Henderson Wins Two!

Three weeks in a row with racing at Knoxville, we are on a roll!  Mother Nature gave us a scare with a storm approaching from the southwest so we were in rain mode from the get go, expecting rain to hit us around 11:00pm. Fortunately the storm system dissipated as it approached Knoxville and the rains held off until 3am. Watching the radar all night on my laptop for the second week in a row wasn’t much fun, but necessary to help race officials.

Great to see another full field of cars with 91 sprint cars entered.  The big surprise of the night was Kerry Madsen’s Keneric team rolling into the pit area with a pickup and open trailer.  With no World of Outlaws race on this night they had a night off. The team flew back from Charlotte and put together a car that afternoon and pulled it into the track. Crew chief Tyler Swank had packed shocks in a suitcase, otherwise their tools were somewhat limited,  but pitting next to brother Ian Madsen I’m sure helped. 

Weather conditions at 7:00pm were 71° and over cast with 50% humidity, winds out of the SE at 10 mph, and a dew point of 52°.  The track widened out nicely.

410 Report
33 cars signed in.  Top 8 Qualifying:  Brian Brown set quick time for the second week in a row with a lap of 15.272 (118 mph), followed by Justin Henderson, Terry McCarl, Danny Lasoski, Kerry Madsen, Tim Kaeding, Brooke Tatnell, and Austin McCarl.

Heat winners were Dustin Selvage (front row), Mark Dobmeier (front row), Brooke Tatnell (row three), and Dusty Zomer (row 2).  Terry and Austin McCarl missed the top five transfer spots in their respective heat races forcing them to run the B Main where they would finish 1-2 and then get the ninth and tenth starting spots in the A Main.

The A-Main started with Justin Henderson and Bill Balog on the front row, but Brian Brown passed them both on the opening lap from his outside row two starting spot and lead lap 1. Brown was out to a half straightaway lead until lap ten when his car started slowing a bit, then on lap 11 going down the backstretch Brown slowed with apparent engine problems and pulled in.  Henderson would grab the lead and pull away from there and win his second consecutive 410 feature handily. The race for second was awesome with Lasoski, Kaeding, and Kerry Madsen all over each other for most of the race. Kerry would get the second spot in the closing laps, Lasoski held on to third while McCarl tried to reel in Kaeding at the end. Heskin made it from 12th to sixth, Zomer 14th to seventh, and Dobmeier 18th to tenth.

410 A Main Finish (started): 1. Justin Henderson (1); 2. Kerry Madsen (5); 3. Danny Lasoski (3); 4. Tim Kaeding (6); 5. Terry McCarl (9); 6. Davey Heskin (12); 7. Dusty Zomer (14); 8. Brooke Tatnell (7); 9. Ian Madsen (8); 10. Mark Dobmeier (18); 11. Bronson Maeschen (13); 12. Bill Balog (2); 13. Dustin Selvage (15); 14. Ryan Bunton (20); 15. Wayne Johnson (23); 16. Austin McCarl (10); 17. Dakota Hendrickson (17); 18. Lynton Jeffrey (24, alt.); 19. RJ Johnson (21); 20. Glen Saville (16); 21. Josh Schneiderman (19); 22. Matt Covington (11); 23. Brian Brown (4); 24. Tasker Phillips (22) DNS – Matt Moro. Lap Leaders: Brown 1-11, Henderson 12-20. Hard-charger: Dobmeier.

360 Report
33 cars.  Clint Garner set quick time at 16.015. Nate Van Haaften was second followed by Justin Henderson, Joe Beaver, and Jon Agan.  Heat winners were Calvin Landis (front row), Nate Van Haaften (third row), and Jamie Ball (second row). 

Justin Henderson dominated this race from flag to flag passing the front row of Van Haaften and Matt Moro on the first lap. Garner grabbed the second position late away from Van Haaften who would finish third. Aaron Reutzel drove from 22nd to seventh, what an impressive drive from him, and with only one caution late in the race. Tyler Thomas from Oklahoma raced from 20th to 11th. The Henderson-Garner 1-2 finish is a likely theme for this year in the 360 class. I am impressed with the improvement of Tony Shilling this season. He has been a solid racer for a few years, but this year things are going well so far for him.   

