The 47th Annual Cobblestone Hotels Slinger Nationals presented by Lynch Buick GMC of West Bend just got bigger for 2026 with the new Slinger Nationals Bracket Challenge set to take place on the Monday evening of Slinger Nationals week this July. The bracket challenge will see 32 teams take place in a head-to-head time-trial format that will pay $5,000 to the winner and a guaranteed starting spot in Tuesday’s Slinger Nationals, as well as determine the qualifying order for Tuesday’s Slinger Nationals.

In previous years, the qualifying order for the Slinger Nationals was determined via a draw on Monday night. Track owner Travis Dassow, who is just beginning his second year of ownership of the historic high-banked Wisconsin half-mile, said this idea was hatched while watching the qualifying draw this past year.

“Last year at the Nationals on Monday night, me and a couple of officials were sitting around watching the draw go on,” said Dassow. “We were watching and wondering what we could do to make this better. We had a couple ideas and things that we could do. Finally we decided to do something on track that would help drum up more excitement leading into Tuesday. The race track is why the place is cool, right? It’s one of those race tracks where it basically puts on its own show, so why not make it the show? So we wanted to do this bracket challenge and make it mean something come Tuesday. We came up with the idea and then different ways to do it. At the end of the day on Mondays everyone usually mocks up anyway, so why not make it so it means something. We’ve got some sponsors involved, so we’re going to be able to pay five grand to win it. The top four will be able to put on a new set of tires, and they’re sponsored tires, so the last four left can go out and try to go for that five thousand dollars.”

The format is simple. The top 32 cars from Monday’s practice will be entered in the bracket challenge. In the first round, the top 32 cars from practice will be matched based on practice lap times to set up the bracket. Each matchup will run a three-lap time-trial session. The best lap turned will determine which driver moves on to the next round. There will be four total rounds, with the final round being a four-driver shootout. The final four drivers will get to put on a new set of tires and will then run another time-trial session to determine who wins the money.

The results from the bracket challenge will then be inverted to determine the qualifying order for Tuesday night’s Slinger Nationals qualifying session.

Dassow believes this new bracket challenge will give fans a reason to come out to the race track on Monday night, and will increase the overall level of excitement at the Slinger Nationals.

“I think what we’ve been missing a little bit with the Nationals is that the high profile national races have something going on every day,” explained Dassow. “The Nationals kind of missed that on Monday. We have practice for on-track activity, but nothing really exciting. You could go there and see who is racing and see their cars, but that was really it. Now you’ve got something to come to the track for. You can go on Sunday and come watch the Truck series and the other divisions race on Sunday night, then on Monday come watch practice in the afternoon and then watch the bracket challenge. And then that all leads right into Tuesday. Now we’ve got a real three-day show for fans to come check it all out and see something a little bit different every day.”

The 2026 Slinger Nationals will take place July 12-14 at Slinger Speedway. Tickets are on-sale now at slingersuperspeedway.com. Fans that cannot make it to Slinger Speedway this July can watch the race live on FloRacing for the second year in a row with their FloRacing subscription.