 |
| Giovanni Scelzi sporting a new wrap takes the Wednesday win - Barry Johnson photo |
Allen, who did not compete in the 2023 Nationals while taking a break from the sport, appeared to be well on his way to repeating his qualifying night victory from two years ago after starting from the pole position in the twenty-five lap headliner and then driving away from the talented field. Just as Allen was approaching traffic on lap nine, Jamie Ball slowed on the back stretch to produce the only caution in the race bringing the field back to the push bar of the leader for the restart.
As the green flag waved, Allen again pulled away from his competition as Chase Randall and Justin Peck waged a battle for second. Behind them a sixth starting Giovanni Scelzi was showing some speed and by the time he slipped into the second spot with eight laps remaining, Allen had built up a full straightaway advantage. Lapped traffic would now come into play though and when Allen found one of the back markers in his preferred lower line, it broke his momentum and Scelzi quickly erased the gap.
 |
| Jacob Allen was fishing the bottom - Barry Johnson photo |
Scelzi's first bid for the lead fell short as Allen was able to ward him off, but as they raced down the front stretch on lap twenty-two Scelzi squeezed between Allen and the slower car of Matt Juhl to take the lead in a daring move that thrilled the large opening night crowd. Jacob was able to make one more run at Gio in the closing laps, but he could not get back to the front as Scelzi scored the win. Allen was close behind in second, Justin Peck followed in for third, Chase Randall slipped to fourth and Brent Marks filled out the top five. Scott Bogucki finished sixth ahead of Brock Zearfoss who had started eleventh. Aaron Reutzel advanced five spots to finish eighth, Corey Day was ninth and B-Main winner Anthony Macri was the Hard Charger of the race taking tenth after starting from the eleventh row.
 |
| Barry Johnson photo |
It was another one of those nights when you wanted to draw a low number for the qualifying order as the first car out to qualify, Matt Juhl set quick time and collecting the 200 points that comes along with it. Anthony Macri, the 11th car to hit the track, qualified second quick and then you had to go back to seventh in the qualifying order to find a driver outside of the first eleven to trip the clock and that was an impressive run by Sheldon Haudenschild who was the 35th driver in the fifty-two car field out to qualify. Sheldon then started seventh and finished fourth to transfer out of the second heat landing him on the outside of the fourth row as the top point man who had made the transfer. He would then fade to twelfth in the feature.
The first three heat races were relatively uneventful after positions were determined on the opening lap, but the action picked up in heat four after Kalib Henry's grinding crash in turn one that he walked away from "a bit beat up" as he would describe during his interview. The red flag was a break for young Corey Day who had jumped the cushion in turn three the lap before losing a lot of ground on the fourth place car of Tim Shaffer. With the restart Day was able to drop the winner of the 50th Nationals out of the final transfer position and Aaron Reutzel picked up an extra three points slipping by John Carney II for the win.
The fifth and final heat got off to an interesting start when pole-sitter Lance Moss drove up in front of fellow front row starter Brandon Wimmer with the contact skewing the nose wing on Wimmer's car to the right. Caution waved a few laps later when Moss slowed in a cloud of smoke and following the restart you had a battle for the lead with Chase Randall passing Wimmer late for the victory while the race for fourth got interesting real fast when Tanner Holmes made a run at Carson McCarl. They would exit turn four side-by-side with McCarl holding on by inches to make the show. Holmes would later finish seventh in the B-Main to end his evening.
With several of the top qualifiers failing to transfer out of their heat races, this would setup a very entertaining B-Main where the final four starters for the night's A-Main would be determined. Front row starters Anthony Macri and Matt Juhl would finish one-two, but the three car battle for the final two transfers would bring the crowd to their feet as the checkers waved. Coming from the tenth starting spot, Buddy Kofoid was the fastest car on the track and he would get to fourth by mid-race. However, his effort to get to third would eventually cost him a spot in the main event. With two laps remaining Kofoid would drive by Garet Williamson to take third and when Williamson went from high to low in turns three and four to come back at Buddy, he would pinch off a big run from David Gravel who was still on the outside looking in. Williamson was able to slide up in front of Kofoid in turn two to get back to third and when Buddy left the door open on the bottom of turns three and four on the final lap, the current World of Outlaws point leader Gravel came charging through to steal the last transfer at the checkers.
The driver who ranks second in the Outlaw points and eleven-time Knoxville Nationals champion Donny Schatz had a night that was well below his standards as he qualified 38th, then won his heat from the pole to start from 19th in the feature. Early in the feature Schatz and Gravel would make contact in turn three and after making a save from spinning, Schatz would have been one of the first cars to be lapped if not for that lap nine caution. Donny would finish 18th in the main event so he will be back on Friday to get a second chance to lock in to Saturday's show.
 |
| Donny Schatz makes the save after contact with David Gravel - Barry Johnson photo |
Scelzi would be the top point scorer on Wednesday with a relatively low total of 471 so while the top eight in the night one standings provided below courtesy of KnoxvilleRaceway.com would normally be "locked in" for Saturday's A-Main, that might not be the case this year for drivers such as Chase Randall and Jacob Allen.
Thursday's qualifying night action will feature defending Nationals champion Kyle Larson who is red hot coming in after sweeping the weekend at I-55 and then taking a thrilling win over Corey Day at Oskaloosa's Front Row Challenge on Monday. And keep your eye on Sunday's Capitani Classic winner Rico Abreu as well.
Wednesday Points
1 18 Giovanni Scelzi 471
2 39M Anthony Macri 465
3 10 Scott Bogucki 460
4 14 Corey Day 459
5 19 Brent Marks 458
6 17 Sheldon Haudenschild 457
7 2KS Chase Randall 456
8 1A Jacob Allen 453
9 13 Justin Peck 450
10 09 Matt Juhl 444
11 2 David Gravel 443
12 23 Garet Williamson 443
13 3Z Brock Zearfoss 435
14 87 Aaron Reutzel 430
15 9 Kasey Kahne 424
16 55 Kerry Madsen 424
17 18T Tanner Holmes 418
18 27 Carson McCarl 417
19 9P Parker Price Miller 413
20 48 Danny Dietrich 407
21 14J Jack Dover 401
22 83JR Michael Kofoid 400
23 15H Sam Hafertepe Jr 398
24 22 Riley Goodno 397
25 15 Donny Schatz 392
26 52 Blake Hahn 390
27 4W Jamie Ball 388
28 2X Lynton Jeffrey 385
29 6B Brandon Wimmer 383
30 3P Sawyer Phillips 382
31 J2 John Carney II 377
32 1M Don Droud Jr 376
33 21T Cole Macedo 376
34 24T Christopher Thram 358
35 49X Tim Shaffer 346
36 23L Jimmy Light 344
37 55T McKenna Haase 343
38 70 Kraig Kinser 337
39 101 Kalib Henry 332
40 45X Jace Park 313
41 44 Chris Martin 310
42 6W Dustin Selvage 307
43 99 Skylar Gee 301
44 17GP Cale Thomas 297
45 19H Joel Myers 290
46 15JR Cole Mincer 278
47 23M Lance Moss 275
48 10V Brian Paulus 268
49 G5 Gage Pulkrabek 267
50 11N Kasey Jedrzejek 255
51 2K Kevin Ingle 236
52 1 Sammy Swindell 229
No comments:
Post a Comment