Another "Race of the Year" From Davenport?

If you were one of the race fans at the Davenport Speedway Friday night, and there were many of the them, you may have just witnessed another Dirt On Dirt Late Model "Race of the Year" as Tanner English came out of nowhere to steal his first Case World of Outlaws victory at the checkers. Plus, as a bonus for your attendance, the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets served up a thirty lap main event that saw seven lead changes across five drivers as Chase McDermand parked his #40 in victory lane here on night number two of the Quad Cities 150 presented by Hoker Trucking.

Let's start with the Late Models where Ashton Winger and Ryan Gustin would bring the field to green for forty laps on a track surface that would allow the drivers to search anywhere from low to high to find the groove that best suited their car at any given time. Winger would take the point in a four car breakaway as Gustin, Bobby Pierce and Dennis Erb Jr. went with him. With Winger riding the top, Pierce went away from his preferred line and used to bottom to first get past Gustin for second and then on lap eight he would ease ahead of Winger to take the lead.

As Bobby pulled away to nearly a two second advantage, eighth starting Devin Moran joined Winger, Gustin and Erb to make it a four car battle for second as the race went by the halfway mark. With lapped traffic spread out in front of him, Pierce had to start moving around and that would allow his challengers to close back in with now Moran becoming the primary threat, but things would really get interesting on lap twenty-five when the caution waved for Hall of Famer Billy Moyer who had slipped off the top of turns one and two.

On the restart Moran got a big run off the top of turn two and pulled even with Pierce in turns three and four as the big crowd went wild. With a good bite off the bottom exiting turn four, Pierce would maintain the lead and then drive back to the top entering turn one to thwart this challenge from Moran. Meanwhile, just behind them Tanner English was on the move after starting from deep in the pack. In Thursday's opener English had made his way from tenth to finish third and on this night he was mired in eighteenth for the initial green and on this restart he had lined up in ninth. But there he was, just two laps after taking the green once again racing to the inside of Erb and Winger looking for third.

Moran would drive to the inside of Pierce in one and two on lap twenty-eight to briefly take the lead only to have Bobby come charging back on the outside down the back stretch and at that point it looked like Pierce had survived the challenge as he started to put some space between himself and Moran with English another eight car lengths back in third.

With the laps winding down lapped traffic would again come into play though with young Trevor Gundaker running the low line and this would bring Moran back into the game. As Pierce crossed the stripe with two to go he would abandon the bottom and cut off a big run from Moran going to the top at the entry of turn one. This looked as though it might have been the move of the race, but there was English still working the bottom who would nose ahead of Moran for second exiting turn two.

As the white flag waved Pierce was up top with a half-car length advantage over English on the bottom while Moran was in the middle with his nose still underneath the rear end of the leader. Three wide for the lead with one lap to go at Davenport!

The move of the race would come down the back straightaway, and from an unlikely source as the lapped car of Gundaker was still working the bottom. As Pierce sailed around him on the outside, Trevor slowed and pulled to the infield leaving the bottom lane in turns three and four, the one that Pierce had been using for most of the race now open for English as Bobby slid the middle and drifted wide at the exit of turn four. Again the trio came out of turn four three wide and it would be English taking the win at the checkers in an amazing finish! Pierce would have to settle for second for the second night in a row while Moran was a close third.

Just behind them a similar scenario would play out as Max Blair used the bottom to slip past Winger and Erb to steal fourth at the checkers. Gustin would fade to seventh, Frank Heckenast Jr. was eighth, Shane Clanton would come home ninth and Justin Kay would fill out the top ten. If this one doesn't end up being Dirt On Dirt's Race of the Year for 2022, you can bet that it will one of the top three!

Ryan Gustin's #19R ready for action

The Rest of the Story.....Thirty-four Late Models would sign in for action with Mike Spatola being the only new driver on the list from Thursday's opener.....The wide quarter-mile again held its speed well through qualifying as there was only a 0.068 second difference between the best time in Group A Devin Moran and Group B Ryan Gustin....With no morning rain to contend with promoter Ricky Kay and his team of dirt work experts had the track in excellent shape from the start tonight with only a little bit of farming needed after qualifying. And it was a good thing that they didn't need to do more as the full show was running up against the track's 10:30 curfew even though there were no noticeable delays other than the break prior to opening ceremonies. Let's face it, while Modifieds can be lined up in staging, come to the track and be ready for green the first time around, it takes much longer to get the Midgets all pushed off and then herded into position for a start.....Anyway, with the multi-grooved track from the start the Late Model heat race action was much better tonight than it was on Thursday.....In the opener Justin Kay sailed around both Jason Feger and Boom Briggs with a couple of laps remaining to take the fourth and final transfer after starting seventh. That would send Thursday's winner Feger to a B-Main......Jeff Larson would qualify the locally owned #99 for the second straight night with a late pass of Spatola in heat number two.....In the third heat the Gundaker brothers Trevor and Gordy would start from the third row with the younger brother Trevor racing his way up to third at the checkers and of course putting him in the position for his key supporting role in the night's thrilling finish. Gordy would end up using an emergency series provisional to start the main event.....Billy Moyer would edge out English for fourth sending Tanner to the second B-Main giving him some extra track time that perhaps helped him with his A-Main setup.....After making mistakes on both laps of qualifying Michigan's Chad Finley redeemed himself by making up positions in his heat race and then coming from fourth to second in his B-Main to make the show for the second night in a row......With his timely exit on the final lap Trevor Gundaker was the only one of the twenty-five starters that did not finish the feature.

I will admit that I had my concerns about how the Midgets would race here on this extremely wide quarter-mile. My fear was that the top would be just too far around to make up for the drivers that would be creeping the bottom, but those fears quickly evaporated after the green flag waved and the feature field fanned out across the entire width of the speedway. Pole-sitter Jade Avidisian, one of four young female speedsters in the field, would win the race back to the line to lead the opening lap before yielding to California's Jesse Love. His lead would last for just one lap as well though as Bryant Wiedeman sailed around the outside to take the point on lap three. 

Love would keep the pressure on working the short way around and he would return to the lead on lap seven, Wiedeman would regain the advantage on lap eight only to have Love come back one lap later. And I was worried that the Midgets would play follow the leader around the bottom??

While all this was going on Jacob Denney was working his way up from eleventh and he would break up the party by going to the front on lap eleven with Chase McDermand following him into second. Caution would wave at the mid-race mark of the thirty lapper when provisional starter Emilio Hoover drove off the top of four.

With the field single-file for the restart, a slow pace by Denney would cause the third, fourth and fifth place cars of Love, Brenham Crouch and Zach Daum to stack up in turn four just as the green flag waved. Damage would end the night for Love while Crouch and Daum went to the rear after making repairs and once back to green it would be a two car breakaway for Denney and McDermand.

Chase would stalk Jacob for twelve laps before using a wider line in turns three and four to sweep to the lead with three laps remaining. Caution would wave just after the white flag came out when Hoover's car went up in smoke and on the restart as McDermand pulled away to score the win, Dominic Gordon would slip past Denney on the final lap to take second. Daison Pursley in his first night back in a midget after injuries suffered in this horrific crash in November of 2021 won his heat race and finished fourth in the main event while Gavin Miller came from twelfth to crack the top five. Former Oklahoma Sooners cheerleader Taylor Reimer made a late charge to finish sixth after starting fourteenth.

Twenty-seven of the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets signed in for competition and they will be back again tonight in support of the Late Models for the finale of what has been a fantastic Quad Cities 150 thus far. I want to thank Ricky and Brenda Kay for their hospitality now as due to some other possible commitments I will not likely make it back up to Davenport tonight, but I encourage you to go fill my seat for what I am confident will be another tremendous night of racing!

Quad Cities 150 Opener Falls To Feger

Okay, so that headline may be a bit harsh as "The Highside Hustler" was strong all night as you might expect when the rim of the wide quarter-mile at the Davenport Speedway was dominant for most of the evening. But it was a flat tire under caution with six laps remaining that handed the lead back to Jason Feger and he would hold off a late challenge from Bobby Pierce to take Thursday's opener in the World of Outlaws Quad Cities 150 presented by Hoker Trucking.

