Wednesday night was good, perhaps a little short of drama, intrigue and action, but Thursday night was off the charts on all three as the 60th edition of the Knoxville Nationals rolled on at the world famous Knoxville Raceway. And when all was said and done a large crowd was still abuzz and for the most part impervious that it was now 1:15 on a Friday morning, all of them ready to do it again in another eighteen hours.
One small thunderstorm around 4 p.m. was enough to delay the program by two hours and it seemed like the extra moisture added to the show, especially in qualifying. The drivers who drew the early opportunity to go on the clock did not have the advantage that has been quite obvious over the past several Nationals, including Wednesday night, and it was once again fun to hear the crowd react as drivers throughout the 48 car session put up times that would challenge the top of the list. On Wednesday night the top twenty-five qualifiers were within a half second of each other. On this night the top thirty-three were within that same half second and it would be Kasey Kahne at the top of the chart with a time of 15.142 as the sixteenth driver out to time. Kahne is behind the wheel of the Roth Motorsports #83 this week following the World of Outlaws suspension of Aaron Reutzel and while at first it would seem odd for Kahne to park his own ride for the week to take this one, the former NASCAR Cup star noted that it would allow his crew to put more focus on his drivers Brad Sweet and James McFadden.
The track crew bladed the top of both sets of turns after qualifying to make the track nice and wide for the five heat races where the top four would advance to the night's feature, never an easy feat for the top qualifiers in the eight car inverts.
The Swindell brothers, Jeff and Sammy were the first two cars out to qualify and Sammy was very disappointed with his lap that ended up 31st on the list. It did however land him on the front row of the first heat and the 65-year-old legend was a rocket leaving the field in his wake for an easy win. With scheduled pole-sitter Colby Copeland unable to start it would move the inside row up one, but not even that would allow any of the faster drivers to stay with Sammy. The battle for second was intense early between Shane Stewart, Sye Lynch and Brian Brown with Brown and Lynch making contact at one point and at the checkers it would be those four drivers making the A while Kahne could only move from eighth to sixth,
Second quick qualifier Tyler Courtney wasted no time getting to a transfer spot in the second heat as he was in fourth as the field went down the back stretch for the first time. One lap later though he was dropped to fifth by Carson Macedo and on lap five the first red flag of the week was needed when something broke on the front end of the car driven by Cole Thomas sending him hard into the inside guardrail on the front stretch. Jeff Swindell would bring the field back to green and the final lap would get wild when Swindell's car sputtered coming to the white flag. Sawyer Phillips and Parker Price-Miller would drag race to the checkers with Phillips taking the win by 0.002 seconds! And with Swindell dropping all the way to the back, this would allow both Macedo and Courtney to make the transfer.
It may have gone unnoticed, but Brent Marks had the best heat race charge of the night as after starting seventh he was up to fourth on lap one, third on lap two and second by lap three. Why was it unnoticed? Jac Haudenschild in his iconic Pennzoil #22 was running fifth and making his bid to transfer, but when he hopped the cushion in turn three mid-race that allowed Brad Sweet to take over fifth and a few laps later Sweet flew by Dylan Cisney to take the fourth spot. Marks could not catch the winner, Greg Wilson, but it was still the run of the night during heat race action.
All eyes were on Kyle Larson who would start eighth in the fourth heat, but when he couldn't pick off any spots on the start it became a tough chore for the superstar to pick up places one by one. Larson would pass Bill Balog for fifth on lap seven, but he could not chase down his good friend Rico Abreu over the final three laps so his fifth-place finish would send "Yung Money" to the B-Main and a best possible start in tonight's feature in 21st. Minnesota's Skyler Prochaska would take the win, again an accomplishment that did not get noticed as much as it would have without the star power behind him.
The fifth and final heat featured a race long battle for fourth between T.J. Stutts and Jacob Allen with much of the crowd trying to will Allen into a transfer spot. Stutts made his car quite wide switching lines often and Allen just never seemed comfortable enough to stand on it past his competitor so that is how they finished with Stutts advancing to the A-Main while Allen would have to make it happen in the B. Third generation drivers Marcus Dumesney and Austin McCarl went one, two while Paul McMahan finished third.
