I have to admit: the Castrol Gateway Dirt Nationals, which will be contested for the sixth time Dec. 1-3 at the Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis, Mo., isn’t my favorite event on the Dirt Late Model calendar.

But I’ll also say this: it’s definitely grown on me.

I’m never going to absolutely love the racing on that temporary fifth-mile oval constructed on the Dome’s concrete floor. The track’s tight confines, combined with a field of drivers that’s annually large but a bit shallow in overall talent, is a recipe for caution flags — and there are always plenty of them. Every time the yellow lights blink on for another tangle or spinout, my frustration level grows.

Nevertheless, I’ve come to except — even relish — the weekend for what it is: a truly unique race that stands out from all others in the sport. I wouldn’t want to make a habit of watching Dirt Late Models bump and grind around a speedway as small and unpredictable as the Dome’s, but, once a year, I can tell myself to be patient and just go with the flow of a show that might not run off as smoothly as major outdoor events but certainly gives all of us in the Dirt Late Model world something completely out of the ordinary to enjoy during the (very short) off-season.

I mean, how cool is it for so many fans and racers who frequent racetracks largely located in rural areas of the country to invade a city and attend a race held inside a huge stadium that once hosted NFL football and still presents blockbuster concerts and other events? For one weekend, dirt trackers literally take over St. Louis. Gateway attracts arguably one of the top-five Dirt Late Model crowds of the season (15,000 fans? 20,000 fans?), so, with numerous hotels within walking distance of the Dome, that means people wearing dirt-racing shirts, jackets and hats are all over the city’s streets. I can recall, back during the inaugural event in 2016, how neat it was to see someone walking through down St. Louis carrying a door panel from Devin Moran’s car.

And there’s a feeling inherent to Gateway, as soon as you walk into the Dome or the adjoining convention center that serves as the pit area, that just hits different. You know you’re part of something big, an event that’s always a year in the making. No dirt race is a larger financial and logistical endeavor than this one, and I still remember the eager anticipation every competitor in 2016’s first event had before Sommer allowed them to finally enter the Dome and walk around the newly-erected track just hours before the start of hot laps and qualifying.

VIDEO: Take a look at some of the sights and sounds from move-in day at The Dome.

I have to concede another fact: in its five runnings since its launch in December 2016 by promoter Cody Sommer (the event was canceled in 2020 because of Covid-19 restrictions), the Gateway Dirt Nationals has produced an outsized number of memorable, and perhaps even iconic, moments for the Dirt Late Model division. The high-profile and amenities of the venue, plus the number eyes watching both in the Dome and the live stream atFloRacing, amplify everything that happens, but, by God, it sure seems like a lot of weird, wild stuff occurs during this single weekend.

The first Dirt Late Model feature contested in the Dome, on Friday night in 2016, demonstrated just how exciting and frenetic a race on the indoor bullring could be with three highly-skilled drivers giving-and-taking to perfection. There were plenty of questions about what type of entertainment the track could provide until Shannon Babb overtook both race-long pacesetter Scott Bloomquist and Darrell Lanigan with two laps remaining in the 25-lap preliminary and then survived a bump from Bloomquist to win a barnburner that had the crowd roaring.

Twenty-four hours later, Bloomquist became an appropriate, albeit somewhat surprising, victor of Gateway’s inaugural 40-lap finale. He has a career-long knack for winning in his first stab at a track — especially when it’s a major event — but the small, hardscrabble nature of the layout didn’t seem to fit his style. Yet the then 53-year-old Hall of Famer led all the way to grab the $20,000 prize.

Bloomquist even acknowledged after the triumph that the tiny oval was outside his comfort zone, but he figured it out nonetheless.

“I think it could be bigger,” Bloomquist said of the track. “Myself, I always envision things way larger than probably reality will allow. My vision (of the indoor event) is, the dirt goes to the top of the first set of seats that you see out there and it’s a four-tenths, haul-ass, high-banked track. Now that’s what I want to see.

“Everybody knows this (bullring racing) isn’t really my forte, to go in there and (nearly) spin out and run the other direction, but it was fun and a pretty cool thing for the sport. The thing about it is, you’re not running so fast that somebody’s really going to get hurt even if they do turn over. I’ve always had a saying, ‘If you’re not going fast enough to get killed, it ain’t a race.’ But it was fun. This was a pretty good deal, and I’d like to see it keep growing.”

The event certainly has continued to grow — and create folk heroes in the process.

No one’s image has been bolstered more by Gateway, of course, then Tyler Carpenter, the loquacious, hard-driving, low-buck racer whose back-to-back $30,000 victories in 2019 and ’21 have made him a legend to the Dome faithful. He has proven to have the perfect mentality for Dome competition a mindset that 2017 feature starter Russ King of Bristolville, Ohio, summed up by recalling a comment Pennsylvania big-block modified veteran Frank Cozze once told him about a bullring in the Keystone State: “When you walk into the place you have to be mad and hate everyone to be any good.”

So it is with Carpenter, who famously said after his preliminary feature triumph in 2019 that “you can’t run here clean” before adding in R-rated fashion: “I didn’t come here to f--- around.”

