A Glossary of Racing Terms: Dirt Track Lingo, Slang and Race Car Terms
Racing has a language of its own, and dirt track racing has the thickest dialect of the lot. An announcer can string together cushion, stagger, bite and B-main in one sentence and lose a first-time fan completely, even though the racing itself is easy to enjoy. This glossary collects 97 racing terms in plain English, grouped by the part of the sport they belong to, so you can look up whatever just went over your head and get back to watching.
Most of these words come straight from dirt ovals, but a large share of them are simply race car terms that work anywhere: loose and tight mean the same thing on asphalt, a spool is a spool in any class, and a checkered flag ends every race ever run. Where a term is specific to dirt, or means something different on dirt than it does on pavement, the definition says so. If you are brand new to the sport, start with our beginner's guide to dirt track racing, then come back here.
You do not have to learn all of it at once. The surface words such as cushion, slick and tacky explain why the racing changes from hot laps to the feature. The passing words such as slide job and crossover describe the moments worth standing up for. Everything else fills in as you go.
How this glossary is organized
- The racetrack and surface — 14 terms
- The race format and the race night — 18 terms
- Car setup and chassis — 18 terms
- Tires and rubber — 9 terms
- Flags and officials — 9 terms
- Driving and racecraft — 13 terms
- Pit and crew slang — 8 terms
- Classes and divisions — 8 terms
The racetrack and surface
Cushion
A ridge of loose dirt that the cars push toward the outside of the corner as the night wears on. Drivers lean the right side of the car into it for extra grip, which is why the fastest lane at many tracks ends up right against the wall.
Berm
Another word for the cushion, borrowed from off-road racing. Some announcers use berm for the built-up outer edge of the racing surface and cushion for the loose material sitting on top of it, but most fans treat the two as interchangeable.
Groove
The preferred path around the track, the lane where the most grip lives. A track can have one groove or several. When an announcer says the track has gone to two grooves, he means cars can run side by side and actually race.
Bottom (the low line)
The inside lane, hugging the infield. The bottom is the shortest way around, so it rewards a car that turns well and rolls momentum through the middle of the corner rather than one that relies on raw forward traction.
Top (the high line)
The outside lane near the wall, usually where the cushion forms. It is a longer way around but often faster, and it is unforgiving: get in too deep and the same ridge that gives you grip will bounce you into the fence.
Slick (dry slick)
A hard, dry, low-grip surface that appears once the moisture burns out of the clay. Cars slide, lap times fall off, and success shifts from horsepower to finesse. Dry slick racing is where the best car control shows up.
Tacky
A moist, high-grip surface. A tacky track lets cars hook up and accelerate hard, lap times are quick, and the racing up front tends to go single file because almost everybody can run wide open through the corner.
Heavy
A very wet track, usually early in the night before hot laps have dried it out. Heavy tracks throw huge roostertails of mud, chew up equipment, and hide the racing surface that will actually matter by feature time.
Blue groove
A dark, glassy lane of rubber ground into a dry-slick surface. It looks almost polished under the lights. Blue groove conditions narrow the track to one lane and usually kill passing, which is why promoters work hard to avoid them.
Marbles
Loose bits of rubber and dirt that collect off the racing line. Drift into the marbles at speed and the tires lose grip instantly, which is one reason drivers pick a lane and stay committed to it.
Banking
The slope built into the corners. High-banked tracks such as Eldora carry big speed and let cars race in several lanes, while flat tracks put a premium on turning the car and getting off the corner cleanly.
Packing the track
Running cars slowly, nose to tail, to compress wet clay into a firm surface before racing begins. Some tracks pack with the race cars themselves and others use pickup trucks. It is the first thing that happens on many race nights.
Rubbered up
What happens when rubber from the tires bonds to a dry-slick surface and forms a single fast lane. A rubbered-up track rewards whoever got there first and often turns a feature into a follow-the-leader parade.
Track prep
Everything the crew does to the surface: watering, ripping, dragging and packing. Good prep is the difference between a multi-groove racetrack and a one-lane blue groove, so regulars watch the tractors almost as closely as the cars.
The race format and the race night
Hot laps
Short practice sessions run before qualifying so drivers can feel the surface and crews can check the car. Hot laps also help dry and shape the track, so what the surface looks like then rarely lasts until the feature.