Overnight rains left standing puddles of water here and there on the ground of the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds and with the extra moisture in the surface the track was lightning fast with a strong cushion as evidenced by a new track record in qualifying set by Bobby Pierce at 13.207. That cushion remained the place to be throughout heat race and last chance race action as while drivers would give the shorter way around a shot early in each race, by the time the checkers waved pretty much everybody was chasing each other around the rim. It was during the twenty lap IMCA Modified main event that some different lines started to show some strength and after a bit of manicuring by promoter Ricky Kay and his team, the track was back to its normal six lanes of choice for an exciting forty lap Late Model headliner.

Ashton Winger and Jason Feger would bring the field to green and I wish that I had a good picture of the field as they fanned out while thundering through turn one on the opening lap. Winger appeared to have a big run coming off of two setup after swinging to the top at the entry of turn one, but Kent Robinson and others had dove to the bottom entering one and had now blocked his exit from turn two causing the pole-sitter to have to brake. Feger emerged from the chaos as the leader of lap one and he would set sail on the still quick cushion with the fourth-starting Devin Moran in hot pursuit.

Caution would fly on lap two when four-time Outlaws champion Josh Richards spun in turn one and the red flag would be needed three laps later when Chad Simpson's car bicycled at the top of turn four and then rolled before slamming the concrete wall beyond the exit of the turn. With the wind knocked out of him, the current MLRA point leader took a moment or two before exiting the car under his own power.

Once back to racing Feger and Moran continued their two car chase around the top while the rest of the field scrambled for position and once lapped traffic came into play Moran started to try the bottom and the middle. Forced off the top by a lapper with twelve laps to go Feger lost some of his momentum, so when he went back to the cushion Moran's shorter way around allowed him to the take the lead on lap twenty-nine.

Not far behind them, both Ryan Gustin and Bobby Pierce had been making up ground on the lead duo with Gustin doing most of his work by pitching his car hard sideways at the entry of both corners and maintaining the bite around. It was no surprise to me then when on lap thirty-four his right rear tire shredded bringing out the caution for the final time in the event. What did surprise everybody though was what happened next.

After passing Feger for the lead, Moran had gone back to the rim and was driving away to a three second advantage, but soon after Gustin entered the hot pit for his tire change, there was Moran as well in the infield with his right rear tire going flat. Both drivers would return for the final six laps with Feger now back out front and with Pierce poised to make a challenge.

Late Model fans know that both of these drivers prefer the top and that is where they would both stay for five laps with Feger maintaining about a three car length advantage as Pierce waited for the slightest of bobbles. If Bobby would have sensed that he had a run there is no doubt that a big slide job would have been served up, but as the white flag waved he tried to stick the bottom through turns one and two.

The nice sized crowd for a Thursday night cheered in anticipation as the leaders exited turn two side by side with Feger's momentum off the top bringing him back to the lead down the back stretch and while Pierce tried the bottom again in three and four there was no passing Feger on this night as Jason would take his second career win with the World of Outlaws. Pierce would settle for second, Tanner English not only extended his lead in the Rookie of the Year standings with his third place finish, he would also close in on the series point lead as he currently ranks second behind Dennis Erb Jr. Ashton Winger was solid in fourth and Billy Moyer returned to action as the native Iowan filled out the top five. Shannon Babb would finish sixth ahead of Kent Robinson, Tyler Bruening came from the seventh row to take eighth, Frank Heckenast Jr. was ninth and Moran rallied to tenth.

The Rest of the Story......It was a diverse and impressive field of 38 Late Models that gathered here for the weekend tripleheader with only one, local driver Mike Guldenpfennig, failing to take time. He would later return to run a few laps of his B-Main.....After spending the last couple of weeks talking about how important the pill draw is to set the qualifying order at Knoxville due to the track quickly losing speed, that was definitely not the case here at Davenport. Yes, the first car out to time (Ashton Winger) did post the fastest lap in Group A with a lap of 13.378, but the thirteenth driver to go the clock (Ryan Gustin) was just a tick off at 13.398. Then came Group B where two of the last three cars to take to the track would set the two fastest times of the night including Bobby Pierce's new track record and Billy Moyer's 13.365. Now that is an even surface through 37 qualifiers!.....Winger is now behind the wheel of the Big Frog Motorsports #58 and the Ocala, Florida, based team may just be as far from home as they have ever been with this appearance at Davenport......Considered to be one of the top two Dirt Late Model drivers in the history of the sport, Moyer was back in action last weekend near his current home of Batesville, Arkansas, for what I believe was one of his first races of 2022, but for us Iowans he will always be from Des Moines.....Heat race action went true to form with the front row finishing first and second in all four. A look at the stats may refute that as you will see that in the fourth qualifier Kent Robinson took the win after starting third, but he was moved up to the pole after the first try at a start was called back. The pole-sitter Moyer was penalized one row for apparently jumping the start, a call that was resoundingly booed by the crowd who had seen a couple of earlier starts also called back with no drivers penalized. So yeah, with Moyer battling his way back into second by the checkers there was actually one driver who did come from a "row two" starting spot to make the redraw......In the fourth heat hometown favorite Spencer Diercks threw one of the sliders of the night on Boom Briggs to finish third after starting fifth.....Series point leader Dennis Erb Jr. made a big move early to go from sixth to second in the first B-Main, a finish that would place him 19th on the starting grid for the feature. He would run a steady race to finish eleventh, but would see his point lead shrink by 16 markers with English racing from tenth to third in the main event.....Michigan visitor Chad Finley passed Brian Shirley on a mid-race restart to take the third and final transfer from the first B-Main....Trevor Gundaker would win the second B-Main ahead of the defending IMCA Modified National Champion Jeff Larson who put the locally owned #99 of Doug Curless in the feature field. Another series rookie who also ranks third in the overall point standings, Max Blair would take the final transfer leaving Australian driver Kye Blight one spot shy of making the A......While racing for $10,000 to win each night, Late Model drivers are accumulating points in the Thursday and Friday shows to set the lineups for Saturday's finale that will have a $30,000 check waiting in victory lane.

In a bit of a surprise, the legendary Billy Moyer is an entrant at Davenport for the weekend

A stout field of thirty-one IMCA Modifieds served as a hearty appetizer with the track regulars taking on some talented out of towners and, in the end, it would be one of the weekly Friday night competitors in victory lane after the twenty lap feature. Front row starters Ryan Duhme and Matt Werner would cross the stripe in a virtual dead heat after one quarter of a mile of racing with only the scoreboard letting me know that Werner would be officially scored as the leader. The defending IMCA Super Nationals Champion Cody Laney was in town from Torrance, California, and after starting sixth he would move to second on lap three just before the caution waved for Jed Freiburger's spin in turn one.

On the restart Travis Denning would reclaim second from Laney and it would now be a familiar chase as Werner and Denning have been the top two Modified drivers on the Quad Cities tracks in 2022. That chase would be short lived though as two laps later Ray Cox Jr. jumped the cushion in turn one and as drivers checked up behind him it would quickly create a three car pileup including Justin Becker, Austin Blume and Jerry Dedrick. On this restart Laney would return to second, but again only two more laps would be recorded before a front stretch scuffle would leave Freiburger facing the wrong direction once again. 

With the yellow fever now out of their system, the race would go green for the final thirteen laps with Werner going unchallenged to collect his eleventh win of the season. Laney would impress the Quad Cities crowd with his second place run, seventeen-year-old Charlie Mohr would get his third podium finish of the season in third, current All Iowa Points leader Austen Becerra would finish in the fourth spot while Duhme slipped past Mitch Way on the final lap to reclaim fifth.

More Modifieds......Denning had slipped back to fourth when he jumped the cushion and went over the top of turn one with eight laps remaining. Rather than stopping to draw a caution the Sterling, Illinois, driver proceeded to the pit area. Denning currently ranks second in the All Iowa Points to Becerra and is currently tied for fourth in the IMCA Modified National Points......Along with the Californian Laney, Bricen James from Albany, Oregon, was in action and was credited with a 22nd place finish in the feature....Mitch Way started twelfth and finished sixth while Jason Pershy came from 22nd to seventh at the checkers.....Despite the two cautions, Freiburger rallied back to a ninth place showing....Speaking of the All Iowa Points, six of the top twenty drivers were in the field tonight with Becerra (1st), Denning (2nd), Werner (7th), Freiburger (12th), Duhme (16th) and Drew Janssen (18th).....The 1987 IMCA Modified National Champion Shane Davis was joined on the microphone by National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame inductee Rick Eshelman on this night to call the action for both those in attendance and for those who had tuned in on DirtVision.....One of those watching on DirtVision from New Jersey was my son Morgan who was holding my now five day old grandson Walker who was at least listening to his first race.

