The racing action intensified as the 410's hit the track eighty cars strong Sunday night for the 4th Annual Kustom Concrete Pumping Capitani Classic at the Knoxville Raceway. And in the end it was one of the hottest drivers in the nation right now, Shane Stewart, celebrating in victory lane.
In what by far is the largest one night show in Sprint Car racing, a unique format was used splitting the field into two forty car segments for qualifying, heats and B-Mains, plus this year an added feature to the process was the two-car match race "Pole Shuffles" that would establish the starting positions for the top eight drivers overall. The result was a very entertaining night of action that was topped off by a feature race where we were treated to some lead changes, including one final change in the closing laps.
World of Outlaws regulars Kerry Madsen and Daryn Pittman were the fast qualifiers and there would be three heat races lined up with the top four inverted and three cars to advance to the A-Main in each group.
The opening heat saw Danny Dietrich wheel the legendary Weikert #29 to victory lane ahead of Wayne Johnson and Kerry Madsen. Madsen had to avoid a block from Justyn Cox on the opening lap and when he came back to pass Cox for third a few laps later it looked like Kerry made his own point by showing his big right rear wheel to him off of turn four. And, following the race, the two made hand gestures at each other on the cool down lap.
Ian Madsen and Danny Lasoski led the way in heat two as Shane Stewart tracked down Craig Dollanksy late to secure the number three spot.
Davey Heskin would run off with the third heat, but you had to be impressed by 360 regular Jon Agan who finished second. Later in the feature though Agan would just take one lap and pull it in perhaps with mechanical issues, or perhaps to save his 410 powerplant for bigger things coming up later this week. Paul McMahan held off Greg Hodnett for the final transfer position.
The top four would finish as they started the fourth heat with Brian Brown taking the win over Lynton Jeffrey and Joey Saldana sending the fastest qualifier for Group 2, Daryn Pittman to the second B-Main.
The start of heat five would lead to some controversy as pole-sitter Cody Darrah either could not come up to speed, or perhaps chose to not come up to speed right away feeling as if fellow front row starter Jamie Veal had jumped the start. Either way this pinned the third starting Terry McCarl behind Darrah and when the start was not called back both Darrah and McCarl found themselves racing for fourth and fifth, well back from the top three of Veal, Sam Hafertepe Jr. and Chad Kemenah. So those first three outside row starters would finish in that order making Kemenah the first driver to "beat the invert" and after the checkers waved McCarl zipped around to the starter's stand to display his displeasure. As that was happening Matt Covington slid to a halt on the front stretch and scrambled out of his car that had a fire erupting in the engine compartment. As the fire crew extinguished the blaze, McCarl was now out of his car and gesturing to starter Doug Clark drawing quite a round of applause from the large Sunday night crowd. Two of the best at what they do, you can bet that the veteran starter and the veteran driver have had their share of disagreements before as they have worked together many, many times over the years and in fact they will work together in a different fashion tonight when McCarl wears his promoter's hat and Clark climbs the flagstand as the official starter for the NSL for the 20th Annual Front Row Challenge at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa. (Edit: From a post on Justin Clark's Facebook page I learned on Monday afternoon that Doug and his son will not be flagging at tonight's Front Row Challenge)
The start of heat six saw fourth-starting Sammy Swindell put the pinch on third-starting Rico Abreu entering turn one causing Rico to spin up the track and make contact with the guradrail. The contact was not severe, but it was enough to put an end to Abreu's effort for the night. The restart moved Dale Blaney up to the inside of row two and he would be the second driver to qualify from outside of the invert finishing second to Parker Price-Miller while Swindell had to track down Dustin Selvage late to qualify third.
The C-Main was a mix of the drivers who qualified poorly from both groups including eight drivers who didn't even get to run a heat race as only the top 36 in each group made those lineups. One of those was World of Outlaws regular Brad Sweet whose motor laid down on his first lap of qualifying so here he was starting 15th in the C and needing to be in the top four just to tag the tail of one of the B-Mains. Sweet was steadily making his way toward the front, but was still well behind that fourth position until the caution waved for a slowing Seth Bergman with two laps to go. For the restart Sweet would line up sixth behind the two Indy Race Parts cars of Tyler Courtney and Kevin Swindell and as they raced into turn one Courtney went to the bottom, Swindell to the top and Sweet aimed his car for the middle to go three-wide in turn one. As Sweet drifted up the track in turn two, Swindell had to pitch the car sideways to keep from getting into the guardrail and then Sweet made a run at Courtney in turn three. The Indiana driver who is now getting used to running with a wing held his ground though to take the final transfer position and on the cool down lap Kevin made sure that Brad knew that he was not happy with the move in turn two........and Brad made sure that Kevin knew that he really didn't care what he thought. All in all it made for one of the most entertaining C-Mains that you will ever see at a one-night show with Brandon Wimmer taking the win, Mark Dobmeier running second after starting eighth and California's D.J. Netto getting more comfortable here in third.
The Pole Shuffle match races are something that is more common to Australia and the banter back and forth between Aussie announcer Wade Aunger and Knoxville's own Tony Bokhoven only added to the enjoyment of these seven match races that would determine the first eight starting spots. Joey Saldana was the most impressive winning three Shuffles before being shutdown by Danny Lasoski and in the end it was Kerry Madsen running perhaps the richest two laps in his career taking the pole position and a $3,000 top prize courtesy of Greenland Homes.
Two B-Mains were up next with three cars advancing from each and in the first one a mid-race caution is what Tim Shaffer needed to pass Craig Dollansky for the final transfer spot behind Greg Hodnett and Justin Henderson. Daryn Pittman and Terry McCarl held serve in the second B-Main running one-two from the front row while Dustin Selvage held down third. Sheldon Haudenschild was desperately trying to catch Selvage in the closing laps and did a 360 spin in turn two on the final circuit. He still held on for fifth at the checkers.
A stellar field was now set for the 25-lap main event that saw Keery Madsen take the lead at the drop of the green. The caution waved following lap one when the orange cone used to mark the starting line in turn four was somehow kicked out onto the middle of the front stretch and when the race went back to green it was again Madsen setting a torrid pace as the top five got strung out a bit. Lapped traffic would tighten the field once again though and on lap fourteen Danny Lasoski would use his favored bottom line to drive under Madsen for the lead in turn two. Sixth-starting Shane Stewart was now finding his speed and with seven laps remaining he surprised Madsen by storming to the bottom line in turn three and then powered to the cushion in turn four to take over second.
It worked so well that time that Stewart again drove the same line on lap nineteen to close the gap on Lasoski, then on lap twenty it was the same move that would stir the crowd into a frenzy as he took the lead. Stewart's magic line in turn three would have to be altered a bit due to traffic in the closing laps, but there would be no catching him as Shane would park the Larson Marks #2 in victory lane. Lasoski would add to his large Knoxville Raceway point lead by running second, Madsen would hold down third and Sammy Swindell would put the squeeze on his CJB Motorsports teammate Paul McMahan to take fourth on the final lap.
After three nights of 360 racing that was light on action for the lead, this was just what the doctor ordered to get the fans fired up and ready to rock for the remainder of the Southern Iowa Sprint Speed Weeks!
Due to business reasons I am unable to attend tonight's Front Row Challenge that I am sure will be a huge event in Oskaloosa, and on Tuesday night I will step away from the Sprints to enjoy the Deery Brothers Summer Series and Hawkeye Dirt Tour doubleheader at the Cedar County Raceway in Tipton. Then on Wednesday night it will be back to Knoxville for four nights of heaven with the 55th Annual FVP Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's General Stores. Hope to catch you somewhere on the Back Stretch!
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