Season Winding Down, Drag Racing

Well after ten straight days of racing a couple of weeks ago I’m rested up and ready for a new column. I’m excited to read so many positive reviews of the new Friday Knoxville Nationals format in Speed Sport, Area Auto Racing News, and even Jeff Broeg’s Back Stretch. The only complaints I heard was that it ran a little late that night. When you start hot laps at 7:45pm, the track is heavy, builds up a ledge on the cushion, and it needs some work in the middle of the show that happens.

I made it to Marshalltown Speedway last Friday night and saw a good show as usual. It was nice to see the Mississippi Valley vintage cars there. I learned that Lenard McCarl built his own chassis back in the day. Not sure how I didn’t know that until last week, and that Terry McCarl won his first race in a McCarl chassis.

Jimmy Gustin won his eighth Modified race of the year at Marshalltown, but it was in a new 2013 Harris chassis. Nice looking car. The SportMod race was awesome with Janae Gustin getting the win, but it wasn’t easy as she raced up through the field. Nice to see Curtis Van Der Wal venture up to Mtown and run fourth. Tracy Geinger of Newton won the stock car feature holding off Damon Murty at the end. It’s been a long time since I saw my home town guy Geinger win a feature, so was happy for him. I just really enjoy the shows at Marshalltown and the whole experience there.

The Marshalltown point races are looking like Jimmy Gustin has the field covered in Modifieds, Scott Pippert has Hobby Stocks in hand, Steve Meyer has a good handle on the Stock Cars as well. The SportMod race is heated and will go to the end with Joel Rust and Racer Hulin tied for the lead and Jake Strayer is only four points behind them. Season Championship is August 31 so only two weeks to go.

Saturday I went to Eddyville Raceway Park to the Altered Fuel Nationals. I’ve only been to Eddyville once before when I was a kid so I haven’t been exposed to drag racing much at all. To me it’s not a lot of fun to watch from the stands, but I sure do appreciate this type of racing. To me drag racing is “racing” in its purest form. Let’s build a car and see how fast it can go… period. I had a great experience there all day and I have to say it’s something I look forward to do again next year, but I will remember my ear plugs for sure! I have a video on my YouTube channel if you want to see. www.youtube.com/arniebhg

This week at Knoxville is Season Championship and Terry McCarl has a slim eight point lead over Davey Heskin in the 410 class. Clint Garner has the 360 title clinched. Matthew Stelzer has a 52 point lead over Mike Van Haafton in the 305 class. With 165 points up for grabs in all classes it will come down to the features. TMac is going for his seventh track championship (aka the Lucas Oil Knoxville Championship Cup Series) while Heskin is trying for his first. Heskin has been the point leader most of the season, but the Sunday night Capitani Classic event was run as a full points race and his cushion was erased when he didn’t make the feature and McCarl did. Tough break, but he still has a good chance to win it.

Hoping to make it to the Boone Super Nationals finale on Sep 8th. I wish it wasn’t the same day as the Iowa-ISU football game though. Never understood the timing of that event in football season, but you have to have it after most tracks have their season in the books to build the car count.

I’ll be covering Oskaloosa tonight and next week for season championship. It’s looking like Cayden Carter has the Modified title wrapped up, same for Shannon Anderson in Hobby Stock. Stock Car leader is Matt Greiner but Nathan Wood is lurking 13 points behind. One bad night for Greiner and it could get close. Jesse Sobbing will likely win the SportMod title unless he has a DNF. Curtis Van Der Wal is six points behind and waiting to take advantage if the opportunity is there.

Schatz Completes the Six Pack

On paper Donny Schatz made it look easy winning his sixth Knoxville Nationals crown, until you see the margin of victory of 0.117 seconds over runner-up Brian Brown. Schatz started fifth in the main event Saturday night of the 52nd annual Goodyear Knoxville Nationals and took the lead from pole sitter Stevie Smith on the 14th circuit and led the distance until Brown reeled him in at the end.

After 26 laps were complete the competition fuel stop was called and teams pitted for fuel and tires. With 24 laps remaining Schatz was leading Craig Dollansky, Brown, Stevie Smith, Kraig Kinser, Shane Stewart, and Jason Meyers to the restart. Schatz pulled away by half a straightaway in a matter of three laps, but the only unscheduled caution of the 50 lap event came out with 16 laps remaining when rookie of the Nationals Kyle Larson cut a left rear tire and rolled to a stop.

On the restart Brown made his move to second passing Dollansky, and stayed within a few car lengths of Schatz for several laps. Both Brown and Schatz were running the high groove on the cushion which was rough all night, and both drivers bobbled getting into the ledge building up on the cushion off of turn two in the waning laps. Coming to the white flag Brown was knocking on the door and with lapped cars of Paul McMahan and Cody Darrah in front of the leaders, Schatz slowed a bit and Brown made the corners of his life in three and four and pulled up along-side Schatz off the last corner and they drag raced to the line with Schatz winning by a nose wing in the closest finish in nationals history.

Finishing third was front row starter Craig Dollansky. Dollanksy has had an impressive Nationals career but the disappointment on his face afterword was obvious. This was his seventh top five, and 13th top ten finish. Pole sitter Stevie Smith finished a disappointing seventh, and it was his 14th career top ten. Smith and Dollansky are arguably the most successful drivers not to win a Nationals title.

Over shadowing the feature event was who didn’t race their way into Nationals Championship feature. 12 time champion Steve Kinser ended a 34 year consecutive run by ending his night tenth in the B-Main. Kinser hasn’t had good showings the previous past three years with finishes of 12th, 22nd, and 16th and that trend worsened. Kinser drew last in the Wednesday qualifying order and immediately his attitude was colorful in a negative manner to say the least. Although the King has three World of Outlaws wins this season and is in second place, only 17 points behind the leader Dollansky, it seems the King has lost his mojo at Knoxville.

