Knoxville Season Championship & Stats

Knoxville Raceway Season Championship

Car Count: 81 sprint cars were in the pits. (28-410, 27-360, 26-305).
For the sixth time we reached over 80 cars in the 12 “regular shows” this season. 28 cars in the 410 class was a season low, while the 360 and 305 classes were above the season average.

Weather:  84 degrees, 79% humidity, Winds East 8mph, Dew Point 77 degrees.
84 degrees ties for the hottest day of the year, and humidity and dew point were at a season high. After nearly 2” of rain overnight and in the morning, the track and infield were in great shape!

All three point championships were still up for grabs heading into the night.  In the 410 class the top six drivers were mathematically alive. That speaks to the level of competition at Knoxville Raceway this season. Ultimately all three point leaders would hold on to their leads and win. 

410 Report
Top 10 Qualifying:  Justin Henderson set quick time for the fourth time this season with a lap of 15.087 which was the third best quick time of the season. Henderson, Heskin, McCarl, Madsen, Dobmeier, Zomer, Tatnell, and Brown rounded out the top ten and all would advance to the A-Main.

Heat winners were Danny Lasoski (started 1st), Tasker Phillips (2nd), and Bronson Maeschen (2nd). The track was fast and with only three heats, invert of six, and taking six in to the A-Main, not much to race for except for points.  Henderson and McCarl both started sixth in their respective heats and both finished second. No B-Main was held.

The top 8 cars were inverted for the A-Main putting Brian Brown and Brooke Tatnell on the front row.  Brown jumped out to the early lead with Dobmeier, McCarl, Zomer, and Madsen making up the top five after five laps. Madsen passed Zomer for fourth early as Brown pulled away and was out to a full straightaway lead until lap 19 when Bronson Maeschen crashed hard on the front stretch. As Maeschen was crashing Glenn Saville slowed to a stop to avoid the crash and Brown couldn’t get slowed down in time and his left front made contact with Saville’s right rear and he was forced to go to the work area. Brown had lapped up to the 12th place at this point and would restart after his crew made repairs under the red flag. Dobmeier inherited the lead and took full advantage holding off a charge from McCarl and Dobs would pick up his first win of the season at Knoxville. The track was fast low, middle, and high with plenty of lanes for passing, but everyone was equally good all over the track and it was difficult to pass. Brown would race his way back up to seventh.  Madsen needed to finish seventh or better to lock up the championship and he finished fourth with a damaged top wing the last 3 laps.

410 A-Main Finish (started): 1. Mark Dobmeier (4); 2. Terry McCarl (6); 3. Dusty Zomer (3); 4. Ian Madsen (5); 5. Craig Dollansky (9); 6. Justin Henderson (8); 7. Brian Brown (1); 8. Brooke Tatnell (2); 9. Davey Heskin (7); 10. Lynton Jeffrey (10); 11. Danny Lasoski (14); 12. Tasker Phillips (12); 13. Don Droud Jr. (11); 14. Ryan Bunton (20); 15. Josh Schneiderman (17); 16. Matt Moro (19); 17. RJ Johnson (23); 18. Dakota Hendrickson (15); 19. Mike Moore (18); 20. Chris Martin (24); 21. Glen Saville (16); 22. Austin Johnson (21); 23. Bob Weuve (22); 24. Bronson Maeschen (13) DNS – Clint Garner, Cole Wood, TJ Peterson, Jamie Ball. Lap Leaders: Brown 1-19, Dobmeier 20-25. Hard-charger: Bunton.

Looking at the season stats the interesting numbers I see is the average feature finish from races 1-6 and 8-12 (week 7 was rained out after time trials).  Dusty Zomer was the best car the second half of the season with a 3.8 average finish.  Other drivers who were better the second half of the season than the first half, Madsen, Henderson, Dobmeier, and Droud. 

I have also included average starting position, and the number of cars passed over the entire season (taking out Nationals of course) with a plus/minus total. I have also included money winnings here, estimated to the best of my ability. I'm not sure I have the purse of the Capitani Classic right throughout the whole list here, but I have Ian Madsen's win there factored in at $5,000 for that event. 

360 Report
Justin Henderson set quick time for the seventh time this season and the BDS team parked the car for the night as they had enough points to clinch the owners championship at that point. Joe Beaver, Billy Alley, Nate Van Haaften, and Calvin Landis rounded out the top five.  

Heat winners were Tony Shilling (started 1st), Cody Ledger (1st), and Jon Agan (3rd).

