview, as he has won the Thunder on the Hill Racing Series Hodnett Cup — an annual Pennsylvania Sprint Speedweek series race at the track — four times, most recently in 2021. He finished last in 2022 after getting caught in a wreck early in the race.

"Kyle Larson has enjoyed great success at Grandview in the Thunder on the Hill shows," Miller said. "Him being well aware of the speedway — the competitiveness and the crowds that we get — made he and Brad Sweet very, very comfortable with adding Grandview onto the schedule."

In addition to Larson, current NASCAR driver Christopher Bell and former NASCAR drivers Rico Abreu, Tony Stewart, Dave Blaney and Kasey Kahne have raced at Grandview in recent years. Abreu won the Hodnett Cup in 2022, the lone winged 410 sprint car race held at Grandview in 2022.

The High Limit Sprint Car Series race at Grandview will come about one month after the high-banked track hosts the PA Speedweek series and the 2023 edition of the Hodnett Cup on Tuesday, June 27, at 7:30 p.m. The full Thunder on the Hill Racing Series special event schedule for Grandview's 2023 season has not yet been announced.

"To add this to the schedule is very impressive," Miller said. "It's pretty rewarding, even for me in our 34th year of Thunder on the Hill at Grandview."