Dodge Weekly Series

Dodge Weekly Series

The Whelen All-American Series (formerly the Dodge Weekly Series and Winston Racing Series) is a points championship for NASCAR sanctioned local racetracks around the United States and Canada.

In the 30 years of NASCAR sanctioning weekly racing for a national championship, the tracks have been split, initially by geographical proximity of the tracks for purposes of developing regional champions, then randomly among four divisions and currently by states that have tracks participating. In 2005 the Weekly Series became the first NASCAR-sanctioned series to have a permanent presence outside of the United States, as tracks in Saint-Eustache, Quebec, Delaware, Ontario, and Edmonton, Alberta, elected to be represented in the series.

Because participants rarely compete directly against each other, and may drive a wide variety of cars against varying opposition, the driver's point system is understandably complex. Points are awarded first for finishing position according to NASCAR rules, with bonus points added for races against fields of 15 cars or greater (double points for fields of 25 or more). Only the top 16 results of a season count for a driver. Although this does help to level the playing field somewhat, it can be supposed that a driver who competes in more races against a larger field of cars will score more points for consistent finishes, and thus will end up with more points at the end of the year. Starting in 2007, each state or province crowns a divisional champion, and of those champions, the driver with the best competition performance index is crowned as the national Whelen All-American Series champion. In 2008 the previous points system was scrapped in favor of a simpler system. Each driver is given two points for each car they finish ahead of up to 20 cars with a five point bonus for winning, making the maximum number of possible points per race 45. This system benefits drivers who perform well in races with large car counts as races with fewer than 20 cars will earn the winner fewer than the maximum possible points. Only a driver's best 18 races count in the championship standings.

What cars are used to score points in the weekly series is up to the discretion of the individual participating tracks, within Weekly Series guidelines. As of 2005, Sportsman, Super Late Models, Pro Late Models, Late Model Stock Cars, Modifieds, SK Modifieds, Dirt Modifieds, Dirt Late Models, Pro Stocks, and Super Stocks are considered eligible categories. Participating tracks are all short tracks, ranging from 1/4 mile to 5/8 mile; most are paved, but a significant number of dirt tracks also participate.

As announced at the Weekly Series banquet in Las Vegas on November 11, 2006, Dodge dropped their sponsorship of the weekly series. Whelen Engineering picked up the sponsorship, renaming it the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series.

For the 2010, NASCAR lowered the age minimum for its weekly racing series from 16 to 14.