Mark Dobmeier, who won the second night of qualifying at last year's Nationals, started from the pole position and looked like a good bet to repeat as he raced away to the early lead with Greg Hodnett trying to keep pace. After an exciting performance in his heat race (more on that later), Sammy Swindell was the man to watch but his effort came to an early end on lap five when the u-joint let go on his Big Game Tree Stands car #1 while racing in fourth and sending him to the pits. Jason Meyers had just passed Hodnett for second and on lap seven the caution waved as Hodnett coasted to a halt in turn four.
On the restart an incident coming out of turn two produced a red flag as Ian Madsen spun and collected Danny Lasoski who then went for a tumble in the Zemco #1Z. Once back to green Meyers was all over Dobmeier and after being turned back on his first challenge, Meyers completed the pass for the lead on lap nine. With the lead change our attention moved back a few positions where Tim Shaffer was mounting a charge after starting from the 15th position. The winner of the 50th Nationals in 2010, Shaffer was grinding away at the inside berm on both ends of the speedway and was steadily making his way toward the front of the field. The caution waved one last time on lap fifteen when the left rear tire exploded on Dusty Zomer's #91 going down the front stretch and he spun to a stop just before tagging the guardrail in turn one.
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| Jason Meyers - Photo by Barry Johnson |
Meyers was solid as the leader but the final ten laps saw plenty of action just behind him featuring Stevie Smith, Shaffer, Kraig Kinser and Lance Dewease as they raced for position and once Shaffer made his way to second he started to close the gap on the leader. As the white flag waved Meyers was able to clear one more lapped car that ended up pinching off Shaffer exiting turn four ending any chance he had of making a last lap challenge. Meyers was exuberant to be back in victory lane at Knoxville and was quick to thank Tom Tarlton and the entire team for their efforts that got him there. Shaffer continued to build his already large Knoxville fan base with his charge to second, Kraig Kinser was steady all race in finishing third, Stevie Smith took fourth while Lance Dewease finished fifth.
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| Lance Dewease - Photo by Barry Johnson |
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| Kraig Kinser - Photo by Barry Johnson |
Thursday Notebook.....Robert Bell is a fan favorite here for his perseverance and efforts on a shoestring budget, and frankly he runs pretty darn well with so little resources. Tonight he drew the first qualifying spot and after completing his first lap announcer Tony Bokhoven said emphatically "Quick Time!" and several fans in the stands (including me) pumped their fists, stood, cheered and high-fived their neighbors as if he had just out-qualified the fifty car field. Bell's time did hold up enough to place him in the invert as he started from the pole in heat race number four.....Ian Madsen would be the fastest qualifier tonight and a series of events helped him to qualify out of the first heat race. On the opening lap Jason Johnson and Cody Darrah tangled not once, but twice while going down the back stretch and the result saw Darrah upside down in turn three and Johnson with a flat left rear tire. This moved Madsen up a row for the restart and he settled into fourth, but he ended up in third when Mike Moore's motor let go with two laps remaining. If not for his spin in the feature, Madsen could have been on the pole for the Championship by finishing eighth or better, but he still has to be happy to be locked in and set to start in the sixth row.....Tony Bruce Jr. won that first heat nipping Josh Hodges at the stripe when Hodges' motor soured exiting turn four......The second heat had a dramatic ending to it just as Tyler Walker passed under the checkers for the win. Calfornia driver Geoff Ensign appeared to have the fourth and final transfer position in hand as he was well ahead of both Terry McCarl and Brian Brown. But as he raced down the back stretch Ensign's car suddenly erupted into a huge ball of flames sending him into a spin entering turn three. Both McCarl and Brown were closing fast and quickly reacted to miss Ensign with McCarl going high and Brown banking off the back stretch guardrail and going low. McCarl ran out of room driving up on the fence before his left front dug in causing him to roll over onto his top. Since Brown maintained his motion he was scored in the fourth position in the official finish while Ensign and McCarl were placed as the last two cars still running on that final lap in seventh and eighth. McCarl was able to make repairs and was later set to start near the front of the B-Main, but when his left front brake locked up he spun the car while lining up behind the pace car. Needing a second push start he was then sent to the rear and could only get up to 13th at the finish......Jack Dover and Bronson Maeschen both suffered mechanical issues in the third heat......Danny Lasoski and Nationals rookie Logan Schuchart swapped sliders in the fourth heat, but they were racing for sixth at the time and both would end up in the B-Main. Roger Crockett dropped out while running in third allowing Stevie Smith to take the fourth transfer spot. Smith would go on to run fourth in the feature and his point total of 479 will start him from the pole position in Saturday's finale. Craig Dollansky will start next to him on that front row......The fifth heat race will have fans buzzing for the rest of the weekend as Sammy Swindell charged quickly up from seventh to third. As he went to work on Wayne Johnson for second, Johnson made sure that Sammy would have to work for it and Swindell jumped the cushion in turn three. Somehow the veteran driver kept his car off the wall, then delivered two wheelstands before getting back up to speed in turn four now running fourth behind Greg Hodnett. Swindell soon drove past Hodnett once again for third and the crowd couldn't wait for him to reel in Johnson to see what would happen when they went at it again. With two laps to go Johnson stumbled a bit on the cushion in turn three and Swindell went low, then emphatically shut the door on Johnson exiting turn four to take the second position. The winner was Joey Moughan, but he will likely be the answer to a trivia question when this one is discussed in the future as in "hey, who won that heat race at the Nationals when Wayne Johnson and Sammy Swindell went at it for second?"......The top four were pretty solid throughout the B-Main with Tim Kaeding taking the win. Dusty Zomer raced from fourth to second on a late restart while Daryn Pittman and Lasoski were the final transfers.....In the post race press conference Meyers was asked if he had any rust to shake off given his light schedule this year. Meyers answered that it was more of a scenario where the team had to learn how to gel given so few races, but Kraig Kinser later confirmed that having run behind Meyers throught the 25-lap distance, there was no rust to shake off.
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| Sammy Swindell - Photo by Barry Johnson |
The first sixteen positions in the Championship feature have been set as well as the first five rows for the B-Main on Saturday. Fans are really looking forward to the new Friday night format as more than sixty cars are expected to return tonight with the top four in the main event earning the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th starting positions for the Championship. That battle for fourth tonight should be intense as it will be the difference between being in the A and starting eleventh in the B-Main.
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| Stevie Smith - Photo by Barry Johnson |
For more coverage of the Nationals be sure to check in with colleagues Eric Arnold and Morgan Broeg. It will be a fun Friday night at the Knoxville Raceway and we hope to see you there!
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