Also not qualifying for the championship was four time champion Danny Lasoski who finished second in the C-Main, transferred to the B-Main, but only managed a 17th finish there, ending his night. Lasoski has failed to reach the championship race three years in a row. 2010 champion Tim Shaffer finished sixth in the B-Main two spots away from transferring. And one of the favorites to win the Nationals this year Sammy Swindell fell one spot short finishing fifth in the B-Main to end his night.

This night will be remembered as a night the torch was passed to a new generation of sprint car drivers.

The only Kinser in the championship race was 2005 champ Kraig Kinser, the son of Steve. Kraig had some fierce battles with Shane Stewart throughout most of the race and clawed his way to fourth, earning his second career top five Nationals finish. Shane Stewart started 13th and raced up to sixth at the halfway break, but couldn’t manage to go any further in the second half of the race.

The two time Outlaws champion Jason Meyers stepped back from racing full time in March this year and climbed in the Tarlton 21m car, who happened to purchase some of his old cars. Meyers stepped in his car and it fit like an old pair of shoes and was able to drive from seventh to fifth.

Winning the 22 lap B-Main was Mark Dobmeier and grabbing the other transfer positions was Davey Heskin second, Brian Paulus third, and Jason Sides fourth. Paulus had taken a three year hiatus from sprint car racing and last made the Nationals A-Main in 2006. Heskin who has been the point leader at Knoxville most of the season raced from 22nd to tenth earning hard charger honors and getting his second career top ten Nationals finish. Dobmeier raced up to 12th.

Joey Saldana started sixth in the championship, but Saldana pulled his car in after two laps in hot laps and his team had to change engines before the race started. Saldana ended in a disappointing eleventh place. Joey just seems snake bitten at Knoxville.

Rookie Kyle Larson, who won the Wednesday night preliminary feature,started 12th and seemingly had something wrong with his car from the start. After the blown tire he was able to finish 16th in his first career Nationals.

Closing thoughts…

The race track started out narrow and fast as most race nights do. But the Saturday night of the Nationals track endures more laps than any night all year with 2,466 laps completed under race conditions. A normal 410-360 weekly race is 1,544 laps and with the 305 cars some weeks the total goes up to 1,855 if there is a full field of cars. So track conditions change rapidly and drastically. The last 7-8 laps the A-Main saw rubber down on the top and middle grooves of turns one and two, and the bottom groove was never really there all night. The bottom held up great in three and four. Next year I would be in favor of spending 30 minutes to rework the track surface with the aerator and sprinkle a little water on it before the A-Main to ensure it holds up for all 50 laps. If the track would have had a bottom groove and more grip in general, I think we would have seen a better race the second half. I applaud John McCoy for changing the number of transfer positions from two to four in all races this week. That opens it up to more opportunity for someone to race the alphabet. But I wouldn't mind seeing 16 cars locked into all B, C, D, and E features instead of 20. And if we have to add a F and G main, so be it. Thinning out the heard wouldn't be a bad thing.

Winning the C-Main was Jac Haudenschild, his third career C-Main Nationals win. Jac had mechanical problems in the B-Main and finished 23rd. Tyler Walker won the D-Main, and Bill Rose won the E-Main.

52nd Annual Knoxville Nationals Championship: 1. Donny Schatz, 2. Brian Brown, 3. Craig Dollansky, 4. Kraig Kinser, 5. Jason Meyers, 6. Shane Stewart, 7. Stevie Smith, 8. Lance Dewease, 9. Tim Kaeding, 10. Davey Heskin, 11. Joey Saldana, 12. Mark Dobmeier, 13. Jonathan Allard, 14. Justin Henderson, 15. Daryn Pittman, 16. Kyle Larson, 17. Dale Blaney, 18. Ian Madsen, 19. Lucas Wolfe, 20. Jason Sides, 21. Cody Darrah, 22. David Gravel, 23. Paul McMahan, 24. Brian Paulus.

B-Main finish: 1. Dobmeier, 2. Heskin, 3. Brian Paulus, 4. Jason Sides, 5. Sammy Swindell, 6. Tim Shaffer, 7. Jason Johnson, 8. Kevin Swindell, 9. Kerry Madsen, 10. Steve Kinser, 11. Bronson Maeschen, 12. Brooke Tatnell, 13. Chad Kemenah, 14. Terry McCarl, 15. Wayne Johnson, 16. James McFadden 17. Danny Lasoski, 18. Scott Winters, 19. Danny Holtgraver, 20. Greg Hodnett, 21. Brad Sweet, 22. Dustin Selvage, 23. Jac Haudenschild, 24. Dusty Zomer.

C-Main finish: Jac Haudenschild, 2. Danny Lasoski, 3. Brad Sweet, 4. James McFadden, 5. Jamie Veal, 6. Jack Dover, 7. Cap Henry, 8. Randy Hannagan, 9. Greg Wilson, 10. Jeff Swindell,

Friday Hard Knox

Friday night of the Nationals worked out AWESOME!!! Being the mad scientist behind the general idea I would like to thank John McCoy for hearing out my thoughts. I told you it would work.

Dubbed Friday “Hard Knox” or “Mulligan Night”, the Friday format gave a second chance for anyone not in the top 16 in over-all points to come back and race on Friday for a shot to make it into the Nationals A-Main on Saturday. The top four would start in the Saturday finale in positions 17-20.

