The 22nd Annual Arnold Motor Supply 360 Nationals opened up Thursday night with two west central Missouri based drivers waging a battle that kept the crowd on the edge of their seats throughout the 20-lap main event. In the end experience and perhaps a little luck landed Danny Lasoski in a place that nobody knows as well as he does, victory lane at the Knoxville Raceway.
The Thursday night entry list of 56 had been trimmed to 24 starters for the night’s main event with Jonathan Cornell and Ryan Anderson on the front row. Cornell, a former Rookie-of-the-Year here at Knoxville in the 360 class, has been sticking closer to his Sedalia, Missouri, home this year running weekly and winning often at Double X Speedway and currently ranking second behind Kyle Bellm in the ASCS Warrior Region point standings. Anderson, from the small western Iowa town of Deloit, has been a mainstay at the Knoxville Raceway for many years running in both the 410’s and 360’s perhaps and was recently featured in Flat Out magazine for his impressive accomplishments given his very tight racing budget. Cornell vaulted to the lead at the drop of the green and moved to the cushion on the big half-mile while third-starting Danny Lasoski did not take long to drive by Anderson for second. The winningest driver in the track’s storied history, Lasoski worked his familiar low line around the speedway and steadily reeled in Cornell easing past him for the lead on lap number five.
Driving a brand new car #1M put together by owner Mark Burch for the weekend, Lasoski pushed the lead to about ten car-lengths over the next couple of laps before Cornell started to fight back. At the mid-race mark Cornell had pulled back to within striking distance and he made a run on Lasoski for the lead. The veteran from Dover, Missouri, drove hard into turn three though and then slid up the track in four to block Cornell’s run, but it was on temporary as two laps later Cornell was able to kick off the cushion and drive past Lasoski for the lead. The two swapped safe sliders in a thrilling fashion over the next two set of turns and as they raced down the back stretch Cornell saw that Danny Jennings was just ahead and racing in his preferred high line. Cornell aimed his #28 for the bottom, but Lasoski was already there and the two nearly made contact as Lasoski regained the lead and Cornell had to regroup now nearly a half-straightaway back. His high line was still fast though and Cornell was making up ground when the caution waved on lap sixteen for Terry McCarl who had spun in turn four.
On the restart Lasoski worked a line where he would enter a set of turns low and then drift up on the exit in order to close off any high-line cushion runs from his challenger and it was working well as the white flag waved. Coming out of turn two on that final lap Cornell was rocket and appeared to have enough momentum to make one last run at the leader, but after setting the car on the cushion in three and then aiming for a lower line out of four Cornell’s bid for the win ended abruptly as his left rear tire disintegrated. Would he have been able to beat Lasoski to the line? I may be in the minority with this opinion, but I don’t think so as “The Dude” was flawless out of four in capturing yet another checkered flag at the track he calls “home”.
Brian Brown capped an amazing run by coming from 19th to second, more on “Blackjack” later, Kevin Swindell was solid in third, Jack Dover finished in the fourth spot while Cornell limped across the line in fifth. While watching that race for the lead I couldn’t help but to scan back a few times at that amazing race between Brown, Swindell and Dover for what we all thought would be for third until that final turn. Brad Sweet, Brady Bacon, Paul McMahan, Ryan Anderson and Kyle Larson completed the top ten.
Thursday Notes:
Qualifying…..There is no denying that drawing an early opportunity to qualify is important here whether it is the 360 or 410 Nationals. An early run can earn a driver points that he would otherwise never expect while a late qualifying opportunity can put you behind the eight-ball from the start, especially this week when only the top 30 qualifiers make the heat race inverts. Tonight’s top three qualifiers were among the first eleven to take to the track while Dustin Selvage was impressive establishing the fourth fastest lap as the 25th car out to take time. Conversely one of the pre-event favorites Brian Brown was the 50th driver to go out to qualify and he ended up 35th in the final rundown. One driver though who went out after Brown disproved the theory that a late qualifying effort will never produce good results as Kevin Swindell qualified sixth quick…..Jac Haudenschild in the Phillips Floors #7K had a busy qualifying session as his left rear tire blew in turn four as he was coming to the green for his first lap. After changing the tire I was surprised to see him come back out just a few cars later, in the middle of qualifying, to take two laps on the clock. As qualifying ended his fastest lap was announced as the tenth best in the rundown, but his car was then pushed back toward the front stretch as it was determined that Jac should have instead only been given one lap of qualifying at the end for missing his time slot. This lap landed him in the 20th position…..Current track point leader Clint Garner was fast time on the night as the 11th car out to qualify…….Irving, Texas, driver Shawn Peterson suffered front end damage when he slid into the end of the infield guardrail while exiting the track after his qualifying effort.
