After working and waiting through an hour long rain delay the 24th Arnold Motor Supply 360 Knoxville Nationals got underway Thursday night with Minnesota's Davey Heskin going wire-to-wire to win the twenty-lap qualifying night feature.
Heskin, a regular competitor in the track's 410 division, joined Casey Friedrichsen on the front row of the night's main event and immediately jumped to the lead at the drop of the green flag. Fourth-starter Lee Grosz took up the chase, but he was already losing ground on the leader when Jason Johnson drove by him into second on lap six. As Heskin approached heavy lapped traffic on lap nine both Johnson and third-running Tony Bruce Jr. made up ground on the leader, but once into traffic Heskin worked it like a master and again started to pull away.
The caution soon waved though on lap eleven for a stalled Russ Hall and, while most leaders would welcome the prospect of a clear track ahead of them for a restart, Heskin might have felt differently if he knew how he had been leaving his challengers over the previous two laps. Once back to racing Johnson tried high and then low, but could not make a run on the leader and after a couple of laps of staying close Heskin again began to pull away.
The all-time leader in career wins at Knoxville, Danny Lasoski was now running fourth and when his car suddenly slowed coming off of turn four with two laps remaining, his retirement from this event briefly drew the crowd's attention away from the leader. But checking back upfront, as the white flag waved Heskin was again closing in on the back of the field and Johnson was closing fast. Going down the back stretch for one last time Heskin had two cars in front of him each running different lines and when he decided to go to the cushion into turn three. Johnson went low. Now if this would have been for all of the marbles on Saturday night the "Racin' Cajun" might have been more aggressive, but with valuable qualifying night points on the line Johnson did not try to thread the needle with a big slider in traffic and Heskin would beat him to the checkers by a few car-lengths.
Tony Bruce Jr. posted a solid third-place finish while the night's fastest qualifier Joe Beaver finished fourth. Grosz pinched off Friedrichsen at the checkers to take fifth, Jamie Ball was seventh followed by Kevin Swindell, Brady Bacon and Dustin Selvage.
Beaver, who currently leads Knoxville's weekly Lucas Oil Championship Cup point standings in the 360 division would end the night at the top point-getter with 491, a total that may be hard to beat for the Friday night qualifiers.
Thursday's Notebook:
The sky never really looked threatening, but a light rain began to fall right after hot laps were completed at 7:25. The push truck brigade kept the track in good condition and at 7:45 a second round of hot laps were started in order to get the track ready once again for qualifying. Midway through that second session it started to rain again to shut things down and at 8:05 another round of hot laps pushed off; third time's a charm!
A few more sprinkles fell right after that last session, but at 8:20 Casey Friedrichsen was the first car to hit the track for qualifying and the Knoxville Raceway crew did an excellent job of running off the program with the final checkers waving just past eleven o'clock.
As the tenth car out to qualify Danny Lasoski's lap of 15.990 appeared to be the mark to beat, but the crowd was pleasantly surprised when young Sawyer Phillips from nearby Pleasantville eclipsed that with a time of 15.938. Phillips then eagerly watched from the top of his hauler to see if his time would hold up and it did until the 35th driver to trip the clock, Joe Beaver ran a 15.906 on a lap where he got a bit sideways exiting turn four.
Phillips' lap would hold up for second and other pleasant surprises from the local contingent included Nate Van Haaften at fifth quick and Carson McCarl in tenth. On the other end of the stick ASCS National Series contenders Brad Loyet (35th) and Johnny Herrera (41st) would be racing from behind for the rest of the night, and for the weekend.
Rookie contender Steve Block out of Texas earned the right to start on the pole of the first heat and he learned quickly that there is a big difference between qualifying and racing at Knoxville as by lap two he was running last. Kevin Swindell would run away with the win as Beaver continued to impress by coming from sixth to second. Jonathan Cornell was third and Brady Bacon fought off a mid-race challenge from sixth fastest qualifier Calvin Landis to secure the fourth and final transfer position.
