Brown back on top at Knoxville!

Brian Brown - Jeff White photo

Week three of the Lucas Oil Knoxville Championship Cup Series saw cooler temperatures and slower track conditions, making for great racing.  Heavy hitters and Nationals contenders Brian Brown, Terry McCarl, and Craig Dollansky took the podium.  It was 66 degrees at 6:45pm, at 55 at feature time.  It was chilly for the fans but with free kids night, free college night, and adults getting in free if they filled out an application at the job fair before the races, the crowd was good. 

It wasn’t a full moon this past Saturday, but a lot strange things happened.  The PA system went out during the singing of the national anthem.  The track safety lights had issues off and on.  The light pole in turn one with the cell tower connected to it went out.  The drone camera crashed on the track.  And we had 6 red flags for a total of 34 minutes in downtime.  But at least it was a safe night in the end with no drivers getting seriously hurt.  Cole Wood was taken to the hospital for a checkup on his ankle but it doesn’t sound too serious. 


The worst wreck of the night was in the 305 heat race with Kade Higday and Chris Horton.  Kade got the worst of it.  Thankfully everyone was OK.  After the accident the talk in the pit area was how well the front axle tethers performed on Higday’s car, as that was an ideal crash for front axles to break loose from the car and get airborne.  I’m so glad we pushed for that rule last year.

410 Report
Top 10 Qualifying:  Justin Henderson set quick time for the second week in a row with a lap of 15.293 (117.7 mph), followed by Heskin, McCarl, Dollansky, Jeffrey, Bunton, Selvage, RJ Johnson, Brown, and Zomer.

Henderson is dominating qualifying after three nights of racing finishing second, first, and first for an average of 1.3.  Terry McCarl has the next best qualifying finish average of 3.3.  Davey Heskin was impressive grabbing second quick time going out 31st out of 33 cars.

Heat winners were Brown, Dobmeier, Garner, and Madsen. With 32 or more cars qualifying the format becomes four heat races instead of three, making the drivers have to finish in the top five of their heat race to transfer to the A-Main. All four heat winners came from the second row. The top 8 cars would draw for starting position.  Bunton was the only car in the top 8 of qualifying to not transfer to the feature after crashing in his heat race.

Lynton Jeffrey took off with the lead early but couldn’t hold off Brian Brown on lap seven in turn two.  From there Brown just had to fend off a charge from McCarl on a restart and he won easily.  The win was a big one for Brown who hadn’t won a race yet this season and had some tough nights on the road out west with the Outlaws.  McCarl was solid in second and is the point leader.  He is the only driver to finish in the top five all three nights this season.  Dollansky climbed to third, Zomer made his way from ninth to fourth, and Jeffrey settled for fifth.  Oddly the first and second drivers in points (McCarl and Henderson) have yet to win a feature, but I have a feeling that will change soon enough.

Heskin looked better this past week than he has the first two weeks. Clint Garner has impressed me as well.  He hasn’t had a good qualifying run yet, but he sure has passed a lot of cars in the features finishing eighth twice.  Dustin Selvage is sneaky good with three top ten finishes.  This kid gets better and better.  Bronson Maeschen is tenth in points, things just haven’t gone his way so far, but he has been fast and I look for him to rebound.  Mark Dobmeier is off to a slow start with finishes of 20th, 24th, and 12th.  I look for Dobs to rebound as well.  

410 A Main Finish (started): 1. Brian Brown (3); 2. Terry McCarl (6); 3. Craig Dollansky (5); 4. Dusty Zomer (9); 5. Lynton Jeffrey (1); 6. Davey Heskin (7); 7. Ian Madsen (10); 8. Clint Garner (13); 9. Justin Henderson (4); 10. Dustin Selvage (8); 11. Don Droud Jr. (20); 12. Mark Dobmeier (12); 13. Brooke Tatnell (11); 14. Josh Schneiderman (17); 15. Bronson Maeschen (19); 16. Mike Moore (23); 17. Chris Martin (14); 18. Bob Weuve (24); 19. Larry Ball Jr. (15); 20. Dakota Hendrickson (21); 21. RJ Johnson (2); 22. Rob Kubli (22); 23. Garrett Dollansky (16); 24. Cole Wood (18). Lap Leaders: Jeffrey 1-7, Brown 8-20. Hard-charger: Droud Jr.


