Last Thursday night the Knoxville Raceway ran off the opening night of the 360 Nationals in record time to beat a slow moving thunderstorm and tonight the scenario was essentially the same for the second qualifying night of the 5-Hour Energy Knoxville Nationals. A solid line of storms were training from west to east no more than thirty miles noth of the speedway while a line of storms that would turn severe pushed in from the west. But once again with great cooperation from the drivers and the crews, plus the fact that for the second night in a row starter Doug Clark was able to keep the red flag in the bag, the track was able to complete the full program with the final checkered flag waving at 9:30, about thirty minutes before the rain cut loose on the facility.
The track was more than a half second slower tonight than last night and paired with the fact that the third driver out, Brad Sweet, set quick time the oh so important qualifying process just wasn't as entertaining tonight as it was last night. Biggest surprise? It would be easy to go with Gary Taylor, but since his sixth best time was established as the second car out to qualify I am instead going to go with Parker Price-Miller. PPM driving the Hill Racing #77x went out 26th and qualified 8th. Biggest disappointment? The last driver other than Donny Schatz to win the Nationals, Tim Shaffer timed in 47th.
Clyde Knipp, the young Missouri driver who has tagged along with the World of Outaws for much of the 2016 season has to be asking why he was the 60th and final car out to time tonight when there were only 47 cars in action last night.
Terry McCarl is running a paint scheme this week honoring his father Lenard who passed away this year and he quickly moved from sixth to third in the first heat race. With three laps remaining though, he dropped a valve and it was obvious that his engine was laboring as he tried to nurse the car to the finish. Justin Henderson drove by McCarl for third and quick qualifier Brad Sweet was still a straightaway back with two to go. Sweet closed a bit, but T-Mac held on to make the transfer. McCarl's crew then went to work pulling the engine from his son Austin's car and dropping it into Terry's in time to make the main event.
A tip of the hat to Rager Phillips who went flag-to-flag to win the opening heat ahead of the 2016 360 track champion Clint Garner.
Joey Saldana showed that there was still some speed in the track when he went out 56th in qualifying and clicked off the second fastest time and in the second heat race he quickly moved from eighth to fourth. But then, after James McFadden blew by him down the back stretch, you could basically say that the rest of the night was one to forget for the "Brownsburg Bullet". Not only did he lose the transfer spot to McFadden, but he also gave up fifth to Dave Blaney sending Saldana to the B. More on that later. Ryan Bunton and Dale Blaney finished one-two with 18-year-old Chris Martin, the current Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders point leader finishing third.
Pennsylvania's Brent Marks went from third to first in the first set of turns and then ran away with heat race number three. Tim Kaeding showed some strength coming from sixth to third and despite trying every line that he could David Gravel could not track down Cap Henry for the fourth transfer.
Jac Haudenschild is driving Tony Shilling's car this week and being aboard a #22 again must have invigorated the Wild Child as he too went from third to first in the first two turns before running away with heat four. With Jason Solwold running second, Mark Dobmeier and Jacob Allen raced side-by-side just behind him for third. That tight racing allowed Kerry Madsen to close the gap mid-race and after Dobmeier shook off Allen, Madsen passed him as well in the closing laps to make the feature.
Jon Agan was scheduled to start second in the final heat, but did not make the call and tenth starting Shane Golobic pulled to the work area before the race went green with a broken sway bar. Brooke Tatnell made the "first lap, first turn" move of the night coming from fourth to first to take the lead and Tatnell then pulled away for a convincing win. Jason Johnson struggled a bit early, but then raced his way up to fourth to make the A-Main.
Heat races were completed at 8:41 p.m.
With lightning flashing to the north and west it was a very short break before the C-Main was pushed off and Agan not only made the call to start from the pole, he then went flag-to-flag to win it. Tim Shaffer started seventh and picked up two spots for fifth, but then in the final four laps he went from fifth to second to transfer along with Greg Wilson and D.J. Netto.