The Quad Cities 150 presented by Hoker Trucking continues tonight with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series joining the World of Outlaws Late Models for another great night of action. I am interested to see how the midgets race the wide quarter-mile oval. Hope to see you there!

Thank Yous And Other Thoughts

The 61st Knoxville Nationals are now in the books and after a few days of reflection I wanted to follow up with some Thank Yous and Thoughts. 

First of all I want to thank the people that make my annual week or two in Knoxville so much fun and that starts with the Johnsons, Barry Stephanie and Aidan who have been allowing me to invade their home for more than twenty years now during these two race weeks. With their home being on the southwest edge of Pella it allows me to escape the hoopla and get some much needed rest, while being close enough to make it just a fifteen minute trip to and from the race track. Barry and I can talk racing for twenty-four hours straight while Steph and Aidan are always leaving something yummy on the counter for either a late night snack or a morning treat. Plus this year, with my son Morgan and his wife Em expecting my fourth grandson any day now, they welcomed in my nephew Nick Woodley for a couple of nights even though they had never met him before. As always, thank you so much for your hospitality!

It is a given that I am going to gain a few pounds during Knoxville, with Steph's Blueberry Buckle and Aidan's Brownies, but then it is impossible to stop eating when Keith Nachbor is grilling at the camper just outside of the track. The man is a wizard on the grill and I have been sitting in Section I with he and his brother Jeff for as long as I can remember. I have had a once a year opportunity to watch three of their boys become fine young men and Sean, Sam and Ethan were great hosts as well giving Nick the "younger generation" view of the Nationals. There is no place I would rather be than with this crew when it becomes "race time in the valley!" Thank you to the Nachbors for making me a part of your family every August.

I am so fortunate to be friends with another wizard on the grill and don't be surprised if you are ever at a Sprint Car race and have a gravelly voiced man say "come on over here and eat with us!" Jack Donlan is known to do just that with strangers and as Nick and I were enjoying one of his perfect steaks and luscious baked potatoes on Saturday afternoon, one of the other guests was telling us that this was just how he had met Jack down at the World Finals in Charlotte. I have had the pleasure of knowing Jack as a racer, a flagman and a Grillmaster, but most important of all as a friend and I always look forward to swapping stories with him.

Finally, I want to again mention the Credentials team at the Knoxville Raceway. I first noted Angie Uitermarkt in my story from the Thursday opener of the 360 Nationals and I can guarantee you that the smile and friendly attitude carried all the way through to Saturday night's finale. Angie, Kellie and everybody with the Knoxville Raceway were the perfect hosts for this old "media" man again this year and I hope that they know just how much everything was appreciated!

It was a very interesting week of racing that if you read many of the posts on social media, you would be lead to believe that the event is in need of a huge overhaul. Not so fast my friend! You will not find a more fan friendly format anywhere in racing that still results in the top drivers ending up on the podium at the end of the weekend. Donny Schatz won for the eleventh time with the 2019 champion David Gravel and perhaps the week's fastest car driven by Logan Schuchart in third. It is hard to argue with those results, but many will and I will admit that I have suggested one tweak in the system to consider going forward.

I ask that you read my story from Wednesday's opener that I had posted before noon on Thursday to get the full details, but the luck of the pill draw for the qualifying order for each night has become way too important in the process. Take Tasker Phillips as an example. On Thursday night he is the third car out to qualify where he sets the quick time for the night. In his heat race Tasker moves from eighth to sixth, two positions shy of a transfer to the feature, so with his quick time he starts on the pole of the B-Main. He drops to third at the checkers of that one, still good enough to start him 23rd for the main event where he advances to eighteenth at the finish. Under the current system this performance is the feel good story of the week, enhanced by the wild battle that he had with defending champion Kyle Larson for that second spot in the B-Main, and while I am happy for Tasker that he was able to qualify for Saturday night's championship race, I can't help to feel that it was all made possible by one good pill draw.

Many people blame the eight car invert for the heat races and they are lobbying for a change to six. In my opinion that will only exasperate the issue as then a top driver who draws late in the qualifying order will have to muster a lap that lands in the top thirty rather than the top forty in order to have a chance to recover points in the main event. Ask Brian Brown or Kerry Madsen how easy that is, and thank goodness for the Hard Knox Friday Night format change that was brought about just a few years ago!

I believe that my suggestion of running one lap in the qualifying order that was determined by the draw, awarding 100 points for quick time with one point increments, and then running another lap on the clock in the reverse order and awarding 100 points for the fast lap in that round with one point increments is the best way to mitigate the "luck of the draw" when it comes to such an important part of the point accumulation process. 

Would drivers accept a "pill draw" for their starting positions in a heat race? Hell no, but in a roundabout way they are doing just that in the current system. I can't remember if it was Jeff or Keith who said that drivers used to want go out from 15th to 20th in qualifying because the track used to start out greasy, then get fast before dropping off in speed toward the end. Over the past several years, if you aren't one of the first ten cars on the track for qualifying, you have no chance of earning 200 points in this segment of the process and that just seems like something that needs to be adjusted.

When you read that story from Wednesday night you will see that I was spot on when it came to three predictions. And, since I am rarely correct when it comes to making predictions, I am damn well going to call your attention to all of them now! 

First the easy one, you will see that I correctly picked Donny Schatz as Saturday night's winner after he came from a fourth row start to finish in second on Sunday at the Capitani Classic and then repeated that performance during Wednesday's qualifying night. This showed the strength of the #15 and with his obvious experience in achieving success here at the biggest Sprint Car race in the world, there was little doubt in my mind who would take the win. It was nice to see that his first win here since 2017 was met with substantially more cheers than the boo birds that dominated the second half of his run of ten championships.

I was also correct in predicting that only six of Wednesday's point totals would be among the sixteen drivers to lock in for Saturday's A-Main and I even speculated that Logan Schuchart would become the first qualifying night feature winner that would fail to lock into the Knoxville Nationals Championship race through qualifying. You heard it here first Back Stretch readers as that tidbit of trivia seemed to be slow to circulate with one media outlet finally stating late on Friday night that "it has been confirmed".

On Friday afternoon as I was giving Nick the tour of the grounds and letting him know what to watch for in his first ever visit to Knoxville, we went to the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum where Schuchart and David Gravel were two of the four drivers signing autographs at a table in front of the replica of Bob Trostle's garage. I told them that my nephew was here for the first time so as they signed their cards for him I noted that David had won the Nationals here in 2019 and that Logan had won on both Sunday and Wednesday, but that he was the first qualifying night winner to not make it to the A-Main with his point total. Schuchart immediately looked up at me in disbelief, then turned to Gravel and said, "is that true?" David chuckled and said "yea Dude!" giving my nephew yet another cool story to tell from his first trip to the Knoxville Nationals.

Was he hooked after two nights? Absolutely and how could he not be with great racing, new friends, fantastic food and cold beer? Sounds like the perfect combination for a twenty-five-year-old bachelor and he definitely wants to come back in 2023 to experience it with his cousin Morgan in attendance as well. Nicky has already checked the schedule at what would be his "home track", the Creek County Speedway in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, to see that the ASCS Sooner Region will be there on Friday August 26th where he will be trying to get his Dad hooked on the sport as well. Thank you for making the trip in Nicky, it was a pleasure to introduce you to this great event!

On Saturday it was interesting to see a few fans wearing shirts that said "Anybody But Larson" on them. Of course they were vastly outnumbered by those who had purchased the Yung $$$ Knoxville Nationals version of the Kyle Larson shirts, topped only by the number of different Rico Abreu apparel that I saw throughout the week.

