All Iowa Points Update, "Specials Season" Ahead

With most of the tracks having completed their regular season and with the Fall specials season ahead, let's take a quick look at where the All Iowa Points stand in all nine divisions.

Full Throttle Photography

The Late Model race appears to be down to two contenders who are both seeking their first All Iowa Points title with division rookie Logan Veloz holding a slim two point advantage over Zach Zeitner. Veloz would have likely been further ahead had his home track, the East Moline Speedway, not closed down after it's July 27th show while Zeitner is again trying to become only the second Late Model champion in fifty-nine years of the All Iowa Points to be based west of Interstate 35 joining Omaha's Joe Kosiski who secured the title in 1992. Zach also made a run at a championship in 2022 when he finished third behind Justin Kay and Matt Ryan. Kale Kosiski will post his best finish in the standings ever as he currently ranks third, another Late Model rookie and three-time Stock Car champion Dallon Murty is fourth while C.J. Horn and three-time Late Model champion Matt Ryan are tied for fifth. 

All Iowa Points

Late Model

Pos. Driver Hometown Points

1 . Logan Veloz Colona IL 91

2 . Zach Zeitner Bellevue NE 89

3 . Kale Kosiski Ralston NE 64

4 . Dallon Murty Chelsea 61

5 . C.J. Horn Cedar Rapids 59

6 . Matt Ryan Davenport 59

7 . Curtis Glover Knoxville 53

8 . Denny Woodworth Mendon IL 52

9 . Bobby Pierce Oakwood IL 48

10 . Ty Webster Monroe WI 47

Richard Keech photo

In our end of May update Jeremy Mills ranked fourth in the All Iowa Points Modified standings and he now heads into the Fall with a nine point advantage over Spencer Diercks as he looks to add to his 2009 title. Both Mills and Diercks are in hot pursuit of the IMCA Modified National title currently trailing Michigan's Jeff Reay by three and four points respectively with Diercks hitting the road a couple of times recently, first going head-to-head with Reay at the I-96 Speedway in Lake Odessa, Michigan, on August 1st where he finished third to Reay's victory and then on August 13th he scored a win in Wilmot, Wisconsin. Two-time AIP Limited Modified champion Logan Anderson is still in the hunt in third, the 2008 Modified champion Todd Shute is fourth and Jed Freiburger has recently climbed into the top five dropping early season point leader Izac Mallicoat to sixth. 

All Iowa Points

Modified

Pos. Driver Hometown Points

1 . Jeremy Mills Clear Lake 117

2 . Spencer Diercks Davenport 108

3 . Logan Anderson Eddyville 96

4 . Todd Shute Des Moines 88

5 . Jed Freiburger Dubuque 82

6 . Izac Mallicoat Boone 79

7 . Chris Zogg New Liberty 74

8 . Jeff Larson Freeport IL 72

9 . Shawn Harker Nebraska City NE 65

10 . Cayden Carter Oskaloosa 64

The runner-up the last two years to Derek Green and Mike Nichols, John Oliver Jr. now appears to be headed to his second All Iowa Points Stock Car title as he holds thirty point advantage over Kelly Shryock. This would be Oliver's second AIP championship, his first coming in 2018, while Shryock is seeking his first Stock Car championship to add to three Modified state titles. Former Hobby Stock champ Dustin Griffiths sits in third, Mike Albertson rides in fourth while Myles Michehl now joins the top five. 

All Iowa Points

Stock Car

Pos. Driver Hometown Points

1 . John Oliver Jr. Danville 171

2 . Kelly Shryock Fertile 141

3 . Dustin Griffiths Ottumwa 137

4 . Mike Albertsen Audubon 120

5 . Myles Michehl Fort Dodge 97

6 . Justin Luinenburg Reading MN 83

7 . Kodey Miles Bernard 75

8 . Mitch Hovden Decorah 70

9 . Tony Olson Cedar Rapids 66

10 . Maguire DeJong Montezuma 64

Purdy Photography

With 164 points already on the board Dylan VanWyk is having a phenomenal season and that total alone would normally win an All Iowa Points championship. However, his fellow Oskaloosa resident Brayton Carter is having a record breaking season already scoring thirty-four feature wins and surpassing the 200 point mark well before the month of September as he is ready to post his third straight, and fourth overall All Iowa Points championship in the Limited Modified division. Dan Hovden and Jarrett Franzen are also having championship-worthy seasons ranking third and fourth while both two-time champion Tony Olson and former Hobby Stock champion Mike Smith have also eclipsed the 100 point mark. 

