Gravel Over Sweet For Night Two Win At Knoxville Nationals

There would be no upset winner on night number two of the 59th Annual NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's General Stores as David Gravel out ran defending champion Brad Sweet to win the twenty-five lap preliminary feature to lock himself into the front row for Saturday's Championship race.

Here is how the evening played out.....

Ladies Last. After Paige Polyak was the first car out for qualifying on Wednesday night, Harli White would draw the last pill for tonight in the field of fifty-six. Shane Stewart the fourth car out for qualifying would set the quick time for the night with a lap of 15.679, Tim Shaffer was second quick as the seventh car out and the second car to hit the track, Parker Price-Miller had the third best time. Several of the pre-race favorites drew late in the order with Brian Brown doing the best with the sixth fastest lap despite being the fortieth car to qualify.

Last night only two of the top ten qualifiers advanced through their heat race. Tonight would see four of the top ten survive the eight car invert to make it up to the top four,

After qualifying the push trucks traditionally pack down the crumbs from the cushion on up so the first heat runs on a bit of an undefined surface for the first few laps. That would bite the quick qualifier Shane Stewart as on the opening lap of the first heat race Stewart went too deep into turn three and smacked the rail with his right rear sending him into a grinding end over end crash. Thankfully Stewart was able to walk away uninjured, but his night was finished. On that first start Brian Brown had moved from seventh to fifth heading down the back stretch, but on the restart Brown slipped high and actually dropped back to eighth for a moment. While he was able to make up ground over the ten lap distance the current track point leader could do no better than fifth sending him into the night's B-Main. Veteran Outlaw regular Jason Sides had to go get some new shoes after oil soaked his first pair during hot laps, but all was good here as he went flag to flag to take the win over Lance Dewease, Kraig Kinser and Cory Eliason.

The battle for fourth was definitely the race to watch in the second heat and it got dicey early when Carson Macedo ran Terry McCarl up and over the cushion in turn two on lap three to take the final transfer position. Harli White started from the pole and nobody could catch her as she took the win over the fourth starting Rico Abreu and the non winged convert Tyler Courtney.

The opening lap of the third heat was  a wild one as Brock Zearfoss, Cale Conley and Derek Hagar raced three-wide into turn three. As Zearfoss slid up to the cushion in turn four, contact from Conley sent Hagar into the outside barrier ending his race with right side damage. After the restart Zearfoss would walk away for the win over Thomas Kennedy and Brooke Tatnell while Parker Price-Miller needed a lap seven pass of Conley to lock down the fourth spot.

When outside front row starter Andrew Scheurle flared wide coming to the start line that allowed several drivers to make a quick move toward the front in heat race number four. David Gravel had started seventh, but was up to fifth going down the back stretch and he would quickly march his way to the front. On lap four Gravel would drive past Nationals rookie Sye Lynch to take the lead only to see Lynch battle back to regain the advantage a lap later and ride it the rest of the way to the checkers. Gravel would finish second, pole-sitter Mason Daniel held on for third while Clint Garner would send Daryn Pittman to the B-Main by holding him off for fourth.

The wave of the green in the fifth and final heat saw the pole sitter Sawyer Phillips fail to come up to speed sending drivers scrambling to get around him. Bill Balog could not miss him though with the impact knocking the front wing off of the many time IRA champion's car and sending him to the work area for repairs. This would shuffle the lineup as Brad Sweet would now go from fourth, but surprisingly the defending Nationals champion faded early to sixth as Craig Dollansky established the pace. A caution for debris on lap five would require a restart and that is where Sweet would make his move driving past Dollansky who had a motor that was going south. Joey Saldana would charge to second and Jason Solwold to third as Dollansky faded before he finally pulled to the infield after scoring lap eight. This would turn out to be a huge break for Matt Juhl who would then pick up the fourth and final transfer position.

Balog would come back to win an uneventful C-Main and the stage was now set for another B-Main that was stacked with talent, although maybe not as much as last night, with only the top four finishers after twelve laps moving on. Brian Brown would charge to the point early bringing a large cheer from the stands, but the guy in front of me made as much noise as he could when Brock Zearfoss passed Brown right back a lap later. As Brown faded to third it was obvious that something was going wrong and that is when his right rear tire blew apart on lap three bringing out a caution. Brown would make the tire change and join the field at the back for another two laps of racing before T.J. Stutts got into the wall at about the same place that Stewart had hit earlier, only Stutts then did a slow tip over to bring out the red flag. Once back to racing the battle for fourth was entertaining as Jacob Allen and Terry McCarl went back and fourth before Allen prevailed to join Tim Shaffer, Daryn Pittman and Scott Bogucki in the A-Main. Brown made it all the way back up to ninth.

David Gravel runs the berm at Knoxville - Barry Johnson photo

Brock Zearfoss and Cory Eliason would bring the field to green for the twenty-five lap feature and with Brad Sweet starting third many picked him as the favorite. Zearfoss would hug the berm and hold the lead as the sixth starting Gravel would quickly come to second. Gravel would drive around Zearfoss to lead lap eight only to have Brock come right back on the bottom to lead the ninth trip around the legendary half-mile oval. A caution for Sye Lynch would slow the pace and on the restart as Zearfoss was ready to lead his primary challengers, Gravel and Sweet down the back stretch, suddenly his car slowed and the leader was now headed to the work area to replace a failed MSD box.

Jeff Gordon and Mark Webber join David Gravel in Victory Lane

Gravel would assume the lead for the restart and after a lap eleven caution for a slowing Tyler Courtney the battle was now on between the two World of Outlaw regulars. Each time it looked like Sweet might be able to mount a challenge, Gravel would again pull away as he would put the Jason Johnson Racing #41 with a fresh sponsorship from Axalta into victory lane where he was joined by none other than Jeff Gordon for the victory celebration. Sweet would finish in second while Carson Macedo flew around the rail coming from thirteenth to take third. Cory Eliason posted a solid run in fourth while Rico Abreu thrilled his many fans coming from tenth to finish fifth. Joey Saldana ended a solid evening in sixth just ahead of the hard charging Tim Shaffer who advanced fourteen spots to seventh. Parker Price-Miller was eight, Matt Juhl finished ninth and another B-Main transfer, Daryn Pittman completed the top ten.

The first eight rows for Saturday night's Championship race is now set with Aaron Reutzel and David Gravel to sit on the front row while the top ten starters in Saturday's B-Main is also established as shown below. Friday night action again gives those drivers not in the top twenty-six in points the chance to race their way into the Championship lineup as the top four from Friday's feature will start seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth in the A-Main while the fifth place finisher will lineup eleventh in Saturday's B-Main.

 Saturday A main

Pos Car Driver Points
1 87 Aaron Reutzel 487
2 41 David Gravel 481
3 12N Joey Saldana 479
4 49X Tim Shaffer 474
5 71P Parker Price-Miller 473
6 49 Brad Sweet 470
7 7S Tim Kaeding 466
8 13X Paul McMahan 465
9 19 Brent Marks 464
10 83 Daryn Pittman 464
11 44S Trey Starks 463
12 09 Matt Juhl 457
13 26 Cory Eliason 455
14 18 Ian Madsen 455
15 17 Sheldon Haudenschild 453
16 69K Lance Dewease 451

B main

17 9 James McFadden 450
18 71 Gio Scelzi 449
19 24 Rico Abreu 447
20 15 Donny Schatz 447
21 13 Mark Dobmeier 444
22 28 Scott Bogucki 442
23 88 Tanner Thorson 440
24 2 Carson Macedo 435
25 70 Brock Zearfoss 430
26 1A Jacob Allen 427