Larson's next venture, the High Limit Sprint Car Series presented by FloRacing will provide its appetizer tonight from the Lincoln Park Speedway in Putnamville, Indiana, and it will be interesting to see who is in the field. When I reported on this earlier I had been told by a good source that all of the top teams in the World of Outlaws had decided that they will not honor the non-compete portion of the contract in 2023 so that they can participate in the twelve race High Limit Series in 2023. However this past week I was told that World Racing Group, the owner of the World of Outlaws will stand tough on that agreement that limits drivers on the events that they can run outside of the series if they want to still collect the guaranteed money that they currently receive for participating in each WoO sanctioned event. That amount of money added up over eighty races would require a driver to have to win at least half of those High Limit races to match it, so once again it will be very interesting to see how that scenario plays out as it develops next season.

So perhaps those "Anybody But Larson" shirts are being worn by World of Outlaws loyalists who see this new series as a threat, or they could be because of a quote from Larson in a recent story in regard to the purse money that is paid out at the Chili Bowl. I don't think that Larson meant it to become such a big deal, but when a reporter asked him about the Chili Bowl he stated that he would likely go race for his Dirt Late Model team at the Wild West Shootout instead this January since the Saturday night winner makes $10,000 and he has a chance to make much more than that over the six nights of racing in the desert southwest.

In my opinion Chili Bowl founder and promoter Emmett Hahn did himself no favors by making more of a story out of it by listing off his expenses and stating that he gets no concessions. Even with some of the numbers that he put forth it doesn't take a math major to see that the combination of the Tulsa Shootout and the Chili Bowl is a huge money maker for Hahn and, as far as I am concerned, he deserves every penny of it. After all, it was his vision and it was at his own financial risk when the first Chili Bowl was run with probably twenty-five cars and a few hundred people in the stands. I don't see anybody trying to run the numbers on that one, and it was Hahn who stuck with it over the years and built the event up to what it is today. When Larson's quote first came out, I wish Hahn would have wished him well and then stated that now there might be over 400 drivers in attendance looking for the Golden Driller if they know that they don't have to beat Larson. It seems like that has been how the same subject has been handled by events like the Ice Bowl and the IMCA SuperNationals whenever somebody wants to try to argue the point.

That leads me to my next topic and that is some of the reasons that have been given recently for canceling events in advance of race day and to lead off this discussion I feel that it is important to define something that so many in this sport seem to have a problem with, and that is THE PROMOTER NEEDS TO MAKE A PROFIT! Whine, bitch, make all the suggestions on social media about getting more sponsorship, lower the price of admission, raise the purse, add classes, reduce the number of classes, etc., etc., but the bottom line is this" The promoter of the race (individual, fair board or nowadays even a Pay Per View provider) needs to make a profit, or at the very least come close to breakeven, otherwise there will be no more races scheduled for drivers to compete in, for fans to attend and for pay-per-view subscribers to watch. Trust me, nobody is in the business of putting on races just for your enjoyment. If promoters are not successful, there will be no more racing. That may sound harsh, but it's true!

My first foray into promoting came in 1992 when I partnered with my favorite promoter of all time, Larry Kemp to try out a weekly Wednesday night show featuring only Late Models and Hobby Stocks at what we dubbed the Lee County All-Star Speedway in Donnellson. After six weeks that included some challenging weather, great Late Model car counts and smaller than hoped for grandstand attendance, I was $18,000 in the hole so we sent out a brief press release stating that the rest of the season had been canceled. There was no social media at that point so we didn't have to put up with any "know it alls" tapping on a keyboard, so no "excuses" were needed. Our ideas didn't work and that was that.

Recently we have seen several events that had been placed on the schedule by the promoter way back in the winter or early Spring of 2022 that were later altered, or canceled prior to race day. In each case the promoter felt the need to offer up excuses as to why they were making the changes, or canceling the event all together. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I don't feel that the promoter owes anybody an explanation, especially when it comes to canceling an event. If you don't feel that you are going to make money on that show when you consider all of the factors that go into that, just announce the cancellation and let it be. Don't worry about, or even acknowledge all of the crap on social media as nobody on there has anything other than perhaps a pre-purchased ticket at stake in the process and surely you are going to state how that will be refunded. Offering up a series of excuses only fuels the fire of the social media storm with the ever popular "they seem to have tires for the next race" leading the way.

If one event cancels, racers and fans have several other options, especially in this region of the country and you can always search for your next event on the Special Events Calendar at our website Positively Racing!  

The quote of the week from Knoxville, in my opinion, came from the fine infield reporter for the World of Outlaws, Chase Raudman, who on Saturday started a segment about how Sprint Cars are put together with this line. "I'm sure there's a lot of people watching tonight on DirtVision who have never seen a Sprint Car race before." While that is quite optimistic, I can't imagine that there were more than just a few disgruntled wives or girlfriends who were watching Sprint Cars for the "first time" on a broadcast where you had to actually pay to specifically watch Sprint Cars.

After seeing some of the dumbest posts over the past two weeks, topped off by one titled "Free The Knoxville Nationals" where it was argued that it costs way too much to sit at home, leave your car in the garage, eat your own food and drink your own beer while watching the Knoxville Nationals on DirtVision, I just had to take action. So I briefly expressed my opinion, then when challenged I responded that I knew that it was never wise to argue online with somebody who wanted something for free. After that I unfollowed the Sprint Car Fan Page on Facebook and I feel better already.

Now if I can just get rid of all of these "Facebook suggested" posts that I keep getting about how the entire roster of WNBA players don't make as much as Lebron James, or where Kevin Durant is demanding to be traded to today, I would be much happier. I just want to see how big of a fish that David Schlise caught today, or where I can find the Zipp's Pizzeria food truck over the next few days! I could care less where KD plays next year unless he is going to donate half of his salary to those poor WNBA players.

In another effort to cleanse my mind when it comes to racing, I have decided to unfollow a podcast where the host, in arguing the Kyle Larson vs. Chili Bowl or Wild West Shootout conversation, didn't realize that that the pay-per-view provider for both events is FloRacing, who also happens to sponsor Larson's short track racing efforts. A little pre-show prep never hurts, especially if you are going to spend fifteen minutes on the subject!

The Sprint Invaders return to action this coming weekend with a Saturday night visit to the Peoria Speedway, one that I will have to miss due to family commitments, and then on Sunday I will catch up with the series again at the Adams County Illinois Speedway in Quincy. Then the following week I am looking forward to the Quad Cities World of Outlaws 150 at the Davenport Speedway featuring the Late Models and the Xtreme Midgets. Hope to see you again soon here on the Back Stretch! 

Schatz Drives By Gravel Late For 11th Knoxville Nationals Championship

Fading from third to sixth during the first half of the race, Donny Schatz would come storming back to track down leader David Gravel and after making the pass with four laps remaining Schatz would drive on to his eleventh Knoxville Nationals title during this sixty-first edition of the event, his first though since 2017.

After a clean week of racing, the fifty lap finale would see a jarring accident in turn one on the start when J.J. Hickle drove over the right rear wheel of Daryn Pittman sending Hickle for a ride that would also collect Parker Price-Miller. After climbing from his car PPM would collapse to the ground holding his mid-section and he would be transported to the local hospital for observation. Once back to green pole-sitter Austin McCarl would lead the opening lap before yielding to fellow front row starter Tyler Courtney who would quickly build a solid advantage.

The first caution of the event would wave on lap twelve when defending champion Kyle Larson would shred his right rear tire while riding in the fifth position. A quick change would see Larson restart the race from twenty-first, but the red flag would fly once again before another lap was scored when Giovanni Scelzi got upside down in turn three.

Back to green Courtney would again drive away from McCarl and the rest of the field as four more laps were scored before Justin Sanders coasted to a halt on the front stretch with mechanical issues. On this restart David Gravel would drive by McCarl for second, but even he could not keep up with Courtney who would bring the field to the mid-race caution looking very dominant. At the break it would be Gravel in second, McCarl third, Brent Marks in fourth and Carson Macedo in fifth. Donny Schatz, as noted earlier, was lurking in sixth while Larson had made his way back to thirteenth.

With the race back to green Gravel would immediately go to work on Courtney and on lap twenty-seven we had a new leader in the 2019 champion Gravel. Meanwhile Schatz was now on the move using the lower line of the race track driving past Macedo for fourth and then McCarl for third just a few laps before Austin would blow a right rear tire with thirteen laps remaining.