Time trials
Timed qualifying laps, usually one or two per car, with the fastest single lap counting. Time trials set the heat race lineups. At tracks where the surface changes quickly, drawing an early qualifying spot can matter as much as raw speed.
Heat race
A short qualifying race, typically eight to twelve laps, that sets the lineup for the feature. Finish near the front of your heat and you transfer straight into the main event. Finish behind the cut and you head to a consolation race.
B-main
The consolation race, also called the last chance qualifier. Drivers who did not transfer out of their heats race again and only the top finishers move on. Big shows with huge car counts add a C-main and sometimes a D-main.
A-main
The main event, the race everyone is trying to reach. The A-main pays the most money and awards the most points. At a weekly show it might be twenty laps. At a crown jewel event it can run a hundred.
Feature
The everyday word for the A-main. A race night has a feature for every class on the card, run back to back at the end of the program. When a driver says he won the feature, he means he won his division's main event.
Handicapping
Setting lineups by inverting recent results so the fastest or highest-points cars start farther back. Weekly tracks use handicapping to keep one driver from leading every lap and to give the grandstand passing to watch.
Redraw
A random draw among the top heat race finishers to set the first few rows of the feature. The redraw is why a driver who won his heat can still roll off sixth, and it adds a jolt of suspense to intermission.
Invert
Flipping part of the starting order so the quickest cars line up behind slower ones. An invert of six means the top six qualifiers reverse their positions. Inverts are a promoter's tool for manufacturing passing.
Number one pill
The chip or token drawn from a bag to set qualifying or lineup order. Drawing the number one pill means going out first on a freshly prepared track, which is sometimes a gift and sometimes a curse.
Transfer
To advance from one round to the next, from a heat into the feature or from a B-main into the A-main. The number of transfer spots is announced beforehand, and the last transfer position is where the hardest racing usually happens.
Provisional
A guaranteed starting spot in the feature handed to a driver who did not transfer on the track. Provisionals typically go to series points leaders, past champions or promoter's picks, and they usually start at the tail of the field.
Lucky dog
A pavement racing term for the free pass that returns the first lapped car to the lead lap under caution. Dirt tracks almost never use it, so when you hear it at a dirt track it is usually a fan borrowing NASCAR vocabulary.
Rolling start
Dirt races start with the field already moving, in pairs, rather than from a standstill. The flagman turns them loose somewhere off turn four, which makes the start a skill of its own and makes jumping it a real penalty risk.
Four-wide salute
A pre-race parade lap with cars lined up four abreast to acknowledge the grandstand. Borrowed from sprint car racing, it is now a signature moment at World of Outlaws events and other major shows.
DNF
Did not finish. The car took the green flag but retired with a crash, a mechanical failure or a flat tire. A DNF still receives a finishing position, because dirt scoring ranks retirements by how many laps they completed.
DNS
Did not start. The car was entered and listed in the program but never took the green flag for that race, usually because the team could not repair damage from an earlier heat or from contact on the parade laps.
Lapped traffic
Cars the leaders have passed a full lap or more. Working through lapped traffic is where many features are won and lost, because the leader has to commit to a lane while the driver chasing him watches and waits for a mistake.
Car setup and chassis
Wedge (cross weight)
The diagonal weight balance of the car, measured as right-front plus left-rear load as a percentage of the total. Adding wedge generally tightens the car and taking it out frees it up. Crews change it with spring and bar adjustments between races.
Bite
Rear traction, particularly off the corner. A car with bite hooks up and drives forward, and a car without it spins the tires. Crews chase bite with left-rear spring, shock and weight changes, and it is the most talked-about quality on a slick night.
Left side weight
How much of the car's total weight sits on the left-side tires. Because dirt ovals only turn left, rules cap left-side percentage. Teams push right up against that limit, since left side weight generally helps the car turn and stay planted.
Spool
A solid coupling in the rear end that locks both rear wheels together so they always turn at the same speed. Most dirt classes run a spool because a locked axle is simpler, stronger and gives more predictable forward drive.
Quick change rear end
A rear axle assembly with a removable gear cover that lets a crew swap the final drive ratio in minutes instead of hours. It is why teams can change gear between the heat and the feature when the track slicks off.
Torsion bars
Long steel bars that twist to act as springs, used in sprint car suspension and in some late model setups. Teams change the diameter of a bar to change its spring rate, and the bars can be swapped quickly in the pits.