All Iowa Points

Limited Modified

Pos. Driver Hometown Points

1 . Brayton Carter Oskaloosa 221

2 . Dylan VanWyk Oskaloosa 164

3 . Dan Hovden Decorah 140

4 . Jarrett Franzen Maquoketa 134

5 . Tony Olson Cedar Rapids 102

6 . Mike Smith Lake City 101

7 . Willy Kirk Sloan 92

8 . Cam Reimers Kelley 87

9 . Kaeden Bronner Austin MN 83

10 . Matt Avila Boone 80

Cody R. Papke photo

Southeast Nebraska driver Dillon Richards continues to set the pace in the Hobby Stock standings as the Beatrice driver looks to go green to checkers in earning his first All Iowa Points championship. He too is also locked into a tight race for the IMCA National title that has taken him into Minnesota to go head-to-head recently with Cory Probst and that has allowed Brandon Nielsen to close the gap to just 16 markers heading into specials season. Joshua Monson remains in chase as well currently in third, the 2020 champion Dustin Gulbrandson ranks fourth and the 2022 Hobby Stock champ Randy Lamar is currently in fifth. 

All Iowa Points

Hobby Stock

Pos. Driver Hometown Points

1 . Dillon Richards Beatrice NE 137

2 . Brandon Nielsen Spencer 121

3 . Joshua Monson Clear Lake 115

4 . Dustin Gulbrandson Hartford SD 108

5 . Randy Lamar Buffalo 93

6 . Daniel Wauters Tipton 85

7 . Blake Luinenburg Reading MN 82

8 . Dayton Ulrich Kiron 80

9 . Jordan Miles Bernard 79

10 . Parker Anderson Welcome MN 78

With three-time and defending Four Cylinder champion Cyle Hawkins stepping away from the sport in 2025 to follow his kids' activities. that leaves the door open four a first time All Iowa Points champion and last year's runner-up Michael Gardner is poised to assume the throne. His lead is just seventeen points though over Cristian Grady while Caine Mahlberg is third just twenty-five markers from the front. Mahlberg had the 2021 title in hand until Hawkins snatched it away in the final event of that season. Jacob Welter and Spencer Roggentien are tied for fourth and both could make a late run to get into contention. 

All Iowa Points

Four Cylinder

Pos. Driver Hometown Points

1 . Michael Gardner Des Moines 113

2 . Cristian Grady Cedar Rapids 96

3 . Caine Mahlberg Dunlap 88

4 . Jacob Welter Farley 83

5 . Spencer Roggentien Amana 83

6 . Jeremy Hills Postville 59

7 . Dustin Forbes Rock Falls IL 58

8 . Gilbert Aldape Sioux City 58

9 . Kiegan Werner Pierce NE 57

10 . Barry Taft Argyle 52

11 . Blake Fineran Norwalk 52

12 . Brooke Osler Milford 52

13 . Levi Volkert Correctionville 52

The Sprint Car specials are few and far between at the All Iowa Points tracks and with the advantage that the current leaders enjoy, the All Iowa Points titles for 2025 may have already been determined in all three divisions.

Barry Johnson photo

In the 410's, the 2025 Knoxville Nationals Champions, eighteen-year-old Ryan Timms has clinched his first All Iowa Points title as he holds a 40 point advantage over Kaleb Johnson. At the end of May Timms' advantage was just five points. so to say that he has had a hot summer is an understatement. Knoxville track champion Austin McCarl, the 2022 All Iowa Points champion, is third, 2017 champion Kerry Madsen is fourth while World of Outlaws regular Buddy Kofoid ranks fifth. 

All Iowa Points

410 Sprint

Pos. Driver Hometown Points

1 . Ryan Timms Oklahoma City OK 85

2 . Kaleb Johnson Sioux Falls SD 45

3 . Austin McCarl Altoona 42

4 . Kerry Madsen St. Marys NSW 38

5 . Buddy Kofoid Penngrove CA 35

6 . Brian Brown Grain Valley MO 33

7 . David Gravel Waterford CT 27

8 . Rico Abreu St. Helena CA 24

9 . Kyle Larson Elk Grove CA 22

10 . Bill Balog North Pole AK 16

11 . Carson Macedo Lemoore CA 16

12 . Jack Dover Springfield NE 16

Earning his first Knoxville Raceway track championship as well as being in contention for the Sprint Invaders point title has propelled Tasker Phillips to the front of the pack in the 360 ranks. His 15-point advantage over twelve-time All Iowa Points champ Terry McCarl is not insurmountable though even though there only just a handful of 360 events remaining on the calendar. Riley Goodno, J.J. Hickle and three-time champion Glint Garner fill out the top five.