360 Report
Russ Hall set quick time at 16.218, which might be a first for Russ.  Good to see his team has improved on the qualifying set up.  Henderson was second quick followed by Alley, Agan, and Cornell.  Heat winners were Agan (third row), Dylan Peterson (first row), and Carson McCarl (second row). Jon Agan looked bad fast in his heat race and I picked him to win the feature after that race.

Joe Beaver started up front and took the early lead. Jamie Ball challenged and took the lead on lap 6 but Beaver got back by him on the next lap and went on to get the win. Still a great run for Ball as that was his career best finish in a 360.

Russ Hall spun on lap four and again on lap 12.  He was forced to pull in causing two cautions.  That was tough break for him after starting the night with quick time and having a chance to win.

Jon Agan was clearly the fastest car early in the race, coming to the front running third after 6 laps, but it seemed that the caution flag hurt his momentum and maybe his tire sealed up, because his car wasn’t the same after that.  He drifted back to fifth in the end, but this guy has been fast the past three weeks with three top five finishes, a heat win, and a qualifying average of 4.7.  Those numbers have earned him the point lead, while the Sundby #1 holds the owners points lead by 61 points over Agan. 

360 A Main Finish (started): 1. Joe Beaver (1); 2. Jamie Ball (3); 3. Justin Henderson (7); 4. Jonathan Cornell (4); 5. Jon Agan (5); 6. Nate Van Haaften (9); 7. Jarrod Schneiderman (2); 8. Billy Alley (6); 9. Tony Shilling (10); 10. Matt Moro (19); 11. Dylan Peterson (13); 12. Carson McCarl (11); 13. Tom Lenz (17); 14. Mike Houseman Jr. (20); 15. Calvin Landis (12); 16. CJ Houseman (21); 17. Mike Van Haaften (16); 18. Corey Timmerman (22); 19. Phil Dietz (23); 20. John Hall (14); 21. Sawyer Phillips (15); 22. Russ Hall (8); 23. Matt Juhl (18). Lap Leaders: Beaver 1-5, J. Ball 6, Beaver 7-15. Hard-charger: Moro.

305 Report
J Kinder was quick time 17.211.  Heat winners were Matthew Stelzer, Mike Philben, and Jeff Wilke.  Kevin Hetrick led early but couldn’t hold off Stelzer much passed halfway.  Chris Walraven was running in the top five when his engine let go on lap three and the rear end locked up causing him to spin out.  The race was on from there with Stelzer trying to real in Kinder and Breazeale gaining on them both at the end.  Keoni Texeira was running third and gaining on the leaders early, but it seemed his car went away from him and was loose as he held on to finish seventh.  Texeira is improving each week.  Stacy Alexander put on a good show coming from 14th to fifth.

305 A Main (started): 1. J Kinder (8); 2. Matthew Stelzer (3); 3. Steve Breazeale (5); 4. Kevin Hetrick (2); 5. Stacey Alexander (14); 6. Tanner Edwards (1); 7. Keoni Texeira (4); 8. Jeff Wilke (12); 9. Mike Philben (7); 10. Mike Mayberry (19); 11. Josh Jones (17); 12. Bob Hildreth (16); 13. Andee Beierle (23); 14. Steve Palmer (10); 15. Lee Patterson (15); 16. Corey Kautz (13); 17. Kevin Hiemstra (24); 18. Christopher Scank (18); 19. Chris Walraven (6); 20. Sarena Paul (11) Lap Leaders: Hetrick 1-6, Kinder 7-12. Hard-charger: Beierle.

Notes
The competition in the 410 class is as tough as advertised.  McCarl, Brown, Dollansky, Henderson, and Heskin have a combined 25 top ten finishes at the Knoxville Nationals, and it is likely that Lasoski will be at Knoxville this coming week.  I fully expect the point race to come down to McCarl, Dollansky, and Henderson in the end.

I’m surprised Henderson hasn’t won a 360 feature by now, but that just goes to show how much talent we have in the 360 class as well.

Brandon Bingham has been a busy busy man assembling video for the debut of our MavTV program beginning on June 5.  I can’t wait to check it out.  Be sure to check out some of his work on the Knoxville Raceway YouTube channel.

The chicken bites have changed.  No longer are they crispy and spicy.  They are mild and have more “meat” to them but seem to be more popular with the fans.  I however have to respectfully disagree.  But if my backup plan for supper on race nights is the tenderloin, I can live with that. (Update: I am being told that the optional "spicy chicken bites" are also available in the concessions.) 

I’ll be back next week with more tidbits.