It was another tough night for the top ten qualifiers as only two of them, Kerry Madsen and Jason Johnson advanced from their heats, so once again the B-Main was loaded and there was only four tickets to the A-Main available. Brad Sweet and Joey Saldana raced side-by-side for most of the opening lap before Saldana took over and the caution waved for a slowing Don Droud Jr. with five laps remaining. Gary Taylor lined up fourth for the restart with Kyle Larson right behind him and when Taylor drove through the middle groove in turns one and two, Larson went to the cushion and made the pass. David Gravel joined the leaders and you now had a great three car battle between World of Otlaws regulars. As they raced into turn one though with three laps to go Sweet clipped the rear bumper of Saldana sending the leader sideways as Gravel powered by on the outside. Saldana was able to make the save, but he dropped to seventh in doing so and did not have enough laps to make up the positions needed to qualify for the A. Gravel hugged the bottom in an effort to hold off Sweet for the final lap, but when he slipped high exiting turn four Sweet charged through the opening and the two took the checkers wheel-to-wheel with the transponder giving the win to Sweet.
I'm sure that Saldana would have liked to have had a discussion with Sweet, but there was no time for chit chat as the wind had picked up and the lightning was ever closer. The rest of the A-Main was already in staging and as Ricky Stenhouse Jr. paced the field behind the wheel of Bryan Clauson's #17w, Sweet was the final car to push off just before the parade lap.
Dale Blaney grabbed the early lead as several cars went over the cushion in turns three and four on the opening lap, likely due to the wind gusts that were now chilling the crowd that until then felt like they had been sitting in a sauna all evening. Tim Kaeding had started fourth, moved to second and was now ready to challenge for the lead driving to the inside of Blaney on lap eight. Justin Henderson had been racing in third until he slowed on lap fourteen to bring out the caution and some nervous fans started to make their way to the exits.
On the restart Jason Johnson dropped Blaney back to third, but he could not concentrate on reeling in Kaeding since Terry McCarl was now tracking him down. With the winds really howling now McCarl threw a slider at Johnson with three laps remaining, but Johnson fought it off and would go on to finish second behind the winner Kaeding. McCarl finished third, Kerry Madsen came from eighth to fourth, Dale Blaney faded to fifth, Brent Marks was sixth, James McFadden finished seventh and Sweet made a big run up to eighth from the eleventh row. Mark Dobmeier and Cap Henry completed the top ten.
With the infield closed to fans so that the crews could try to get loaded up and out before the storm hit there was a major traffic jam getting out of the area.
The first eight rows of Saturday's Championship are set and they look like this
Row 1 - Daryn Pittman and Jason Johnson
Row 2 - Kerry Madsen and Jamie Veal
Row 3 - Donny Schatz and Chad Kemenah
Row 4 - Brad Sweet and Shane Stewart
Row 5 - Tim Kaeding and Terry McCarl
Row 6 - David Gravel and Sammy Swindell
Row 7 - James McFadden and Dusty Zomer
Row 8 - Craig Dollansky and Jeff Swindell
Friday night's program will see the top four finishers in the feature join the Championship field in rows nine and ten while the "Golden Ticket" will go to the winner of the World Challenge. Hopefully we don't get inundated with with rain overnight and in the morning as it should be a fantastic show.
Finally, infield announcer Wade Aunger had another memorable moment tonight as he interviewed the Junior Queen. When Aunger asked if she liked Sprint Cars her quick reply was an aloof "I don't know." Wade paused for the perfect amount of time and then said, "we need to try this again, when I ask if you like Sprint Cars, you say yes, I like Sprint Cars." So he then asked the question and she responded as prompted drawing a nice reaction from the crowd. Aunger then told the young lady that if she said that she LOVED Sprint Cars she would get an even bigger response. He asked, she again responded as prompted and the crowd cheered louder. Wade then leaned in and said, "let's see how they cheer for this, tell them that you love Donny Schatz," and she immediately said, "No!"
The crowd went nuts. If I didn't know better I would have sworn that they had rehearsed the routine.
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