David Gravel won the 59th Annual Knoxville Nationals in convincing fashion and, after skipping a year due to that virus situation, one might have to be reminded that two years later the driver from Connecticut is the defending Knoxville Nationals Champion. On Wednesday Gravel started the evening by raising the champion's flag with the Jason Johnson Racing #41 on it, the car that he drove to that dominating win. Then he climbed aboard the Tod Quiring owned #2 and went about the business of defending his title.
Justin Henderson who up until the past week had been the track point leader here at Knoxville looked like he was going to run away from the field after starting from the front row of the twenty-five lap qualifying night feature. Pole-sitter Zeb Wise actually led lap one by a hair before Henderson took over and behind them Gravel was coming quickly to the front after starting sixth.
Henderson had things well in hand even after Gravel moved to second, but when Wise slowed on the back stretch that would slow the field. It was a tough break for the young driver from Indiana who appeared to have lost a rear end while running fourth in the second CJB Motorports ride that Buddy Kofoid had been slated to drive before injuries put him on the sidelines.
On the restart Henderson drove away from Gravel pushing his lead back out to almost a full straightaway, but when traffic started to come into play that lead would gradually shrink. With five laps to go Henderson still looked good riding the cushion while Gravel was finding a bite down low and just after Henderson put lap twenty-one in the books Gravel dove to his inside in turn one.
Driving up the track and closing the door, the move may have been a surprise to Henderson who could not counter with a crossover and after Gravel took the lead he would drive away over the final laps to score the win. His momentum broken, Henderson lost the second spot to Gio Scelzi and then was nipped at the checkers by Donny Schatz for third. Justin Peck, driving a pink #73 throwback paint scheme honoring Kramer Williamson filled out the top five.
Wednesday Notes......For the first time ever at the Nationals two drivers were on the clock at the same time in the all important qualifying session and it would be Brooke Tatnell who was in the second group of two that would set quick time. Gio Scelzi who was the first car to take time was second quick while the most impressive lap of the night came from ten-time champion Donny Schatz who was sixth quick despite being the 41st car out to qualify......It was a tough chore for the top qualifiers to crack the top four transfer spots in the heats that were lined up with the top eight inverted. In the first heat one of our favorites Josh Schneiderman went the distance to take the win over Jason Sides and Justin Henderson. Schatz had to pass A.J. Moeller mid-race to take fourth after starting seventh......Scelzi went from eighth to fifth on the opening lap of the second heat and looked like he would quickly take fourth only to find that Clint Garner knows how to defend his ground here at Knoxville. Garner held off Scelzi throughout the entire race, but they both passed Austin Miller with four to go to take third and fourth behind Kyle Reinhardt and Zeb Wise......Crowd favorite and the runner-up to Gravel two years ago, Logan Schuchart was the driver to watch in the third heat, but when Mark Dobmeier pinched him off early he dropped to seventh and had to fight his way back up to fifth. Schuchart then ran out of laps as he could not reel in Josh Baughman for fourth. Young Riley Goodno drove a throw back look honoring Jimmy Boyd to take the win followed by Spencer Bayston and Skylar Gee......Gravel started seventh in the fourth heat and quickly moved to fourth to set the stage for his feature win. Jake Bubak impressed with the win over Davey Heskin and Sheldon Haudenschild.......Ayrton Gennetten would be the only heat race winner that didn't start from the front row tonight as he rocketed from third to first on the opening circuit. Cory Eliason and Justin Peck finished second and third while James McFadden slipped by Jordan Goldsberry mid-race to finish fourth......Young Californian Tanner Carrick won the C-Main and the race to watch in the B was for the fourth and final transfer spot. Don Droud Jr. took it from Roger Crockett early only to have Crockett come back with just two laps to go. But when Scott Bogucki spun in turn three the caution would wave before Crockett could get a lap scored and that would put Droud back into fourth for the restart. Crockett would make a big run off of turn four coming up just short at the checkers as Schuchart, Tatnell and Danny Dietrich would also advance.
With the points tallied up for the night it would be Gio Scelzi on top followed by Schatz, Gravel and Schuchart. The full points courtesy of the Knoxville Raceway website follow and we will see how they stack up to what looks like a very talented field that will compete on Thursday.
1 18 Gio Scelzi 487
2 15 Donny Schatz 477
3 2 David Gravel 475
4 1S Logan Schuchart 472
5 0 Brooke Tatnell 460
6 9 James McFadden 459
7 7 Justin Henderson 458
8 73 Justin Peck 458
9 48 Danny Dietrich 449
10 17X Josh Baughman 447
11 11M Spencer Bayston 435
12 26 Cory Eliason 433
13 17 Sheldon Haudenschild 428
14 1M Don Droud Jr. 426
15 11 Roger Crockett 422
16 3 Ayrton Gennetten 418
17 40 Clint Garner 414
18 5XX Zeb Wise 409
19 49J Josh Schneiderman 408
20 56N Davey Heskin 405
21 91 Kyle Reinhardt 398
22 07 Skylar Gee 394
23 2C Wayne Johnson 394
24 7S Jason Sides 393
25 39M Anthony Macri 392
26 55M McKenna Haase 387
27 1X Jake Bubak 386
28 24 Terry McCarl 386
29 21W Riley Goodno 382
30 28 Tim Shaffer 379
31 5W Lucas Wolfe 379
32 83T Tanner Carrick 374
33 25 Scott Bogucki 370
34 27 Carson McCarl 365
35 20 AJ Moeller 364
36 13 Mark Dobmeier 359
37 2KS Chad Kemenah 359
38 83A Austin Miller 323
39 18R Ryan Roberts 320
40 7TAZ Tasker Phillips 315
41 55K Robbie Kendall 315
42 65 Jordan Goldesberry 310
43 9JR Derek Hagar 303
44 7C John Carney II 298
45 2M Matt Moro 284
46 14K Tori Knutson 281
47 9G Ryan Giles 270
48 56 Joe Simbro 267
49 55 Hunter Schuerenberg 261
No comments:
Post a Comment