Matt Moro dominated this race wire to wire. Tasker Phillips made his first 360 weekly appearance of the season and finished second. Carson McCarl had his best finish of the season in third. Joe Beaver would need to finish 20th or better to clinch the championship and would finish sixth.

360 A Main Finish (started): 1. Matt Moro (2); 2. Tasker Phillips (1); 3. Carson McCarl (4); 4. Billy Alley (7); 5. Nate Van Haaften (6); 6. Joe Beaver (8); 7. Dylan Peterson (3); 8. Tony Shilling (13); 9. Jon Agan (9); 10. Jarrod Schneiderman (15); 11. Jesse Giannetto (12); 12. Cody Ledger (14); 13. Mike Houseman Jr. (16); 14. Tom Lenz (10); 15. Calvin Landis (19); 16. Evan Martin (24); 17. John Hall (11); 18. CJ Houseman (18); 19. Patrick Bourke (23); 20. Jamie Ball (20); 21. Jeff Heffner (22); 22. Sawyer Phillips (5); 23. Russ Hall (17); 24. Alan Ambers (21) DNS – Alan Zoutte, Tyler Brooks, Justin Henderson. Lap Leaders: Moro 1-20. Hard-charger: E. Martin.

 

305 Report
J Kinder set quick time for the third time this season and after one lap his engine blew. Keoni Texeira was second, followed by Steve Breazeale, Jeff Wilke, and Mitchell Alexander was the top five.

Devin Kline would sacrifice his night and let Kinder borrow his engine to stay in the hunt for the track championship. Kinder missed his heat race, but would start 19th in the A Main where he would need to finish within three positions of Breazeale in order to win the championship. Kinder charged through the field and would pass Breazeale with a few lap to go to finish fifth.

Heat winners were Mike Philben (started 2nd), McKenna Haase (2nd), and Stacey Alexander (3rd).  In the 305 heats history was made with three female competitors all in the same heat race for the first time ever at Knoxville. McKenna Haase, Andee Beierle, and Terri O'Connell were all in heat two. There were a 3 nights at the beginning of the season where McKenna, Andee, and Serena Paul competed together, which is the first time we had 3 female competitors racing on the same night before Serena's season ended, but never all three in the same heat race.

Clark led lap one but Hetrick drove by him on lap two. On lap nine Clark would use lapped traffic to pick off Hetrick to regain the lead. Stacey Alexander came from tenth and was side by side with Clark entering turn three on the last lap, but Clark would hang on to get his first career win at Knoxville.

305 A Main Finish (started): 1. Dustin Clark (1); 2. Stacey Alexander (10); 3. Kevin Hetrick (4); 4. Mitchell Alexander (5); 5. J Kinder (19); 6. Steve Breazeale (7); 7. Mike Mayberry (2); 8. Jeff Wilke (6); 9. McKenna Haase (12); 10. Mike Philben (11); 11. Matthew Stelzer (16); 12. Joe Simbro (13); 13. Tanner Edwards (14); 14. Keoni Texeira (8); 15. Laney Feight (23); 16. Kade Higday (9); 17. Cody Ambers (17); 18. Bob Hildreth (15); 19. Lee Patterson (22); 20. Michael Fishel (21); 21. Rob Weuve (18); 22. Andee Beierle (3); 23. Terri O'Connell (20) DNS – Chris Walraven, Devin Kline, Christopher Scank. Lap Leaders: Clark 1, Hetrick 2-8, Clark 9-15. Hard-charger: Kinder.

 

Notes
It was pretty cool to see three new drivers become track champions this year. All three worked hard to get to the top, and all three finished runner-up a year ago in their respective classes.

Ian Madsen had the most top ten finishes, and was tied with the most top five’s, but his most important stat was his average time trial finish of 7.5 and he led the most A-Main laps, 97. I’m not knocking anyone here, but timing just right to start up front of the 8 car invert each week paid off for these guys. McCarl’s average time trial finish was 4.1, the best of anyone all season. Qualifying good is great for points, but it hurt McCarl this year a little bit with the competition being so equal and so good.    

Ian Madsen and Kerry Madsen are the first set of brothers to win the 410 track championship at Knoxville Raceway, and Ian is the third Aussie to win it.  The only other set of brothers to win championships at Knoxville is Dean and Mike Chadd of Nebraska who won 360 championships back in 1985 and 1987 respectively.