Two more laps would be scored before Macedo also popped a tire while running fourth and you had to wonder if the tires were going to last for the final eleven laps. Schatz would now lineup second for the restart that would see Gravel jump out to a nice advantage, but as the laps clicked away you could see that lead disappear as Schatz found his line around to bottom while Gravel continued to ride the cushion.

With five laps remaining Schatz was making his bid and the leaderboard would change on lap forty-six as Schatz slid up in front of Gravel to take the point. Gravel tried the bottom himself in an effort to get back to the front, but there would be no stopping Schatz from taking his eleventh Knoxville Nationals championship! 

Gravel would be a gracious runner-up giving Schatz a big hug of congratulations in victory lane. Logan Schuchart made another big run coming from seventeenth to finish third after being the first ever qualifying night feature winner to have to run the B-Main on Saturday night just to make the show. For that story, click here. Courtney would slip to fourth at the checkers with Thursday's winner Jacob Allen completing the top five after starting eleventh.

Larson would be a car length back from Allen in sixth, Marks would wind up in seventh, Sheldon Haudenschild came from the twelfth row to finish eighth, Brad Sweet was ninth and Daryn Pittman filled out the top ten.

Once again the Saturday night finale of the four day run was sold out with the action unfolding in front of an enthusiastic crowd that had baked in ninety-five degree heat during the day only to have a north wind cool things down by twenty degrees just prior to race time. As always the Knoxville Nationals goes beyond the racing as it is an annual reunion with friends from far and wide. We wish them well and tomorrow we will start counting the days until we can do it all again!

Eleven-time Knoxville Nationals Champion Donny Schatz - Barry Johnson photo

 

More Friday Fun For Abreu At Knoxville Nationals

While he would much rather take the night off after a good qualifying effort, Rico Abreu definitely likes the relatively new Friday format at the Knoxville Nationals as for the third time the popular driver was the feature winner. More importantly the victory not only locked in Abreu to Saturday night's finale, but the three drivers who finished just behind him also made the show.

With pole-sitter Corey Day getting a bit squirrely at the drop of the green, Abreu sprinted to a nice lead on the opening lap  and three laps later things went from bad to worse for Day when he clipped the inside berm in turn three, slid up the track and backed his car hard into the guardrail before tipping over onto his side. Under red flag conditions, Day's crew replaced the damaged rear bumper and he was pushed off at the rear of the field for the restart. 

Abreu would again race out to a big advantage as the show behind him was a good one with the top four positions being so important. After starting third, Ayrton Gennetten had slipped to sixth by lap ten while Brock Zearfoss was making a charge from tenth. With ten laps scored Zearfoss closed quickly on Gennetten at the exit of turn two and when he clipped the rear bumper it sent Gennetten into a high speed spin down the backstretch. Hopping one of the wheels Zearfoss went airborne with a twist as well but somehow stayed on ll fours sliding to a stop at the entrance of turn three. With significant front end damage Gennetten limped his car for a full lap before parking next to Zearfoss to express his displeasure as his night would be over while after a quick check in the work area, Zearfoss would be able to restart.

Once back to green Abreu would again pull away from Kerry Madsen, Spencer Bayston and Sheldon Haudenschild while Max Dumesney did his best to mount a challenge for fourth. That effort would suddenly come to an end with eight laps to go when the caution waved as Dumesney slowed in turn four.

Brian Brown was now in contention after starting twelfth and on the restart he would throw the slider of the week thus far passing both Haudenschild and Bayston entering turn one. Both drivers would be able to answer the call with a crossover down the back stretch, but Bayston would now have Brown all over him for the final ticket to the Championship feature. With three to go Brown again slid Bayston to take the position in turns three and four and as they raced down the front stretch it looked like Bayston had a good run. With Brown entering one on the rim, Bayston also chose that line but he would go a bit too high and smacked the guardrail with his right rear losing a ton of ground on Brown.

Anthony Macri would drive low to get around the recovering Bayston, but they would lose touch with leaders and would be unable to close back in over the final laps. Abreu would take the win with Madsen in for second, Haudenschild finished third and Brown took fourth. These are four drivers that you would definitely project to be in the Knoxville Nationals Championship race and for both Madsen and Brown, who had a miserable qualifying efforts on Thursday, it was a huge turn of emotions as noted by Brown who said "I was ready to go jump off the mile long bridge after last night, I had such high expectations for this week."

Macri, who came into this week as the winningest Sprint Car driver in the country in 2022, has to be frustrated with his results as for the third time in two nights he would come up one spot short of a transfer in fifth. Bayston would recover for sixth, Day would rally for seventh, Justin Henderson charged from twenty-fourth to eighth, Brady Bacon was ninth and Dylan Cisney filled out the top ten.

Rico Abreu - Barry Johnson photo

The Rest of the Story.....With six eight-lap heat races the top three would transfer from each on this night and in the opener Dumesney would drive by Group 1 fast qualifier Brandon Wimmer on the last lap to finish third. Oh yes, Wimmer was the first car out to time on the night.....Sammy Swindell raced from sixth to third on the opening lap of the second heat, but he could not hold off Corey Day who went ack around the ageless veteran on lap three.....Cory Eliason sounded a little rough over the final two laps as he finished third in the third heat and we soon found out why. His car had lost a muffler somewhere along the way and the disqualification would move Sawyer Phillips onto the A-Main,,,,,A pair of Oklahoma drivers slugged it out for the final transfer in the fifth heat with Brady Bacon prevailing over Noah Gass......The sixth heat was one of the best of the week with Chris Martin, Riley Goodno and Sheldon Haudenschild in tight formation. When Sheldon did a wheel stand off the berm in turn three, Goodno had to slam the brakes to keep from getting into him and that would allow the fourth and fifth starters Kerry Madsen and Brooke Tatnell to join the mix. At the checkers it would be Haudenschild with the win with Tatnell being the only driver to come from outside the invert in second while Madsen took third setting him up for a runner-up finish later in the night. Once again another case of how the little things effect the outcome here at Knoxville......In the C-Main Dustin Selvage came from deep in the pack to take the sixth and final transfer, but then failed to scale.....McKenna Haase raced past Scotty Thiel late in the first B-Main to take the final transfer and in the second B-Main four drivers battled for three spots with Goodno being the odd man out.

The field is now set for Saturday and the tickets have been sold out. If you are not holding one you can watch it live on DirtVision!

It's Shark Week At Knoxville!

Following up on his teammate's victory on Wednesday night, Jacob Allen made it a clean sweep of the qualifying features for Shark Racing when he captured the Thursday A-Main win at the 61st NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's. It would be Allen's fist win at the world famous Knoxville Raceway and it would be well earned after fighting off a late charge from former Nationals champion Brad Sweet. The results of the qualifying night wins for the two teammates, however will be quite different when it comes to their setup for Saturday night's finale. More on that later.

Jacob Allen - Barry Johnson photo

Allen would start to the right of Zeb Wise on the front row for the twenty-five lap main event with Wise getting an early advantage before the second generation driver from Hanover, Pennsylvania, swept around the outside to be the official leader of lap one. With Allen starting to build up a lead, the third starting Brad Sweet would soon move to second and the chase was on. Meanwhile, back in the pack I wish that I would have paid more attention to Kyle Larson in the first four laps.

Barry Johnson photo

Starting from twenty-second after qualifying through the B-Main, the defending Knoxville Nationals champion Larson rocketed up to tenth in those first two miles and he was not done yet. As Larson continued to advance to the front the focus of the race went back toward the leaders in the non-stop event as Sweet was slowly reeling in Allen and looked like he was sizing up his prey for a late race pass.

With four laps remaining the move was made as "The Big Cat" put the slider on Allen in turn three only to have Jacob perfectly execute the crossover in turn four to take back the advantage coming to the front stretch. Sweet would keep the pressure on over the final laps, but with Allen working the lapped cars like a driver who has been to victory lane often here, Sweet would not get another clear shot at the leader before the checkered flag waved.