Birdcage
The bracket that clamps around the rear axle tube and carries the suspension links, shock and brake mounts. Rotating the birdcage changes how the car reacts to engine torque, and on a late model it is a primary tuning adjustment.
Panhard bar
A lateral link that locates the rear axle side to side under the car. Raising or lowering its mounting points changes the rear roll center, which changes how far the car rolls over onto the right rear and how much bite it has.
J-bar
A panhard bar bent into a J shape so it can mount low on the chassis and high on the axle. Late model teams adjust J-bar height and angle constantly, because it is a fast way to trade turning for forward drive.
Shock valving
How a shock absorber is built internally to control compression and rebound. Valving decides how quickly weight transfers when the driver turns or gets on the throttle, and on a slick track a valving change can transform a car.
Wing
The airfoil carried by a winged sprint car. It presses the car into the track for cornering grip and, in a flip, absorbs enormous energy. Take the wing away and the same car becomes dramatically harder to drive.
Top wing
The large wing mounted above the roll cage of a sprint car, with side boards that double as billboards for sponsors. Crews slide it forward or back during the night to move downforce between the front and rear tires.
Nose wing
The smaller wing mounted ahead of the front axle on a sprint car. It adds front downforce so the car will turn, and it is the piece most likely to end up folded in half after a first-turn tangle.
Sail panel
The flat vertical panel between the roof and the rear deck of a dirt late model. Sail panels are aerodynamic devices and structural body pieces at the same time, and rules packages regulate their size and shape closely.
Spoiler
The blade running across the rear deck of a late model. Series rules control its height and width, because a taller spoiler adds rear downforce and, past a point, adds enough speed to make the racing worse rather than better.
Roll cage
The welded steel tube structure that surrounds the driver and provides crash protection. Modern dirt cars are built around the cage, and tech officials check tubing size and construction before a car is allowed on the track.
Containment seat
A seat with wraparound head and shoulder supports that keeps the driver's head from moving sideways in a crash. Paired with proper belts, it is one of the biggest safety advances short track racing has seen in twenty-five years.
HANS device
A head and neck support: a yoke worn on the shoulders and tethered to the helmet to stop the head snapping forward in a frontal impact. Some form of head and neck restraint is mandatory in essentially every sanctioned class.
Tires and rubber
Stagger
The difference in rolling circumference between the right rear and left rear tires. Because the right side is bigger, the car wants to turn left on its own. Crews tune stagger by picking tires and by adjusting air pressure.
Durometer
A measurement of tire rubber hardness, read with a small gauge pressed into the tread. Softer compounds grip better and wear faster. Officials check durometer after big races to make sure nobody has chemically softened a tire.
Grooving
Cutting extra grooves into a tire's tread with a heated blade so the block pattern suits the track surface. Grooving is a craft, and crews show up at big races with tires cut several different ways for different conditions.
Siping
Slicing thin slits across the tread blocks so the rubber flexes and bites into a slick surface. Siping and grooving are usually done together, and a well-prepared tire is often worth more than a chassis adjustment.
Right rear
The single most important tire on a dirt car. It carries the load through the corner and does most of the work of putting power down, so tire rules, tire choices and post-race inspections all revolve around it.
Stickers
Brand new tires that still carry the manufacturer's sticker. Teams save stickers for the feature at big shows, since a fresh tire can be worth several tenths of a second per lap on a track that is taking rubber.
Scuffs
Tires that have been run briefly and then set aside, usually heat-cycled once. Many drivers prefer a scuff to a sticker on a slick track, because the cured rubber gives more consistent grip over a long green-flag run.
Spec tire
A rule requiring every car in a class to run the same tire from the same manufacturer. Spec tire rules exist to stop teams from spending themselves out of the sport chasing an exotic compound nobody else can buy.
Mud plugs
Rubber plugs pushed into the holes of a wheel cover to keep mud from packing inside the wheel. Mud trapped in a wheel puts it out of balance, so crews pop the plugs out and clean the wheel between races.
Flags and officials
Green flag
Waved from the starter's stand to begin or restart the race. On dirt the field is already rolling when it waves, so the flagman is judging whether the front row is close enough to even before he turns everyone loose.
Yellow flag
Caution. Drivers slow immediately, stop racing and form up single file behind the leader while a wreck or a stopped car is cleared. Most series send the car that caused the caution to the tail of the field.
Red flag
Stop. Cars come to a halt on the track, usually for a hard crash, a fire or a driver who needs medical attention. Under a red flag crews are normally not allowed to touch the cars.
