There are a few good storylines from Thursday's show and let's start with Carson Macedo who, in his last appearance here at Knoxville in June, left in an ambulance after a grinding and fiery crash. He raced in a great deal of pain the following week at Beaver Dam and during his post race comments tonight he stated that he was finally feeling better. The special wrap for the Nationals on his Jason Johnson Racing #41 even included flames as a tribute to the Fire and Safety Team here at the Knoxville Raceway who prevented a more critical outcome.
Carson would start tonight's twenty-five lap feature from fourth and would settle in behind leaders Anthony Macri and Garret Williamson early. A bit of contact would take place when Macedo picked off Williamson for second. A red flag would fly when Daryn Pittman flipped in turn three after losing a left rear wheel on lap fifteen and on the restart Macedo would take the lead from Macri in turns one and two only to have the caution wave again after lap sixteen was scored when Ian Madsen had spun in turn four and collected the start cone.
As the next lap was being scored Macri would exit turn four so low that he would kick that same cone out onto the race track causing another caution and, since there would be no more "original starts" on this night, the officials that retrieved the cone mercifully took it back into the infield with them.
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| Carson Macedo - Barry Johnson photo |
With Macedo now out front we will loop in two more storylines, the first being that of Kyle Larson. After starting the race from fifth, Larson actually dropped a spot or two early, then passed a couple of cars before the tenth starting Spencer Bayston went charging by him during those first fifteen laps of green flag action. Kyle was in the top five before Pittman's red and the cone involved stoppages, and with each restart he would seem to gain a position. When Kyle's brother-in-law and former Nationals Champion Brad Sweet took a hard tumble in turn one after blowing a right rear tire with four laps remaining he was sitting in third and that looked like where he would end up, but as Macedo was exiting turn four to come to the checkers, Jamie Veal got upside in turn two leaving us with one last restart.
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| Kyle Larson (57) works to the inside of Anthony Macri - Barry Johnson photo |
Larson would again take advantage of a race stoppage to slip by Bayston on the final lap to take second as Macedo scored the win. Bayston would finish in third and with his point total for the night landing him in thirteenth, he revealed in the post-race press conference that this would be the first time that he has ever qualified for the A-Main at the Nationals. And a quick note about the winner, Carson Macedo. Announcer Johnny Gibson shared that his best ever finish at the Knoxville Nationals was a ninth place run.
Let's loop in that third big storyline of the night now with another back-to-front run by Rico Abreu. As the second car out to qualify it was no surprise that Rico would set quick time and gather the 200 points that goes with it, but when he came up one spot short of transferring to tonight's A-Main from the first heat race he was forced to run the B-Main. Abreu would walk away from the field in that one to start from the inside of row eleven in the feature knowing that, if he could make a run toward the front that the pole position for the Championship race was not out of reach.
Rico would not pass a bunch of cars early, in fact I believe that he was about fourteenth when the red flag flew for Pittman, and he was still in thirteenth after the second cone caution, but the charge would start from there. He would would pick up seven spots in the four laps prior to Sweet's crash and he would move to fifth over the final four laps to put him side-by-side on the front row with the friend that he has grown up racing with in Saturday night's Championship race.
No doubt about it, Rico has put on a show and has been lightning fast here the past two nights that he has raced here at Knoxville. But if not for the late race incidents and restarts he would have finished eighth instead of third in the 360 Nationals and might not have even cracked the top ten on this night. Before you accuse me of being a wet blanket, know that it is going to make a big difference that he will be starting up front on Saturday and Rico Abreu is my pre-race favorite to secure his first Knoxville Nationals victory.
After leading the first fifteen laps Macri slipped to fourth at the checkers. Austin McCarl was flying around the cushion during the first fifteen laps and had come from eleventh to fourth, but he would drop two spots to sixth after all of the restarts. Logan Schuchart had also made an appearance in the top five, but would fall to seventh at the checkers, Dusty Zomer locked himself into Saturday's finale with his eighth place finish, Buddy Kofoid came from twenty-second to ninth and Brock Zearfoss was tenth.