Carson Macedo had pulled within striking distance of the lead duo when Sweet made his late bid and he was ready to pounce on any mistakes while finishing third. Austin McCarl closed out a strong night by racing from seventh to fourth at the checkers, a performance that will put the third generation driver on the pole for Saturday's fifty-lap headliner. Larson would get all the way up to fifth at the checkers and one has to wonder if he would have been able to go all of the way to the front had there been just one caution mid-race.

The pole-sitter Wise slipped to sixth, Tyler Courtney also had a solid night running seventh and he will start next to McCarl on Saturday, Kasey Kahne advanced four positions to finish eighth, Lynton Jeffrey faded from a second row starting spot to come home ninth and J.J. Hickle locked himself into his first Championship main event at the Nationals after closing out the top ten.

Tasker Phillips - Barry Johnson photo

The Rest of the Story.....While it was still important to draw an early qualifying position, the track did hold it's speed longer than it has over the four nights of the Nationals qualifying (360's and 410's) as local favorite Tasker Phillips went out third and put up a time that would hold up through the full field of fifty drivers. Austin McCarl was aided by having the fourth qualifying spot and one has to wonder what could have been for Lynton Jeffrey. Pushed off eighth in the qualifying order, Jeffrey pulled to infield with mechanical issues before completing a lap and then came out at the end for just one lap on the clock. It was still good enough for 17th, better than most of the second half of the roster......Carson Macedo and Tanner Carrick banged wheels not once, but twice as Macedo made the pass for the fourth and final transfer spot in the first heat race.....Jeffrey would get by Matt Juhl coming to the white flag in the second heat race to take the fourth transfer position.....The makeup of the third heat would change when pole-sitter Chris Martin was penalized a row for jumping the start and on the second drop of the green J.J. Hickle went from sixth to first on the opening lap. He would go on to score the win while Chris Windom fought off the challenges of Brooke Tatnell to qualify in fourth.....As usual on the qualifying nights the race for fourth was the one to watch in the fourth heat as well with three cars involved in a heated battle. Tyler Courtney would take the spot from Kraig Kinser mid-race and Anthony Macri might have been able to mount a charge on Courtney if he had not been caught behind Kinser for an extra lap. Courtney would be the first driver of the week to actually start the ten lap distance from the fourth row and then crack the top four......Another thrilling three car battle for fourth would close out the heat races as Ryan Roberts did all he could to ward off the challenges of Austin McCarl and Rico Abreu. McCarl would prevail at the checkers making him the only driver who had started from eighth to make a transfer spot this week. And that is a big reason why he will lead the field to green for fifty laps on Saturday night......Brooke Tatnell was racing in fifth, one spot out of a transfer in the B-Main when his left front wheel came off on lap three. With Daryn Pittman well out front, the big crowd was thrilled by the battle for second as Tasker Phillips went back and fourth with Kyle Larson. After a couple of big sliders and a wheel bang or two, Larson would prevail by less than a car length to get the biggest crowd reaction of the week thus far. Spencer Bayston was holding on to the fourth and final transfer until the final lap when he slowed and pulled to the infield handing a gift to Buddy Kofoid. Without it, Kofoid does not lock himself in to the Championship feature.....As I predicted yesterday, only six drivers from Wednesday night were among the sixteen that you will find listed below and that means for the first time in the long history of this prestigious event, a qualifying night feature winner will still have to race his way in to the Championship event. Logan Schuchart will start Saturday's B-Main from the outside of row one. 

The first eight rows of the A-Main are now set with Friday's "Hard Knox" program to add four more drivers who will lineup in rows eleven and twelve. The final four starters will come from Saturday night's B-Main. There are still plenty of tickets for tonight's program, but they were within a couple of hundred tickets from selling out for Saturday night. If you cannot attend in person, you can dial up the Knoxville Nationals live on DirtVision.

Saturday's A-Main Qualifers

Austin McCarl - Tyler Courtney

Donny Schatz - David Gravel

Carson Macedo - Kyle Larson

Brent Marks - Daryn Pittman

Brad Sweet - J.J. Hickle

Jacob Allen - Parker Price-Miller

Justin Sanders - Buddy Kofoid

Tasker Phillips - Aaron Reutzel

Carson Macedo - Barry Johnson photo

Knoxville Nationals Opener To Logan Schuchart

In a race that was a virtual replay of Sunday night's Capitani Classic, Logan Schuchart started up front with Donny Schatz in the fourth row. Schuchart would build a big lead, only to be chased down by Schatz late with Logan making a late move to preserve the lead and take the win, this time on the opening night of the 61st NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals. While the feature race was familiar, the qualifying night as a whole was something that has not been seen before in the long history of this event as the majority of the drivers that qualified well were unable to transfer out of their heat race where the top eight starters are inverted and must race into the top four.

Barry Johnson photo

First the feature. World of Outlaws regulars Logan Schuchart and James McFadden started the twenty-five lap A-Main from the front row with Schuchart shrugging off a charge from McFadden before racing out to a solid lead. Giovanni Scelzi would soon close in enough on the leader to make it interesting while the real charge was coming from Schatz after starting seventh. Donny would drive past Scelzi with eight laps remaining and a full straightaway behind the leader, but that gap would shrink quickly.

As lap twenty-two went into the books Schatz was within two car-lengths of Schuchart before Logan made the move of the race by executing a big slider on the lapped car of Carson Short in turns one and two. The momentum from the big drive into turn one followed by the kick off the cushion in turn two allowed Schuchart to again drive away from his challenger down the back stretch and Schatz would be unable to make another run before the checkers waved.

David Gravel would drive from eighth to finish third dropping Scelzi to fourth in the final laps while McFadden slipped to fifth. Aaron Reutzel who flirted with the top five early would finish in the sixth position, Justin Peck dropped from fourth to seventh, Knoxville Nationals rookie Cole Macedo had an impressive showing in eighth with another event rookie Corey Day running ninth while Roger Crockett completed the top ten.

Logan Schuchart - Barry Johnson photo

The Rest of the Story......Actually this might be the real story of the night as drivers who qualified well were unable to pass anybody in the heat races. I'm assuming that most of our readers are aware of the qualifying format here at Knoxville, so here is just a quick tutorial. The field of around 100 is split so a driver runs on either Wednesday night or Thursday night to accumulate points. Qualifying, two laps on the clock at the start of the evening, earns as many points (200 with two point increments) as the feature finish while heat races award 100 points with three point increments for each position. The qualifying order is determined by a pill draw as drivers sign in. Heat races have the top eight cars by time inverted with only the top four qualifying for the A-Main. On this night only three of the top twenty in qualifying were able to race their way into the top four during the five heat races, something that I am almost sure that Knoxville's record-keeper Eric Arnold will confirm as being unprecedented. In the post-race Press Conference, the three drivers on the podium all noted how tough it was to come from the fourth row to make it into the top four tonight apparently forgetting that none of them actually started their heat race from the fourth row, but more on that and my proposed solution at the end of this entry.....The top ten in qualifying went out in the following positions in the qualifying order: Parker Price-Miller (10th), Brent Marks (3rd), Justin Sanders (17th), Ian Madsen (6th), Josh Schneiderman (9th), Ayrton Gennetten (24th), Sawyer Phillips (2nd), Sheldon Haudenschild (12th), Shane Golobic (11th) and David Gravel (20th). Meanwhile, drivers who went out 32nd or later included Schatz, Schuchart, Peck, McFadden, Dobmeier, Eliason, Scelzi, Reutzel and more, so can you see why it would have been tough for those top ten drivers to get past some of those names in front of them? Even with this spectacular fan-friendly qualifying system, it is all about the draw that determines the qualifying order and as soon as I saw it posted an hour before hot laps, I knew that we would be in for a night like this.....Starting sixth in his heat race, Schatz would have been relegated to the B-Main if not for a late pass of A.J. Moeller. The regular weekly competitor is known for his speed early in the night and was running second mid-race, but he was running a line that nobody else was in and he was soon ate up by Reutzel, Schuchart and, on the final lap, Schatz......California drivers took three of the four transfer spots in heat two while New Jersey's Kyle Reinhardt joined Corey Day, Colby Copeland and Cole Macedo on their way to the A-Main. Brent Marks went from eighth to fifth, but could not chase down Macedo.....Brandon Wimmer coaxed his badly smoking car to the victory in heat three while. Aussie newcomer to Knoxville Lachlan McHugh drove an aggressive race to take the final transfer ahead of Justin Sanders. Dustin Selvage expressed his opinion of McHugh's first lap slider during a restart....Gio Scelzi challenged Scotty Thiel early in the fourth heat until his engine started sounding rough. Thiel would take the win while Scelzi's crew executed a quick engine change before feature time....Reported contact with David Gravel would flatten the left rear tire on Marcus Dumesney's car on the opening lap of the fifth heat race and that would slide Gravel up to the third row for the restart. So while "officially" he would be the only car to crack the top four tonight from a fourth row starting position, Gravel actually started the ten lap distance from row three in a race won by Mark Dobmeier. Gravel would cross the line in a virtual dead heat with Mike Wagner with the transponder giving Wagner third by 0.013 seconds.......Despite being loaded with drivers who had qualified well, the B-Main was rather uneventful with the top four finishers Price-Miller, Marks, Madsen and Sanders coming from the first two rows.

