Dollansky wins week #6 at Knoxville Raceway!

Race #6 of the Knoxville Championship Cup Series

Saturday was another great night for racing on this Memorial Day weekend. The weather was perfect and another nice crowd turned out for what I would say was the best 410 feature of the season.  The race track was nice and wide and the Dunkin track crew nailed it on this night with a top, bottom, and a middle groove at times once the loose stuff from the bottom was thrown to the middle.

31 cars entered in the 410 class, one shy to have a fourth heat race, which made the three heat format very intense as only 18 cars made the heat inversion instead of 24 cars with the four heat format.

Roger Crockett from Oregon was in the LaHaise BWW #82 this week, Jason Johnson and Brad Loyet were back again, one more week and I think we can consider them “Knoxville Regulars”.  Unfortunately Rico Abreu had a last minute change of plans as their 410 car isn’t quite ready yet and he opted to race midgets at Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. 

Brian Brown’s crew chief is Chad Morgan. Chad’s brother, Chris made his first appearance at Knoxville this season in the 360 class and did well. Randy Martin also made his first appearance this season. Kris Miller and female driver Jordan Weaver towed from Oklahoma to race in the 360 class as well.

410 Report
Top 10 Qualifying:  Justin Henderson set quick time for the third time this season with a lap of 15.426 (115.6 mph), followed by Brown, Jeffrey, McCarl, Heskin, Madsen, Dollansky, Zomer, Lasoski, and Bunton. 15.426 is the slowest quick time of the season, typically when the track is slower that equates to better racing and a wide track.

Heat winners were Cole Wood (started 1st), Larry Ball Jr. (2nd), and Maeschen (2nd). McCarl was impressive in heat one coming from fifth to second, while Ryan Bunton made contact with the turn three fence and was done for the night. The top eight cars in qualifying made it through their heat races and redrew for their starting positions.

The B-Main was a lengthy race with two separate red flags, one for Bob Weuve and another for Skylar Prochaska, both drivers were OK.  Brad Loyet won the B-Main.  

In the A-Main Dollansky and Heskin drew the front row and early it was Heskin getting the better start using the bottom line to lead lap one. Heskin then moved to the top groove and stayed there and held a comfortable lead until lap eleven when Brooke Tatnell rolled to a stop. This set up restart with the running order being Heskin, Dollansky, Henderson, McCarl, Zomer, Lasoski, Brown, Jeffrey, Dobmeier, and J.Johnson. On the restart both Heskin and Dollansky stayed up on the cushion around turns one and two, but Dollansky had more momentum coming off of turn two and as they raced into turn three Dollansky dove low and slid up in front of Heskin to get the lead. Heskin battled back on the bottom groove to regain the point off of turn two and went back to the high side in turns three and four. Heskin was the leader at the line when they completed lap 13, but Dollansky came back under Heskin with a slide job going into turn one to get the lead back once again. Dollansky's slider took the air off of Heskin's car and he lost his momentum briefly, then Henderson came into the picture racing for second. Heskin went back to his bread and butter, the bottom groove and made up ground to catch back up to Dollansky. On laps 17, 18, and 19, Heskin and Dollansky were back and forth as Heskin was better in turns one and two, but Dollansky was better in turns three and four. They were side by side at the line at the white flag, but Dollansky pinched Heskin to the bottom going into turn one, slamming the door for good, and went on to win. Meanwhile on the restart Lasoski went from sixth to fourth.  It was a big win for Dollansky.    

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

360 Report
Justin Henderson set quick time for the third straight week and fourth time this season at 16.358 followed by Dylan Peterson, Beaver, Jamie Ball, Agan, Russ Hall, J.Johnson, Martin.  Heat winners were VanHaaften (started 1st), Agan (5th), and Ball (5th). Some really good heat races in the 360’s this week with Agan and Hall showing some muscle, both winning from the third row of their heats.

The initial start of the 360 feature saw Jarrod Schneiderman pass Jonathan Cornell before they reached the white starting line, as they raced down the front stretch Schneiderman cut off Cornell causing Cornell to spin out at the flag stand and as cars went by Kris Miller and Mike Van Haaften were collected, ending Cornell and Miller’s night.

On the next start Jason Johnson slide up high to take the lead from Randy Martin, but Russ Hall used the bottom line to pass them both and then he slid up in front of Johnson in turns and three and four to lead the first lap. Hall was pulling away, but Mike Houseman Jr. rolled to a stop with only one lap complete. On the restart Hall went high, Jason Johnson went low and shot to the lead off of turn two. Sawyer Phillips spun out twice unassisted and was sent to the pits. With ten laps to the order was Johnson, Hall, Ball, Henderson, Agan, Beaver, Peterson, Moro.  On the restart Jamie Ball drove around the rim of the track to get around Hall for second, but Hall battled back to claim second, Agan got around Ball for third at the end as Jason Johnson pulled away to win.