All Iowa Points

360 Sprint

Pos. Driver Hometown Points

1 . Tasker Phillips Pleasantville 48

2 . Terry McCarl Altoona 33

3 . Riley Goodno Knoxville 24

4 . J.J. Hickle Quilcene WA 23

5 . Clint Garner Sioux Falls SD 20

6 . Austin McCarl Altoona 18

7 . Sawyer Phillips Pleasantville 14

8 . Tyler Groenendyk Oskaloosa 14

9 . Colton Fisher Mediapolis 13

10 . Josh Schneiderman West Burlington 13

11 . Paul Nienhiser Chapin IL 13

Don Holbrook photo

With his 31 point advantage over the nearest competition you can go ahead and write in Lee Goos Jr. for his fourth straight All Iowa Points crown in the 305 division. Tanner Gebhardt sit in second and he has a twenty-five point bulge over the rest of the pack showing just how these two have dominated this class in their respective areas in 2025. A two-time AIP champion, once in the 360's and once in the 305's, Dusty Ballanger currently ranks third followed by Brandon Bosma and J Kinder. 

All Iowa Points

305 Sprint

Pos. Driver Hometown Points

1 . Lee Goos Jr. Hartford SD 94

2 . Tanner Gebhardt Burlington 63

3 . Dusty Ballenger Harrisburg SD 38

4 . Brandon Bosma Rock Rapids 37

5 . J Kinder Iberia MO 35

6 . Tyler Drueke Eagle NE 29

7 . Adam Gullion Lincoln NE 26

8 . Billy Alley Bennet NE 26

9 . Aydin Lloyd Brandon SD 25

10 . Brandon Horton Waterloo NE 25

As we head into the stretch run of the 2025 racing season don't forget about our Special Events Calendar that can help you plan your next road trip and for a full rundown of the All Iowa Points visit the Points page at Positively Racing.

Finally, sitting just shy of one million page views, your readership of this post should put me over the top of a goal that I have had for many years now. Thank you so much for checking in on the Back Stretch! 

Eighteen-Year-Old Ryan Timms Dominant In Knoxville Nationals Title Run

The proper title to my story from Wednesday night should have been "Youth Prevails, Timms Scores Knoxville Nationals Opener", but perhaps my grammatical mistake of instead saying "And The Youth Will Prevail" was a predictor of what was to come on Saturday night as eighteen-year-old Ryan Timms walked away......no, let's make that ran away from the best Sprint Car drivers in the world to earn his first Knoxville Nationals championship in front of a capacity crowd at the Knoxville Raceway.

Earning the pole position with his Wednesday night run from eighth to first in the twenty-five lap feature, Ryan stated that his goal was to beat fellow front row starter Carson Macedo to turn one and then to hold the lead from there and he did just that. Each time pulling away to more than a four second advantage at times to become the first Knoxville Raceway weekly competitor to beat the touring pros in this event since Doug Wolfgang in the late 1970's. And he did it in a way that we haven't seen here for awhile in that he didn't "slide himself" by entering the turns low and then drift to the cushion in order to take away the line of a challenger. Instead, Timms would stick it to the bottom in turns one and two, and then blast around the cushion in turns three and four, only breaking that pattern to get around lapped cars. In other words, the kid knew he was fast and that there was no need to play "defense".

Ryan Timms - Barry Johnson photo

In fact, his only "challenges" of the race came from a couple of close calls with cars at the back of the pack. Just a lap before the fuel stop Timms made some contact with Spencer Bayston in turn four and then when Buddy Kofoid spun up on the cushion in turn four on lap thirty-two, Bayston would clip him ending his evening and Timms had to take evasive action at the last second to come off the cushion and miss Kofoid.

