Brown Dominates, Saldana Earns Pole At Knoxville Nationals

It was pretty easy to pick a winner when the feature field of twenty-four lined up for Thursday night’s main event at the 53^rd Annual FVP Knoxville Nationals as during the qualifying heats one driver definitely stood out. Brian Brown wasn’t just passing cars earlier in the evening, he was driving by them like they were standing still and that dominance carried over into the main event.

Kerry Madsen made him work for it though as the Aussie traded sliders with Brown early in the race and following a restart Madsen had a run going down the back stretch before Brown literally slammed the door on him. The two drivers joked about that later in the press conference as Brown said “I gave him enough room to lift….I think.” Well at least Brown, joked about it, but Madsen was still happy with a second place run that had locked him into Saturday’s finale.

Thought by many to be the driver with the best chance to knock off perennial winner Donny Schatz, Brown did nothing but confirm that prediction Thursday night and even though Schatz still has some work to do to even get qualified for the main event Brown made it clear that he still feels that Donny’s chances to win a seventh Nationals are still good. “You can start Donny Schatz in Oskaloosa and he would still have a chance to win.”

How about the week that Kevin Swindell has had? Before last week’s 360 Nationals his only dirt race of 2013 came at the Chili Bowl, indoors in January driving a midget where of course he won again in an event where he is establishing his own dynasty like Schatz has here. Back aboard a winged sprint car “The Bulldog” scored podium finishes on both of his race nights in the 360 Nationals, then on Sunday night he conquered a field of 81 410’s to win the second Capitani Classic. On Thursday night you could find him in the press room once again after finishing third to Brown and Madsen, and if this race would have been thirty laps he just might have been able to get around both as Swindell was charging at the end. Will we see him on the podium again on Saturday night? I wouldn’t bet against him!

Joey Saldana posted the fastest time of the night and then overcame adversity in his heat race to make the transfer to Thursday’s A-Main. After a bad start, and an even worse first full lap, the reason became clear when the left rear tire went down on the Motter Motorsports #71m. A quick change in the work area put Joey back on the track in ninth and with the new shoe he was a rocket racing quickly back toward the front to get qualified. In the feature he went pretty much unnoticed until the final few laps when he picked off a few more spots to finish in fifth. Saldana’s night would prove to be the best under the event’s qualifying points structure and the son of the 1970 Nationals champion, Joe Saldana, will start the 2013 version from the pole position on Saturday night.

Rico Abreu’s popularity is obvious as you walk the grounds seeing all of his t-shirts that are being worn by fans young and old, and you hear plenty of cheers whenever he is introduced or interviewed by the announcers. Fans of Bronson Maeschen may not feel the same about Abreu after last night though. The current Knoxville Raceway track point leader had the second fastest time for the night and was in a great position to not only lock himself into Saturday’s big show, but to be in a position near the front of the lineup as well. Abreu also put down a great lap in qualifying, ranking seventh and the two drivers would start side-by-side in the second heat. The two drivers nearly wrecked each other racing off the cushion in turn four on the opening lap and as they both went for the bottom in turn one it was amazing that they didn’t crash harder than they did. Both cars slid up the track and smacked the wall, and while Abreu was actually able to stay in motion, Maeschen was done for the race with a broken front end. Abreu would restart seventh and with some damage from the skirmish he could not advance any further while Maeschen came back to win the C-Main to put him at the back of the B where he only ran a couple of laps before calling it a night. Maeschen, along with all of the other drivers who have not yet made the show or the first ten spots in the B-Main, will give it another try tonight.

It may have gone unnoticed by many but the drive of the night may have been turned in by Cody Darrah who had to come out of the B-Main after failing to transfer from his heat race. Darrah started twenty-second, made a big move early getting up to twelfth and then steadily picked off six cars to finish sixth. That effort was good enough to land him tenth in points and will have him starting on the outside of the fifth row for Saturday’s finale.

It is great to see veteran drivers Steve Kinser and Danny Lasoski back in the Nationals A-Main lineup as their Thursday night performances will place them 12^th and 13^th on the starting grid respectively, and how about the performance of Roger Crockett? The driver who primarily runs the 360’s in the Pacific Northwest held his ground and finished fourth in Thursday’s main event giving him enough points to start 15^th on Saturday night.

The lineups are falling into place for a thrilling Saturday night and they will be finalized here this evening when four more drivers will punch their ticket in the championship event with the spectacular new Friday format. Hope to see you there!