After checking out for a convincing win in Sunday's Capitani Classic, Brad Sweet again showed that he is the dominant force this week at the Knoxville Raceway during the second night of qualifying Thursday for the 58th Annual 5 Hour Energy Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's General Stores.
It didn't hurt that Sweet drew the first spot in the qualifying order although just like Donny Schatz on Wednesday, the time that he put up to beat ended up fourth on the final rundown with Carson Macedo, Chad Kemenah and Jacob Allen going just a bit faster. Once again the heat races with the top eight inverted and only the top four transferring told the story as for the first time this week the quick qualifier Macedo struggled and finished sixth in the opening heat. Kemenah was much better getting to fourth quickly and then having to ward off a comeback bid by Rager Phillips to hold on to the position. It was a similar story for Allen who looked like a sure qualifier once he passed Skylar Gee mid-race for fourth, but Gee kept coming back at him until the young Canadian jumped the cushion out of four with two laps to go allowing Allen to finally get away.
Sweet's heat was up next and even with drivers like David Gravel, Brooke Tatnell and Danny Dietrich starting ahead of him and Shane Stewart alongside, "The Big Cat" charged through the field to finish second behind a driver who has been here a few times before, Sammy Swindell. Sweet would be the only eighth starting driver this week to finish second in his heat race. The three car battle for the fourth and final transfer in this one was worth the price of admission as Gravel, Stewart and Tatnell waged a three car war over the final laps chock full of sliders and pinch offs with Gravel prevailing by less than a car length over Stewart.
As Cory Eliason ran off with the win in the fifth and final heat race this one also featured an entertaining three car battle for the final two transfer spots between Josh Schneiderman, Parker Price-Miller and Terry McCarl. PPM, or "The Law Firm" had passed Schneiderman for third only to have Josh battle back and when that happened McCarl saw his chance to get back into the mix as he picked off Price-Miller late for fourth. How important was this battle? At the end of the night when the points were tallied up it would be Terry McCarl in the sixteenth and final spot for Saturday night's A-Main while just one point behind him and now scheduled to start on the pole of Saturday's B-Main is Parker Price-Miller.
That is what I love about the two qualifying nights at the Nationals, every position counts!
Tonight's B-Main was a good one with some exciting action for the final four transfer positions as pole-sitter Carson Macedo returned to form to go the distance for the win. Parker Price-Miller was a strong second and Trey Starks was looking good for third until a mid-race caution slowed the field and Starks pulled to the infield. The final two transfer spots were now up for grabs with Scott Bogucki trying to ward off Shane Stewart and Danny Dietrich and as those three battled it allowed Jamie Veal to close up a full straightway gap in just two laps. At the checkers it was Stewart in third and the two Aussies, Bogucki and Veal in a drag race to the checkers for fourth with Veal taking it by a nose.
The twenty-five lap feature would close out the evening and this one was decided on the opening lap when Sweet went from sixth to first in impressive fashion. The caution waved after the opening lap was scored as Schneiderman had slapped the back stretch guardrail and was now slow around the high side and the caution waved again on lap two when Swindell spun at the back of the field in turn four.
Once back to green Sweet checked out building up nearly a half lap advantage, even while working traffic as Rico Abreu tried to keep pace in second. David Gravel was on the fly moving through the field quickly from his seventh row starting position and he would be up to third mid-race. His run would stop there though as while he could get to within five car lengths of Abreu he could never make a run for the position. Sweet's lead was over five seconds at one point and by the time the checkers waved it had been cut to two, but that was more likely due to him being a bit more conservative in traffic over the final laps as he posted his second dominating win of the week.
Sweet has been so strong that fans might even root for Donny Schatz to at least keep pace with him and make it interesting on Saturday night!
Abreu was tonight's runner-up with Gravel in third, Tim Kaeding had a solid showing in fourth and Terry McCarl was fifth. Chad Kemenah was sixth and that gave him enough points to join Sweet on the front row for the Championship event with Kyle Larson and Schatz set to go in row two. Cory Eliason was seventh in Thursday's feature followed by B-Main transfers Shane Stewart and Carson Macedo while former Nationals champion Kraig Kinser was tenth.
As one of the crowd favorites you could hear the collective groan when it was announced after qualifying that Brian Brown had scratched for the evening. With a late draw Brown had posted the 38th best time and with a vibration in the motor and a bit of mathematics that showed that it would take a heat race win and then a run through the field from deep in the pack to win the A to maybe make the top twenty-six in points, he decided to regroup and come back Friday where the top four finishers in the night's main event lock themselves into rows nine and ten of the Championship lineup.
With those four important spots up for grabs it will be another exciting night of racing at the Knoxville Raceway tonight and we hope to see you there!
The top twenty-six in points from the Knoxville Raceway website
Final Combined Points
A main
1 49 Brad Sweet 491
2 10H Chad Kemenah 479
3 57 Kyle Larson 475
4 15 Donny Schatz 474
5 87 Aaron Reutzel 473
6 2M Kerry Madsen 473
7 49X Tim Shaffer 471
8 41 Carson Macedo 469
9 71 Gio Scelzi 468
10 3 Tim Kaeding 467
11 18 Ian Madsen 467
12 1A Jacob Allen 465
13 24R Rico Abreu 463
14 27 Greg Hodnett 462
15 2 Shane Stewart 458
16 24 Terry McCarl 455
B main
17 71P Parker Price-Miller 454
18 24W Lucas Wolfe 453
19 9 Daryn Pittman 452
20 4 Brock Zearfoss 444
21 83 Cory Eliason 440
22 13 Mark Dobmeier 437
23 5 David Gravel 431
24 5H Sammy Walsh 431
25 2KS Austin McCarl 429
26 11K Kraig Kinser 426
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