I saw just over six minutes of racing on night number two of the 25th Annual Arnold Motor Supply Knoxville 360 Nationals presented by Great Southern Bank Friday night and those six minutes produced a non-stop 20-lap main event that had plenty of action to follow at both ends of the Knoxville Raceway Friday night.
First a quick explanation. My daughter has been back from Michigan for a visit this week and since Friday would be her last night in town we wanted to take her and her gentleman friend (hard to say that your 31-year-old little girl has a "boyfriend") out for dinner at our favorite restaurant in Fairfield, especially since he is a chef at a nice place in Kalamazoo. They had plans with friends for later in the night, so we took separate cars, had a nice leisurely dinner and then I tried to make the one hour and fifteen minute drive to Knoxville a minute or two shorter in order to catch the feature race in Friday night's qualifier.
As I neared Oskaloosa I was able to pick up Jamie Brockman's live play-by-play on KNIA with the B-Main just getting ready to take the green and while it was unlucky for a couple of drivers it definitely worked in my favor that there were a couple of cautions and one fairly lengthy red flag period. The result was a 30 minute race that sounded like it had quite of bit of action in it highlighted by the race for the fourth and final transfer position that Sheldon Haudenschild wrestled away from Harli White in the closing laps. I could hear the cars taking the checkers as I parked my car and by the time I found myself a seat high up in Section I it was time to salute the 24-car starting field for the main event.
With Brian Brown and Sammy Swindell starting from the front row I would have wagered that the winner would have been one of those two despite the fact that the field was loaded with 410 regulars (McCarl, Zomer, Kemenah, Shaffer, Heskin, Droud, Kaeding and two Haudenschilds) as well as some of the top ASCS National series drivers (Herrera, Baughman, Covington).
Brown would ride the cushion to the early lead with Swindell in hot pursuit as the rest of the field ran both high and low on the racy surface. Sprint car rookie Ryan Giles had a scare in the early laps as he was racing for position with Terry McCarl. The two were both working the cushion when in turn four contact caused Giles to bicycle his car, but somehow the former IMCA Late Model driver brought it back down on all fours and continued on.
Dusty Zomer had started on the inside of row two and when he found the low groove to his liking he dispatched Swindell back to third and then closed in on Brown. Zomer showed his nose to the leader for at least three laps with Brown able to hold him off each time until lap eight when Zomer powered by and then slid up off turn two to close the door. As the Buffalo Wild Wings #82 began to pull away in traffic, Brown went searching for speed on the low side as well and that allowed Swindell to close in. With the laps winding down and Zomer now a straightaway ahead, the battle for second went full tilt with two laps remaining as Swindell threw a big time slider on Brown in turns three and four. Sammy did not have Brian completely cleared and rather than braking and turning under the cagey veteran, Brown instead made contact and both drivers lost precious momentum as they fought to maintain control of their cars.
Swindell pulled away from the encounter now in second while Terry McCarl passed Brown in turns one and two as the former leader tried to get back up to speed. And after the checkers waved for the winner Zomer, followed by Swindell, McCarl and Brown I made sure to keep my eye on the two drivers who had just tangled in turn two as they went down the Back Stretch on the cool down lap.
Brown drove under Swindell and then cut closely back front of him which of course Sammy was not going to take lightly so he pulled under Brown and then nearly drove him all the way up into the guardrail between turns three and four. Sammy's son Kevin Swindell had raced his way up from eleventh to fifth and he now joined the duo as if to escort them both to the scales.
Wayne Johnson finished in the sixth spot, Chad Kemenah started in row eight and finished seventh, Jac Haudenshild was steady in eighth, Tim Shaffer was ninth and current Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders point leader Tony Shilling came from sixteenth to tenth.
Zomer thanked his car owners for the opportunity and his crew for their hard work and with a couple of wins now in the last two weeks the driver who just turned 30 years old this week appears to be the driver to beat heading into Saturday night's finale. When asked in the press room about his pass of Brown, Swindell stated, "he was backing up anyway and I had an opportunity to pass him, so I took it. He didn't need to hit me, he could have turned under me, he just gave a gift to Terry," referring to the third-place finisher and the driver who will start tonight's championship feature from the pole position.
It was just over six minutes worth of racing, but it was well worth the trip and I am excited to catch the entire show tonight for the finale of the Knoxville 360 Nationals. And, due to the threat of weather later in the evening, the support program of 305 Sprint Cars has been cancelled.
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