A Sunshine of Redemption as USAC Visits Knoxville

After crashing hard during the feature event here last year Tyler Courtney appeared to be on a mission Saturday night as the Amsoil USAC National Sprint Car series returned to the Knoxville Raceway. And after setting quick time as the final car to the track in qualifying, then coming from sixth to win his heat race, the driver known as "Sunshine" completed the sweep in fine fashion by capturing the 30-lap main event.

Courtney's crash in 2017 came as he was challenging for the lead when he caught the cushion wrong in turn two and then flipped high into the air before landing in a hard fashion. There would be none of that this time around as he started the Clauson Marshall Newman Racing #7BC from the outside of row three and quickly moved to the third position behind Brady Bacon and C.J. Leary. The lead trio would run the high line around the big half mile with a bout four car lengths separating each until lapped traffic came into play on lap eighteen.

Bacon would come off the cushion first to maintain the lead as Courtney powered past Leary for second and on the following lap Sunshine would drive hard to the low side into turn one and slide up to shut the door on Bacon at the cushion to take the lead. Leary soon moved to second and kept up the chase, but there would be no catching Courtney on this night as he took the win and then made an extra lap perhaps to salute the brand new Bryan Clauson Suite Tower that now stands just beyond where Sunshine's night came to an end a year before.

Leary and Bacon would fill out the podium in second and third, Justin Grant finished a car length behind Bacon in fourth and Brody Roa was fifth in the non-stop thirty lap event. Chase Stockon was sixth, Robert Ballou seventh and Dave Darland recovered from a hard hit to the turn three guardrail in his heat race to finish eighth. Chris Windom and an unusually quite Kevin Thomas Jr. filled out the top ten.

Tyler Courtney powered past Brady Bacon to take the USAC National Sprint Car win at Knoxville - Barry Johnson photo

Starting from the pole position was a requirement if you wanted to win in the winged 360 and 305 division tonight as all four heat races and both features were won from the inside front row position.

Eric Bridger captured his fourth win of the season - Barry Johnson photo

In the 305 main event outside front row starter Devin Kline got the jump out of four and tried to close the door on Eric Bridger entering turn one, but Bridger did not flinch and stayed on the gas to claim his inside line that propelled him to the lead out of turn two. The chase was on from there and as the laps wound down lapped traffic allowed Kline to get close, but when Bridger put one last lapper between them as the white flag waved this one was over as Bridger captured his fourth win of the season here at Knoxville. Kline was second, former IMCA Modified driver Eric Glass was impressive edging out point leader Ryan Leavitt for third while Kelby Watt was fifth.

With the winged 410's having the night off A.J. Moeller dropped a 360 under the hood and as usual qualified well setting quick time and he would start the 18-lap feature to outside of Jon Agan in row one. Agan would take the lead at the drop of the green setting a quick pace until the caution waved on lap eleven when Mason Daniel and Joe Beaver made contact on the front stretch with eleven laps remaining.

Jon Agan had to use all of the race track on the final lap for the 360 win - Barry Johnson Photo

Ryan Giles had moved from fifth to second and was set to challenge for the lead as Agan brought the field back to green. Again Agan opened up a solid lead only to have Giles close the gap as the lap clicked away. As the white flag waved Giles was ready to pounce and with a couple of lapped cars taking up both lanes in front of him Agan could not be patient as they raced down the back stretch one last time. The leader drove to the bottom, make that the extreme bottom entering turn three as he drove up on the inside berm to squeeze under the lapped car of Brad Comegys and that would be the move that sealed the win as the hometown driver returned to victory lane at Knoxville for the first time in three years. Giles would come home second, Clint Garner was third, Matt Moro was fourth and Christian Bowman edged out a late charge from McKenna Haase for fifth.

It was a hot, sultry night with thunderheads safely off to the north and east as Knoxville again ran an efficient program that was scored complete at ten o'clock. On your next trip to the Sprint Car Capital of the World make sure to check out the special item of the night at the concession stand as this night's feature, the roast beef poutine was fantastic!