If you only looked at the thermometer in your car on Saturday you would have thought that the weather was the same as it had been all week, hot and muggy. But a front had moved through overnight on Friday and while the temperature remained the same in the low 90's, a drier air mass accompanied by a steady northwest breeze had settled in literally sucking the moisture out of the world famous Knoxville Raceway. The conditions were a challenge for not only the Dunkin family, who have been weaving their track prep magic in to the big half-mile for decades, but also for the drivers with the World of Outlaws and the track's weekly 360 division. And while it was one of the dustiest night races that I have ever been to at the Knoxville Raceway the Dunkins, and the drivers prevailed with an entertaining night of action including two late passes for the win.
The eighteen lap feature for the 360's would be up first with Carson McCarl and Ryan Giles bringing the field to green. McCarl would win the drag race into turn one, but as he went to the cushion Giles took to the middle and would then set the early pace. When Giles bobbled a bit exiting turn four on lap six, McCarl pounced driving under the leader into turn one and then completed the perfect slider drifting up to the cushion to shut the door on Giles.
With this one going caution free McCarl looked like the win would be his as the gap between he and Giles grew to nearly a full straightaway with eight laps remaining and the race to watch was for third as Dylan Westbrook and Jamie Ball nearly made contact as Westbrook had to go over the cushion to take the position in turn four. Lapped traffic allowed both Giles and Westbrook to close the gap a bit, then on lap seventeen the leader nearly spun the car in turn two.
Carson was able to make the save and maintain the lead as Giles had issues of his own with smoke now coming from his car as he exited turn two. With the top two losing significant momentum, Westbrook saw his opportunity and he would drive by Giles for second down the back stretch. As the white flag waved McCarl still had the lead, but Westbrook had the run and he would cruise through the middle of turns one and two to take the lead. McCarl would make one final dive into turn three to try to recover the lead only to come up short as the Canadian, Dylan Westbrook would take his first career win at Knoxville.
McCarl and Giles would join him on the podium while Jamie Ball and Clint Garner would complete the top five. Roger Crockett finished sixth, Josh Higday and Kaleb Johnson were seventh and eighth, Scott Bogucki driving Christian Bowman's #15 was ninth and Ricky Montgomery filled out the top ten.
Concerns about the dry racing surface taking rubber at the end of the 360 main would lead to an hour and ten minute track prep session before the Outlaw finale and the large crowd on hand patiently waited in anticipation.
Twenty-five laps would be the distance with the top two drivers from Friday's show, Carson Macedo and Kerry Madsen earning the front row. The night before it would be Madsen leading the most laps before Macedo took the win, but when the green flag dropped on this one it would be Macedo in the Jason Johnson Racing #41 sprinting to the lead hugging the bottom of the re-worked surface. The red flag would fly on lap three when Brock Zearfoss caught the guardrail in in turn four sending him for a tumble and on the restart Macedo would continue to lead while hugging the inside berm.
Madsen behind the wheel of Tony Stewart's #14 was working the middle of the track, or the top of the re-work through turns three and four and when Macedo made the slightest of errors exiting turn four he would storm around the outside to take the lead on six. Macedo would charge back on the bottom only to have Madsen shut the door entering turn three and the "Mad Man" would then open up a bit of a lead over the next five laps.
Traffic would soon come into play and Macedo would again be in contention taking the lead momentarily in turn one only to have Madsen regain the point off the top side of turn two. When the lapped car of Ayrton Gennetten came up the track though Madsen had to hit the brakes for a split second as did Macedo and that allowed both Gio Scelzi and Sheldon Haudenschild to gain ground quickly.
With Madsen maintaining the lead Macedo was now under challenge from Haudenschild with five laps remaining, a challenge that he was able to fight off as the track now appeared to lock down on the bottom, With Madsen biding his time behind traffic, Macedo was able to close the gap and with two laps to go he tried to squeeze under the leader entering turn one. If he would have pushed the issue he would have wrecked them both so the young star from California gathered it back up and waited for his opportunity.
After taking the white flag Madsen needed to keep the car glued to the bottom, but when he drifted just a bit in turn two Macedo filled the gap. A puff of smoke from tires banging appeared as Macedo took the lead and the crowd was buzzing from their second "final lap pass for the win" of the night. Madsen and Haudenschild chased Macedo to the checkers with Scelzi and Logan Schuchart completing the top five. Sixth through tenth went to Aaron Reutzel, Brent Marks, James McFadden, Parker Price-Miller and Brian Brown.
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| Carson Macedo in the JJR #41 - Barry Johnson photo |
Knoxville Knotes......Thirty-nine 410's and twenty 360's were on hand for night two of the Brownell's Big Guns Bash.......Not surprisingly on a night like this the first car out to qualify, Gio Scelzi set quick time in the KCP Racing #18 much to the delight of the company party that was being held in the back stretch grandstands featuring live music pre-race as well as kid's games and bounce houses. I was able to enjoy the music while having a couple of cold ones with Spencer Watts, Brandon Leonard and others who were camping nearby.....With the field split into two groups of qualifying it made for an absolutely loaded second heat race that had seven of the eight drivers who had qualified for the Dash the night before. Macedo, Madsen, Brown and David Gravel would be the top four with Donny Schatz holding off Brad Sweet for the fifth and final transfer position. It would make for an uphill night for the current World of Outlaws point leader as Sweet then had to come from fifth to second in the B-Main to get qualified and he then raced from twenty-second to sixteenth in the feature......The B-Main had an ending that drew an interesting reaction from the crowd. McKenna Haase, the only female to ever win a feature race at Knoxville was running in the fourth and final transfer spot entering turn three on the final lap, but when she came down the race track a hard charging Kasey Kahne could not avoid her clipping the push bar just enough to send McKenna into a spin. The caution waved along with the checkers and when it was announced that Kahne would take that fourth and final transfer there was a smattering of applause for the former Cup star who had cut his teeth here racing weekly in 1998 at the age of eighteen. If it had been almost anybody else, I am guessing that the boo birds would have been out in full force. In an interview later Haase took the blame for the incident saying that she should not have switched lines late in the race......The Greatest Show On Dirt will hang around the state of Iowa for the week ahead with a Thursday show at 34 Raceway in West Burlington and a Friday night debut at the Dubuque County Fairgrounds. Then next Saturday it is on to the Beaver Dam Raceway in southern Wisconsin......The Knoxville Raceway has an interesting doubleheader next week as the new SRX series will be in town for their second ever event after debuting last night at the Stafford Speedway in Connecticut. The "IROC-like" tour that features legendary drivers such as Tony Stewart, Helio Castroneves and Bill Elliott will practice on Friday night along with a full program for the 360's and the Pro Series. Then on Saturday night the SRX field will stage a 100-lap feature after which the track will be prepared once again for a full program of the 410 Sprints, so there will be plenty of Star Power to take in at Knoxville next weekend!
For me it is on to Vinton tonight where I am hoping that an attempt to set a new Guinness Book of World Records for a Candy Dash doesn't take too long as it was a late return home from Knoxville last night. I will be looking for any spare Tootsie Rolls that the kids might like to share.
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