When the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series season resumes on Friday night, May 8 at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway, it will have a different feel than any event in the series’ 43-year history.

The shift in atmosphere won’t be just because of a lack of fans, or because of social distancing in the pit area, or even because of the three-month layoff since February’s DIRTcar Nationals — we’ve had long breaks in the Outlaws’ schedule before due to weather, particularly in California.

No, the upcoming return to racing will challenge every inch of the billing that the World of Outlaws have branded their premier series with over the years.

Whenever the Outlaws come to town and visit local tracks around the country, it’s about their invading stars — the outlaw drivers who will run anywhere from Florida to Washington — coming in to try and beat the best of the best that the local community at those particular facilities or regions have to offer.

It’s about anyone, regardless of their dirt résumé, being able to challenge their skills against those considered to be “the best of the best” when it comes to dirt sprint car racing.

Where else can you find the likes of Lance Dewease, Anthony Macri, Dominic Scelzi, Brian Brown and Jonathan Allard battling wheel to wheel with Donny Schatz, Brad Sweet, Daryn Pittman and Carson Macedo? The World of Outlaws provides local stars, as well as fresh talent, the chance to do just that.

But come next weekend, when the Outlaws hit the black zook clay in The Sprint Car Capital of the World and finally get back to business, that usual “Outlaws vs. the world” feel won’t be there — at least not entirely.

The May 8 event at Knoxville will be an invitation-only affair, with a maximum of 48 cars in attendance to limit the number of personnel in the pit area and maintain social-distancing practices.

Those 48 roster slots will be filled by a mix of the top 18 in the 2019 and 2020 World of Outlaws standings, as well as the top 18 from the 2019 Knoxville Raceway 410 sprint car standings.

Should any eligible driver decline their invite, World of Outlaws Promoter’s Choice options and the current iRacing DIRTvision and series standings will be referred to in order to fill the field.

In other words, it’s not like a “normal” Outlaws show, where anyone can show up with their race car and ply their trade for a night. It’s a pre-determined list of drivers that will battle for a $10,000 top prize.

Don’t get me wrong. I understand fully where officials are coming from in making that determination. The COVID-19 pandemic is very real and even as we start to open up facets of the country again and try to resume some semblance of normal life, we all have to take precautions for the health of not only ourselves and our families, but everyone around us.

There will just be that little something missing for a while compared to the World of Outlaws that I and so many fans have been used to for so long. It’s a disappointing pill to swallow, at least for the fan in me.

This will be a great race and a much-needed race, at that. We all want to get going down the road to regular racing and seeing the drivers we watch week-in and week-out do what they love on a consistent basis again. Not to mention, Knoxville Raceway traditionally puts on great sprint car racing and is an obvious and familiar choice to be the restart point for the Outlaws.

All the stars — Schatz, Sweet, Pittman, Macedo, Kinser, Schuchart and more — are expected to be in attendance at Knoxville, and they’ll be joined by some of the track’s best, likely including Brown, Austin McCarl, Clint Garner and others.

It will feel mostly normal, or as normal as possible amid a global pandemic.

But there will be local and regional competitors who won’t be invited to race. It’s those that I feel for inside.

I can promise that I’ll be watching the action on May 8 and supporting both the series and track as they work to get the Outlaws field back on track and going toward normalcy once again, and I’ll be happy and exceptionally thankful that we have real racing back in a big way.

But at the same time, I’ll be watching with that little twinge of sadness in my mind and my heart because I know that the field isn’t quite what it usually is from top to bottom.

It will be a World of Outlaws-sanctioned race: that much is true.

But May 8 at Knoxville won’t quite have that true Outlaw feel that I’ve come to deeply respect over the years, at least in my mind.

It’s a feeling that I hope, as the effects of this global pandemic start to fade more and more, we can get back to seeing at Outlaw races across the country sooner, rather than later.