PORT ROYAL — The 29th edition of Pennsylvania Sprint Car Speedweek kicks off Friday night at Williams Grove Speedway.

From the Grove, the series moves to Lincoln Speedway for the Kevin Gobrecht Memorial on Saturday night. It’s northbound to Selinsgrove Speedway for Sunday night’s Jan Opperman/Dick Bogar Memorial.

It’s back to Lincoln for a sprint car only program on Monday, July 1.

Grandview hosts the series on Tuesday night, July 2, which will pay $10,000 to win this year. NASCAR cup series regular Kyle Larson has two straight Grandview wins and is expected in this year’s field. Larson has four wins in six Speedweek starts over the last two seasons.

Port Royal Speedway hosts its first Speedweek race on Wednesday night, July 3. Last season, Lucas Wolfe and Danny Dietrich split the Port Royal races. Lance Dewease won in 2017. Dewease and Wolfe won in 2016. Steve Buckwalter won in 2015 and Wolfe in 2014. Jeff Shepard won the first Port Royal Speedweek race back in 1998.

Speedweek dips south of the border on Thursday night at Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway. The Grove’s Mitch Smith Memorial is Friday night and pays $12,000 to win.

Port Royal hosts the series finale this year on Saturday, July 7. It will be the Greg Hodnett Classic honoring the five-time Speedweek champion who lost his life in a sprint car crash last season. The entire day will honor Hodnett with events all day long including a 5K run, cornhole tournament and benefit auction.

“The Man from Mifflintown” Keith Kauffman owns the most Speedweek wins at Port Royal with four. Dewease, Hodnett and Wolfe each have three.

Other Port Royal Speedweek winners include: Mark Smith, Todd Shaffer, Fred Rahmer, Cody Darrah, Justin Henderson, Tyler Walker and Blane Heimbach.

Last year, Trey Starks won the Grove Speedweek opener coming off a win in the Mitch Smith Memorial in 2017. Danny Dietrich swept Lincoln’s races last year. Ohio invader Cole Duncan won at Path Valley. Larson won at Grandview. Dewease has won the last three at Hagerstown and is the defending Mitch Smith Memorial winner. Wolfe and Dietrich split the Port Royal races last year.

Wolfe won the finale at Selinsgrove last year after a side-by-side duel with Dietrich. It also kept Dietrich from winning the Speedweek championship.

The drivers will be racing for plenty of extra cash.

The Mitch Smith Memorial at Williams Grove Speedway pays $12,000 to win and Grandview pays $10,000 to win this year honoring the 30th year of the Thunder on the Hill Racing Series.

Both Lincoln and Port Royal will pay $7,000 to win each of their races.

The Speedweek opener at the Grove, Selinsgrove and Hagerstown pay $5,000 to win.

Speedweek has seen plenty of invaders, such as Larson and Rico Abreu over the past few seasons, and this year will be no exception.

Should the schedule hold out, Selinsgrove will host the 200th race in Speedweek history.

A total of 42 different drivers have at least one Speedweek win. Fred Rahmer has 30, the late Greg Hodnett and Lance Dewease have 26. Stevie Smith won 11 and Danny Dietrich has nine.

The Speedweek champion receives $5,000 out of a $16,700 purse if all nine races are completed. The last few Speedweek championships have come down to the final race and this year should be the same.

Rahmer won 13 Speedweek championships during his career, the final title coming in 2012.

Hodnett won his fifth championship last season by a few points over 2016 champion Dietrich. It was the most grueling Speedweek ever with 10 straight nights of racing under very hot and humid conditions with the heat index into the low 100s every day.

Wolfe has three Speedweek championships to his credit including 2017 with Mike Barshinger, 2014 with John and Pee Wee Zemaitis when he missed one race for the birth of his daughter, Vera, and 2007 in the Jim and Laura Allebach 5W.

“We’ve performed well in our previous two Speedweeks as a team,” Wolfe said. “We’re going to do the best we can. It takes all you got. A lot of good cars here locally and a lot of extras come in at different points in the week. It changes every night. We see a lot of different tracks.”

Dewease has three Speedweek titles with his latest coming in 2001. He’s dominated Speedweek at Hagerstown winning the last three and six overall.

The first Speedweek championship was won by Steve Smith in 1991. Stevie Smith won in 2015 winning five races in eight starts. Kauffman won a single title in 1996.5