Carpenter toned down his off-color statements after his second straight Gateway win last year, but he still drew a loud reaction from the stands with his tear-dripped victory lane appearance Saturday and a take-no-prisoners rehash of his Friday preliminary checkered flag that included an aggressive move in lapped traffic that angered rivals Brandon Sheppard and Ricky Thornton Jr.

“It’s either make the move or be moved,” Carpenter said. “I don’t want to crash them guys. Hell, I like ‘em all. We’re here to race … they’ve had their opportunity to win big races. This is the only shot I got as of right now. I ain’t got the backing they got (to win at bigger tracks).”

Some drivers have merely accentuated their already substantial reputations with their Dome performances — Bloomquist, Babb (never a Saturday winner but always a hard-charging contender), Bobby Pierce (the finale victor in 2017 and ’18), Tanner English (repeated heartbreaking defeats), Ryan Unzicker (turn-one flip while leading late in the 2019 finale) — but others have become much better known names thanks to their Gateway exploits.

One would be Gordy Gundaker of St. Charles, Mo., whose father, Kevin, is the promoter of nearby Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Ill., and has overseen construction of the Dome racetrack since 2016. Gordy recorded an emotional victory in a 2017 preliminary feature that brought the house down and had him celebrating into the wee hours.

“Winning in St. Louis, at home, it’s crazy,” Gundaker said after his $5,000 triumph. “I’m telling you, hearing that crowd when I got out was something else. Just to hear them go crazy for me winning gave me chills. Getting to climb up on the roof and see the cameras going and everything, it’s something a lot of people might never get to do … and I got to do it now.”

Gordy’s Q-rating has only increased with his exploits at the Dome. For instance, in 2019 he was involved in a B-main incident with Kevin Smith of Caldwell, Ohio, that devolved into a WWE-type scene when Gundaker loudly expressed his dissatisfaction with Smith on the racetrack. “I hope he’s all right. I don’t wish anything bad on him … but I kind of want to beat his ass,” Gundaker said of Smith in an interview on the P.A. system before he kicked Smith’s door and ran after his rival.

Myles Moos of Lincoln, Ill., rose up last year, winning a preliminary feature that put him firmly on the Dirt Late Model map.

“This does put it in perspective that this is possible to run with these guys,” Moos said afterward. “Maybe not at Eldora or Knoxville, but I can hang with these guys here. If you keep your head on straight and don’t get in any trouble, you can do really well here.”

Then there’s Jason Welshan of Maryville, Tenn. His name wasn’t familiar to anyone outside of his native East Tennessee until he came to St. Louis in 2017 after promptly registered group fast-time hours and finished fourth in the finale.

Oh yeah, Welshan also set the Dome crowd into a frenzy during 2017’s driver introductions when he appeared through the smoke holding a hand-written sign with the words, “SCOTT WHO?” as a poke toward Bloomquist. The bald, brawny and personable Welshan had clearly fallen in love with the Dome.

“Last year I sat at home, me and my wife, and watched (Gateway) on pay-per-view (video) and I told her, ‘I want to go to that race next year,’ ” Welshan said in 2017. “It’s awesome, just an awesome deal. You can’t describe it. When we pulled through the gate here and parked in the Dome (on Wednesday), the energy, the electricity, it was just unbelievable. Everybody’s just real excited about this whole deal.

“There’s no way you can come in here and not get pumped up. If you walk in and it don’t get you going and your blood flowing, there’s something wrong with you. Everywhere you go, electricity is zapping you because everybody’s walking around with smiles on their faces and just loving it. I encourage everybody who’s watching it, or keeping up with it on social media, if this continues to happen, come and be a part of it and experience it because it’s well worth it.”

Welshan has been an annual Gateway entrant since his notable debut — and in ’18 he proceeded his second straight fourth-place finish in Saturday’s finale with another attention-grabbing sign (“No Provisional Needed,” in reference to Bloomquist gaining entrance to the feature thanks to a past-winner provisional) during the driver introductions.

Those driver intros — yes, that prerace festivity has developed into one of the most popular parts of the weekend. With the the large crowd charged up for the Late Model finale and pyrotechnics, music and videos on the big screen pumping up the atmosphere, drivers have embraced the opportunity to show some personality and just … have a little fun.

Welshan is just one example of a driver who’s juiced up the fans with some intro antics. Who can forget Bloomquist’s crotch chop 2.0 in 2016? (“I heard everybody booing, and I thought, ‘Well, here ‘ya go,’ ” Bloomquist said with a smile.) Or Bloomquist carrying open-wheel standout Rico Abreu on his shoulders in ’18? Or Sheppard trying out some dance moves in ’18? (“You’re a Sheppard. You should know you can’t dance,” Brandon’s father, Steve Sheppard Jr., told him afterwards.) Or Babb’s balls-in-a-wheelbarrow schtick (from the South Park animated series) in ’19?

The introductions have become so entrenched at the Dome, drivers now find themselves being asked by fans and friends what they’ll do before they’ve even secured a starting spot in the finale. It’s part of the allure of the Gateway Dirt Nationals.

I know I’ll be eagerly awaiting those prerace ceremonies this Saturday. And even though I know I’ll find myself cursing an outbreak of caution flags sometime during the weekend, I’ll tell myself to calm down and let the delays slide — because I know the Dome will give me plenty to write about. It always does.