The A-Main was a fierce battle in the opening laps with Cody Darrah and David Gravel exchanging the lead while the crowd also kept an eye on Kerry Madsen and Steve Kinser in the middle of the field racing toward the front. Kinser started 15th and raced his way up to sixth or seventh at one time but faded to ninth in the end. After halfway Gravel built a solid lead but Justin Henderson’s car came to him the last half of the race. Henderson started sixth and on the 20th circuit he made the pass to get around Gravel and lead the remaining five laps to pick up the win.

A fierce battle for third sixth ensued most of the race as everyone was vying for one of the four transfer spots in the Saturday A-Main, after all fifth place would end up starting eleventh in the B-Main. It came down to Dale Blaney and Darrah beating a charging Madsen and Chad Kemenah the last few laps. Dale Blaney lost an engine on his qualifying night in hot laps and didn’t get it changed in time for his time trial spot, so his team elected to take the mulligan and park the car instead of starting at the back of a heat race or C-Main. That decision paid off.

Danny Lasoski gave up a guaranteed tenth starting position in the Saturday A-Main to requalify on Friday to have a better shot to win. That roll of the dice didn’t pay off as he timed 21st in qualifying which put him on the front row of his heat race, which he won. The Dude started tenth in the A-Main but had mechanical problems and finished 15th, putting him on the front row of the Saturday C-Main.

The heat races and B-Main’s were intense with only the top two finishers of all races earning spots in the A-Main. Heat two featured KKR teammates Brad Sweet and Cody Darrah, and Darrah cut off Sweet a couple of times to hold him off for a second place heat finish. Steve Kinser ended up in the toughest of the seven heats starting fourth with Blaney, Hafertepe, Gharst, and Hannagan. The King finished third to Blaney and Hafertepe.

Kinser won the first B-Main while Kevin Swindell drove from seventh to second to transfer. In the second B-Main Chad Kemenah led the distance but Cap Henry scrambled from seventh to second just like Kevin.

Friday heat winners: David Gravel, Wayne Johnson, Dale Blaney, Jac Haudenschild, Terry McCarl, Jeff Swindell, Danny Lasoski. Winning the three B-Main’s were Steve Kinser, Chad Kemenah, and Bronson Maeschen.

Friday A-Main results: 1. Justin Henderson, 2. David Gravel, 3. Dale Blaney, 4. Cody Darrah, 5. Kerry Madsen, 6. Chad Kemenah, 7. Terry McCarl, 8. Dusty Zomer, 9. Steve Kinser, 10. Danny Holtgraver, 11. Bronson Maeschen, 12. Kevin Swindell, 13. Wayne Johnson, 14. Scott Winters, 15. Danny Lasoski, 16. Jamie Veal, 17. Rager Phillips, 18. Jac Haudenschild, 19. Cap Henry, 20. James McFadden, 21. Greg Wilson, 22. Jeff Swindell, 23. Sam Hafertepe Jr., 24. Joey Moughan.

Jason Meyers wins KXV Nats Thursday Prelim

Jason Meyers may have disappeared into semi retirement from sprint car racing in March of this year, but the two time World of Outlaws champion showed no signs of losing his mojo after winning the Thursday preliminary feature. Meyers started the night by timing thirteenth, finishing third in his heat race. In the feature he chased down leader MarkDobmeir and took the lead on lap eight and then held off a late charge from Tim Shaffer to get the win. Meyers accumulated enough points to start seventh in the championship Saturday night.

Setting quick time on the evening was Australian native and Knoxville regular Ian Madsen with a lap of 15.491. Ian then finished third in his heat race but in the feature spun in turn two and had to restart at the tail, but still managed a sixteenth finish to earn enough points to be locked into the top 16 starting positions for Saturday night.

During the Madsen spin, four time champion Danny Lasoski tried to avoid Madsen by taking the inside lane, but ran out of room and tagged Madsen’s car sending Lasoski upside down and done for the night. Lasoski will have to race on Friday night to try to earn one of the four remaining spots in the Saturday championship.

Sammy Swindell wowed the crowd in the heat races recovering from contact with Wayne Johnson while racing for second and nearly stuffing the car into the fence. Swindell was able to regroup and beat Johnson for second on the last lap. Swindell however had mechanical issues with his drive line in the feature and had to pull in after five laps which will force him to start sixth in the Saturday B-main.

It was a good night for the Knoxville regular competitors with Madsen, Mark Dobmeier finishing sixth, Brian Brown ninth, Josh Schneiderman 17th, Dusty Zomer 21st. Zomer had to race in the B-main and was able to advance from fourth to second in the closing laps, but he had a left rear tire go down in the A-main ending his night.

California driver Tim Kaeding won the B-main and worked his way up to eighth in the A, which gave him enough to earn the eighth starting position on Saturday. Winning heat races were Tony Brice Jr., Tyler Walker, Josh Schneiderman, Johnny Herrera, and Joey Moughan.

Friday night is shaping up to be an exciting one with former National champions Steve Kinser and Danny Lasoski in the lineup. The top four in the Friday race will earn starting positions 17-20 in the championship race on Saturday, while fifth place starts eleventh in the B-main. Other notable names racing Friday are Tyler Walker, Johnny Herrera, Kerry Madsen, Justin Henderson, Wayne Johnson, Dusty Zomer, Fred Rahmer, Chad Kemenah, Terry McCarl, Cody Darrah, Brad Sweet, Brady Bacon, Kevin Swindell, and Jac Haudenschild.