This will go down as the third straight Knoxville Nationals to be won green to checkers and the crowd cheered this one, because they were also treated to a wild scramble for position just behind Timms in the final laps. The youngster needs to savor that cheering crowd because if/when he wins his fourth or fifth one of these some of those will start turning to boos as they have done in the past for names like Kinser and Schatz. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.....

Kyle Larson who had won those last two Nationals in dominating fashion would have his right rear tire explode with just four laps remaining producing a restart that would give the crowd their money's worth even if it wasn't for the lead. Carson Macedo, Rico Abreu, Logan Schuchart, David Gravel and Corey Day would zig and zag and dive and slide through those final four laps battling for second as Timms again pulled away to victory and at the checkers it would be Abreu taking the runner-up honors after starting from seventh.

Gravel, who won Friday's "Hard Knox" main event to start from twenty-first in the championship was nearly lapped by Timms around lap fifteen before his car took off and at the mid-race break he was up to thirteenth. The 2019 Knoxville Nationals champion would then charge up to third at the checkers and followed Larson to be the first two to congratulate the young winner as he crossed the scales after doing some celebration donuts down the front stretch. 

Macedo, who ran second through the first forty-six laps, would slip to fourth while Schuchart finished fifth. Day, who is just nineteen himself, would finish in the sixth spot, Giovanni Scelzi came from fourteenth to seventh, Garet Williamson advanced three positions to finish eighth, Austin McCarl did the same to take ninth and Sheldon Haudenschild slipped from fifth to tenth. Twenty-year-old Cam Martin earned the Rookie-of-the-Nationals title by finishing in the thirteenth position, so there definitely seems to be a changing of the guard when it comes to Sprint Car racing.

Of course you still have sixty-nine-year-old Sammy Swindell who thrilled the crowd again on Saturday by finishing second to another veteran Kerry Madsen in the C-Main and then advancing four spots to finish eighteenth in the B-Main. It was great to see the legend passing cars and look for the 1983 Champion to return in 2026 to compete in his 50th Knoxville Nationals.

The Knoxville Nationals is more than just racing, it is an opportunity to spend time with old friends and new acquaintances celebrating the sport that we all love and it was another great week thanks to these people. Barry, Stephanie and Aidan Johnson for opening their home in nearby Pella to us to make it a much shorter trip to go back and forth to the track. Keith and Sam Nachbor for not only serving up some fantastic food during the week, but also being the best people to sit in the stands with and enjoy the racing. Jack Donlan for once again serving up a fantastic feast on Saturday evening and hosting all of our friends who were able to join us as well, and to my friend since high school John Vantiger who took some time off from promoting his new book to join me for the entire week eating, walking and racing. And of course our thoughts go out to those who were not able to join us this year and we do hope to see them again soon.

As always a big thanks go out to everybody at the Knoxville Raceway, especially to Eric, Angie and the entire staff that takes care of Barry and I from a credentials standpoint as well as to the entire Knoxville Raceway team who put in hours and hours of hard work to make this event the best there is in dirt track racing. I am already looking forward to the 2026 edition of the Knoxville Nationals!

Larson's Victory and Brian Brown's Crash Make Headlines On Thursday At The Knoxville Nationals

It should come as no surprise that the three-time, and twice defending Knoxville Nationals champion Kyle Larson would make his way to victory lane on night number two of the "Grandaddy of Them All" Thursday night. But his path to victory was a bit more challenging than in the past and if Larson is going to score his third straight title on Saturday night it will come from a fifth row starting position.

Kyle Larson sails to victory - Barry Johnson photo

The 45th car out for qualifying, Larson could only muster the fifteenth best qualifying lap on the night and when he could only get to fourth after starting fifth in the final heat race, that would put him into tonight's main event, but already him 39 points shy of a perfect score. His pre-feature total was good enough though to make the eight car invert for Thursday's twenty-five lap headliner and he immediately started to gain positions from his fifth starting spot after the drop of the green. 

Barry Johnson photo

Front row starters Spencer Bayston and Derek Hagar would swap the lead back and forth until Bayston gained control on lap three and once Larson slipped past Hagar for second he had his sights set on the leader. The anticipated pass for the lead came at the mid-race mark and although Logan Schuchart closed the gap over the final three laps, the winner was not in doubt as Larson had more than ten car lengths on him at the checkers. Schuchart's charge from sixth to second netted him enough points to start Saturday's finale from third. Bayston would hang on to finish third after leading early and that would be just enough to land him in the sixteenth and final spot determined by qualifying night points for Saturday's A-Main. Giovanni Scelzi, subbing for Tyler Courtney in the Clauson/Marshall #7BC, finished in the fourth spot, good enough to place him fourteenth on the grid for Saturday night while Carson Macedo will start on the outside of the front row, next to Wednesday's winner Ryan Timms in the headliner after he advanced from eighth to fifth tonight. 

