A slightly revised Friday night format worked well providing fans with another night of entertaining action at the 49th Annual Super Clean Knoxville National presented by Lucas Oil Products. The field is now set for Saturday’s finale with the E, D, C, B and A features.
In the past, the Friday night “non qualifiers” show would have five heat races started straight up by points, a B-Main and then a twenty-lap A-Main, but this year the format was changed. Tonight we ran three “Semi-Features”, each with around 15 cars, with six of the starters were inverted by points. The top eight finishers from each would advance to the Friday night A-Main while the rest would be done for the night and would be lined up for Saturday’s D or E features. Daryn Pittman ran away with the first semi-main while Tony Bruce Jr. benefited from Randy Hannagan puffing a powerplant on the final lap to win the second semi. The third semi would see Brad Sweet wheel the third Kasey Kahne Motorsports entry past Cody Darrah with three laps remaining to take the win.
The A-Main got off to a rough start when third row starter Erin Crocker spun up the track in turn one and collected both Travis Rilat and Austin McCarl. Rilat would get upside down and both he and Crocker were eliminated from the event. On the restart Pittman shot to the lead only to have the event slowed once again on lap two when Aussie Matthew Reed shelled a motor. Once back to green the remaining eighteen laps provided plenty of action as Sweet drove by Pittman in lapped traffic on lap twelve to take the lead. Behind him though the veteran Sammy Swindell was on the charge after starting on the inside of row five. When Sweet checked up in traffic with five laps to go that was all that Sammy needed as he drove the Rolfe Trucking #10 past Sweet and continued on to a popular victory. Sweet was impressive maintaining the second spot, Randy Hannagan slipped by Pittman on the final lap to take third and Don Droud Jr. filled out the top five list.
The Scrambles were up next and while they didn’t bring anybody to the edge of their seat, they weren’t snoozers either. Ryan Anderson fought off Gary Brazier to win the C Scramble and Skip Jackson took the B Scramble ahead of Chad Kemenah. Jac Haudenschild put on quite a show in that one coming from the rear to pass Dean Jacobs on the final circuit for third. Donny Schatz avoided disaster at the start of the A Scramble as pole-sitter Dusty Zomer drove up the track and made contact with Schatz sending Zomer into a spin. After the restart it didn’t take long for the three-time defending Nationals champion to dispatch Sam Hafertepe Jr. and drive away for the victory. Schatz will start sixth in Saturday’s A-Main while Stevie Smith and Joey Saldana will go from the front row.
The Data Delivery Network World Challenge rounded out the night with a field of twenty taking the green flag for twenty laps of action. The Australian’s dominated through most of the event with Lynton Jeffrey out front being chased by Skip Jackson, Gary Brazier and Kerry Madsen. Terry McCarl was on the move working his way to the front from his sixth row starting spot while not far behind him Shane Stewart was riding the rim to the front after starting eighteenth. It looked as though nobody was going to catch Jeffrey until, of all things, a section of a billboard high atop the turn one guardrail broke loose and fell to the track with just four laps remaining necessitating a caution. With Madsen, McCarl and Stewart now lined up right on his tail tank you know that it had to be going through Jeffrey’s mind that what might have been the biggest victory of his career may have just been ruined by a falling billboard!
Lynton put that thought aside and continued his stellar drive on the restart and he was helped by the fact that the three cars behind him were now waging a thrilling battle for the runner-up spot. On the final lap, with Jeffrey driving away for the victory, Madsen and McCarl raced wheel-to-wheel both looking for the bottom groove in turn three. Stewart headed to the cushion and drove past both of them off of turn four to take second while Madsen edged out McCarl for third and Gary Brazier came in for fifth. It was the end of a frustrating day for Madsen who broke a bone in his ankle during the charity softball game in the morning when he rolled it sliding into a base.
Looking through the lineups I can’t help but think that we are set for an exciting Saturday night of action at Knoxville. If you are in the area, set the DVR, the Tivo or the VHS to record it if you’d like and then come on out to the Knoxville Raceway to witness in person one of the greatest sporting events that you will find anywhere. Believe me, watching this show, or any other dirt track race on television just does not give you the adrenaline rush that you get at the track. Come and join us if you can!
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