Knoxville Nationals Thursday preliminary feature finish: 1. Jason Meyers, 2. 83 Tim Shaffer, 3. Kraig Kinser, 4. Stevie Smith, 5. Lance DeWease, 6. Mark Dobmeier, 7. Jason Johnson, 8. Tim Kaeding, 9. Brian Brown, 10. Johnny Herrera, 11. Greg Hodnett, 12. Daryn Pittman, 13. Tim McFadden, 14. Tyler Walker, 15. Jamie Veal, 16. Ian Madsen, 17. Josh Schneiderman, 18. Tony Bruce Jr. 19. Wayne Johnson, 20. Joey Moughan, 21. Dusty Zomer, 22. Danny Lasoski, 23. Sammy Swindell, 24. Josh Hodges.

Top 16 in overall points: 1. Stevie Smith, 2. Craig Dollanksy, 3. Jonathan Allard, 4. Brian Brown, 5. Donny Schatz, 6. Joey Saldana, 7. Jason Meyers, 8. Tim Kaeding, 9. Kraig Kinser, 10. Lucas Wolfe, 11. Ian Madsen, 12. Kyle Larson, 13. Shane Stewart, 14. Daryn Pittman, 15. Lance DeWease, 16. Paul McMahan.

Super Kyle wins at KXV

Just when you thought the Kyle Larson story couldn’t get any better this week, it did! Larson, 20 years old, in his first Knoxville Nationals goes out and wins the opening night preliminary feature. No rookie at the Nationals has ever accomplished that feat, but this is no ordinary rookie driver. For as sweet of a win it was for Larson, there was plenty of heartbreak on the night.

Knoxville regular Davey Heskin led the first half of the race until a caution on lap 13 for Randy Hannagan slowing with mechanical problems, who was running second at the time. On the restart Jason Sides made a daring pass going into turn one to get by Heskin, slowing up Heskin enough to lose his momentum and Kyle Larson went by for second in the next corner. With six laps to go and the win in sight Jason Sides blew a left rear tire and tipped the car over in front of the entire field where luckily no one hit him. Larson inherited the lead and never looked back from there. With two laps to go Brian Paulus also slowed with mechanical problems and pulled in after he was running in second. Heskin and Donny Schatz had a fierce battle for second, exchanging the position a couple of times before Heskin won the position.

The night started with a two hour delay after a storm came through in the late afternoon. Once action was underway Joey Saldana set the pace with a lap of 14.715. The track was fast, heavy, and narrow making passing nearly impossible in the heat races. With the heat races inverted based on qualifying times only two cars in the top ten made it to the feature through their heat race. California driver Jonathan Allard surprised everyone with a third place qualifying run and then drove from eighth to second in his heat race. Allard has only qualified for the Nationals Saturday main event once previously, but will get in this year. Winning the heat races were Brooke Tatnell, AJ Moeller, Kerry Madsen, Ed Lynch Jr., and Lee Sowell. All five winners started on the front row of their heat.

The tough track conditions made for a stacked B-main as Joey Saldana won over Craig Dollansky, Shane Stewart, and Paul McMahan. Those four drivers would transfer to the tail of the A-main. The Nationals format is tough, but it sets up excitement and drama every year and the format delivered a good one again on Wednesday night in the feature with Dollansky racing up to fourth, Shane Stewart to seventh, and Joey Saldana to eighth. Notable drivers not advancing to the A-main were Steve Kinser, Fred Rahmer, and Chad Kemenah.

The Nationals is all about accumulating points and the top sixteen overall after Wednesday and Thursday are locked in for the Saturday night championship feature. So being in the top eight is the benchmark on night one.

With qualifying worth the same amount of points as the A-main, Joey Saldana earned the same amount of points as Larson for winning.

The highest finishing rookie at the Nationals was Stevie Smith finishing third in 1989. We will see if Larson can top that on Saturday night.

Night two of the Nationals on Thursday will feature former champions Kraig Kinser, Danny Lasoski, Tim Shaffer, and Sammy Swindell.

Knoxville Nationals Wednesday prelim feature results: 1. Kyle Larson, 2. Davey Heskin, 3. Donny Schatz, 4. Craig Dollansky, 5. Lucas Wolfe, 6. Brooke Tatnell, 7. Shane Stewart, 8. Joey Saldana, 9. Dustin Selvage, 10. Jonathan Allard, 11. Jeff Swindell, 12. Austin McCarl, 13. Don Droud Jr., 14. Paul McMahan, 15. Ed Lynch Jr., 16. Glenn Saville, 17. AJ Moeller, 18. Brian Paulus, 19. Lee Sowell, 20. Jason Sides, 21. Casey Mack, 22. Randy Hannagan, 23. Kerry Madsen, 24. Mike Reinke.

Nationals Point totals (tie breaker is feature finishing position): 1. Craig Dollansky 477, 2. Jonathan Allard 475, 3. Donny Schatz 471, 4. Joey Saldana 471, 5. Lucas Wolfe 477, 6. Kyle Larson 458, 7. Shane Stewart 458, 8. Paul McMahan 453, 9. Davey Heskin 449, 10. Brian Paulus 440.

Larson sweeps Ultimate Challenge

California driver Kyle Larson is the story of the year in sprint car racing, and he proved why again on Tuesday night at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa by winning the USAC non-wing $15,000 to win Ultimate Challenge for the second year in a row. Larson is only 20 years old and has signed a driver development deal with Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing. This kid IS the next Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart, or Jeff Gordon. If you want to say you were there when... you better come see him at Knoxville this week during the Knoxville Nationals when he races in the Wednesday night preliminary event.

Larson won the Monday night preliminary USAC feature easily and was locked in the eight car dash race on Tuesday but drew number eight and only made his way to seventh in that race with a fast narrow track. But in the feature when the race track widened out he was able to pass Justin Grant to grab the lead after seven laps to lead laps 8-30. Larson was chased by veteran Dave Darland the second half of the race in traffic, but Darland came up short in the end. Larson also becomes the first repeat winner of the Ultimate Challenge in its eleventh year.