Terry McCarl finished second in 410 points for the fifth time in his career. He finished second in 1993, 94, 95, and 96 also losing to Lasoski three times, Herrera once, and now Ian Madsen. Outside of Brian Brown, McCarl probably had the best car each week in my opinion, and he certainly showed that at Nationals, but he didn’t have the breaks goes his way the second half of the season, and the night we had the redraws, well he drew bad. I think this team with Doug Rankin and Austin McCarl working on the car will be tough to beat next year.

Brian Brown finishes fourth in points, although he missed one night, crashed while leading one night, and crashed while racing for the lead another night.  If he doesn’t crash those two nights, he probably wins the track championship.

Bronson Maeschen won the championship last year and finishes ninth this year. I honestly think Bronson had a good car all year, but everyone else stepped up their game under the hood.  He had a 10.8 average time trial finish this year compared to 9.8 a year ago. That one position each week hurt him. Last year he had 10 top five finishes and this year only 3. It’s not easy having the target on your back.

Who was the Most Improved 410 driver? That is a tough one with so many new drivers this year that weren’t in the points a year ago (Henderson, Brown, Dollansky, Garner).  Only 3 drivers improved their finishing position from 2013.  Ian Madsen +1, Terry McCarl +1, and Dakota Hendrickson +2 from 17th to 19th. Everyone else was worse than the prior year.  I will give my award to Lynton Jeffrey or Hendrickson this year.  Jeffrey was 8th last year, and 8th again this year, but if you only look at the drivers who raced at Knoxville this year and last year, he is up 3 spots from last year. 

My 360 Most Improved driver is Jon Agan moving up 3 spots this year in points. Strange to call him most improved when he won 2 features last year and none this year, but the only other driver to move up as many spots points is Russ Hall from 7th to 4th, but Hall missed 2 races last year so you have to factor that in. Only 7 drivers qualified for 360 points this year and last year.

In 12 410 A-Main’s this year, 7 were won from the front row, 4 from row 2, and 1 from row 4 (Brian Brown on May 17).  More races being won up front isn't a good thing.  Maybe the cars are too equal today.

The Capitani Classic was by far the best race of the year.  It’s a great event and I think it will continue to build in prestige. No World of Outlaws driver has won it yet by the way, and it’s basically a WoO caliber event.

Clock Management: 
I did a time study this year for John McCoy for all the weekly shows and here are some interesting stats.
6:52pm = average first push off for hot laps.
10:55pm = average time for last checkered flag.
Average 305 A-Main length from push off to checkered flag: 17 minutes, average of 2.2 cautions/reds.
Average 360 A-Main length from push off to checkered flag: 17 minutes, average of 1.7 cautions/reds.
Average 305 A-Main length from push off to checkered flag: 25 minutes, average of 2.1 cautions/reds.
16:00 = Average length of intermission.
4:48 = Average length of a red flag period.

Group Qualifying certainly saves time. 410 cars were 0:27 seconds per car this year with 3 car groups, compared to 0:46 seconds in single car qualifying at the WoO and Nationals events, that is nearly cutting time trials in half the time.

Car Count Averages: This year (last year)
410: 33.4 (30.7)
360: 26.6 (25.2)
305: 23.7 (19.8)
Total: 83.7 (75.7)

The 305 Class grew more than any other this year.  Not sure what that means, but more people are racing for less prize money only means one thing, don't expect 305 purses to increase if that trend continues.

Sammy
Sammy Swindell announces his retirement from full-time racing. I think this is just the spin of Sammy and Tod Quiring parting ways amicably and Quiring cutting back to only one car for 2015. With Steve Kinser on his farewell tour this year I have a hunch something is brewing.  The “Steve & Sammy Show” coming to a track near you in 2015.  These two guys together could form their own 16 or 20 race schedule in the summer of 2015.  They could practically demand the appearance fee of their choosing as this would be a huge draw if they raced together for one summer and oh the merchandise they could sell. Cha-Ching!  The travel schedule could be whatever they want it to be, and on their own terms. Fans would love this tour and it would be a promoters dream not having to deal with a sanctioning body, or increasing their weekly purse, it would just be a little more expensive ticket is all.  There is just way too much money to be made here not to do it in my opinion.  You don’t have to be friends to be good business partners. 

Wouldn’t it be cool to see a senior’s tour for winged sprint car racing?  Steve, Sammy, Jac, Dude, Danny Smith, and Jeff Swindell would be a nice tour.  Maybe you get Doug Wolfgang and Bobby Allen to make a few appearances to sign autographs.

The World of Outlaws without Steve and Sammy is finally happening.  The WoO may be down to 10 cars next year depending if Kraig and Shark Motorsports stays on the road next year.