It is still fairly new, but you have to love the Friday night format at the FVP Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's General Stores. In the past the Friday night feature winner would "earn" the 11th starting spot in Saturday night's C-Main.....whoopee. Now, the top four in Friday night's main event lock themselves into Saturday's Championship feature so obviously the racing is more intense and the interest is much higher and that was truly the case last night at the Knoxville Raceway.
Eighty drivers signed in for the opportunity to race their way into the big show and, just like the first two nights, a drivers qualifying lap was extremely important in determining the night's outcome. With the field split into two groups of forty that would then run three heat races and a B-Main within each group to establish one combined 24-car feature field, the top four finishers qualified first and second in Group one and first and third in Group two.
The six heat races each had a four car invert with the top three advancing to the main event so the top qualifiers did not have to work as hard as they did on Wednesday and Thursday to make it to the night's A-Main. Group one quick qualifier Brent Marks, who also happened to be the first car out to time, held off Jason Sides to transfer out of the first heat in third.
Bryan Clauson was the 13th car to take time in the first group and still was able to qualify second quick and he then backed that up by winning the second heat passing Parker Price-Miller after a mid-race restart. Former Nationals champion Kraig Kinser claimed the third transfer spot.
Paige Polyak and Christopher Bell raced wheel-to-wheel on the opening lap of the third heat before Bell established himself as the leader. Ian Madsen then went to work on Polyak and after he passed her in turns three and four Ian jumped the cushion in turn four and Paige followed him. Madsen was able to recover, but Polyak had to spin the car to keep from smacking the guardrail and she was fortunate that everybody else was able to miss her as she sat sideways on the front stretch. Following the restart Bell would go on to win the heat with Madsen in second while Dusty Zomer would be the first driver to come from outside of the invert to finish third.
The pill draw for Group two qualifying was not as important since the track had already slowed down after being run in by the forty cars in the first group so quick time went to Billy Alley who was the sixth car out and second fast was Aaron Reutzel in the Roth #83 who rolled out 20th in the group.
Austen Wheatley would bring the field to green in dramatic fashion by popping a wheelie off the berm in turn four, but it would be Jamie Veal who would run away with the win in the fourth heat race of the night while Billy Alley held serve in second. Dustin Selvage would hold off a late charge from Tim Kaeding to take third and continue a frustrating week for the Californian who we anticipated would have a strong showing here at the Nationals after running here at Knoxville throughout the 2015 season. "TK" would also come up short of a transfer spot in the second B-Main.
Aaron Reutzel may have qualified second, but that landed him in an invert with three veteran drivers who have extended experience with the World of Outlaws and the up and coming young driver from Texas could not get around Jac Haudenschild, Chad Kemenah and Tim Shaffer.
Indiana driver Tyler Courtney, who is still getting used to running with a wing, had an amazing start in the final heat race of the night splitting the middle to move from sixth to third chasing Jacob Allen and Craig Dollansky down the Back Stretch. Danny Dietrich would fight back though and would get by Courtney late in the race with a pass that we would not know the vast importance of until later in the night.
The C-Main would see Bud Kaeding take the win over Jimmy Light, but "the show" was local driver Bob Weuve who powered his way up from eighth to third to earn his way into one of the B-Mains. Weuve has been a regular here at Knoxville for over twenty years now and after setting the ninth best time here on Wednesday night it is good to see him have some success here this week.
Three drivers would transfer out of each of the two B-Mains and in the first one it was Steve Kinser leading the way after an early battle with another veteran driver Dean Jacobs. Logan Wagner would bump Jacobs back to third at the checkers with Billy Balog coming up one position short of moving on. However, Jacobs later scratched from the main event allowing Balog to fill his spot. Front row starters Aaron Reutzel and Sam Hafertepe Jr. would run off with positions one and two in the second B, but the race for third was a good one as Davey Heskin came from fifth to get by Austen Wheatley late to make the transfer.
Marks, Alley, Clauson and Dietrich made up the first two rows of the main event with Alley taking the early lead. Clauson was definitely the man on the move though as he drove around Marks for second and then on lap nine he powered by Alley for the lead. Dietrich followed Clauson into second and Ian Madsen pushed Marks out of the fourth spot as the leaders worked traffic and as the laps clicked away Clauson soon had a car closing in on him. Aaron Reutzel had been lapped a few laps before, but he was now finding some speed and was actually closing in on the leader while also gaining positions as Clauson continued to put drivers a lap down. Reutzel actually threw a slider at the leader in turns three and four and I thought that I was about to see something that I had never seen before, a driver coming back to make up a lap under green flag conditions on a dirt track, when my attention was drawn to turn two where the fourth-place car of Madsen was sliding sideways in turn two.
Ian completed a full 360, but when he continued to spin the caution flag waved although Madsen made it a full 720 and drove away from the scene of the incident. Calling it an "inadvertent caution" Madsen would be placed in the position that the scorers felt that he would have blended in at had the green flag stayed out and the 2014 Knoxville track champion would now line up in eighth for the restart with just four laps remaining. Madsen's spin was a gift for Marks as it would put him back into the top four and while Clauson pulled away for the victory ahead of Danny Dietrich, Marks would slip by Alley in the closing laps to finish third.
In the past a Friday night feature win at the Nationals would not produce much emotion in victory lane, but not so under this new format as Clauson and his team had a big celebration. And when announcer Mike Roberts finally made his away over to Billy Alley we heard from the happiest fourth-place finisher ever as he wiped away tears while making his comments. There is no doubt that this new format makes for a Fantastic Friday in Knoxville!
The finale of the evening was the 20-lap Speed Sport World Challenge that also had the "golden ticket" up for grabs for if the winner had not yet qualified for the Championship A-Main, he would be given the 25th starting position in the big one. Lynton Jeffrey would take the lead away from Randy Hannagan on lap two and he would then open up a solid advantage over the rest of the field. James McFadden was showing no fear as he literally squeezed by a couple of drivers above the cushion on his way to the front after starting eighth. At mid-race McFadden would take over second from Hannagan, but would have to go back to third for the restart after Sheldon Haudenschild shredded the right rear tire on his ride.
McFadden would make quick work of Hannagan following the restart and as he gave chase to Jeffrey you could start to see some smoke out of the challenger's #3G. It didn't seem to slow him though as after sizing up the leader for several laps McFadden threw the slider on Jeffrey in turn four to take the lead with just three laps remaining. But with just a lap and a half remaining that tell-tale smoke would claim McFadden's engine as he blew up on the back stretch and quickly pulled down to the apron in turn three allowing the race to stay green. Jeffrey would take it however he could as not only would this victory put $10,000 into his bank account tonight, but it will also allow him to collect at least another ten grand on Saturday night as he joins the now 25-car field for the National Championship main event. Hannagan would hold off Daryn Pittman to finish second while Brooke Tatnell and Brad Sweet completed the top five.
It was a long, but entertaining night of action that now sets the table for tonight's finale. It will be sunny and HOT in Knoxville on this Saturday so do not expect things to get rolling until that sun gets a little lower in the western sky. That gives you plenty of time to get here to see if Donny Schatz can go from the pole and win his ninth Knoxville Nationals, or if somebody else will literally bring the house down by pulling off the upset.
My pick is an easy one: Schatz!
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