I can’t put into words how impressed I am with Kyle Larson. I’ve never witnessed anything like this phenomenon in my life time. He wins in a non-win sprint car, with a wing, in a midget, or silver crown. In addition to winning the Ultimate Challenge in 2011 he won the Belleville Midget Nationals, swept the USAC four crown event at Eldora Speedway in Ohio, and he won one of the biggest World of Outlaws races last fall, the Gold Cup in Chico, CA. He finished fourth in his NASCAR Truck series debut last month at Kentucky, and he sits second in points in the NASCAR K&N Pro East Series with one win. Seeing him race a winged sprint car at Knoxville the past week has been impressive as well. It’s hard to fathom that a rookie has a chance to run up front at the Knoxville Nationals, but the car and talent is there to have a shot.

Winning Ultimate Challenge heat races was Chris Windom, Damion Gardner, and Justin Grant. Grant also won the dash to start on the pole of the feature where he finished third.

The winged 305 sprint cars were also on hand Yuesday night and it was Pella driver Mike Van Haafton grabbing the win.

The 52nd annual Goodyear Knoxville Nationals stats tonight and ends on Saturday. The Saturday program will be recorded on Speed TV and broadcast at a later date.

Ultimate Challenge results: 1..Kyle Larson, 2. Dave Darland,3. Justin Grant, 4. Chris Windom, 5. Jerry Coons Jr., 6. Thomas Meserall, 7. Brian Clauson, 8. Tracy Hines, 9. Levi Jones, 10. Jon Stanbrough.

Pittman wins FRC, Larson Shines!

Oklahoma native Daryn Pittman dominated the Musco Lighting Front Row Challenge race on Monday night at Oskaloosa’s Southern Iowa Speedway leading all 25 laps. Brian Brown chased Pittman the first half of the race but Pittman was able to pull away once they were in lapped traffic the second half. Pittman also won this event in 2008.

This was also a preliminary night for the USAC non-wing sprint cars with the top two finishers locked in Tuesday’s $15,000 to win Ultimate Challenge event. Kyle Larson, one of the sports brightest shining stars over the past two years is the defending champion and he drove away from the field easily to get the win while Dave Darland finished second to lock into the big pay day tomorrow as well. Larson also competed in the winged FRC as well and drove from 12th to third looking impressive in that race. Larson is a rookie at the Knoxville Nationals this year, but he has a shot to make the championship feature and potentially a top ten.

The night started with time trials and Mark Dobmeier was fastest, but in the feature while running third Dobmeier drove over the cushion in turn three and made hard contact with the fence ending his night. This was also a points race for the All-Stars Circuit of Champions and some of their regular competitors had a rough night as points leader Tim Shaffer lost a engine in his heat race and scratched for the night. Dale Blaney is currently second in points and he too had mechanical problems and pulled in during his heat. David Gravel is third in points and drove from fifteenth to sixth. Cap Henry is fourth in points and had mechanical problems in his heat race as well and salvaged a 17th place finish.

A special King of the Hill eight car tournament bracket event was held with head to head racing to determine who has the opportunity to start on the front row, or take the challenge to win from the tail of the field for $50,000 instead of $5,000. Pittman beat Brown but neither driver accepted the challenge as they coveted the chance to win from up front and the title belt trophy given away to the winner.

Winning heat races were David Gravel, Brian Brown, and Brad Sweet in the FRC, and winning the USAC heat races were Dave Darland, Robert Ballou, and Jac Haudenschild.

Front Row Challenge Results: 1. Daryn Pittman, 2. Brian Brown, 3. Kyle Larson, 4. Tim Kaeding, 5. Ryan Bunton, 6. David Gravel, 7. Kaley Gharst, 8. James McFadden, 9. Tasker Phillips, 10. Paul McMahan, 11. Trey Starks, 12. Sheldon Haudenschild, 13. Caleb Helms, 14. Critter Malone, 15. Jason Meyers, 16. Greg Wilson, 17. Cap Henry, 18. Logan Shuchart, 19. Jonathan Allard, 20. Lee Grosz, 21. Bryan Sebetto, 22. Mark Dobmeier, 23. Brad Sweet.

USAC Ultimate Challenge Prelim Results: 1.. Kyle Larson, 2. Dave Darland, 3. Robert Ballou, 4. Brady Bacon, 5. Levi Jones, 6. Daron Clayton, 7. Darren Hagen, 8. Chris Windom, 9. Chase Stockon, 10. Jerry Coons Jr.

Maeschen wins Capitani Classic

Sunday night at Knoxville Raceway was all about 410 sprint cars for the first annual Capitani Classic. This is a new race added to the schedule this season in honor of long time track race director Ralph Capitani who held that position from 1977-2011 and helped build the world famous facility into what it is today. This is also a final tune-up opportunity for teams before the Knoxville Nationals which begins on Wednesday night. With the Outlaws racing in Missouri the night before and off on Sunday the majority of those teams were on hand and a total of 67 cars competed. Although the competition was tough and stacked, it was local Pleasantville driver Bronson Maeschen taking the $5,000 winner’s check home. Maeschen won his first career feature at Knoxville this year on July 14th, but on this night he was beating some of the best in the business as he led all 25 laps fending off challenges from 2010 Nationals champion Tim Shaffer in lapped traffic.