Black flag
Shown to one car, either as a penalty or because officials see a problem such as a dragging part or a fluid leak. The driver is expected to bring the car to the work area or the pits.
White flag
One lap to go. On a dirt track the white flag lap is often the most aggressive lap of the night, because the driver running second has exactly one corner left to try a slide job.
Checkered flag
The end of the race. The winner takes it for a victory lap, and at most tracks the flagman hands it down for the celebration photograph in front of the grandstand.
Blue flag with a yellow stripe
The move-over flag, shown to a lapped car to warn the driver that faster traffic is closing. It asks him to hold his line and let the leaders by rather than race them for position.
Flagman
The official in the starter's stand who controls the race with the flags. A good flagman sets the tempo of an entire program, deciding when the field is lined up well enough to go green and how quickly to throw a caution.
Tech inspection
The post-race check of weight, tires, engine and body dimensions. Cars roll across the scales and, at big events, get torn down much further. Failing tech can cost a driver the win and the money that came with it.
Driving and racecraft
Push (understeer)
When the front tires give up first and the car will not turn, running up the racetrack toward the wall. Drivers call it tight. It is usually a chassis problem, but it also happens once the front tires are worn out.
Loose (oversteer)
When the rear tires give up first and the back of the car steps out toward a spin. Drivers call it loose or free. A little loose is fast on dirt. Too loose and the driver spends the race catching the car.
Hammer down
Full throttle, no hesitation. It is the most common phrase in dirt racing and gets applied to everything from a single restart charge to a description of a driver's entire personality.
Slide job
The signature dirt track pass. The driver dives to the inside entering the corner, gets the car sideways ahead of his rival and slides up in front of him at the exit. Done well it is thrilling. Done badly it wrecks both cars.
Crossover move
The counter to a slide job. The driver who just got slid on cuts back underneath as the sliding car drifts up the track, carrying better momentum off the corner and retaking the position before the next turn.
Diamond the corner
Driving in low, turning the car sharply at the apex, then driving up and off the corner at a steeper angle so the line looks like a diamond instead of an arc. It is a dry-slick technique that saves the tires.
Hooking the cushion
Putting the right rear tire into the loose dirt of the cushion so the berm itself helps turn and launch the car. It is enormously fast and enormously risky, because the same ridge can kick the car into the wall.
Calling the cushion
The skill of reading where the cushion actually is as it moves and breaks apart during a race. Announcers use the phrase to praise a driver who keeps finding fresh grip while rivals run the same lane a lap too long.
Rim riding
Running the extreme outer edge of the track, right against the wall, lap after lap. Rim riders make a grandstand stand up, and a track where the outside lane works is a track fans remember.
Basement
The very bottom of the racetrack, the lowest line a car can run without dropping a tire into the infield. Late in a long race, when the top rubbers up or burns off, the basement is often where the winning pass comes from.
Getting sideways
The car rotating so the rear steps out and the driver is steering into the slide. On dirt this is normal and frequently intentional. The phrase only signals trouble when the announcer adds that the driver could not gather it back up.
Hooking up
The moment the tires find grip and the car surges forward. Fans use it about a single corner and about a whole night: a car that is hooked up is one that is doing everything the driver asks of it.
Checkers or wreckers
An all-or-nothing run at the win with no thought of settling for second. It is the standard description of a driver who throws a last-lap slide job that either works or puts both cars in the fence.
Pit and crew slang
Push truck
The pickup that pushes a sprint car or midget up to speed to fire the engine, since those cars carry no starter and no onboard battery. Push trucks also tow disabled cars off the racing surface.
Work zone
A marked area, usually on the infield, where a car can be worked on during a caution without losing its position to the pits. A crew gets a short window to change a flat or pull off a bent body panel and rejoin at the tail.
Tear-offs
Thin clear laminated films stacked on a helmet visor or a windshield. When mud blocks the driver's view he rips one away mid-race to reveal a clean layer underneath. A wet night can go through a dozen of them.
Methanol
The alcohol fuel used by sprint cars and many other dirt classes. It burns cooler than gasoline and makes strong power, but its flame is nearly invisible in daylight, which is why safety crews spray water at a suspected methanol fire.
Fuel injection versus carburetor
Two ways of feeding fuel to an engine. Sprint cars have used mechanical fuel injection for decades, while many late model and entry-level classes still mandate a carburetor to hold down cost and keep the rules simple to police.
