In midget and sprint car racing, and in many short tracks, “alphabet soup” denotes the various preliminary races drivers will race through to advance to the feature. Such is named for the heat race format from the O main at the Chili Bowl to the N, M, L, K, J, I, H, G, F, E, D, C, B, and A main. A driver who runs through the alphabet soup is a driver who advanced from the lowest feature of the day and advanced to the A main.