Brooke Tatnell was the fastest in qualifying and the heat race winners were Josh Schneiderman, Tim Shaffer, Maeschen, Ed Lynch Jr., Shane Stewart, and Donny Schatz. Schatz elected to sit out the feature to save his car for the Nationals later in the week. With six heat races and the top three in each heat qualifying for the A main, the rest of the field was broken in into three B-main’s and those were won by Justin Henderson, Rager Phillips, and Brady Bacon.

After the B-Mains the track was reworked on the bottom and top grooves as the track was starting to become one lane around the bottom with the track abrasive enough to eat up tires and take rubber. It was the right call to make to rework the track, however it was still fast and one lane on the bottom with it being watered and tacky until the closing laps.

This was also a full points event for the Knoxville weekly competitors, and with only five of them qualifying there was a big shake up in the point standings. Davey Heskin has held the point lead almost the entire season, but with Heskin failing to qualify for the A-Main and Terry McCarl finishing 12th on the night the point lead changed hands as McCarl now leads Heskin by eight points.

Capitani Classic results: 1. Bronson Maeschen, 2. Tim Shaffer, 3. Joey Saldana, 4. Cody Darrah, 5. Tim Kaeding, 6. Brad Sweet, 7. Brian Brown, 8. Jason Johnson, 9. Danny Lasoski, 10. Shane Stewart, 11. Daryn Pittman, 12. Terry McCarl, 13. Kyle Larson, 14. Kerry Madsen, 15. Ed Lynch Jr., 16. Tasker Phillips, 17. James McFadden, 18. Rager Phillips, 19. Josh Schneiderman, 20. Brooke Tatnell, 21. Justin Henderson, 22. Wayne Johnson, 23. Brady Bacon, 24. Dale Blaney.

Shane Stewart Wins Fourth 360 Nationals

Shane Stewart has been dominant at the Arnold Motor Supply 360 Knoxville Nationals in recent years and Saturday at Knoxville he led every one of the 25 laps and won by nearly five seconds. Stewart becomes the first driver to win three 360 Nationals in a row and the first to win four total. (2007, 2010, 2011, 2012). All four victories have come with his crew chief and car owner Paul Silva. “That car was just flawless,” said Stewart. “We had a brand new A.R.T. car and a new Wesmar engine. I can’t thank Paul enough for all he does to give me good cars.” After setting quick time and finishing seventh in his Friday qualifying night feature, Stewart accumulated enough points to start outside the front row and he took the lead from the drop of the green flag and pulled away making it look easy and driving through traffic like the veteran he is. The win netted Stewart $10,000. The last two years Stewart was able to carry the 360 Nationals momentum to top five finishes in the 410 Nationals as well. Look for Shane Stewart to be there again next week.

Finishing second was Kevin Swindell who has only raced a sprint car a handful of times this season as the 23 year old Tennessee native chases a NASCAR career, so an impressive run for him and a testament to how much talent he has. Third was 22 year old Oklahoma driver Brady Bacon who was the 410 Nationals rookie of the year in 2011 and also won the USAC non-wing race at Knoxville last year. Bacon has the big half-mile oval figured out and has a chance to make the main event next week as well.

Brian Brown was without a doubt the most entertaining to watch on Saturday night. After a bad qualifying night timing in 35th he only accumulated enough points to start 13th in the Saturday B-Main. Brown made some daring passes the last few laps of the B main to finish fourth and take the last transfer spot to the A main where he started 24th and with no yellow flags was able to drive up to 8th place. If Brown had one or two yellow flags he would have made the top five. Brown was the only car making a lot of passes. The cars up front all drove the high line of the track and stayed separated for the majority of the race.

Winning the Saturday B main was Justin Henderson. Sam Hafertepe Jr. won the C main, Matt Covington won the D main, and Trey Starks won the E main. The start of the C main saw a six car crash on the front straightaway as Austin Johnson and Daryn Pittman made contact and began flipping. Nate Van Haafton, Ryan Roberts, Dylan Peterson, and Koby Barksdale all wrecked trying to avoid Johnson and Pittman. It was a scary crash, especially for Pittman who flipped end over end several times. All six drivers walked away. Another scary crash occurred at the start of the B main involving Gary Taylor of Washington who wrecked on the back stretch in the middle of the field. Luckily the cars behind him were all able to avoid him and Taylor walked away.

Brad Sweet performed double duty on Saturday night as he competed in Newton at the NASCAR Nationwide race finishing 12th and then found a way to Knoxville in time for the 360 Nationals A-Main where he started 17th and finished 17th. Sweet has one World of Outlaws feature win this year and started on the pole of the 410 Nationals in 2011 while subbing for a injured Joey Saldana.

Shane Stewart started eight in the Friday prelim feature and fell back to eleventh at one time, but drove back up to seventh. After that race Stewart was disappointed, but Paul Silva had the set up perfect for Saturday when the title was on the line.
Sunday night is the Capitani Classic 410 tune-up race for the 52nd annual Goodyear Knoxville Nationals that starts Wednesday night and ends on Saturday, August 11.

22nd 360 Knoxville Nationals results: 1. Shane Stewart, 2. Kevin Swindell, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Jack Dover, 5. Roger Crockett, 6. Dusty Zomer, 7. Danny Lasoski, 8. Brian Brown, 9. Wayne Johnson, 10. Tim Kaeding, 11. Jason Johnson, 12. Brooke Tatnell, 13. Clint Garner, 14. Tim Shaffer 15. Justin Henderson 16. Paul McMahan, 17. Brad Sweet, 18. Randy Hannagan, 19. Kaley Gharst, 20. Ryan Anderson, 21.Rager Phillips, 22.Danny Wood, 23. Seth Brahmer, 24. Jonathan Cornell

Tatnell wins night 2 of 360 KXV Nats

Night two of the Arnold Motor Supply 360 Nationals saw another great race with Aussie Brooke Tatnell getting the win after making the winning pass on the tenth circuit of the 20 lap feature. Tony Brucce Jr. had the early lead but faded to a 14th place finish. Local Pleasantville, Iowa driver Rager Phillips grabbed the lead. After a lap nine caution Tatnell was able to get around Phillips and pull away.