Logan Schuchart - Barry Johnson photo

Bill Balog dropped from fourth to sixth, Brock Zearfoss finished seventh, quick qualifier as the third car out for qualifying, Brad Sweet came from row eleven after winning the B-Main to finish eighth while Derek Hagar and Tasker Phillips completed the top ten.

The other lead story of the night came during the third heat race as Brian Brown tried to make his way around J.J. Hickle for the fourth and final transfer position. On two occasions Brown had a run around the cushion only to have his line cut off by Hickle coming up off the bottom. The third time this scenario played out disaster struck for Brown who was just starting to drive around Hickle exiting turn two when they made contact sending Brown hard into the outside guardrail before going end over end at least three times with parts and fluids flying everywhere.

Thankfully Brian crawled out of his destroyed race car under his own power and then for some reason, a full heat race after this one had been completed, they decided to interview Hickle on DirtVision. His comments, while reasonable, did not go over well with some in the crowd and they would let him know it with a round of boos. After qualifying third quick, a transfer out of this heat and then just a top ten finish in the feature would have landed Brown on the first two rows for Saturday night, but now he will have to fight off the aches and pains from this crash and try to battle back in Friday's show. (Friday morning update, it looks like Brian suffered a broken right hand and a broken left wrist in the accident and will not be racing tonight)

After that third heat race restarted the crowd came to life when 69-year-old Sammy Swindell used the high line to drive around Hickle for the fourth and final transfer position.

Tonight's "surprise" local driver was young Cameron Martin who put up the second quick time as the tenth driver to hit the track. He then had to pass Terry McCarl late in the second heat race just to get to eighth and make the front of the B-Main, otherwise he would have been relegated to the C. In the B he would chase pole-sitter Brad Sweet to the checkers and then in the A-Main he gained six spots to finish sixteenth and that puts him in Saturday's championship feature that will see the first eight rows lineup like this:

Ryan Timms - Carson Macedo

Logan Schuchart - Brad Sweet

Sheldon Haudenschild - Corey Day

Rico Abreu - Emerson Axsom

Kyle Larson - Justin Peck

Garet Williamson - Austin McCarl

Bill Balog - Giovanni Scelzi

Cameron Martin - Spencer Bayston

Buddy Kofoid had a disappointing night only tallying enough points to rank 62nd on the list of one hundred and the Roth #83 team will be searching for more speed tomorrow night as he will join Brian Brown, David Gravel and Donny Schatz as some of the big name drivers who will try to punch their ticket at the back of Saturday's A-Main by finishing in the top four on Friday night.

One other potential scenario to follow on Saturday will be the weather as the forecast keeps changing from day-to-day. As of this writing the rain chances do not ramp up until after midnight, but if that gets pushed back up a bit it might force officials to go into "hurry-up mode" which might not mesh well with Kyle Larson's travel plans from Watkins Glen. Hopefully that will be a non-factor!

Friday night's show should be a good one and there are still tickets available!

Spencer Bayston - Barry Johnson photo

And The Youth Will Prevail, Timms Scores Knoxville Nationals Opener

The 62nd running of the NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals kicked off Wednesday night in south central Iowa at the world famous Knoxville Raceway and it would be an eighteen-year-old from Oklahoma that would top the headlines on a night that included a couple of controversial and impactful incidents.

Let's get to the night's winner first though as Ryan Timms clicked off the third best qualifying time on the night as the sixteenth driver to trip the timer. He was then just one of only two drivers to race from row four of the eight car inverts in the five heat races to make it in to a top four transfer position and he then made a big early charge in the main event to get him into a position to later take the lead, and eventually win the twenty-five lap main event. This effort would total up to 487 points, 18 points more than any other driver on the first of two qualifying nights and likely locking him to a front row start in Saturday's National Championship race. 