Claimer rule
A rule that lets a competitor buy a rival's engine, and sometimes the whole car, for a fixed published price after the race. Claimer rules exist in entry-level classes to keep anyone from simply outspending the field.
Crate engine
A sealed, mass-produced engine bought as a complete unit and tamper-sealed by the sanctioning body. Crate classes are cheap to run and easy to inspect, and they now account for a large share of weekly dirt car counts.
Scales
Where every finishing car goes after the feature. Tracks post a minimum total weight and often a maximum left-side percentage, and a car that comes up light is disqualified no matter how far it won by.
Classes and divisions
Super late model
The top full-bodied dirt class: roughly 2,300 pounds with well over 800 horsepower and no sealed-engine limits. Supers headline the biggest touring shows and every crown jewel event in dirt late model racing.
Crate late model
A late model body and chassis running a sealed crate engine. It is the affordable step below a super late model and has become one of the fastest-growing divisions at weekly tracks across the country.
Winged sprint car
A 410 or 360 cubic inch sprint car carrying a top wing and a nose wing. The wings add grip and a measure of crash protection, and a winged 410 is the quickest thing on most dirt ovals.
Non-wing sprint car
The same basic car with the wings removed. Without downforce the driver has to manage the car on the throttle, which is why non-wing racing is considered one of the purest tests of car control in motorsports.
Modified
An open-wheel class with a full body tub and exposed tires that sits between stock cars and sprint cars. Big-block, small-block and UMP modified rules differ by region, and modified fields are often the largest on a weekly card.
Midget
A small, light open-wheel car with an enormous power to weight ratio, raced on dirt ovals and indoors at events such as the Chili Bowl. Midgets have long been a proving ground for drivers who move on to NASCAR and IndyCar.
Street stock
An entry-level class built from a production passenger car, called a hobby stock, pure stock or bomber depending on the region. It is where the majority of dirt track careers begin.
Sportsman
A catchall label for lower-cost support divisions at a weekly track. The exact rules vary enormously from region to region, so a sportsman car in New York looks nothing like a sportsman car in the Southeast.
Frequently asked questions about racing terms
What is the cushion in dirt track racing?
The cushion is the ridge of loose dirt that the cars push toward the outside of the corner as a race night goes on. Drivers lean the right side of the car into it because the loose material gives extra grip, which is why the fastest lane at many tracks ends up running right along the wall. The cushion moves, breaks apart and sometimes disappears entirely as the surface dries, so reading it is a skill in itself.
What does a slide job mean?
A slide job is the signature dirt track pass. The driver dives to the inside on corner entry, turns the car sideways in front of the rival he just passed and slides up the track to claim the lane on exit. It works because a sliding car scrubs speed, so the pass only sticks if the driver clears his rival cleanly. If he does not, the other driver crosses back underneath and takes the spot right back.
What is a B-main?
A B-main is the consolation race, also called the last chance qualifier. Drivers who did not finish high enough in their heat race to transfer straight into the feature get one more chance, and only the top few finishers in the B-main move on to the A-main. At very large events tracks add a C-main and occasionally a D-main, so a driver can race his way up through several rounds in a single night.
What does loose mean in racing?
Loose, also called free or oversteer, means the rear tires are losing grip before the front tires, so the back of the car steps out toward a spin. The opposite is tight, or push, where the front end will not turn and the car runs up toward the wall. On dirt a car that is slightly loose is often the fast one, because that rotation helps point the nose off the corner.
What is stagger?
Stagger is the difference in rolling circumference between the right rear tire and the left rear tire. Because dirt ovals only turn left, teams run a bigger tire on the right rear so the car wants to turn on its own without the driver fighting the steering wheel. Crews tune stagger by selecting tires of different sizes and by adjusting air pressure, and the right amount changes with the track surface.
Where to go from here
Vocabulary is only useful once you attach it to cars. The quickest way to do that is to learn what actually runs on a race night, so read our guide to dirt track classes and divisions and then sprint cars versus dirt late models, which explains why the two headline classes need such different words to describe them.
After that, put the language to work. Our driver profiles use these terms the way the sport actually uses them, the trivia question archive is a painless way to test what stuck, and Find Tracks will show you the dirt ovals closest to you so you can hear all of it live. When you are ready, play Dirt Racing Trivia and see how much of the lingo you have picked up.