Tim Kaeding charged from his ninth starting position to second, but after qualifying 18th and finishing second in his heat he ends up 14th overall in points. He will be a guy to keep an eye on in the championship feature starting in the middle of the field.

410 weekly competitor Dusty Zomer started fifth and finished third in the feature. Zomer had a solid night qualifying seventh, fourth in his heat, places him sixth overall and he will definitely be a contender on Saturday night.

Medford, Oregon driver Roger Crockett finished fourth in the feature. He drew a ten in the qualifying order and timed in second quick, finished third in his heat, and that gives him 486 points, enough for the pole on Saturday.

The defending 360 Nationals champion Shane Stewart drew the seventh spot in qualifying order and set quick time, finished third in his heat race, but was bottled up in traffic early in the feature. Starting eighth he fell back to 12th but managed to race his way back to seventh and accumulate 482 points putting him outside the front row and in contention for a chance to win his fourth 360 Nationals crown.

Quietly veteran Oklahoma driver Danny Wood put together a great night qualifying third, fourth in his heat, and 12th in the feature to pick up 465 points and the tenth starting position on Saturday.

Wayne Johnson drew a 37 in qualifying order but managed to time ninth and finish third in his heat race. Starting fourth in the feature he seemed to struggle to get a handle on the car and backed up to eighth. Wayne will still be a contender starting eleventh on Saturday.

Jason Johnson drew a 47 in qualifying order and timed 21st. That earned him a front row starting spot in his heat race which he won. Stating 12th in the feature he was only able to get to tenth, but he had enough to grab the 20th starting position in the championship race Saturday.

The two time World of Outlaws champ Jason Meyers drew 24 in qualifying order but he timed in 35th out of 52 cars. He started seventh in his heat and transferred into the feature by driving up to fourth. Starting 19th in the feature Meyers raced his way to ninth. Disappointing night for his team and he will line up fifth in the C main on Saturday.

Notables having to race the B-Main are Justin Henderson, Tim Shaffer, Jesse Gianetto,
Kyle Larson, Jon Agan, Terry McCarl, Brian Brown, Johnny Herrera. Saturday is shaping up to be a good show and it will quite a B main to see who grabs the four transfer spots into the A.

Hopefully Kyle Larson chooses to race at Knoxville over Belleville on Saturday. And with Brad Sweet qualified in the 17th spot in the championship feature, hopfully he is done with his Nationwide race up the road 30 miles in Newton in time to get to Knoxville.

I will admit I’m a biased Shane Stewart fan and hope he pulls out the three-peat. But I have to think after the first two nights that Danny Lasoski starting fifth is the odds on favorite. He won the 360 Nationals in 1995. I also think Kevin Swindell starting third will be really tough. And if Brian Brown can advance through the B-Main, I think 25 laps is enough for him to climb his way into the top five, and if the cautions come at the right time, I think he has a legit shot to win it. It should be a great night of racing!

The heat race winners were Jason Johnson, Jordan Boston, Brad Loyet, Sam Hafertepe Jr., Johnny Herrera, all five started on the front row of their heat. Kaley Gharst won the B-Main. Jonathan Allard won the C-Main.

360 Knoxville Nationals Friday Prelim feature finish: 1. Brooke Tatnell, 2. Tim Kaeding, 3. Dusty Zomer, 4. Roger Crockett, 5. Rager Phillips, 6. Tim Shaffer, 7. Shane Stewart, 8. Wayne Johnson, 9. Jason Meyers, 10. Jason Johnson, 11. Justin Henderson, 12. Danny Wood, 13. Johnny Herrera, 14. Tony Bruce Jr. 15. Jeff Swindell, 16. Kaley Gharst, 17. Sam Hafertepe Jr., 18. Dustin Daggett, 19. Gary Taylor, 20. Brad Loyet, 21. Seth Brahmer, 22. Dennis Moore Jr., 23. Jordan Boston, 24. Matt Juhl.

Saturday A-Main lineup:
11 Crockett – 57 Stewart, 39 Swindell – 99 Bacon, 1m Lasoski – 91 Zomer, 53D Dover – 14T Tatnell, 01 McMahan – 81 Wood, 77x W Johnson – 40 Garner, 28 Cornell – 83JR Kaeding, 71R Anderson – 9P Phillips, 49 Sweet – 22H Hannagan, 6x Gharst – 41 J Johnson

Knoxville Nationals 101

The Knoxville Nationals Grimes Points System (Was created by promoter P. Ray Grimes)

Time Trials: 1st 200 points, 2nd 198, 3rd 196, and drops 2 points per position.

Heat Races: 1st 100, 2nd 97, 3rd 94, and drops 3 points per position.

A-Main: (same as time trials) 24th 154 points.

B-Main: 5th place 142, 6th 140, dropping 2 points per position

The qualifying night heat races are lined up by time trials with 6 cars inverted in the 360 nationals and 8 cars inverted in the 410 nationals. So quick time falls into heat 1 in the 6th position, 2nd quick is in heat 2 in the 6th position, etc.

Heat race finishing position 1-4 transfer to the A-main, positions 5-8 go the B main, 9-10 to the C main.

The C and B mains are lined up by time trials with no invert, so the fastest car in the B main starts on the pole.

