Brooke Tatnell passed Rager Phillips on lap eleven and then went on to post the victory on night number two of the 22nd Annual Arnold Motor Supply Knoxville 360 Nationals.
Tony Bruce Jr. jumped out to the early lead from the pole position and opened up a nice advantage over second-running Rager Phillips. But Phillips, putting the knowledge of his home track into play soon started to reel in the leader and on lap eight he powered by Bruce for the lead. A caution for Matt Juhl who had tagged the guardrail in turn one on lap nine bunched the field up once again and Tatnell then went to work on the restart.
The veteran Austrailian driver made the pass on Phillips and then eased ahead as Rager soon found himself under fire from other challengers. Tim Kaeding was working the low line of the speedway and moved into the second spot late, but he was not able to cut into Tatnell's advantage enough to mount a challenge.
Tatnell would take the victory with Kaeding in second, Dusty Zomer settled into the third spot while Roger Crockett slipped past Phillips late for fourth. Tim Shaffer came from the seventh row to finish in the sixth spot, two-time defedning event champion Shane Stewart was seventh, Wayne Johnson finished eighth, Jason Meyers came from from the tenth row to finish ninth and Jason Johnson filled out the top ten.
Friday Notebook
Qualifying.....The seventh car out to time, Shane Stewart posted the quick time for the night at 16.809 more than half a second slower than Thursday nights fastest lap. Roger Crockett was second quick just one one-hundredth of a second slower at 16.810.
Heats.....After going out late and posting a disappointing 21st fastest time, Jason Johnson picked up some points by winning heat race number one......Jordan Boston ran off with the second heat with Dusty Zomer putting a mean slider on Jamie Veal early to grab the fourth and final transfer position.....Brad Loyet won the third heat race and Sam Hafertepe Jr. took heat race number four. In that fourth heat Jeff Swindell became the first driver to start from outside of the invert to transfer as he finished fourth.....Johnny Herrera won the fifth heat with Jason Meyers passing Sheldon Haudenschild on the final lap to be the second driver outside of the invert to transfer.
C-Main.....Jonathan Allard cruised to an easy win ahead of Kevin Ramey, Kody Barksdale and Jeff Ensign. Geoff Dodge was challenging Ensign for the final transfer before blowing a right rear late.
B-Main.....This one got off to rough start with three drivers getting upside down in turn two on the opening lap. Josh Riggins, Josh Hodges and Carson McCarl all climbed out of the damaged rides uninjured. Leader Kaley Gharst was coming out of turn four for the checkers as Dyland Peterson spun in turn four causing a caution and a green-white-checker restart. Dennis Moore Jr. took advantage of this going from fifth to third at the finish behind Gharst and Seth Brahmer while Dustin Daggett went to the middle groove to pass Glenn Styres out of turn four for the final transfer. Styres and Jamie Veal were the big losers on that restart as both would have transferred to the A if not for the late caution.
Full results from Friday and the lineups for Saturday's feature races can be found here and with such a deep field just about any of the twenty-four starters will be capable of taking the win. Starting on the front row though, Shane Stewart would have to be considered the pre-race favorite to post his third straight 360 Nationals title. A full program for the 305 Sprints will be on the card as well and perhaps we'll see you there on the Back Stretch.
No comments:
Post a Comment