Ryan Timms - Barry Johnson photo

For the local fans, this did not come as a surprise as Timms has been a terror at Knoxville during the regular season putting the Leibig #10 in victory lane here four times already in 2025 with the 410 car and once with the 360. Tonight's victory started from the outside of row four where he used the high line to get all the way up to third on the opening lap. The young phenom would soon move to second and on lap ten he would drive by early leader Justin Pack to take the point before the red flag flew a lap later. Kaleb Johnson had jumped the cushion in turn one and went for a wild ride that he would thankfully walk a away from uninjured.

On the restart Timms would drive away from the field and he would be flawless through traffic in the closing laps to take the win nearly a full straightaway ahead of Peck. Sheldon Haudenschild, who had started fifth, would put the NOS Energy Drink #17 on the podium in third, Garet Williamson finished where he had started in fourth while Emerson Axsom advanced one spot to take fifth. 

After a disappointing 360 Nationals, Sam Hafertepe Jr. had a nice run from tenth to sixth, Corey Day charged from the outside of row eleven to finish seventh, Rico Abreu started next to Day and followed him up to eighth, Chris Windom finished ninth and Austin McCarl closed out the top ten.

Along with Timms' domination, a couple of incidents will be thoroughly discussed and analyzed here on Thursday as fans take shelter from some morning thunderstorms. The first came at the start of the fourth heat race as one of the pre-event favorites David Gravel ended up smacking the guardrail entering turn one before getting upside down. Starting from the outside of row four Gravel entered turn one about a line and a half from the bottom, but when the fifth starting Hunter Schuerenberg did not stay on the berm the two made contact sending Gravel for his ride. In the post-accident interview Gravel stated that Schuerenberg must have entered the turn with his eyes shut and that prompted the large opening night crowd to shower him with a chorus of boos. Even with a couple of different camera angles it was hard to determine who was at fault and it was best summed up by Schuerenberg's crew chief who said that two drivers were both going for the same position on the race track.

Gravel's crew quickly made repairs as he was able to start the C-Main that he won easily and he then made a valiant charge from twentieth to eighth in the twelve lap B-Main leaving him four positions out of a transfer.

It was the final lap of that B-Main that gave us the other highly debated incident of the night as Sye Lynch and James McFadden engaged in a drag race to the line for the fourth and final transfer position. Some will say that McFadden came up the track too much while others will claim that Lynch tried to crowd him down, but the result was that Lynch went for a wild ride that saw him nearly clear the infield guardrail and enter victory lane in the worst way possible while McFadden somehow maintained control and captured that final transfer. The winner of Sunday's Capitani Classic would then advance nine positions to fifteenth in the main event putting him eleventh on the points chart after night one.

The seventh car to take time, Rico Abreu would earn the 200 points for quick time, but his seventh place finish in the opening heat race would set him behind. Still his point total of 468 would tie him with Corey Day and be just one marker behind Sheldon Haudenschild who ranks second on the current list.

Gravel was impressive posting the fourth quick qualifying lap despite being the 49th driver out to qualify. Even without making the feature he is 20th on the points chart, but he will still have a chance to lock into the Championship race with a top four finish in Friday night's action.

Ten-time Knoxville Nationals champion Donny Schatz had a night to forget finishing fifth after starting third in his heat race and then finishing where he started, fourteenth in the B-Main. He too will try to turn things around on Friday night.

The surprise of the night was young Jack Anderson who parlayed a great draw for qualifying to rank fifth on the chart after being the first car to the track. The 410 rookie had a great run on the opening lap of his heat race, but when Hank Davis slid up to the cushion in three and four, "Fast Jack" had to take evasive action and somehow kept it out of the guardrail losing three spots in that sequence. He then held his own in fine fashion to finish third in the B-Main and he ended the night finishing sixteenth in the feature. His point total of 444 puts him tenth on the chart and should lock him into the first five rows of the B-Main on Saturday. Quite an accomplishment for a driver who has posted just two top ten finishes in weekly action here at Knoxville this season and again it shows how a low pill draw on your qualifying night can lead to a big evening if you take care of business.

The forecast calls for clearing skies on Thursday making for another exciting night at the Knoxville Raceway!

Abreu's Win On Friday Lands Him On The Pole For Knoxville 360 Nationals Finale

After a spirited battle with Ryan Timms, Friday night's race winner Rico Abreu accumulated enough points over the two nights of qualifying to start from the pole position in Saturday's Knoxville 360 Nationals at the Knoxville Raceway.

