Last spring, floodwaters forced Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 to sit idle for weeks and weeks while other St. Louis-area tracks and Illinois ovals had all the fun.

What a difference a year makes.

With health restrictions because of the coronavirus pandemic keeping most dirt tracks throughout the country dark, this year it's the high-banked third-mile oval in Pevely, Mo., that not only is a rare track in competition, but hosting several major events in May.

Watch the Karl Chevrolet 50 LIVE on FloRacing!

The track co-owned by Ray Marler and former NASCAR star Ken Schrader kicks off Saturday with the $7,000-to-win Karl Chevrolet 50, a DIRTcar-sanctioned event offering a $10,000 bonus for a tail-starting winner. That's followed by back-to-back World of Outlaws weekends with the Morton Buildings-sponsored Late Models on May 15-16 and the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series on May 22-23.

"It's good for the track," said two-time and reigning Late Model champion Rusty Griffaw, who lives 10 minutes away in Festus, Mo. "This deal here is going to put a lot of eyes on Pevely and people will see what a great track it is."

Most of the eyes for the upcoming events will be those watching via live streaming — DirtonDirt.com and FloRacing for the Karl Chevrolet 50 and DIRTVision.com for WoO events — because spectators will be limited with the relaxing of Covid-19 restrictions in Missouri.

Griffaw, who won last season's July 13 opener at I-55 after floodwaters eased, couldn't be more excited to get track's season rolling.

"They don't get enough credit in my opinion," Griffaw said. "It's good for Ray to come through and have these races, and I hope it works out well for ’em. I hope everybody around the country sees what a great track it is and will come and watch a race there whenever this all clears up."

While the upcoming events are good for race-hungry fans with virtually no sports in competition, they're great for Griffaw, who hasn't raced outdoors since last fall. His last outing came in December at the Arizona Sports Shirts Gateway Dirt Nationals at the The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis.

"We were running good at the Dome there in that feature, I think we were running fourth, and we broke the rear end and transmission, and that pretty much just ended our weekend," the 40-year-old Griffaw said. "I've got a brand new rear end in there and I've got a good motor in and we're ready to go. (Racing consultant and former driver Randy) Korte just went through everything, and he let us borrow one of his sets of shocks for the weekend, so we should be ready to go."

Griffaw has raced for years at I-55 in many divisions, and he's now among a solid group of weekly regulars that include Michael Kloos, Jeff Herzog, Daryn Klein and Kenny Rumble to face the invasion of touring drivers.

Living so close to the track, "several times I've broke and went home and got my other car, you know, I mean I'm that close," Griffaw said. "I can go home and get my other car and make it back in time to run the feature, just tag the back."

He's happy to provide a critical review of a track that, in many ways, looks like a shrunken version of legendary Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, down to the inner and outer concrete walls and infield pits.

"It's a lot like Eldora-type banking, and when they get (the surface) right — and they do more than not — it's a good two-groove track, all the way up to the outside wall or all the way down to the inside wall," Griffaw said. "And if there's absolutely nothing else, it'll clean up two grooves off the bottom and that'll be the fast way round. I really think there'll be a lot of a good racing going on as long as the track's right. I really hope it is."

Each season, I-55 competitors typically have to worry more about whether floodwaters from the nearby Mississippi River are covering the access road to the racetrack than if the track's surface will be racy.

When he's driving northbound on I-55 near the Meramec Bottom Road exit, Griffaw has found his own gauge of flooding's effects on the racetrack.

"There's a field there in Arnold (Mo.), you can see it off the highway, a soccer field, and when (the water) gets over a certain part of the fence, you know it's over the road at Pevely," Griffaw said. "That's a good gauge (when) rolling down the highway, you know if it's over that part of the fence, it's over the road."

Flooding or rain has spoiled four of the last seven DIRTcar Summer Nationals events scheduled at I-55, typically the track's biggest Super Late Model event, and last spring Griffaw saw water over his "fence gauge" in April, May and into June. The track's first event was July 13.

"That hurts, you know, because most of my sponsors are local, and they were wanting us to get out there," Griffaw said. "We won the first night back last year, so that was good. We'd kind of been hopping around to some other tracks, you know, and that makes it harder when you've gotta travel further. ...

"It's weird. Like some years, it'll only (flood out) a night or two, then like last season, it was about 10 nights. Some years it doesn't get us that bad, it just all depends on how much it snows up north. This year, they said it snowed as much as last year, but they just didn't release it I guess with the locks and dams (on the Mississippi), they didn't release as much water all at once this year, so that helped us out a bunch. Last year I don't know what they did, but it killed us."

Griffaw is glad floodwaters aren't ruining what's turning into a golden opportunity for I-55 regulars.

"We finally get a chance to maybe run for some good money at a track we run well at," he said. "Most of the time, on a Friday night, I run my old tires, and I save my new tires for Saturday because that's where I want to run best at. Anywhere else I'll probably never have a new tire on except at Pevely, then I'll run the Pevely (used) tires the next week."

You can bet he'll have on new tires Saturday, when he's vowed to accept the Karl Chevrolet 50 Top Six Challenge if he's among heat winners offered the opportunity to win from the tail for a five-figure bonus. He'll also compete in the following weekend's World of Outlaws events.

"Hopefully we can make some of those races and make a little money and show that we can hang, you know?" Griffaw said.