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!