Despite running fifth in Thursday night's qualifying feature, Rico Abreu's point total was one shy of putting him in to Saturday night's program so it was only fitting that the popular driver would come back on Friday to take the win and lock himself in to tonight's Championship feature.
Lining up on the front row next to one of his heroes, Jac Haudenschild who is driving a car that Rico has funded in 2021, it would be "The Wild Child" that would race out to the early lead in the night's twenty-five lap main event. With Jac running low in one and two and high in three and four, Rico would take the opposite line and on lap six Abreu would take the lead and immediately drive away.
The only caution of the race would wave on lap eleven when Ayrton Gennetten coasted to a halt in turn two and on the restart Rico would again pull away from his competition as the battle for the remaining three "transfer" spots heated up. Anthony Macri would take up the chase in second while Shane Stewart continued his charge from eleventh up to third. The enthusiastic crowd was doing their best to cheer on Haudenschild who was still in fourth, but with three laps remaining Brock Zearfoss was able to make the pass and earn the position as the top four will start in the final two rows of tonight's fifty lap finale. Scott Bogucki who had started thirteenth finished fifth and that will now land him on the sixth row for Saturday's B-Main that will determine the final four starters for the Championship.
Friday Notes.....The sixty-nine drivers were split into two groups with Group A qualifying and running heats one, two and three while Group B qualified and raced in heats four, five and six. Four cars were inverted in each heat race and the top three finishers advanced to the feature and then each group had a B-Main with three cars stating at the back of the field......Austin McCarl stopped on the track with nose wing issues at the start of the first heat and after making repairs he returned to action. A few laps in though McCarl's slider on Logan Wagner came up short sending both cars into a wild tumble off of turn two. Both drivers emerged uninjured.....Josh Schneiderman won his second heat race of the week dominating tonight's third qualifier. The West Burlington driver then moved from fifteenth to eleventh in the feature to put him into Saturday's B-Main......McKenna Haase fought off a side-by-side challenge from Hunter Schuerenberg and then drove away for an impressive win in the fourth heat.......It was heartbreak again for Jacob Allen fans on Friday night as the popular driver passed Sammy Swindell for third midway through heat five only to have Carson McCarl chase him down and pass Allen for the final transfer on the last lap. By the way, McCarl was the only driver on the night to come from outside of the invert to make the show from the heat races......Allen later proved that he is snake bitten this week as while leading the second B-Main his right rear tire blew apart with just two laps remaining allowing Sammy Swindell to take the win. Harli White made a big run in that one to finish second after starting eighth......In the first B-Main Roger Crockett finally prevailed making a late pass on Matt Juhl to take the third transfer spot. Crockett had challenged for third earlier in his heat race. On Wednesday night Crockett came up one spot shy of transferring out of his heat race and then was nipped by Don Droud Jr. for the final transfer from the B-Main.
The field is now set for Saturday's finale with the following coming from the Knoxville Raceway website. If you don't have tickets, the box office is sold out but you can likely still get a good seat from one of the many scalpers as you walk on to the fairgrounds!
