In 1992 Steve Kinser tallied a perfect score of 500 points on his qualifying night of the Knoxville Nationals; 200 points for setting quick time, 100 for winning his heat race from a full invert of ten cars, and then winning the feature from the eighth starting spot. Back then, while still impressive, it was not an uncommon feat, but even with the domination by one driver over the past decade nobody has done it again until Thursday night when David Gravel swept the night and then perhaps motivated the lion by pointing out in victory lane that Donny Schatz had not achieved what he just had.
The eighth car out to qualify Gravel laid down the fastest lap of the night at 15.072 and othat would start him eighth in the first heat as the number of cars inverted was changed several years ago when it was agreed upon that the competition had become more balanced throughout the field. The advantage of running the first heat is that the track above the cushion is ironed in after qualifying so drivers have an opportunity, at least for the first few laps, to run above the cushion and use the entire track which is exactly what Gravel did. Running "four high", or with all four wheels above the cushion, Gravel literally flew by the competition and even after taking the lead on lap four he continued to use the high line around the speedway to take the convincing win.
Gravel would line up eighth for the 25-lap main event, a race that had trouble getting started as on the first try a pair of 41's got together in turn four. Defending Nationals champion Jason Johnson started fourth, but got shuffled back through turns one and two so far that when the tenth starting Dominic Scelzi spun in turn four, Johnson made contact and the resulting damage was enough to end his night. This would now slide Gravel up to the sixth position for the restart, but when the front row of Mark Dobmeier and Wayne Johnson could not settle on a common pace the next try was waved off. The third time would be a charm, especially for Gravel who flared out and pulled even with the fourth starting Brian Brown as the front row hit the chalk line and he would complete the first lap in fifth behind Dobmeier, Brooke Tatnell, Johnson and Daryn Pittman as Brown found himself shuffled back to seventh. Gravel would then steadily work his way to the front taking second away from Tatnell on lap eight and then two laps later as Dobmeier started to work traffic Gravel charged by him on the bottom of turn one to take the lead. Just behind them though Tatnell's right rear tire blew and the caution waved putting Dobmeier back on the point for the restart.
Brown lined up third and he was able to make a run at Gravel as the green flew allowing Dobmeier to get away a bit as his two primary challengers traded the second position. Once Gravel regained the spot he closed back in on the leader waiting for lapped traffic to come into play once again to make his challenge. That came on lap seventeen when Dobmeier had to choose a line into three as he closed on a pair of slower cars and with that split second of hesitation Gravel went flying by to take a lead that he would not relinquish. Brown made the pass of Dobmeier soon after and while he could keep Gravel in his sights over the final five laps he could not reel him in as the twenty-five-year-old driver from Connecticut completed the perfect night to earn the pole position for Saturday's Championship race.
Brown's runner-up finish will start him fifth on Saturday night while Dobmeier's third-place run lands him in the 13th starting spot on Saturday. Ian Madsen came from ninth to finish fourth locking him into Saturday's finale while Daryn Pittman's fifth-place finish will put him the seventh position on Saturday. Wayne Johnson was sixth, Terry McCarl seventh, Danny Dietrich finished eighth, while Spencer Bayston and Rico Abreu waged an entertaining battle through the final laps to complete the top ten.
5-Hour Energy Knoxville Nationals Thursday Notes......Bayston was allowed to compete again tonight after it was determined that the scales had an issue Wednesday when what would have been his third fastest time was wiped out for not meeting the minimum weight. Unlike Wednesday when he was one of the first few cars to take to the track in qualifying, Bayston went out in the second half of the field tonight and was 26th on the time charts. He then qualified fourth out of the first heat and with his ninth-place finish in the feature his Thursday point total ranked 30th sending him to Friday night's show......Sammy Swindell had a rough night after qualifying 17th. He looked to have Kyle Reinhardt passed in turn four on the final lap of the second heat race only to have Reinhardt nip him at the line by just 0.004 seconds. In the B-Main Sammy was losing positions quickly on the opening lap and then slowed in turn one while in the middle groove. The caution waved for him as Swindell continued to move and even though he was told to go the back, Sammy rode around a couple of laps trying to get back in his position before finally pulling into the infield.......Tim Kaeding had the field covered in the third heat race, but as he was exiting turn four to take the checkers his right rear tire exploded. Kaeding was somehow able to keep the car off of the guardrail and limped toward the finish line with only Thomas Kennedy beating him to it.......When Paige Polyak stepped out of line and pulled even with the car in front of her on the start of the fourth heat, it was called back for another try. On this one Brian Brown would get into the back of Polyak as the green flag waved causing his front end to hop and Brown then had to calm himself down to recover. He did just that working his way up from eighth to pass Don Droud Jr. with two laps to go for fourth and then Jason Johnson for third coming to the checkers......A pair of Aussies, Brooke Tatnell and James McFadden got together on the start of the fifth heat sending both drivers to the work area for repairs. Tatnell was able to recover and get qualified for the feature while McFadden would come up one spot short of transferring from the B-Main when he could not chase down Jason Sides in the final laps.
The top sixteen in Saturday's Championship main event is set and will look like this with of course the question being whether or not Kyle Larson will return to compete:
David Gravel - Donny Schatz
Brad Sweet - Kerry Madsen
Brian Brown - Terry McCarl
Daryn Pittman - Greg Hodnett
Kyle Larson - Shane Stewart
Austin McCarl - Paul McMahon
Mark Dobmeier - Rico Abreu
Ian Madsen - Wayne Johnson
The top four finishers in tonight's (Friday) main event will start 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th with the top four from Saturday's B-Main competing the field. Oh yes, and don't forget the "Golden Ticket" that will go to tonight's winner of the Speed Sport World Challenge so join us tonight for another night of exciting qualifying action at the 57th Annual 5-Hour Energy Knoxville Nationals!
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