Knoxville Nationals 101

The Knoxville Nationals qualifying scoring system is something I get questions about frequently.  I thought it would be nice to have an explanation in the blog to reference to.  The Knoxville Nationals Points System was created by promoter Ray Grimes and his wife Naomi.

Harris Clash to Strickler

The 2013 edition of the Harris Clash was dominated by North Carolina driver Kyle Strickler ,who becomes the events first repeat winner in its 22 year history. Strickler led all 25 laps after drawing a front row starting position and was out to a seven second lead before the races only caution came on lap nineteen. On the restart Strickler pulled away again to win comfortably. The race behind Strickler was action packed as Richie Gustin drove from seventeenth to second, passing Jesse Sobbing with two laps remaining, and Mike Van Genderen came from twenty-second to sixth. Eric Dailey was given the promoter’s provisional twenty-fifth starting spot being a former champion (2011) of the event and drove up to an eleventh place finish. Last years runner-up Jeremy Mills had just made the pass for the fourth position when he broke and came to a stop in turn four to bring out the race’s only caution, and finished twentieth.

My Iowa Speedweek

I’m extremely fortunate to have a wife that likes racing, and this week she decided we should go to Marshalltown Tuesday, Osky Wednesday, Farley Thursday, Columbus Junction on Friday. Farley and CJ makes it 14 ovals I’ve seen races at in Iowa, out of 45 total by my count in the state. My goal is to see a race at them all, but it’s going to take some time. If you follow me on twitter and Instagram I have pictures and some video of each night.

Marshalltown on Tuesday was a short show for the stock shootout, which was fine for a week night and work night. The best race of the week was here in the SportMod feature with Travis Peterson getting the win on the last lap with a pass over Jared Van Deest. Donavan Smith won the Stock Car race as he stalked Jay Schmidt before finally making the pass stick. Devin Smith walked away from the field in Hobby Stocks. Marshalltown was the best racing I saw all week, not a surprise really.

Wednesday night at Oskaloosa Todd Shute won Modifieds, Zack VanderBeek won stock cars, Curtis VanDerWal won SportMod, and the big upset of the night was Danny Thrasher holding off Mike Hughes to win Hobby. Joyce and Dick Eisele have the full report of Osky and Marshalltown in the 4D Fan Report.

Thursday we made the nearly 3 hour trek to Farley Speedway for the $10,000 to win Modifieds, $5,000 to win SportMod, Aftermarket Nationals. This was a declaration of independence of sorts for the non crate motor side of Modified racing. I’m smelling a split in the Modified division long term if more of these events keep coming, like the Marshalltown World Nationals coming this fall. This was a lot of money to race for, and they had a good crowd of more than 2,000 in the stands. But the racing was awful and as the race track was not prepared well at all. With only four races on the schedule for the night, it was disappointing. After hot laps the track was basically gone. The track crew attempted to rework it after the SportMod B main and in one lap it was bone dry again. Both races turned into asphalt races with rubber down conditions. I am spoiled going to nice facilities like Knoxville, but this was a small half-mile track and it has been reconfigured to a 3/8. The light poles are still set of the old configuration, so no lighting in turns three and four was a little strange. If you are going to go to all the trouble of reconfiguring the track, why would you not move the plush Musco lighting with it? Otherwise the stands and concession facilities are decent.

Eric Pollard started on the pole of the SportMOd feature and won, Shawn Kilgore started outside row one, and won the Modified feature leading the whole 50 lap parade. Kyle Strickler was fun to watch coming from 26th to 7th, but half the cars he passed spun out or broke. Andy Eckrich was impressive passing cars as well finishing third. Good to see big names like Strickler and Kelly Shryock there. The track also didn’t use radios to communicate with drivers and had to lineup them up on restarts the old fashioned way, which was a pain for fans to have sit and wait, and wait, and wait. We drove home disappointed, but since I had driven to Farley twice in the past, and was rained out both times, I felt like I conquered the track to finally see a race there.

Friday started with a meet and greet with Big Daddy Don Garlits at Musco headquarters in Oskaloosa, where he fired up an old swamp rat dragster, which was just simply awesome. The old man is 81 years old, and proud of it. He will be making an appearance at Eddyville Raceway Park on Saturday.

Friday night we made the drive to CJ Speedway in Columbus Junction. This again was an old half mile reconfigured to a 4/10, or big 3/8. I hate to complain about seeing a race once again, but this facility was filled with mosquito’s, bees, and spiders. And the pit area sits about four feet higher than the racing surface while the stands are not elevated and we couldn’t see the cars most of the way down the backstretch or entering turn three. There was a truck division, and when I say truck, I mean that in a singular way, one truck. The Mod LItes were entertaining, Mods were fast but couldn’t pass on a narrow track. Thankfully Nathan Wood made a good race out of the $750 stock car special and won after clawing his way from third at one point. This track was narrow and difficult to pass until the top slowed down enough to make the bottom groove about equal. Another disappointing night in general, but it’s another dirt track in my log.

I can’t wait to get back to Knoxville on Saturday night!!!