The A main has a invert of 8. So the fastest car transferring from the heat races will start 8th, second quickest in 7th…. 8th fastest of the cars transferring from the heats is on the pole. 9th fastest starts 9th, etc. All heats and mains are lined up according to your qualifying time.

At then end of the night the points are added up. So quick time in qualifying earns the same amount of points as winning the A-Main (200) and a perfect score is 500.

After both qualifying nights the points are combined and the top cars are locked in and lined up by point totals. Make sense?

This system has been used for long long time, and it works.

Every position matters in every event. No settling for a transfer spot in the heat race, you have to keep racing to earn more points. And qualifying is a huge part of the format as it's just as important as the feature, and determines the lineup of everything. And you don't get your time spot back if you transfer to the A main. You tag the tail. There are no extra passing points.

The top 16 over all from Wednesday and Thursday points are locked in for Saturday's A-Main. Position 17-26 points have the option to start up front in the Saturday B-Main or hit the reset button and race Friday night. Positions 17-20 of the Saturday A-Main are made up of the top four finishers on Friday night's feature. Friday night feature finishers 5-14 make up the last five rows of the B-Main Saturday, and as they finish on Friday from there is where you start in the C, D, and E on Saturday.


KNOXVILLE NATIONALS POINTS SYSTEM

A-Main and Time Trials: 1-200, 2-198, 3-196, 4-194, 5-192, 6-190, 7-188, 8-186, 9-184, 10-182, 11-180, 12-178, 13-176, 14-174, 15-172, 16-170, 17-168, 18-166, 19-164, 20-162...

Heats: 1-100, 2-97, 3-94, 4-91, 5-88, 6-85, 7-82, 8-79, 9-76, 10-73

The Dude wins night number one of Sprint Week

The first of two preliminary nights of the Arnold Motor Supply 360 Knoxville Nationals got off to huge start on Thursday night as fellow Missouri competitors Danny Lasoski and Jonathan Cornell battled back and forth the entire 20 lap feature. Just when it looked like Cornell had a run to pass Lasoski on the last lap Cornell’s left rear tire popped coming off of turn four and he coasted across the finish line in a heartbreaking fifth place. Cornell led laps 1-4, Lasoski 5-11, Cornell 12-13, and Lasoski 14-20, and those are just at the finish line, that doesn’t count the other passes in the race. But what a great race! The 360 Nationals is my favorite event of the year. Better racing in my opinion.

The win for Lasoski was enough to place him third overall in Nationals qualifying points system for the night after timing tenth and finishing second in his heat race.

After qualifying a disappointing 35th Brian Brown advanced from his heat race and into the feature where he started 19th and raced his way to second place putting on a great show for the fans.

Kevin Swindell went out late in the qualifying draw and managed to clock in sixth fastest and then finished third in the feature. That is enough to give Swindell a share of the overall points lead after night as he is tied with Brady Bacon who put together a solid night timing second, finished third in his heat, and seventh in the feature.

Also having good points nights was Nebraska’s Jack Dover who finished fourth in the feature and is fourth in the point totals. Paul McMahan is fifth after a eighth place feature finish.

Clint Garner sits sixth in points after he set quick time at the beginning of the night thanks to the Parker Performance engine under the hood. Winning time trials is worth the same amount of points as the feature. Garner wasn’t able to finish in the top four of his heat race and had to run the B-main where he finished second. After starting 22nd in the A-main he clawed his way up to 13th.

Randy Hannagan was looking good qualifying fifth, winning his heat race, and was marching to the front of the feature when his car popped out of gear on lap five and had to pull the car in for a 23rd place finish. Although Hannagan sits tenth in points, his team has to be disappointed of what might have been.

The underdog story of the night was Deloit, Iowa driver Ryan Anderson who used a 12th place qualifying, second place heat race finish, and a ninth place feature finish to net a eighth place point total.

The track was perfect for racing. Kudos to the Dunkin's on track prep.

It's too bad the draw order is such an advantage/disadvantage. Other than using one lap instead of two I don't know how you can make it any more fair. It's just amazing how quickly the track changes. The top ten in qualifying and by order of draw was: 1. Garner (11th), 2. Bacon (3), 3. Martin (1), 4. Selvage (25), 5. Hannagan (10), 6. Swindell (53), 7. Agan (46), 8. Dover (21), 9. McMahan (20), 10. Lasoski (34). I'm not saying someone like Randy Martin might not have timed in the top ten regardless of drawing 1 or 50, but it's an obvious advantage to pull one of the top numbers compared to Brown, Pittman, Stenhouse, McCarl, etc. And for drivers like Kevin Swindell, Selvage, Agan, and Lasoski to time so well later in the order shows how good they were.

Winning heat races was Kyle Larson, Tony Schilling, Danny Jennings, Jesse Giianetto, and Randy Hannagan. Terry McCarl won the B-Main.

56 cars raced on night number one and 56 more are scheduled for Friday night before the field is combined into the respective championship features on Saturday night!

360 Knoxville Nationals Thursday Prelim feature finish: 1. Danny Lasoski, 2. Brian Brown, 3. Kevin Swindell, 4. Jack Dover, 5. Jonathan Cornell, 6. Brad Sweet, 7. Brady Bacon, 8. Paul McMahan, 9. Ryan Anderson, 10. Kyle Larson, 11. Jesse Gianetto, 12. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 13. Clint Garner, 14. Tony Schilling, 15. RJ Johnson, 16. Henry Van Dam, 17. Terry McCarl, 18. Jake Martens, 19. Bobby Mincer, 20. Tony Norem, 21. Danny Jennings, 22. Logan Forler, 23. Randy Hannagan, 24. Jon Agan.