Scelzi Sizzles; Reutzel Tops Points List After 360 Nationals Opener

During hot laps for Thursday night's opener of the Knoxville 360 Nationals Gio Scelzi's Chili's sponsored car #77 sounded terrible and was obviously not up to speed posting the 45th best lap of the 53 entries. With a 360 cubic inch engine on loan from the team of Pacific Northwest stalwart Trey Starks and no viable option to change to, the team went to work and diagnosed a spark plug issue that was taken care of in time for qualifying. As the 26th car out to time, Scelzi posted the 13th best lap and the team went back to work on fine tuning the borrowed powerplant.

By the third heat race the engine was humming right along as Gio started fourth and finished second to Tanner Holmes to qualify for the night's A-Main and, as luck would have it, his point total to that point would land him on the pole position in the standard eight car invert for those who were able to transfer from the five heat races.

Scelzi would outrun fellow front row starter Ryan Leavitt into turn one to take the point and he would open a sizeable advantage until he started to encounter traffic on lap eight. Kyle Larson had moved from fourth to second at that point and as the leader struggled to get past Kaleb Johnson, Larson quickly closed in on Scelzi. Finally after a couple of laps Gio cleared Johnson, and the car in front of him, as Larson now faced the same struggle only to have the lone caution of the race wave on lap twelve when the left rear tire exploded on the #8 of John Carney II.

Gio Scelzi - Chuck Stowe Images

With an open race track and just eight laps remaining the restart would likely tell the story here, but as both Scelzi and Larson drove to the bottom through turns one and two, Chase Randall went to the middle and drove around the outside of Larson to take second. Kyle would battle back to regain the spot with five to go, but while they tussled Scelzi had hustled out to a full straightaway advantage. 

As those final laps clicked away, quick qualifier on the night Aaron Reutzel had worked his way past Randall for third and was now closing fast on Larson and as they came off of turn four to take the checkers Reutzel would edge out Larson to finish as the runner-up to Gio Scelzi. Once viewed as a bit of a villain here at Knoxville, I was amazed to hear the crowd actually cheering the final lap pass over the driver that was once everybody's hero. Randall would finish in fourth followed by James McFadden in fifth. Corey Day started tenth and finished sixth, Justin Peck advanced from twelfth to seventh, Justin Henderson was eighth, Brock Zearfoss ninth and Ryan Leavitt was the best of the locals finishing out the top ten.

Chuck Stowe Images

Thursday Notes.....A favorable draw for qualifying order is a big step toward success in both the 360 and 410 Nationals, but on this night it wasn't as critical as the top five qualifiers Aaron Reutzel, Justin Henderson, James McFadden, Riley Goodno and Daison Pursley went out 17th, 24th, 52nd, 22nd and 6th respectively. Although if you asked him, I'm sure that Ryan Leavitt would say that being the third car out was a nice start to his evening.....Kyle Larson was the 37th car to trip the clock in qualifying and he posted a solid sixth quick time that landed him on the inside of row three for the first heat with the six car invert. The top four would transfer out of each heat and at the drop of the green Larson had to check up twice behind Texan Christopher Townsend and he would drop to eighth on the opening lap. This would normally be a bad sign, especially in an early heat race, but the track was already wide and Larson would race his way back to fourth by the checkers......As the sixth starter in heat three, McFadden picked up the fourth spot as lap one was scored slamming the door on Jace Park as they raced down the front stretch.....The fourth heat had a great battle for the final transfer position as Brock Zearfoss and Riley Goodno swapped the position mid-race and in the final laps they closed on the third place car of Kade Morton. In the end it would be Goodno who would have to make a transfer from the -B-Main....A very slow pace coming to the start of heat five allowed Daison Pursley to jump from sixth to fourth on the opening lap and he then had to hold off a charge from Sawyer Phillips mid-race....The only flip of the night would come at the start of the B-Main where Skylar Prochaska swung wide from his eleventh row starting spot and passed several cars down the front stretch. But entering turn one he would run up over the back of Ben Brown sending Prochaska's car hard into the outside guardrail where it then collected young Jack Thomas. Thankfully both drivers walked away without injury......The top ten in points after night one are Reutzel, McFadden, Henderson, Larson, Scelzi, Randall, Pursley, Goodno, Day and Leavitt with the other half of the field set to go tonight. 

Aaron Reutzel - Chuck Stowe Images