Parker Price-Miller - Barry Johnson photo

The unusual qualifying night once again has some fans, and I'm sure some drivers trying to make the case for reducing the heat race inverts from eight to six. I disagree with that argument for two reasons. First, as always under this system the cream has risen to the top with your top ten in points from night one looking like this.

Donny Schatz 469

David Gravel 469

Brent Marks 462

Parker Price-Miller 457

Justin Sanders 456

Aaron Reutzel 447

Gio Scelzi 445

Logan Schuchart 444

James McFadden 441

Justin Peck 441

Second, in my opinion the issue is not the invert, it is the importance of the pill draw that needs to be addressed so if you reduce the invert to six you only hurt those drivers who are forced to qualify late in the order even more by not giving them the chance to prove their strength in the heat races and the feature.

Last week during the 360 Nationals I felt that it was more noticeable than ever before that the track "fell off" in speed quickly during qualifying, meaning that if you didn't go out early you had no chance of cracking the top ten. That was repeated here tonight with the 410's, so if there is going to be any kind of a change in the format for the Nationals going forward, this would be my suggestion.

Give the drivers each one lap on the clock in the order of the pill draw and award 100 points to the quick time with increments of one point going down. Then, reverse the order and have them take another lap on the clock with another points award of 100 points on down to even the playing field. You would then line up your five heat races similar to what you do now using the point totals after qualifying with the top eight inverted.

Keeps the racing for the fans while somewhat mitigating the importance of the pill draw in the process.

Something to look for tonight (Thursday) is the pill draw and whether or not several of the pre-race favorites are in the top twenty-five. If they are, my prediction is that only six of the drivers from Wednesday will have enough points to crack the top sixteen that will be locked in for Saturday night's championship race. It is very likely that Logan Schuchart could miss the cut and I can guarantee you that it would be the first time that a qualifying night winner did not lock in for the finale.

Good or bad, it is the true beauty, excitement and intrigue of the Knoxville Nationals!

Jeff's pre-race favorite to win on Saturday night, Donny Schatz - Barry Johnson photo

 

Aaron Reutzel Unchallenged In 360 Knoxville Nationals Championship Drive

Starting from the outside of the front row Aaron Reutzel vaulted to the lead at the drop of the green, then pulled away from a talented field of drivers to go virtually unchallenged for thirty laps to win the 32nd 360 Knoxville Nationals presented by Great Southern Bank. Thursday night's winner Sam Hafertepe Jr. made a valiant effort to reel in the leader late in the race, but would come up short in the non-stop event at the world famous Knoxville Raceway.

Reutzel had a put a full straightaway on the field by the time that Hafertepe, who had started seventh, slipped past pole-sitter Lynton Jeffrey with fourteen laps remaining. Now running second, Sam would slowly cut into the lead until a big run off of turn two while Reutzel was negotiating traffic would get the crowd's attention with just five laps remaining. You could see several fans, at least in my section, trying to coax Hafertepe closer and closer as the final laps wound down and after taking the white flag he would charge deep into turn one nearly pulling even with Reutzel, but when his challenger drifted off the bottom Aaron would drive away down the back stretch and through the final two turns to take the victory.

In addition to the winner's purse of $15,000, Reutzel will collect another fifteen grand in lap money making it a $30,000 night, one of the richest events that you will find in 360 c.i Sprint Car racing. Hafertepe would take the runner-up honors while the race for third was the one to watch as Jeffrey and Clint Garner would go wheel-to-wheel for several laps. At the checkers it would be Garner taking the position ahead of Jeffrey while Terry McCarl passed Brian Brown in the closing laps to finish fifth.

Cory Eliason started twelfth and finished seventh, Ayrton Gennetten took eighth with the Rookie of the Nationals, seventeen-year-old Chase Randall coming from eighteenth to ninth. The defending 360 Nationals champion Gio Scelzi completed the top ten while the defending 410 Knoxville Nationals Champion Kyle Larson finished eleventh after starting from the outside of the eighth row. 

The 2022 360 Knoxville Nationals Champion is Aaron Reutzel - Barry Johnson photo

The Rest of the Story.....With a temperature nearing one hundred degrees, the schedule for the evening was pushed back an hour and racing would start as the sun was setting. The eight lap E-Main was a single file affair on a green race track with Texan Jett Carney taking the win......My friend, photographer and Positively Racing colleague Barry Johnson had the perfect description for the D-Main saying "the 'D' is for destruction" as a couple of grinding crashes would happen before a lap could be scored. The first one would see the seventh starting Seth Brahmer get sideways on the front stretch sending the rest of the field scrambling, but coming from the twelfth row Ryan Bowers could not see him in time and drilled Brahmer at full throttle. Thankfully the momentum of the spin had lifted the front end of Brahmer's car just before impact, but that would send Seth upside down into the catch fence just before the flagstand. There was a sigh of relief when both drivers climbed out of their mangled rides uninjured......After ten minutes of fence repair the second try at a start would see the third starting Rusty Hickman jerk the car sideways to keep from hitting Collin Moyle going into turn one and the result was a six car pileup that included Hickman, Sam Henderson, Tony Rost, Clayton Christensen, Ben Brown and Kelly Miller. Again it was great to see all drivers emerge the junk pile unscathed.....Once the race was able to get past the first turn, it would stay green for ten laps with Californian Colby Copeland winning from the pole position. Nine cars would make the transfer to the C-Main with Luke Verardi holding off Ryan Timms at the checkers to take that last qualifying position in an event that took forty-three minutes to complete.....Four cars would make the move from the C to the B and the top four, Kaleb Johnson, Cam Martin, McKenna Hasse and Kyle Reinhardt would quickly separate themselves from the rest of the field. With no cautions to slow the field, the leaders would get into traffic during the closing laps and that would allow Brooke Tatnell to close quickly on Hasse who was now on the bubble. As the white flag waved it looked like Tatnell was going to have a run on McKenna, but when Jake Bubak surprised him with a big slider in turns one and two, the crossover would take away Tatnell's momentum allowing McKenna to ease to that final transfer spot.......The B-Main would also go non-stop with eighteen laps to determine the final four starters in the Championship race. Pole-sitter Tyler Courtney would take the win with Parker Price-Miller making the big move from eighth to finish second. Young Brady Forbrook had an impressive weekend as he took the third spot and fourth went to Indiana's Cole Thomas. I was following the progress of Anthony Macri who found some speed mid-race and then quickly came from thirteenth up to sixth. "The Concrete Kid" would run out of laps in this one, but keep your eye on him next week during the 410 Nationals.

The chance of rain has been greatly reduced for Sunday in Knoxville so look for a big field of 410's for the 11th Annual Capitani Classic. The Pro Sprint division is also on the schedule with hot laps to get underway somewhere in the vicinity of 7 p.m. Then on Monday night the action moves over to the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa for the 27th Annual Sage Fruit Front Row Challenge. 

Flag-to-Flag From Third, Brian Brown Dominates Friday Qualifier At Knoxville

Christopher Thram and defending ASCS National Tour champion Blake Hahn made up the front row for Friday night's twenty lap main event at the Knoxville Raceway, but they were no match for the driver that was lined up third on the twenty-four car starting grid. With a great start as the green flag waved, Brian Brown swung to the outside entering turn one and then rode the cushion to the lead on the opening lap, a lead that he would not relinquish on his way to victory in the second of two qualifying nights for the 32nd 360 Knoxville Nationals presented by Great Southern Bank.

