In Thursday night's opener of the 24th Arnold Motor Supply 360 Knoxville Nationals drivers who compete in the 360 division on a regular basis filled six of the top seven positions in the A-Main with the only 410 invader being winner Davey Heskin. On Friday night the 410 drivers dominated as Sammy Swindell prevailed in a tight battle with Mark Dobmeier with 410 drivers filling the top six positions.
Dobmeier would go to the lead from the pole position as the twenty-lap main event went green and it wasn't long before Swindell had picked off Bronson Maeschen for second and began to size up the leader. With Dobmeier on the cushion, Swindell worked the bottom but could not complete the pass before the red flag waved on lap eight. Alan Ambers spun as he went into turn one and when his car backed up the track the fifth-place car of Jack Dover t-boned him hard on the left side. Neither car got upside down, but with the severity of the impact the red waved and after getting out his car Ambers was taken in for a checkup.
When Dobmeier's car sputtered for a split second on the restart Swindell drove to the bottom and took the lead entering turn, but with his 360 wound back up on the cushion Dobmeier was not about to let the veteran driver get away from him. Cautions on laps thirteen and fourteen slowed the field once again and when back to green Dobmeier's high line now appeared to have the advantage and he was able to draw even with Swindell with five laps remaining. Sammy squelched the challenge the following lap though when he drove deep into turn three and then slid up the track to take away the high line and from there the 58-year-old driver pulled away to score the win.
Dobmeier would hold onto the second spot with quick qualifier Brian Brown taking third. By taking his heat race win as well, Brown accumulated the most points for the two nights and will start from the pole in tonight's championship feature. Ian Madsen slipped by Bronson Maeschen in the closing laps to take fourth, Terry McCarl was sixth, Wayne Johnson finished seventh, Dusty Zomer took eighth, Tasker Phillips was ninth and Sam Hafertepe Jr. completed the top ten.
Friday Notebook
No rain to worry about tonight as Alan Ambers was the first car out to qualify at 7:32 and the program was completed around 10:30.
Ambers was one of the pleasant surprises in qualifying as he took advantage of that "first on the track opportunity" to post the fifth best time and he then advanced the two spots that he needed to transfer out of his heat. Hopefully he is okay and car owner Steve Wares can make repairs so that Ambers can return tonight to start fifth in the B-Main.
The second car out to time, Seth Brahmer established the third quick time and despite being the 44th car to hit the track Sheldon Haudenschild qualified sixth quick.
Some of the head scratchers were Dusty Zomer (37th) and Billy Alley (39th) while Jac Haudenschild was the last driver to qualify for the five heat races with the 50th best time out of the fifty-six car field.
Brian Brown lined up sixth for the first heat race, but when the fourth starter Jeff Swindell did not keep up with the car in front of him as the green flag waved Brown darted to the left and was already up to second as the field entered turn one. Taking the lead from Danny Wood on the following lap, Brown went on to post a dominating victory giving the impression that a perfect score of 500 points was a definite possibility. "The Flying Fossil" Danny Wood finished second, Josh Higday who is driving Chris Martin's second car finished third and Trey Starks withstood a mid-race challenge from Jeff Swindell to take the fourth and final transfer position. Higday serves as the crew chief for the up and coming teenager Martin and as one of the perks of his employment he also gets to compete in selected events.
Billy Balog was back behind the wheel of the Jimmy Davies owned #99 and he walked away with the win in heat race number two. Balog drove the car for the first time on July 3rd where he won the Dash during the Sprint Invaders show at the Iowa State Fair Speedway in Des Moines before dropping out of the main event. Unfortunately this night would end in the same fashion as the six-time defending IRA Sprint Car champion retired early from the main event and was credited with 21st. Sam Hafertepe Jr. ran second in the second heat, Dusty Zomer found his speed again and came from eighth to third while Oklahoma driver Sean McClelland finished fourth.
New Jersey based driver Robbie Stillwagon fought off an opening lap slider from Bronson Maeschen and then cruised the distance to take the win in heat three. Maeschen is the driver of the Buffalo Wild Wings #82 this week and he finished second with Jack Dover and Tasker Phillips next in line.
Terry McCarl wheeled the #6 to victory in the fourth heat race with Mark Dobmeier finishing second. Sammy Swindell previewed what was to come later in the night as he slipped to sixth on the opening lap and then steadily worked his way forward to finish third and Scott Winters was fourth.
Wayne Johnson dominated the fifth heat with Ian Madsen, Dylan Peterson and Alan Ambers filling the transfer positions.
On the opening lap of the C-Main Paige Polyak showed that she is definitely not timid as she rode the very top side squeezing between two cars and the fence to go from fourth to second in turn two. Californian Chase Johnson would take the win followed by Polyak, Tyler Drueke and Kevin Ramey.
Third-starting Sheldon Haudenschild spun up against the wall in turn one on the start of the B-Main and somehow everybody stayed upright as both Josh Baughman and Phil Dietz suffered damage in the incident. It was a frustrating night for Baughman who finished second in the track's weekly 360 main event last Saturday night as he would only be able to get back to 14th after changing a top wing.
Young Harli White slapped the turn one guardrail on lap two and did a pirouette as she kept the car upright, but the damage was too extensive for her to continue. Harli is scheduled to start in the tenth row of tonight's D-Main.
Seth Brahmer would dominate the race to take the win in the B-Main while Jon Agan moved from seventh to second. A restart with four laps remaining shook up the rest of the qualifiers as Tim Shaffer moved from sixth to third in those final four laps and Jeff Swindell took the final transfer. Gregg Bakker was fifth and Seth Bergman who took the $10,000 win at Skagit last week fell from third to sixth in those final four laps.
Set to start on the outside of row seven, Terry McCarl found himself up to the fifth row as the initial green flag waved for the main event and that drew a quick yellow from starter Justin Clark. On the second try at a start Jon Agan caught the wall in turn one and while he did not get upside down, his night was over.
Ian Madsen missed his qualifying position and therefore he was ineligible for the eight car invert, which he would have been a part of otherwise. Madsen started ninth and finished fourth showing that he might be a driver to watch tonight as he starts ninth in the A-Main. McCarl and Wayne Johnson both advanced eight positions in the main event while Dusty Zomer and Tim Shaffer were the hard chargers each advancing twelve positions as Zomer finished eighth and Shaffer was eleventh.
The lineups are now set for Saturday's finale of the 24th Arnold Motor Supply 360 Knoxville Nationals and the 305 Sprints will join the card for a full program. Hope to see you there!
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