The 30th Annual My Place Hotels 360 Knoxville Nationals kicked off on Thursday night with forty-eight drivers looking to gather as many points as possible under Knoxville's traditional qualifying system and a nice socially distanced crowd was on hand to watch. The greatest thing about Knoxville's format is that every position counts from qualifying through the heats and finally the feature, so let's walk you through the evening as it unfolded.
Drawing an early qualifying position is always important and with Kerry Madsen going out second it was a pretty good bet that he would take the 200 points for setting quick time, and he did so with a lap of 16.203. Shane Golobic was impressive going second quick from the twenty-first spot in the order and Aaron Reutzel was third fastest despite going out 33rd.
At the 360 Nationals there is a six car invert on the heats that are oh so important as not only do you need to finish in the top four to transfer to the A-Main, but there are three-point increments per position rather than the two that you have in qualifying and the main event.
Madsen charged quickly from the sixth starting spot in heat one and looked like he had the strength to take the win, but Matt Moro in the My Place Hotels sponsored #2M fought off the "Mad Man" to maintain second as Ryan Leavitt ran off with the win. In the battle for fourth Dominic Scelzi held off Brady Bacon who had a wing bolted to the top of the Hoffman #69 for the weekend for the fourth and final transfer.
At the start of heat two Austin McCarl made it three-wide with the front row as the green flag waved and he would take the lead into turn one. That great start was negated though when A.J. Moeller tagged the guardrail in turn three and the caution waved before McCarl could put lap one in the books. On the second start the front row of Eric Bridger and Ricky Montgomery did not open the door for McCarl and it would be Montgomery who would lead the eight-laps from green to checkers fighting off challenges from McCarl. Golobic would finish in third and Garret Williamson would be the first driver to come from outside of the invert to make the A-Main as he drove past Bridger with three laps remaining to finish fourth.
Front row starters Matt Covington and Joe Beaver set an unusually slow pace to start heat three and when Beaver widened out coming to the stripe it was like an invitation to Calvin Landis and Aaron Reutzel to come from fourth and sixth respectively to be first and second entering turn one. They would go the distance in that order with the veteran Landis taking the win. Beaver would hold on for third and Roger Crockett dropped Covington out of the top four with three laps remaining.
Tim Shaffer looked dominant in heat four as he was the only top qualifier to go from sixth to first driving Tony Stewart's number 14 car. Shaffer took the lead from on lap six from Kaleb Johnson and the track's top 360 rookie contender during weekly racing here was impressive finishing in second. Harli White and J.J. Hickle would take the other two tickets to the A-Main.
Two cars got upside down on the opening lap of the fifth heat race when contact between Lee Grosz and Tasker Phillips sent both of them for a tumble and five-time ASCS National Champion Sam Hafertepe Jr. got caught up in the mess as well. Hafertepe's crew was able to put in a new front axle during the cleanup process and he would restart from the rear of the now seven car field, but when his nose wing collapsed it took him several laps to clear John Anderson who had timed in 45th on the night. Nathan Mills would go the distance from the pole position to take the win with Ayrton Gennetten, Colton Heath and Devon Dobie next in line and after Riley Goodno retired with a smoking motor, Hafertepe was a distant fifth putting him on the pole position for the B-Main.
The top four out of the twelve lap B would tag the back of the A-Main and Cory Eliason would take the lead from Hafertepe on lap two. On lap seven the leaders were working traffic and when Lance Moss unexpectedly drifted up to the cushion in turn two, a fast closing Brady Bacon jumped his right rear and this one could have been real nasty. After hard contact with the outside guardrail in mid-flight, thankfully Bacon's car stayed on all fours and he scrambled out of the damaged ride unhurt, but likely looking for Moss to discuss the situation. On the restart there was more bad luck for Hafertepe as the nose wing again collapsed and while he fought hard to stay in the top four he could not fight off young Kyle Offill who would join Eliason, Justin Henderson and Tim Kaeding at the back of the A-Main lineup.
Twenty laps would be the distance for the feature with pole-sitter Calvin Landis getting the jump on second starting Austin McCarl to take the early lead. On lap seven McCarl would execute a perfect slider in turns one and two to take the point, but before he could get back to the line to officially become the leader the caution would wave for Ryan Leavitt who was coasting through turns one and two.
On the restart Landis would lead one more lap before McCarl repeated the move in turns one and two to become the leader on lap eight. Meanwhile both Aaron Reutzel and Kerry Madsen were on the move after starting from sixth and eight respectively and Reutzel would drive by Landis on lap eleven to take second. McCarl had built nearly a straightaway lead at this point and it was going to be interesting to see if Reutzel could erase that gap, but he would not have the chance to do so as he slowed suddenly exiting turn four on lap thirteen. The race would stay green as Reutzel pulled to the infield and it was now Madsen who was in second. McCarl was too strong on this night though as he would maintain that big lead over the final laps to post a convincing win. Madsen would finish as the runner-up, but would be the high point man for the night as Dominic Scelzi finished where he started in third. Golobic was solid all night finishing in the fourth spot while Shaffer was fifth.
The full point standings for opening night from the Knoxville Raceway website follows and another full field of around fifty drivers will take the green tonight in the second night of qualifying.
1 2 Kerry Madsen 492
2 17WX Shane Golobic 486
3 14 Tim Shaffer 486
4 17A Austin McCarl 475
5 41S Dominic Scelzi 467
6 70 Calvin Landis 460
7 26 Cory Eliason 458
8 83M Justin Henderson 456
9 3 Ayrton Gennetten 453
10 35M Tim Kaeding 450
11 87 Aaron Reutzel 449
12 11 Roger Crockett 445
13 63 JJ Hickle 443
14 53 Joe Beaver 440
15 66 Ricky Montgomery 426
16 22K Kaleb Johnson 421
17 15H Sam Hafertepe Jr. 418
18 22 Ryan Leavitt 414
19 88 Kyle Offill 413
20 17W Harli White 410
21 2M Matt Moro 409
22 24 Garret Williamson 405
23 24N Nathan Mills 402
24 23 Devon Dobie 401
25 33H Colton Heath 392
26 83 Rob Kubli 389
27 69 Brady Bacon 384
28 95 Matt Covington 374
29 5H Michael Faccinto 363
30 81E Eric Bridger 353
31 5J Jamie Ball 352
32 115 Nick Parker 346
33 7TAZ Tasker Phillips 345
34 66D Chase Dunham 342
35 4J Lee Grosz 338
36 22X Riley Goodno 332
37 20 AJ Moeller 329
38 4H Cody Hansen 324
39 14B Bailey Sucich 324
40 50Z Zach Chappell 323
41 51A Elliot Amdahl 323
42 23M Lance Moss 312
43 75X JT Imperial 311
44 1B Chelsea Blevins 307
45 1A John Anderson 305
46 6 Jett Carney 299
47 6X Frank Rodgers III 276
48 4S Adam Speckman 265
Tim Shaffer is filling in for Tony Stewart this weekend at Knoxville - Barry Johnson photo
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