360 A Main Finish (started): 1. Jason Johnson (2); 2. Russ Hall (3); 3. Jon Agan (4); 4. Jamie Ball (5); 5. Justin Henderson (8); 6. Joe Beaver (6); 7. Dylan Peterson (7); 8. Matt Moro (9); 9. Jarrod Schneiderman (12); 10. Matt Juhl (13); 11. Nate Van Haaften (16); 12. Calvin Landis (11); 13. Tony Shilling (14); 14. CJ Houseman (17); 15. Chris Morgan (24); 16. Tom Lenz (23); 17. Randy Martin (1); 18. Jordan Weaver (21); 19. Corey Timmerman (20); 20. Mike Van Haaften (26); 21. Tyler Brooks (25); 22. Sawyer Phillips (18); 23. Jeff Heffner (19); 24. Mike Houseman Jr. (15); 25. Jonathan Cornell (10); 26. Kris Miller (22). Lap Leaders: R. Hall 1, J. Johnson 2-15. Hard-charger: Morgan.

305 Report
Chris Walraven st quick time for the second time this season with a lap if 17.129. Heat winners were Dustin Clark (started 2nd), Stelzer (5th), and Kade Higday (3rd). It was the third heat win of the season for Higday and Stelzer.

At the start of the feature Kevin Hetrick split the front row of Philben and Haase going through turn one and took the lead. Hetrcik never looked back from there. On a couple of occasions Haase was able to real in Hetrick but didn’t have enough to catch him. It was Hetrick’s first career win at Knoxville Raceway, which had to feel good after leading the first six laps of the feature in week #3 before losing to J.Kinder.

305 A Main (started): 1. Kevin Hetrick (4); 2. McKenna Haase (2); 3. Mitchell Alexander (6); 4. Matthew Stelzer (5); 5. J Kinder (9); 6. Stacey Alexander (19); 7. Mike Philben (1); 8. Steve Breazeale (7); 9. Keoni Texeira (3); 10. Jeff Wilke (14); 11. Mike Mayberry (10); 12. Chris Walraven (8); 13. Dustin Clark (13); 14. Tanner Edwards (11); 15. Kade Higday (12); 16. Andee Beierle (17); 17. Bob Hildreth (15); 18. Chase Wanner (21); 19. Corey Kautz (16); 20. Lee Patterson (18); 21. Kevin Hiemstra (20) DNS – Steve Palmer. Lap Leader: Hetrick 1-12. Hard-charger: S. Alexander.

Notes
Stacey Alexander has won the 305 hard charger award five of the six weeks this season. If this team can figure out how to qualify better, they could win a race.

17 year-old McKenna Haase was impressive again this week, winning her heat race and finishing second in the feature. This might be the most talented female sprint car driver I have seen since Erin Crocker.  No female driver has ever won a feature at the Knoxville Raceway, so her second place finish makes history. Looking through the history records the best finishes before this week were a third place finish by Natalie Sather in a 360 feature on June 7, 2008, and Erin Crocker finishing fourth in a 360 Nationals prelim feature in 2003. Can McKenna win a feature? Absolutely. The media blitz this girl is getting this is season is legit.

Dylan Peterson is a rookie in the 360 class this season and has shown solid improvement each week. He qualified second this week and had his first top ten feature finish with a seventh. Keep your eye on this guy.

The Sundby #1 still leads 360 owner’s points as Henderson continues to dominate qualifying and his average finish is 3.8. 

Jon Agan leads driver points and is also leading the Sprint Invaders series point standings, and he won at 34 Raceway in Burlington on Sunday night. This guy is due for a win. He has yet to finish outside the top five this season at Knoxville with an average finish of 3.3.

Craig Dollansky’s experience was too much for Davey Heskin in the end on this Saturday night. Heskin ran a good race and he has climbed from seventh to third in the points the past three weeks. What a privilege to be able to watch Dollansky each week at Knoxville.  

Terry McCarl is the man at the top of the points. T-Mac has looked good so far this season, but hasn’t been able to get a win.  Ian Madsen is quietly sitting in second place as and is the only driver with six top ten finishes in the first six weeks.

Brian Brown didn’t win four in a row this week.  He drew the #8 starting spot and he finished sixth in the feature, never really gaining on Henderson or McCarl. Brownie had to be scratching his head after this night, but I also feel like they are experimenting a bit trying new things as they focus on the Nationals. Brown is seventh in points despite missing one week, earning an average of 320 points per week. McCarl leads the points earning an average of 308 points per week. I don’t think Brown plans to stay to race for the championship, but he could sure make it interesting if he did.

It was good to have Danny Lasoski back this week. He ran a solid fourth.   

Don Droud Jr. was the hard charger for the third time this season.

I’ll be back next week with more tidbits.