1st Heat…..Front row starters Kyle Larson and Logan Forler raced side-by-side for much of this eight-lapper with “Young Money” Larson prevailing. Forler, Kevin Swindell and Brad Sweet also transferred while fastest qualifier Clint Garner found himself on the pole for the B-Main after finishing fifth.
2nd Heat…..The southeast Iowa based Sprint Invaders organization had to be proud of this front row featuring two of their regulars in Tony Shilling and Bobby Mincer. Shilling dominated this one winning with ease ahead of Ryan Anderson, Brady Bacon and Mincer. Of note here was that Daryn Pittman who qualified miserably started tenth and could only climb to eight at the finish.
3rd Heat…..This one saw a pair of big passes out of turn two on the final lap. Danny Jennings slipped by Henry Van Dam to take the win while, even more importantly, Jack Dover blew by Randy Martin for the fourth and final transfer position. Jonathan Cornell finished third.
4th Heat…..Texan Larry Howery was scheduled to start fourth, but instead chose to tag the tail. Jesse Gianetto who recently replaced Tyler Groenendyk in the #10 car pulled away to victory with Paul McMahan finishing second. Defending NASCAR Nationwide champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. returned to his roots tonight and finished third while Tony Norem held off Davey Heskin by six one hundredths of a second to finish fourth. With the Nationwide series racing up the road at the Iowa Speedway in Newton Saturday night, only some weather-altered schedules would allow Stenhouse to compete in the finals of the 360 Nationals, so his efforts here tonight showed just how much he loves to get back behind the wheel of a winged sprint car.
5th Heat…..Talk about a stacked field, this one included former Outlaws Jac Haudenschild, Terry McCarl (driving the #94 car this weekend), Danny Lasoski, Randy Hannagan and Brian Brown. Hannagan would be the only driver to win a heat from the sixth starting spot tonight with Lasoski running second. R.J. Johnson did a nice job holding down the third spot while Brown joined Stenhouse as the only drivers to come from outside of the invert to transfer from a heat race. Haudenschild did not finish sending him to the C-Main.
C-Main…..Shawn Peterson’s tough night continued as he smacked the turn four guardrail on the opening lap knocking down his front end for the second time this evening…..Haudenschild appeared to have this one in the bag, but either he slowed some on the final lap or Ryan Roberts hit the turbo boosters as Roberts made up nearly a full straightaway to pass the veteran from Ohio for the win. Derek Hagar and Justin Carver also transferred.
B-Main…..My attention was on Terry McCarl in this one as he did not look good in his heat and starting fifth he needed to move to the top four to continue his evening. As pole-sitter Clint Garner stretched an early lead, McCarl struggled through the early laps before finding his rhythm. Arguably the best Iowa sprint car driver ever, McCarl showed why as he steadily picked his way toward the front and passed Garner for the win. The three-car battle for the final two transfer spots between Jon Agan, Jake Martens and Russ Hall went right down to the final turns as Agan and Martens ran side-by-side into turn three with Hall looking for racing room. When Agan slid sideways at the apex of the corner Hall had to back off to keep from hitting him as Martens took third and Agan recovered to finish fourth. Frustrated that he had been shut out of the main event, Hall pounded the back bumper of Agan a couple of times on the cool down lap.
As you can see there was plenty of action to keep a race fan very entertained and, with another roster stacked with interesting names, look for more of the same on Friday night as qualifying continues for the 22nd Annual Arnold Motor Supply Knoxville 360 Nationals. For more Positively Racing coverage of this event make sure that you also check in with Eric Arnold and Morgan Broeg.
No comments:
Post a Comment