Sawyer Phillips looked to continue his best night ever in the second heat and he quickly moved to fourth before his car lost power going down the back stretch on lap two. After a quick check over in the work area, he pushed off and tagged the tail but when his car failed to come up to speed on the restart Phillips returned to the pits with a finish that would put him in the night's C-Main. From feast to famine! Randi Miller would win this one, smoking most of the way over Lee Grosz and Russ Hall while USCS Sprint start Derek Hagar would ward off seventh-quick Randy Hannagan for fourth.
Our good friend Alan Zoutte started on the pole of the third heat and it is hard not to pull for this low budget operation based out of Knoxville. Zoutte quickly dropped to fourth in turn one as Jason Johnson would sprint away with the lead and it took a few laps before Tony Bruce Jr. found his way past Zoutte into that final transfer spot. When Brant O'Banion dropped out mid-race and as Justin Henderson's engine began to sour in the closing laps Zoutte was back in contention, but just as Henderson dropped out when the white flag waved Dustin Selvage made the pass on Zoutte in turn four to again leave him one spot short of making the A-Main. For Henderson, who I had tabbed as my pre-event favorite to win it all this week, the engine came up one lap short of getting to the checkers.
The fourth heat challenged the fans to watch two exciting battles during the closing laps on opposite ends of the track. On one end you had the young Californian Cole Wood trying to hold off the challenge of Davey Heskin for the lead while about a half lap behind them another Californian Andy Gregg was leading Matt Covington and Danny Lasoski in the race for the remaining two transfer positions. Wood would prevail over Heskin and when Gregg got a little sideways in front of Covington entering turn one on the final lap that was all that the veteran Lasoski needed as he drove around Covington off the high side of turn two and then slam the door on him entering the bottom of turn three. After the checkers Covington raced ahead to express his thoughts on the final lap pass and I could just imagine Lasoski smiling and thinking "that's how it's done here, son".
As the field raced into turn one for the first time in the fifth heat Carson McCarl caught the cushion wrong, slowed and then had Ryan Kitchen drive over his right rear tire sending Kitchen into an end-over-end ride. Ryan would limp into the ambulance, but was otherwise okay. McCarl pushed off for the restart but then stopped on the front stretch and with a second push he was then sent to the rear where he could only get back to seventh at the finish. Ryan Roberts would take the win ahead of Casey Friedrichsen, Cody Ledger and Danny Jennings while fifth fastest qualifier Nate Van Haaften would have to run the B-Main.
With only four of the six cars scheduled to run the C-Main able to go, that race was scrapped but since he had finished ninth in his heat with mechanical issues Sawyer Phillips would have to start 21st in the B-Main while Justin Henderson who had dropped out after Brant O'Banion in his heat and thus was credited with an eighth-place finish would start from the pole of the B. Well, that would be if they could get the replaced engine to fire and, after several failed attempts Henderson's night would come to an early and frustrating end for the driver that has been somewhat dominate in the 360 division here on a weekly basis. Keep in mind that since he also races weekly in the 410 division, Henderson does not earn driver's points in the 360's, but he has consistently been the top qualifier in the division and has finished first and second the past two weeks.
Nate Van Haaften would post the win in the 12-lap B-Main as Calvin Landis edged out a fast-closing Randy Hannagan by inches for second. Matt Covington was again riding in the final transfer spot with some big dogs charging in the final laps, but this time he would hold off Brad Loyet and Johnny Herrera to make the show.
On the opening lap of the feature cars were stacked five-wide mid-pack in turn one. I really hope that somebody was able to get a picture of that! Dustin Selvage was the hard charger coming from 19th to tenth and just remember Alan Zoutte, he had to pass you on the final lap of his heat race just to make the show. Had he not dropped out with two laps remaining Danny Lasoski would have been second in points after opening night, but instead he is now ranked twelfth and likely headed to Saturday night's B-Main.
The weather forecast indicates that we could be dodging some showers again tonight, but don't let that stop you from attending! Night number two of the Arnold Motor Supply 360 Knoxville Nationals takes the green this Friday night.
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