Wednesday was supposed to be a slug fest featuring Kyle Larson and Donny Schatz, the drivers who finished first and second in last year's grand finale, and while at the end of opening night of the 58th Annual 5 Hour Energy Knoxville National presented by Casey's General Stores those two drivers sat atop the points list they each had very different routes to get there.
If you are reading this I am going to assume that you know the history of Donny Schatz and the Knoxville Nationals (winner of ten of the last twelve years and the runner-up the other two) so when he drew the opportunity to be the first car on the track for qualifying Wednesday night, let's just say that many in the crowd already had the story line for the week figured out. His best lap of 15.208 was better than anyone had put up during hot laps so when Logan Schuchart went out third and beat it, the crowd went wild. The fifth car out to qualify, Kerry Madsen beat it as well and again the crowd erupted and that reaction was repeated when current All Stars point leader Aaron Reutzel was strong mid-session and dropped Schatz back to fourth on the final list. Only at the Knoxville Nationals will you see this type of reaction during qualifying!
Oh yes, and as for Kyle Larsen, he drew the very last position in the 45 car qualifying order but still posted a respectable tenth quick effort. So after the first event it was Schatz plus 12 points on Larson.
Heat race action was up next and with a narrow race track it was going to be a challenge for the fastest qualifiers to get to the top four transfer positions from the eight car invert. Schuchart, the fastest qualifier, came up just a few car lengths short in the first heat finishing fifth while Madsen made a late move past Shane Golobic to take fourth in the second heat. Reutzel gave the fans another thrill with a final lap pass of multi-time IRA champion Bill Balog to take fourth in the third heat and as the fourth heat lineup took to the track it would have been hard to imagine that Schatz would not be able to at least achieve what Madsen and Reutzel had just accomplished.
Knoxville veteran Bobby Mincer (we still claim him as a 34 Raceway guy) and former World of Outlaws traveler Clyde Knipp would start from the front row and if you asked them after the checkered flag fell both would would have told you that they had just run the best ten laps of their lives. Well that is if you would have been able to get Bobby to stop screaming, his excitement being heard by the photographers in the infield in turns three and four on the cool down lap. Knipp, driving the VanderEcken #10 car was brilliant in winning the race going away while Mincer stayed glued to the bottom and finally gave up second to Matt Juhl late in the race. Lucas Wolfe was chasing them in fourth and while Schatz was able to get within striking distance in the closing laps, Wolfe did not flinch and sent the champ to the B-Main as fans were jumping up and down and high-fiving each other. Well, at least they were in Section I, home of the pickle nachos. There was literally a buzz in the crowd as the fifth heat was pushed off with Kyle Larson starting next to Ian Madsen in row four.
Brock Zearfoss would charge from the fifth starting spot to take the win, the first driver to come from outside of the first two rows tonight to do so with Larson charging all the way up to second. A tip of the hat to young Chase Wanner who turned some heads by finishing third after starting from the pole while Willie Croft sent Australians James McFadden and Ian Madsen to the B-Main by holding on to fourth.
After two events Larson had closed the gap on Schatz to just three points.
The B-Main was absolutely stacked with talent with only the top four able to advance and since it was started straight up the four drivers who started up front took the checkers up front. It was a good battle for the lead with Schatz taking it early only to have Schuchart fight back and make the pass, once again setting off a round of cheers, but the drama in this one took place soon after the checkers waved. Perhaps it was the excitement of the moment and the fact that he had just outrun Donny Schatz at Knoxville, or that he wanted to have as much time possible to make some adjustments to the car before the feature, maybe both, but the race winner Logan Schuchart did not go straight to the scales as the rule dictates. The resulting disqualification wiped out what would have likely been a point total that would have locked him into the A-Main for Saturday night and if he would have been able to make any kind of progress at all in Wednesday's feature perhaps even a prime starting spot in the first two rows of the championship race. It will be interesting to see how well Logan bounces back when he gets his mulligan on Friday night.
This was a huge break for Austin McCarl who was then able to start the main event from 24th but after he was able to get up to as high as twelfth he slowed with mechanical issues and ended the race in the pit area.
The twenty-five lap main event was a bit of an unusual race to watch as while veteran driver Greg Hodnett raced out to the early lead you couldn't help but to divert your attention to the back of the field to watch the stars from the B-Main, Schatz, Ian Madsen, Daryn Pittman and McCarl make their moves toward the front. Ian was actually leading that group through the field when the red flag flew for a grinding crash in turn four involving Clyde Knipp and Jamie Ball. Both cars rolled hard and it was good to see the young drivers walk away frustrated, but uninjured.
McCarl's caution came on lap fourteen and with six laps remaining Dominic Scelzi tried to make the hard left hand turn into the infield on the front stretch, but slid to a halt to slow the race one last time. Some of the best racing of the night up front came on the lap fourteen restart when Tim Shaffer, Larson and Gio Scelzi raced three wide for second off turn two and while it looked like Larson would have it, "The Steel City Outlaw" Shaffer battled back on the bottom and held on to the position,
On the final restart Schatz was now in eighth and he had at least one sitting duck ahead of him as the left wing panel on the fifth place car of Lucas Wolfe was coming apart. Shaffer gave Hodnett a good run on the restart, but it was not enough as Hodnett pulled away for the win and Shaffer finished second ahead of Larson. Sixteen-year-old Gio Scelzi again impressed with his fourth-place finish while Schatz was workmanlike coming all the way to fifth. And, checking in on that that two driver point race, the two position difference in the feature would give Larson the advantage by just one point and as it turned out those two finished the night ranked first and second.
The rest of the top ten in the race looked like this. Ian Madsen to sixth from twenty-second, Lucas Wolfe holding on to seventh, Aaron Reutzel eighth, Kerry Madsen ninth and Brock Zearfoss tenth.
With their point totals of 475 and 474, Larson and Schatz are on top for now however these are two of the lowest "best" point totals that we have seen from a qualifying night in some time. If Thursday's action sees more of the top qualifiers advance out of their heat races, perhaps running first, second or third instead of fourth, we could easily see two, three and maybe even four drivers beat these totals and drop the two pre-event favorites back a row or two for Saturday night's finale.
Another exciting night of racing is on the card at Knoxville and we hope to see you there!
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