Night number two of the Arnold Motor Supply 360 Knoxville Nationals produced another flag-to-flag winner, although this one was a little more traditional than last night's nail biter. Justin Henderson started on the inside of row two and blew past the front row of Justyn Cox and Josh Higday in turns one and two to take the lead down the back stretch. From there he began to pull away lap by lap to a score a dominating victory in the Brent Vonk Hard Core Speed Shop #21V.
With Henderson on cruise control there was plenty of action to watch behind the leader as drivers did their best to rack up points for their starting spots in Saturday night's headliner. Kevin Swindell quickly moved from sixth to second and tried to keep Henderson in his sights while three-time defending champion of this event, Shane Stewart was also on the move after starting seventh. Knoxville's current weekly 360 Sprint point leader Clint Garner as well as Mark Dobmeier, making a rare 360 appearance, were also in contention as the battle for positon raged on. Dobmeier's night came to a premature ending though when he slowed suddenly with six laps remaining and pulled to the infield giving up the fourth position.
Stewart cleared Garner with a nifty move for third late and then tracked down Swindell to make the pass for second in the final two laps, the move that earned him just enough points to sit on the pole for Saturday's A-Main, a perfect starting spot for the driver seeking his fourth straight and fifth overall Knoxville 360 Nationals title. Swindell's third-place finish will put him in the second row on Saturday while Henderson's win will put him in the fifth starting position for the championship feature.
Clint Garner finished in the fourth spot tonight while Justyn Cox drove a nice race to hold on to fifth.
Terry McCarl in the Call/Holbrook #83 established the fastest qualifying time for the evening, but his evening went south early in the first heat race when he was tagged from behind by Dylan Peterson. The contact sent Peterson for a hard tumble on the front stretch while the damage forced McCarl to the work area where the crew made repairs, but he came up one spot short of a transfer position. T-Mac came back to win the B-Main, but could only advance four spots up to seventeenth in the main event.
Perhaps the surprise of the night was delivered by Robby Wolfgang who got back around Brian Brown in the final laps to finish in the sixth position, a performance that has him in Saturday's A-Main strarting fourteenth.
So after two soild nights of qualifying the field is set for Saturday's finale that will be supported by a full program of the 305 Sprint Cars in their unofficial Knoxville Nationals. One thing that you can expect is that the grand finale will not take the green until at least thirty minutes after the checkers wave the Nationwide Series race just up the road at the Iowa Speedway. That should give both Brad Sweet and Kyle Larson enough time to make the quick helicopter ride down to Knoxville, that is of course if neither one of them is delayed by victory lane ceremonies.
For Friday's results and Saturday's lineups courtesy of Bill Wright visit the Knoxville Raceway website.
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