Knoxville's 360 Nationals Decided By Inches In A Wheel Banging Finish

Aaron Reutzel was just two corners away from taking his second straight 360 Knoxville Nationals Championship Saturday night at the world famous Knoxville Raceway, but a two car crash behind him in turn two caused a red flag situation. With the rules calling for a two lap "green, white, checkers" finish the race was back in doubt and the large crowd was treated to an amazing finish that they will be buzzing about for days to come.

Let's start this story with the B-Main event where the top four finishers would complete the twenty-four car field for the championship feature. Anthony Macri subbing for an injured Tyler Courtney in the #7BC would start next to his father's #39, now with Justin Sanders at the wheel, from the front row and it would be Macri getting the advantage on the opening lap. Christopher Thram would spin in turn two after that first lap and it didn't look good for Rico Abreu who had started seventh, but had slipped to tenth after that first half-mile. 

Rico's luck would change though following the restart and he would start gaining positions one by one in this eighteen lap prelim. As the laps clicked away, Abreu had moved to fifth and when he sailed by Brady Bacon with four laps to go, Rico was now in the show finishing fourth behind Macri, Austin McCarl and Sanders and they would be the final four starters in the night's headliner.

You will see why I had to give you this context soon.

During the break the race track would be groomed and prepped to perfection and soon we were lined up for thirty laps of racing with the two favorites, Aaron Reutzel and Brian Brown starting from the front row. Reutzel would take the lead on the opening lap and Brown was able to stay close, but only for the first two circuits before Aaron started to drive away. Friday's qualifying night winner Parker Price-Miller was running third and he would stay within ten car lengths of Brown as the leader put more and more distance on his challengers.

Brian Brown - Barry Johnson photo

The first few lapped cars did not present a challenge to Reutzel who was flying around the cushion on both ends, but as he close in on Jamie Ball and Justin Sanders who were racing for position, the leader's momentum was broken when Sanders checked up in front of him in turn two. Brown had been a full straightaway back and this would allow him to cut that margin in half, but after recovering from the slip Reutzel was right back up to speed and that half straightaway lead with just six laps remaining seemed to be insurmountable.

The only caution of the race would wave with four laps remaining for two drivers who were having issues at opposite ends of the speedway. Sanders had slowed with magneto issues for the second night in and when he couldn't get off the high line exiting turn two he slowed up next to the guardrail while limping down the back stretch. At the same time young Tanner Holmes, who had started tenth and who was battling Zeb Wise for fifth also stopped on the apron of turn one with apparent engine problems.

With lapped traffic no longer a factor this one looed like it would be Reutzel's for the final four laps and a check of the realignment found Rico Abreu in tenth after having started last in twenty-fourth. With the wave of the green Reutzel warded off a run from Brown and was again pulling away from the field. This restart was not a good one for Garret Williamson though as he had lined up third only to lose that position back to Price-Miller in turns one and two with Ryan Timm's also slipping by the young driver from central Missouri. As the white flag waved Reutzel had this race well in hand and was just about to reach turn three for one last time when Kaleb Johnson and Williamson would make contact in turn two.

Williamson's car would flip high in the air and into the catch fence while Johnson would go for a
tumble as well. And with the red flag coming out Reutzel would come to a stop just under the stand where he would have seen the checkers if not for the crash. The wait was extended as the track crew made repairs to the catch fence and your leader now had to come up with his plan to try to hold off one of the best drivers ever to race here at Knoxville. 

Later Brown would note that he had seen Reutzel's crew chief giving him signals as to where he should go on the restart, but that it would have been what he expected from the leader anyway as the green flag waved on the two lap dash for the checkers. Oh yes, and did I mention that with both Johnson and Williamson out of the mix that Rico was now up to sixth?

Reutzel would enter turn one in the middle to protect against a slider from Brown and as they raced into turns three and four it was hard to concentrate on the leaders because Rico was making an amazing run down the back stretch to get to third with the white flag about to wave. Brown would have a good run off the bottom of turn four and was ready to throw a slider at the leader, but when Reuztel again entered turn one in the middle, Brian went straight to the cushion and pulled even with Aaron down the back stretch.

The two would charge into turn three side-by-side and when Reutzel tried to squeeze Brown up the race track, Brian turned to the left, dropped the nose and "came down the hill" now pulling even with Aaron as they exited turn four. All of this with Abreu closing fast and hoping for an opening to steal the win at the checkers. 

It was now a drag race to the checkers with Brown on the inside and as Reutzel tried to squeeze him down the track they banged wheels with neither one lifting as they raced under the checkers and thank goodness for electronic scoring as this one would have likely been too close to call with the naked eye. When the running order changed on the scoreboard the crowd went nuts as Brian Brown would take the victory by just two one-hundredths of a second over Reutzel with Rico right behind them in third........after starting last!

What a finish! 

Brown was ecstatic and Reuztel was understandably dejected, but they showed a great deal of respect for each other in their post-race comments with Brown saying that Reuztel is the smartest driver that you will ever compete against, while Aaron simply stated that Brian is the best there is at this time here at Knoxville. 

Rico Abreu started his night in the B-Main - Barry Johnson photo

Abreu, who obviously struggled on his qualifying night Thursday to land him seventh in tonight's B-Main, said that the reason why he was even here this week was to get more laps at Knoxville and that this will prepare him better for the 410 Nationals coming up here next week. As a former winner of the World of Outlaw's Ironman 55 in Pevely, Missouri, this same weekend, it was a bit of a surprise to see Rico here and in fact since this was his first time competing in this event he would officially claim the title of "Rookie of the 360 Nationals". By the way, if you get a chance to watch the highlights of tonight's Ironman, make sure that you do so.

Parker Price-Miller and Ryan Timms would complete the top five. Zeb Wise would finish sixth, Chase Randall charged from seventeenth to seventh, Sam Hafertepe Jr. was eighth, Terry McCarl was ninth and tenth went to Kerry Madsen.

The C-Main winner was Justin Henderson followed by Chris Martin while Blake Hahn made a big run from fifteenth to third. The D-Main was won by veteran driver Calvin Landis while the E-Main was captured by Missouri's Tyler Blank.

A line of strong storms will soon roll through Knoxville here at 1 a.m. on Sunday and while more wet weather is in the forecast, all hopes are that the Capitani Classic will be able to run here on Sunday night. Then the big show takes the green on Wednesday for the four night run of the 62nd NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's. Hope to see you there!

Barry Johnson photo