The difference was like night and day, well actually night and early morning to be exact. Without the interference of Mother Nature we returned to the fantastic brand of racing that we expect Thursday night at the Knoxville Nationals, a night full of passing and action with only a couple of minor incidents. Yes, Wednesday night had plenty of interesting subplots, but tonight the story was the racing, just as it should be.
You knew that things would be back to normal when the track obviously slowed down as qualifying progressed. Dale Blaney was one of the first few cars out and his lap of 15.056 would be over half a second faster than anyone else hitting the track from mid-pack on could muster. The next proof of normality came with the drop of the green flag for the first heat race. Brian Brown went to the top and drove around the two front row starters to become the first heat race winner of the week to not start from the front row. Plus Blaney, starting eighth, was the first “fastest qualifier” in a heat race this week to make it into the top four and advance directly to the A-feature as he finished third.
The racing action warmed up nicely in heat race number two as Ricky Logan put a bold slider on Ricky Montgomery in turn four of the first lap to take the lead. Montgomery would experience the same type of move in the same location six laps later when Rager Phillips muscled him out of the fourth position. Back up front Terry McCarl was reeling in the leader Logan and pulled alongside of him coming to the checkers only to come up a half of a car length short at the line. The crowd was torn between what to watch though as at the same time Joey Saldana, the fastest qualifier in this heat race, was making the move to get around Phillips for the fourth and final transfer position.
Chad Meyer drove away to a convincing win in heat race number three while Tyler Walker advanced from eighth to third, and in the fourth heat race Stevie Smith wowed the crowd with a run from eighth to first for the checkers. Kraig Kinser then made it five-for-five tonight in regard to the fastest qualifiers advancing from the heats as he finished fourth in a race won by Lynton Jeffrey. Remember that the top qualifiers were zero for five just past midnight this morning in the opener. Obviously we were going to see a difference in how the points shook out in comparison between the two sets of qualifying.
Steve Kinser was one of the top timers who could not move forward in the heats as he started beside Josh Higday on the front row of the B-Main. Higday lead early before Kinser slipped by and “The King” had to hold off a late charge from Greg Hodnett to secure the win. Jac Haudenschild transferred from the third spot while Jesse Gianetto passed Wayne Johnson with two laps to go for the fourth and final ticket to the A-Main. Higday ran strong early in Marty Johnson’s #81 before fading and retiring to the pits, and Joey Moughan was challenging for a transfer spot when he slowed suddenly and stopped in turn four.
The feature field was set and the crowd had more life in it for two reasons, first we weren’t all half asleep as we were at 2:00 a.m. this morning and second we knew that we were going to see the type of action that the Knoxville Nationals promises each August. Dusty Zomer put the Gifford #17G out front from the pole position and looked like he might run away with this one early on. Tim Kaeding took chase and kept Zomer in his sights before the two started working lapped traffic on lap eight. Kaeding closed the gap quickly and on lap eleven, when Zomer went low into turn three to pass a lapped car and then drifted up to the cushion in turn four, Kaeding did just the opposite hooking the cushion in three and diving off the bottom of turn four to take the lead away from Zomer. With Kaeding now pulling away, Zomer continued to take on contenders with first Kraig Kinser getting by him for second and then Joey Saldana storming by him for third. Tyler Walker and Stevie Smith were next in line and they engaged in quite a battle for fourth themselves over the final laps. This race went twenty-five-laps straight with no cautions and Kinser was within striking distance of Kaeding as they headed down the backstretch for the final time, but there was no stopping the Californian from taking a win that he would celebrate with passion in victory lane. With the year that he has been having you’d have to think that Kinser was very pleased with his second place run while Joey Saldana was coming up fast at the end to finish in third. Smith finally edged past Walker late to take fourth, good enough to make him the high point man after two nights of qualifying, while Walker completed the top five.
After a disappointing qualifying effort (22nd), Terry McCarl charged from row six to finish in the sixth spot, Zomer faded to seventh at the checkers, Jason Solwold started next to Zomer on the front row and finished eighth, Dale Blaney was consistent in ninth and Brian Brown finished where he started in tenth.
Friday night’s Scrambles will shake things up a bit, but when you look at the points there are some interesting storylines to watch…..Six drivers (Smith, Saldana, Walker, Kraig Kinser, Blaney and Kaeding) tallied more points on Thursday than did Wednesday’s leader Donny Schatz. Terry McCarl came into the event red hot here at Knoxville and he will start Saturday’s A-Main from fifteenth. Don’t count him out……Steve Kinser will have his work cut out for him if he wants to claim his thirteenth Nationals title as he will start from the outside of row ten in Saturday’s finale…..Last year’s runner-up Jason Meyers will have to move from eleventh into the top four in Saturday’s B to even have a chance to win his first Nationals……Danny Lasoski will start 17th in the B and will be fun to watch in the Casey’s General Stores #6…….Jesse Hockett in 51st is the top man heading into tonight’s “Non-Qualifiers” action and he is joined by such notables as Erin Crocker (60th), Randy Hannagan (61st), Lance Dewease (62nd), Daryn Pittman (63rd), Sammy Swindell (71st), Jason Sides (82nd) and Wednesday’s fastest qualifier Cody Darrah (68th).
The forecast looks good for the remainder of the weekend so we hope to see you at Knoxville!
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