Donny Schatz has a virtually unassailable lead in World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series standings, but there are plenty of other battles to be decided with three races remaining this season. 

Jason Sides enters the opening night of the Textron Off Road World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, NC, on Thursday only four points outside of 10th in the standings behind Brent Marks.

The position is important to Sides because he has been among the top 10 at season’s end in six of the past eight years.

"You go in there knowing it's the last race and you need to do well," Sides said in a team press release. "I have to run really good, but at least be in front of Brent both nights."

Multi-day formats provide a lot of challenges, and three consecutive nights of racing are no exception. Changing track conditions are difficult during a single evening, but Charlotte requires the cars to qualify Thursday night for the Friday and Saturday shows.

"Qualifying is more important than anything because you have so many cars," he said. "When you qualify it's for each night, which is two different nights. You'll qualify on a night when the track is hard, dry, and slick. With us qualifying early in the night the first session is usually OK. By the second time we go out, the track is hard and slick. You really need to be on your game to get the best qualifying effort you can.

Sides enters the weekend with eight top fives and 23 top 10s this year in Outlaw competition compared to Marks’ single top five and 22 top 10s. That means his results outside 10th place have been far worse than Marks, and Sides needs to have a couple of clean races in order to advance in the points.

"They've done a good job of keeping the track together all weekend,” Sides said. “Usually they have a good top and a bottom and it's pretty racey. We've run decent there before. We were leading once and got jacked up by a lapped car and Paul McMahan got by. 

"Hopefully we can put together a good weekend with solid results that will move us back into the top 10 of the standings."