360 A Main Finish (started): 1. Justin Henderson (3); 2. Clint Garner (4); 3. Nate Van Haaften (1); 4. Tony Shilling (8); 5. Jon Agan (6); 6. Matt Moro (2); 7. Aaron Reutzel (22); 8. Joe Beaver (5); 9. Casey Friedrichsen (7); 10. Russ Hall (13); 11. Tyler Thomas (20); 12. Josh Baughman (9); 13. Jamie Ball (11); 14. Calvin Landis (15); 15. Dakota Hendrickson (16); 16. Ricky Montgomery (10); 17. Randy Martin (18); 18. Jake Martens (21); 19. Keoni Texeira (19); 20. Tom Lenz (17); 21. Dustin Clark (23); 22. Cody Ledger (24); 23. John Hall (12); 24. Sawyer Phillips (14). Lap Leader: Henderson 1-15. Hard-charger: Reutzel.

305 Report
25 cars signed in.  Setting quick time was Mike Mayberry with a lap 17.116.  Heat winners were Trevor Smith, Devin Kline, and Christian Bowman.  Devin Kline whipped the field with no problems in this race from the front row.  He consistently has the fastest car in this class. 

305 A Main (started): 1. Devin Kline (1); 2. Stacey Alexander (2); 3. Mike Mayberry (4); 4. Ben Woods (3); 5. Kevin Hetrick (6); 6. McKenna Haase (7); 7. Jeff Wilke (12); 8. Tanner Edwards (5); 9. Brad Comegys (14); 10. Christian Bowman (9); 11. Cody Ambers (19); 12. Lee Patterson (18); 13. Trevor Smith (10); 14. Chris Horton (16); 15. Rob Weuve (20); 16. Corey Kautz (15); 17. Don Dawson III (17); 18. Chris Walraven (22); 19. Kade Higday (11); 20. Mitchell Alexander (8); 21. Christopher Scank (13) DNS – Matthew Stelzer, Joe Simbro, Kevin Hiemstra, Chase Wanner. Lap Leader: Kline 1-11. Hard-charger: Ambers.

History
Justin Henderson becomes only the fourth driver to sweep the 410 and 360 features on the same night. Brian Brown has done this twice, 5/17/2014 and on 7/21/2012. Dennis Moore Jr. did it on 6/12/1999 winning the 360 Nationals as well as the 410 feature that same night. The first driver to do it was Terry McCarl and he has done this three times, 7/27/1996, 6/16/2001, and 8/8/2009, all three of those coming on 360 Nationals nights as well.

Notes
Lasoski leads the 410 points over Henderson by 49 points. Kaeding is third back 208 points and then it’s pretty tight from third through eighth with Zomer, T-Mac, Heskin, Ian, and Tatnell.

There were some post-race fireworks between T-Mac and TK in the Lunstra pit area after the races.  Mostly shouting, no punches or anything.  Rivalries are forming and tempers are flaring. With these guys all racing against each other even more now with the NSL leads to more opportunities for these sorts of things to happen. A good rivalry will make for a good show, good Dirt Dreams episodes, and more fans in the seats I think.

The 305 feature turned into a marathon even though the distance was shortened from 15 laps to 12, then 11 at the end with a green-white-checkered on the last restart. This race took 36 minutes start to finish. The longest 305 A in 2014 was 20 minutes and the average 2014 race length was 17 minutes. With last week going 32 minutes and the week before 26 minutes, that isn’t a good trend. So look for possible format changes coming in the 305 class from John McCoy and Mike Proffit this week.  Ideas being kicked around are of a limit to 18-20 cars in the A main or possibly a heat format change with the slower cars in a last-chance heat type of scenario. Stay tuned 305 teams.

Chris Walraven needs help raising money yet for Down Syndrome and GiGi’s Playhouse. 

Good buddy of mine Keoni Texeira is selling shirts and hats this year. Please help a guy out and buy something from him.

Food Report
The tenderloin was excellent on this night. I had a slice from Pizza Hut as well to support the sponsor of the night. I’ve never had a bad pizza in my lifetime. Anyone had the chicken wrap yet? Reviews?  Send us photos of your food this week on Twitter to @knoxvilleraces and use a hashtag #tenderloin, #chickenbites, #nachos, etc.

I've been watching the show "Louie" on Netflix the past month or so. Louis C.K. the comedian is good, but his TV show is over the top funny. Give it a whirl if you're into watching a divorced man in his 40's try to raise two kids and watch his life humorously crumble around him.

I’ll be back next week with more tidbits.