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!