Jack Dover passed Colby Copeland to win the C-Main and next up was the twelve lap B that would determine the final four qualifiers for Thursday's feature. Scotty Thiel would bicycle his #73 in turn one, almost recover and then would tip it over onto its side on the first try at a start, then four laps would be scored before Matt Juhl coasted to a halt and then another lap would go into the books before Jack Dover had issues.
On this restart Jacob Allen had a big run going down the back stretch looking to move from sixth to fourth, but when he pitched the car sideways for a split second entering turn three he was tagged by Bill Balog sending Jacob for a spin and again the Shark Racing fans were thinking of what could have been. Once back to green Kyle Larson would dominate for the win while Kerry Madsen passed Kasey Kahne late for second and Ian Madsen was the final transfer.
The field was now set for twenty-five laps with Sam Hafertepe Jr, setting a very slow pace from the pole position. The first start was called back when it was determined that Austin McCarl had throttled up too soon from the outside of row nine and again Hafertepe crept the field to green. The entire field would not make it to turn one before the red flag waved though as Parker Price-Miller hopped the right rear of Stutts at the end of the straightway launching him hard into the turn one guardrail. PPM had started twelfth and thankfully the back half of the field was able to avoid direct contact although a couple of cars did go to the work area after clipping the pinwheeling car. Thankfully Price-Miller climbed from the car a bit shaken, but uninjured.
The third time was a charm at getting a start with Hafertepe leading lap one, but while racing into turn three on the second time around both Paul McMahan and Carson Macedo went for the same inside line. When Macedo hit the berm it would turn him hard right into McMahan and both cars backed up the track hard into the guardrail and then going upside down. This sent the rest of the field scrambling and as Sammy Swindell eased through the opening between the two Marcus Dumesney came in hot hitting the tail tank of McMahan and ricocheting into Swindell sending him upside down as well. And in the same sequence Kerry Madsen clipped Macedo's car down low putting him upside down as well.
The contact from Dumesney caused McMahan's fuel cell to burst into flames and Paul obviously knew that was likely as he was out of the car in record time even while one of the brave Knoxville Fire and Safety Team members ran up the track while cars were still moving to extinguish the flames in a matter of seconds. Thankfully all drivers escaped injury while five more cars were eliminated.
After the long clean up Hafertepe would again set a slow pace, this time single file for the restart, and he would be no match for Brian Brown who sailed past him for the lead. With the cars eliminated by the crash, or going to the back after making repairs, Kyle Larson would restart tenth and he would now gradually pick his way toward the front. On lap six when Tyler Courtney blocked Brad sweet's run off the bottom of turn four, contact would rip off the top of Courtney's rear bumper sending it bouncing up the track in turn one for a caution and three laps later Swindell's battered #70 would coast to a halt for another caution.
On this restart Courtney would lose two spots in turn two and four laps later he would slow and then retire for the event during the caution period rather than thrashing in the work area, perhaps knowing that his point total would be enough to lock him into the top sixteen for Saturday's finale.
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| Larson and Brown post-race - Barry Johnson photo |
Once back to racing Brown would pull away while Larson continued his march to the front and when he dropped Brent Marks from second with ten laps to go, Larson started to close the gap making it to within striking distance over the final two laps. Brown was just too strong though and he would take the win on a wild night at the Nationals. Larson would finish second, Marks in third, Sweet finished fourth and Rico Abreu came from thirteenth to fifth.
Thursday Notes.......The National Champion Iowa Hawkeye Wrestling Team was in attendance and when they were introduced to the crowd during opening ceremonies obviously one of their biggest fans, Brad Sweet made sure that he was out there with them so that he could get a picture with the team.......Not that it wasn't impressive, but when you see a headline to the tune of "Larson goes from 21st to 2nd at Knoxville", keep in mind the circumstances. His impressive run would be more accurately described as tenth to second and I still have him as the prohibitive favorite to win the big money on Saturday.....and Sunday at Indy.....and when he climbs into the #6 Late Model again.....and in his next Sprint Car race after the Nationals......Brian Brown has described Larson as the GOAT on a few occasions this week and it would be hard to disagree with him at this point.....At least one driver was not happy with the slow paced starts early in the event with a very colorful quote directed at Sam Hafertepe Jr. distributed via Twitter. I will let you research that one yourself in order to keep this family friendly......Qualifying continues tonight (Friday) with the Hard Knox format where more than sixty cars will be in action looking to run in the top four of tonight's A-Main in order to claim positions 21 through 24 in Saturday's championship event.
