The 30th Annual My Place Hotels 360 Knoxville Nationals presented by Great Southern Bank wrapped up its three night run at the Knoxville Raceway on Saturday night with the pole-sitter Kerry Madsen leading the entire twenty-five lap distance to win his first Nationals title.
Let's pick up the story from the night from the twelve lap C-Main where the top four drivers would transfer on to the back of the B. Kyle Offill and Harli White would make up the front row and the first try at a start was waved off when Matthew Howard got into the turn one guardrail ending his night. On the second try at a start Florida's Danny Sams bicycled on the cushion entering turn one and he then also nosed into the fence sending him to the pits early. The third time was the charm on this one as Offill would race off with the lead with White in hot pursuit.
The driver to watch though was defending 360 Nationals champion James McFadden who started the Kasey Kahne Racing #9 from eighteenth after a miserable qualifying effort, but he was on the move and in a hurry on this night picking up the fourth spot on lap six. White would drive past Offill to take the lead with four laps remaining and with McFadden now in third that left the final transfer spot up for grabs between Garret Williamson and Kelby Watt.
The final lap was a thriller as Watt put a slider on Williamson in turns one and two to take the position only to have Williamson do the same entering turn three. Watt would execute the perfect crossover move though and it would be a drag race to the finish with Watt making the transfer by just less than a car-length. Then in his effort to beat Watt to the finish line that is located two-thirds of the way down the front straightaway, Williamson turned hard left and backed into the turn one guard rail with heavy contact then sending him for a couple of hard rollovers. Thankfully the young driver from Columbia, Missouri, emerged from the wreckage uninjured.
The fifteen lap B-Main would determine the final four starters for the Championship race and Matt Juhl would lead this one from start to finish to take the win. In between the initial green and the checkers though Offill would get upside down in turn one on lap three and the hard charger in this one would be Sam Hafertepe Jr. who had started in seventeenth after nothing but bad luck on his qualifying night. Hafertepe would blow by J.J. Hickle with three laps to go to take the fourth spot and one lap later when Roger Crockett slowed and pulled to the infield, Hafertepe would inherit third behind Terry McCarl and Hickle would take the final transfer. McFadden could only get to fourteenth in this one ending his attempt at a repeat.
As drivers and crews prepared for the finale, the fifteen lap Pro Sprint Series main event was contested with Jeff Wilke leading the way on the opening lap. A caution for Scottie Johnson's spin in turn one would bring the field to a restart and they would be four-wide for the lead exiting turn two with Wilke down low, Chris Walraven and Devin Kline working the middle lines and Devin Wignall up top. Wilke would maintain the lead as lap two was scored with Wignall going from fourth to second, but that top line was fast and Wignall would sail to the lead on lap three.
Mike Mayberry and Evan Epperson avoided disaster when they made contact on the front stretch on lap seven as Mayberry's right rear blew and Epperson spun down the track coming to rest against the inside guardrail.
On the restart Wignall again pulled away as Walraven and Kline made their way past Wilke, but as the laps ticked away some smoke started to show off the leader. Wignall was not about to give up on this one though as he coaxed the ailing crate motor across the line for his first career victory at Knoxville. Walraven, Kline and Wilke would follow with Matthew Stelzer coming from twelfth to finish fifth.
The starting field of twenty-four drivers were introduced one by one to the socially distanced crowd and we were ready for twenty-five laps that would pay $15,000 to the winner. The red flag would fly before the completion of lap one though when Juhl went for a wild end over end ride in turn three and after a few minutes to gather his thoughts he climbed from the car under his own power.
Veteran drivers Kerry Madsen and Joey Saldana would bring the field to green again from the front row with Madsen sliding up the track and closing the door on Saldana to lead the way. Friday night's winner Lynton Jeffrey would slow on lap four to bring out the caution and once back to green Madsen would again start to build up a lead. The action that caught my attention was in the top ten as the McCarl brothers, Austin and Carson were going at it, back and fourth with some near contact between the two on a couple of occasions. Aaron Reutzel who had started from the tenth row would join that brotherly battle late in the race, but my attention was drawn back toward the front when the crowd cheered as Brian Brown passed Shane Golobic for second.
Six laps remained at that point and Madsen had a full straightway on Brown and that lead did not shrink a bit over the final three miles as Kerry Madsen would dominate to the checkers. Brown had second all but locked in until his motor failed in turn three on the final lap allowing Golobic to return to the runner-up position. Cory Eliason came from the fifteenth starting spot to take third and Brock Zearfoss would go fourth after starting ninth. Austin would be the best finisher of the three McCarls in the race as he would take fifth. Saldana and Tim Shaffer in Tony Stewart's #14 were next in line, Reutzel would finish in eighth, ninth went to Dominic Scelzi and Carson McCarl would complete the top ten. Brown would be scored in sixteenth as he failed to make it all the way to the finish line as the caution waved.
That would put a wrap on three fun nights of racing, even under our current circumstances, and Sprint Car fans in the area can still catch five more nights of racing over the next seven starting tonight at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa.
With the traditional Knoxville Nationals postponed until 2021 I am going to go Late Model racing instead this week with the UMP Summer Nationals on The Bullring at Rock Island County Fairgrounds on Monday night and then the Hoker Trucking SLMR East Series will be on the quarter-mile at the Davenport Speedway on Friday night.
The stretch run of the regular season is upon us, get out and support the track in your area.
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| Dominic Scelzi (41s) and Aaron Reutzel (87) - Barry Johnson photo |
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