Rico Abreu - Barry Johnson photo

Tonight's twenty lap main event was a good one with polesitter Cam Martin outrunning veteran Terry McCarl to set the early pace while the fourth starting Ryan Timms quickly made his way to the front. Martin would be no match for Timms on lap five as the young driver from Oklahoma raced to the lead while the fifth starting Rico Abreu soon followed him in to second.

The caution waved on lap eight when Blake Hahn slowed on the back stretch with a broken birdcage and on the restart Abreu charged under Timms in turns one and two to take over the lead. Ryan would battle back though and regain the point two laps later with the lead duo running the next several laps in tight formation giving the good Friday night crowd all of their money's worth.

A short slider in turns three and four would put Rico back in front on lap seventeen and just after that the caution would wave one final time as Tim Kaeding spun in turn four. As Abreu would bring the field back to green, the back of the pack would stack up on the back stretch and when the leader pegged the throttle at the very start of the restart zone, Rico would have at least ten car lengths on Timms as they crossed under the flagstand.

It was all over from there as Rico would go unchallenged over the final three laps to score the win with Timms coming home second. Parker Price-Miller slipped by Martin in the closing laps to finish third while Carson McCarl passed his father Terry late to take fifth. Brian Brown edged out Clint Garner to finish seventh while Giovanni Sclezi came from row eleven to take ninth as Jake Bubak filled out the top ten. 

Barry Johnson photo

Abreu and Price-Miller would tie for the top spot in the points with tie breaker going to Abreu for Saturday's pole position. Carson McCarl would also score more points than last night's winner Kyle Larson putting the two of them in row two on Saturday night while Ryan Timms and Justin Peck will start from row three. Saturday's A-Main lineup has a family flair to it with the Martin brothers, Chris and Cam to start seventh and twelfth respectively while all three McCarls made the show with Austin starting eleventh and Terry, a five-timer winner of this event, will roll off fifteenth.

For the second night in a row it looked like the first car out for qualifying would set fast time with Parker Price-Miller setting the standard, but after falling off a bit the track came back late with Carson McCarl laying down the best lap as the 42nd car out to qualify. Brad Sweet's 360 Nationals came to an early end when he did not make weight after his qualifying effort and his team loaded up the #49.

First heat race winner Jack Dover got the call to drive the #03 car when Shayle Bade found out that she was pregnant a couple of weeks ago.

The first try at a start of heat race number two was called back when Parker Price-Miller was called for jumping and he was penalized a row to the eighth starting spot for the second try. He would later say that he was driving angry as he still raced his way up to fourth and in interviews after the night was complete he stated that he had watched the video and felt as though he had followed the rules. I guess I will have to watch the video as well to see how he came to that conclusion. Either way if it motivated him for the rest of the night, it was a good penalty.

It was the first night out for Giovanni Scelzi in the Clauson/Marshall #7BC as he subs for the injured Tyler Courtney and he would coast to a halt on lap one of the third heat race. That would land him on the pole of the B-Main that he won easily before marching through the field to finish ninth.

Gio Scelzi (7BC) and Ryan Timms (10) - Barry Johnson photo

Riley Goodno was another hard charger out of the B-Main racing from twenty-second to tenth before retiring during the lap seventeen caution with an overheating engine.

A pair of teenagers that we get to see often with the Mohrfeld Solar Sprint Invaders introduced themselves to the world wide viewing audience on DirtVision as seventeen-year-old Cam Sorrels dominated from the pole to win heat race number three and then nineteen-year-old Tyler Lee did the same in heat race number four.

Tyler Groenendyk looked to have a transfer spot locked up in the final heat race only to slow with mechanical issues mid-race. He was then able to start the B-Main after a short intermission, but came up two positions short of a transfer in sixth.

The battle for the fourth and final transfer saw contact late between Tasker Phillips and Daryn Pittman that nearly sent Pittman into the front stretch wall and after the race the veteran served up a classy interview taking some of the blame for what was truly a racing incident.

For the second night in a row racing action wrapped up just past 9:30 in almost Fall-like conditions where a pair of jeans and a jacket felt pretty good even before the sun went down. Saturday's finale will be a good one that I will have to watch later on DirtVision as I will be headed up to the Independence Motor Speedway on Saturday night to join Jim Roper on the microphone as the track celebrates its 60th Anniversary of racing.