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| Spencer Bayston - Barry Johnson photo |
David Gravel appears to be the hands down favorite for tonight's "Hard Knox" program as four more drivers will race their way into the title race on Saturday. .JPG)
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Points courtesy of KnoxvilleRaceway.com
A main Cars
1 57 Kyle Larson 482
2 24 Rico Abreu 480
3 15 Donny Schatz 479
4 1S Logan Schuchart 479
5 41 Carson Macedo 474
6 39 Hunter Schuerenberg 462
7 55 Kerry Madsen 459
8 83JR Buddy Kofoid 459
9 18 Gio Scelzi 458
10 14 Corey Day 458
11 4 Ian Madsen 455
12 3J Dusty Zomer 453
13 5 Spencer Bayston 451
14 2KS Chase Randall 449
15 7BC Anthony Macri 449
16 49 Brad Sweet 449
B main cars
17 13 Justin Peck 449
18 83 James McFadden 447
19 9 Kasey Kahne 446
20 88 Austin McCarl 443
21 21 Brian Brown 439
22 71 Shane Stewart 439
23 6G Garet Williamson 438
24 7TAZ Tasker Phillips 437
25 7W Dustin Selvage 435
26 17 Sheldon Haudenschild 434
“Drivers for Hard Knox Night”
27 42 Sye Lynch 434
28 5X Daryn Pittman 432
29 52 Blake Hahn 429
30 3Z Brock Zearfoss 429
31 4W Jamie Ball 416
32 7TW Brandon Wimmer 415
33 17B Bill Balog 414
34 10L Scott Bogucki 414
35 16A Colby Copeland 412
36 19 Brent Marks 412
37 18T Tanner Holmes 411
38 12X Ayrton Gennetten 410
39 21H Brady Bacon 408
40 4CW Chris Windom 408
41 17AU Jamie Veal 404
42 11 Cory Eliason 404
43 21T Cole Macedo 403
44 2 David Gravel 403
45 25 Lachlan McHugh 401
46 1X Jake Bubak 401
47 22 Riley Goodno 399
48 1 Justin Henderson 394
49 35 Zach Hampton 394
50 101 Kalib Henry 392
51 4J Kevin Thomas Jr. 392
52 39M Justin Sanders 392
53 3P Sawyer Phillips 391
54 7S Robbie Price 382
55 83T Tanner Carrick 382
56 26 Zeb Wise 381
57 1M Don Droud Jr. 380
58 27 Carson McCarl 380
59 50YR JJ Hickle 379
60 3 Tim Kaeding 378
61 2K Lynton Jeffrey 377
62 9P Parker Price-Miller 373
63 16 Brooke Tatnell 370
64 5T Ryan Timms 367
65 17W Shane Golobic 367
66 20 AJ Moeller 364
67 15H Sam Hafertepe Jr. 361
68 22K Kaleb Johnson 358
69 49X Tim Shaffer 357
70 24T Christopher Thram 350
71 1K Kelby Watt 345
72 1C Brenham Crouch 344
73 55T McKenna Haase 340
74 1A Chase Dietz 340
75 11N Harli White 339
76 20G Noah Gass 335
77 8 Aaron Reutzel 333
78 44P Skylar Prochaska 332
79 65 Jordan Goldesberry 328
80 91 Kyle Reinhardt 327
81 95 Matt Covington 315
82 70 Kraig Kinser 315
83 6B Clint Garner 310
84 5C Dylan Cisney 306
85 6 Bill Rose 302
86 17X Terry McCarl 300
87 18R Ryan Roberts 300
88 24H Kade Higday 294
89 35B Austin Bishop 291
90 4K2W Matt Wasmund 286
91 56 Joe Simbro 273
92 13JT Mark Dobmeier 272
93 45 Rusty Hickman 271
94 44 Chris Martin 270
95 G5 Gage Pulkrabek 270
96 2M Davey Heskin 269
97 2KK Kevin Ingle 267
98 121 RJ Johnson 265
99 6X Frank Rodgers III 263
100 15JR Cole Mincer 255
101 37 Ayden Gatewood 238
102 W19 Trent Pigdon 236
103 9H Landon Hansen 235
104 105 Cody Ihlen 223
105 78 Bill Wagner 220
106 10V Cap Henry 209
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