60th NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals Presented by Casey's Saturday Championship Lineups
A MAIN
1. 18 Gio Scelzi (487) 49 Brad Sweet (481)
2. 57 Kyle Larson (480) 19 Brent Marks (479)
3. 15 Donny Schatz (477) 2 David Gravel (475)
4. 83 Kasey Kahne (475) 1S Logan Schuchart (472)
5. 21 Brian Brown (471) 49X Ian Madsen (463)
6. 0 Brooke Tatnell (460) 7BC Tyler Courtney (460)
7. 9 James McFadden (459) 7 Justin Henderson (458)
8. 73 Justin Peck (458) 48 Danny Dietrich (449)
9. B TRANSER 1 B TRANSFER 2
10. B TRANSFER 3 B TRANSFER 4
11. 24R Rico Abreu (St. Helena, CA) 39M Anthony Macri (Dillsburg, PA)
12. 71 Shane Stewart (Bixby, OK) 3Z Brock Zearfoss (Jonestown, PA)
B MAIN
1. 17X Josh Baughman (447) 41 Carson Macedo (441)
2. 42 Sye Lynch (436) 11M Spencer Bayston (435)
3. 26 Cory Eliason (433) 11K Kraig Kinser (432)
4. 5 Paul McMahan (430) 14 Kerry Madsen (430)
5. 17 Sheldon Haudenschild (428) 15H Sam Hafertepe Jr. (428)
6. 25 Scott Bogucki (McLaren Vale, SA, AU) 22 Jac Haudenschild (Wooster, OH)
7. 17W Shane Golobic (Fremont, CA) 17B Bill Balog (Hartland, WI)
8. 91 Kyle Reinhardt (Neptune City, NJ) 83J Lynton Jeffrey (Sydney, NSW, AU)
9. 49J Josh Schneiderman (West Burlington, IA) 56N Davey Heskin (St. Michael, MN)
10. 39 Daryn Pittman (Owasso, OK) 70 Sammy Swindell (Lakeland, TN)
C MAIN
1. 2C Wayne Johnson (Tuttle, OK) 55 Hunter Schuerenberg (Sikeston, MO)
2. 11N Harli White (Lindsay, OK) 28 Tim Shaffer (Aliquippa, PA)
3. 11 Roger Crockett (Broken Arrow, OK) 20 AJ Moeller (Rockwell City, IA)
4. 27 Carson McCarl (Altoona, IA) 55M McKenna Haase (Des Moines, IA)
5. 3 Ayrton Gennetten (Gravois Mills, MO) 40 Clint Garner (Sioux Falls, SD)
6. 09 Matt Juhl (Tea, SD) 3P Sawyer Phillips (Pleasantville, IA)
7. 5V Colby Copeland (Roseville, CA) 55W Mike Wagner (Harrisonville, PA)
8. 7TAZ Tasker Phillips (Pleasantville, IA) 11TK Tim Kaeding (San Jose, CA)
9. 24 Terry McCarl (Altoona, IA) 83T Tanner Carrick (Lincoln, CA)
10. N47 Marcus Dumesny (Sydney, NSW, Aust., ) 5XX Zeb Wise (Angola, IN)
D MAIN
1. 13 Mark Dobmeier (Grand Forks, ND) 53D Jack Dover (Springfield, NE)
2. 73A Scotty Thiel (Sheboygan, WI) 7W Dustin Selvage (Indianola, IA)
3. 2KS Chad Kemenah (Alvada, OH) 53 Jessie Attard (Landilo, NSW, Aust., )
4. 07 Skylar Gee (Leduc, ALB, Can., ) 44 Chris Martin (Ankeny, IA)
5. 5W Lucas Wolfe (Mechanicsburg, PA) 20G Noah Gass (Mounds, OK)
6. 55K Robbie Kendall (Catonsville, MD) 65 Jordan Goldesberry (Springfield, IL)
7. 9JR Derek Hagar (Marion, AR) 1X Jake Bubak (Arvada, CO)
8. 97 Greg Wilson (Benton Ridge, OH) 18R Ryan Roberts (Aurora, NE)
9. 1M Don Droud Jr. (Lincoln, NE) 10 Jeff Swindell (Memphis, TN)
10. 21W Riley Goodno (Knoxville, IA) 11T TJ Stutts (Liverpool, PA)
E MAIN
1. 7S Jason Sides (Bartlett, TN) 83A Austin Miller (Lacona, IA)
2. 7C John Carney II (El Paso, TX) 56 Joe Simbro (Pleasantville, IA)
3. 2DC Dylan Cisney (Port Royal, PA) 1A Jacob Allen (Hanover, PA)
4. 14K Tori Knutson (Monticello, MN) 15M Bobby Mincer (Burlington, IA)
5. 13S Tyler Esh (Lancaster, PA) 2K Kevin Ingle (Huron, SD)
6. 1Z Logan Wagner (Harrisonville, PA) 9G Ryan Giles (Grimes, IA)
7. 17A Austin McCarl (Altoona, IA) 35P Skylar Prochaska (Lakefield, MN)
8. 2M Matt Moro (Polk City, IA)
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