Brian Brown at speed - Barry Johnson photo

A three car tangle involving Kaleb Johnson, Davey Heskin and Kelby Watt produced a red flag with seven laps completed when Heskin went for a tumble. And after climbing from the car uninjured Davey would go and exchange greetings with Ian Madsen whom he felt had a part in the accident. The race stoppage would bring the field back to Brown who had opened up a full straightaway advantage and on the restart Thram would make a run for the lead hugging the low line.

Terry McCarl - Barry Johnson photo

It would take Brown a couple of laps to shrug off that challenge and by the time that Terry McCarl was able to finally clear Thram for second, the six remaining laps were nowhere near enough to reel in Brown who was on his way to victory in a dominating performance. The twelve time All Iowa Points champion McCarl was solid in second with Lynton Jeffrey making a late charge up to third, and coupled with his results earlier in the evening, that would make the native Australian the pole-sitter for Saturday night's finale.

Thram was the night's upstart posting one of his best finishes ever here at Knoxville in fourth with another of Knoxville's long-time regulars in the 360 class, Clint Garner coming home fifth. Wayne Johnson who is racing with back pain from a crash about a month ago was battling McCarl for third during the early stages of the race before fading to sixth while Cole Thomas held off Kyle Larson on the final lap to finish seventh. Larson, who had to win the B-Main to get qualified, had charged from twenty-first to tenth in the first seven laps, but could only pick up two more positions before the checkers. Tasker Phillips and Blake Hahn would fill out the top ten.

The Rest of the Story.....I can't think of another event where the two laps of qualifying at the start of the night are so important to the outcome than they are here at both the 360 and 410 Nationals and, since more often than not the speed of the track falls off quickly when the sun is still out, that makes the pill draw for the qualifying order almost equally as important. On this night the first two cars out were Kelby Watt and Dylan Westbrook. Watt's best lap was a 16.422 and it would stand up to be the best of all fifty-five cars that took time. Westbrook's best lap was a 16.835, good enough for sixteenth in the final rundown, however when he drove straight to his trailer rather than going directly to the scales, Westbrook's time was disqualified and his 360 Nationals essentially over. The Canadian could have started at the back of the C-Main, but chose to load it up for the night instead.....The surprise quick timer Watt backed it up by coming from sixth to finish third in the opening heat race where young Chase Moran from Fultonville, New York, drove straight into the turn one fence on the opening lap and then went end over end two or three times. Still hoping to make his first competitive lap at the famous Knoxville Raceway, word is that Moran's crew is searching for a chassis so that he can try it again on Saturday night......In the second heat young Cam Martin was looking good after returning from a shoulder injury that has kept him on the sidelines for the past two months and would have likely taken the win if not for a caution with two laps remaining when the third running Daryn Pittman had a motor let go. Both Tasker Phillips and Terry McCarl would get past Martin on the restart while Jake Bubak would take advantage of Pittman's misfortune to become the only driver from outside of the six-car invert to transfer out of a heat race this week.....Austin Miller would be the only driver to win a heat from the pole position tonight, but all eyes here in heat three were on Kyle Larson who had started fifth. With the eighth fastest time on the night, and an eight car invert in the feature, a top four finish here would have likely landed the versatile superstar on the front row of tonight's main event, but a slow start found him still in fifth at the midway point of this eight lap distance. Carson McCarl was about ten car lengths ahead of him and while Larson was able to show him a nose diving into turn one, he could not make it stick in two as Carson would again pull away down the back stretch. At the checkers the youngest McCarl still had five car lengths on Larson who now have to run the B-Main, and his hopes to start up front in the feature now in the wind......This is another example of what I love about the Knoxville Nationals format, and the reason why "The Rest of the Story" is even longer than the lead, is that little things that happen through the night have such a big impact on how the end plays out. One small change and the faces in victory lane would be completely different!......I'd have to see a replay in order to describe it accurately, but drivers were four wide for second in turn one on the opening lap of the fourth heat race. This race would go a long way to building Lynton Jeffrey's top point total as he would come from the sixth starting spot to take the win. Brian Brown came from fifth to second while Harli White held down third. A star in the 360's in California, Justin Sanders driving the Swindell Speedlab #39 would hold off Brady Bacon for the final transfer position.....On of my long time favorites, Bobby Mincer from Burlington secured a 360 c.i. engine to compete this week and after posting the 25th best time on his first lap, that motor went south on the second lap so he would give up his second starting spot in the fifth and final heat. This is a huge advantage for the drivers scheduled to start fourth and sixth in the lineup as they would now slide up a row for the start. In my opinion this is one of the flaws in the Nationals' race procedure as those two drivers would now be starting ahead of drivers that they had actually outqualified. With the points being such a huge determining factor it would make more sense to cross the field over where the driver originally slated to start third now moves to second, the driver scheduled to start fourth moves to the inside of row two and so on, and so on. It would be Tyler Courtney that would move to the front row and he and Ian Madsen would wage a thrilling battle for the lead over the first four laps. Madsen would finally ease away and that would allow our attention to go back to a great three car battle for the final two transfer positions featuring Cole Thomas, Blake Hahn and young Brady Forbrook. When Thomas stumbled on the cushion in turn four with two laps to go, Forbrook had to check up to keep from hitting him and that would leave Guy Forbrook's son out of a transfer position after clocking in fifth fastest earlier in the evening. By the way, after setting that fast lap, infield announcer Wade Aunger reported that Forbrook's car had weighed in exactly at the 1,500 pound minimum......The 2007 IMCA Modified Harris Clash champion here at the Knoxville Raceway, Spencer, Iowa's Clayton Christensen would win the C-Main......Kyle Larson would start the B-Main from third and blow past the front row of Ryan Roberts and Forbrook on his way to a convincing victory. Brady Bacon charged from sixth to second while Roberts held down third. Veteran driver Jeff Swindell was running fourth in the final laps, but Forbrook was not about to come up one spot short of making the A-Main again as he put a tight slider on Swindell in turn three coming to the white flag. Jeff would express his opinion of the move on the cool down lap, but it had to be just as much the frustration of missing out on the final transfer spot in the closing laps that had him a little hot under the collar......One of the storylines to follow this week has been the performance of teenage sensation Ryan Timms. At fifteen, the Oklahoma driver who has won eleven times already here in 2022 had to get an exemption from the insurance company in order to compete here at Knoxville and made his first appearance here last week with a disappointing ninth-place run in the B-Main. With a night under his belt at Knoxville the team was looking for bigger things on this night, but a late pill draw and using a line that nobody else had been running left the youngster mired in 48th on the qualifying chart. If you kept your eye on him in the third heat race you could see the potential as he quickly moved to sixth and was actually closing in on Kyle Larson mid-race before Larson had to go elbows up to try to get to a qualifying spot. Despite the run from tenth to sixth, his slow qualifying effort would bite him again as the B-Main is not lined up by heat race finishing position, but instead it reverts to your qualifying time and that would start him in the tenth row of the B-Main. Timms would advance several positions before slowing and pulling to the infield mid-race. Knoxville can be a humbling experience, let's see how the kid does on Monday at Osky's Front Row Challenge. 

Ryan Timms - Barry Johnson photo

With the points all tallied up from both night's of qualifying, here is how tonight's 30-lap Championship feature will lineup:

Lynton Jeffrey - Aaron Reutzel

Clint Garner - Terry McCarl

Brian Brown - Ayrton Gennetten

Sam Hafertepe Jr. - Gio Scelzi

Christopher Thram - Wayne Johnson

Thomas Kennedy - Cory Eliason

Garet Williamson - Justin Henderson

Tasker Phillips - Kyle Larson

Blake Hahn - Chase Randall

Matt Juhl - Kelby Way

Plus four B-Main transfers

Saturday night's pole-sitter Lynton Jeffrey - Barry Johnson photo

Yes, it will be a hot one today and that is why the Knoxville Raceway has pushed back the schedule by one hour with hot laps now getting underway at 7:45. That means the sun will be down when we are ready to go racing so head on out to the Sprint Car Capital of the World for what should be an entertaining finale to the 360 Knoxville Nationals!