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| Brian Brown on his way to victory early Friday morning at Knoxville - Barry Johnson photo |
Final points courtesy of the Knoxville Raceway website:
Locked into Saturday’s A main
1 18 Gio Scelzi 487
2 49 Brad Sweet 481
3 57 Kyle Larson 480
4 19 Brent Marks 479
5 15 Donny Schatz 477
6 2 David Gravel 475
7 83 Kasey Kahne 475
8 1S Logan Schuchart 472
9 21 Brian Brown 471
10 49X Ian Madsen 463
11 0 Brooke Tatnell 460
12 7BC Tyler Courtney 460
13 9 James McFadden 459ac
14 7 Justin Henderson 458
15 73 Justin Peck 458
16 48 Danny Dietrich 449
Locked into Saturday’s B main
17 17X Josh Baughman 447
18 41 Carson Macedo 441
19 42 Sye Lynch 436
20 11M Spencer Bayston 435
21 26 Cory Eliason 433
22 11K Kraig Kinser 432
23 5 Paul McMahan 430
24 14 Kerry Madsen 430
25 17 Sheldon Haudenschild 428
26 15H Sam Hafertepe Jr. 428
Qualified for Friday’s “Hard Knox” Program
27 24R Rico Abreu 427
28 1M Don Droud Jr. 426
29 11 Roger Crockett 422
30 3P Sawyer Phillips 418
31 3 Ayrton Gennetten 418
32 17A Austin McCarl 417
33 11T TJ Stutts 415
34 40 Clint Garner 414
35 35P Skylar Prochaska 410
36 97 Greg Wilson 410
37 5XX Zeb Wise 409
38 17B Bill Balog 409
39 49J Josh Schneiderman 408
40 70 Sammy Swindell 406
41 56N Davey Heskin 405
42 5X Parker Price-Miller 401
43 71 Shane Stewart 401
44 91 Kyle Reinhardt 398
45 3Z Brock Zearfoss 398
46 07 Skylar Gee 394
47 2C Wayne Johnson 394
48 7S Jason Sides 393
49 83J Lynton Jeffrey 393
50 39M Anthony Macri 392
51 39 Daryn Pittman 392
52 55W Mike Wagner 391
53 55M McKenna Haase 387
54 1X Jake Bubak 386
55 24 Terry McCarl 386
56 1A Jacob Allen 386
57 N47 Marcus Dumesny 382
58 21W Riley Goodno 382
59 17W Shane Golobic 380
60 28 Tim Shaffer 379
61 5W Lucas Wolfe 379
62 83T Tanner Carrick 374
63 22 Jac Haudenschild 371
64 25 Scott Bogucki 370
65 27 Carson McCarl 365
66 1Z Logan Wagner 365
67 20 AJ Moeller 364
68 09 Matt Juhl 362
69 13 Mark Dobmeier 359
70 2KS Chad Kemenah 359
71 20G Noah Gass 356
72 44 Chris Martin 353
73 73A Scotty Thiel 347
74 101 Cale Thomas 342
75 5V Colby Copeland 327
76 11N Harli White 325
77 83A Austin Miller 323
78 7W Dustin Selvage 322
79 2DC Dylan Cisney 322
80 18R Ryan Roberts 320
81 10 Jeff Swindell 319
82 7TAZ Tasker Phillips 315
83 55K Robbie Kendall 315
84 15M Bobby Mincer 314
85 65 Jordan Goldesberry 310
86 53 Jessie Attard 306
87 9JR Derek Hagar 303
88 7C John Carney II 298
89 53D Jack Dover 296
90 2M Matt Moro 284
91 14K Tori Knutson 281
92 13S Tyler Esh 280
93 2K Kevin Ingle 271
94 9G Ryan Giles 270
95 56 Joe Simbro 267
96 11TK Tim Kaeding 267
97 55 Hunter Schuerenberg 261
