Sassy Haase Makes History!

Night two of the Knoxville Raceway season was a memorable one!  81 sprint cars were checked in.  We dodged the rain all day thankfully.  Justin Henderson put on a great performance in two classes, Wayne Johnson dominated the 360 field, and an 18 year old woman beat the men in the 305 event to make history. Terry McCarl came back from a scary crash last week but got back into the car and fought through some significant back pain to have a good night. 

Weather conditions at 7:00pm were 72° and over cast with 57% humidity, winds out of the SE at 12mph, and a dew point of 54°.  The track was in great shape!


410 Report
30 cars signed in.  Top 8 Qualifying:  Brian Brown set quick time with a lap of 15.575 (115.5 mph), followed by Justin Henderson, Danny Lasoski, Terry McCarl, Brooke Tatnell, Ian Madsen, Bronson Maeschen, and Austin McCarl. Brown drew 17th in the qualifying order.

Heat winners were Brown, Henderson, and Lasoski, All three drivers started outside row three so some great heat races on this night with a well prepared track that was wide for racing.

Justin Henderson (Studio 92 Photo)

The A-Main was all Henderson other than Ian Madsen leading laps 1-3. Once Henderson got out front he was gone and pulled away, even on the restarts. Lasoski came from eighth to second, Heskin 11th to fifth, Don Droud Jr. came from sixth in the B-Main to finish sixth in the A. RJ Johnson and Tasker Phillips crashed on the initial start.  Unfortunate for RJ as he trashed a car for the second week in a row.  Aaron Reutzel entered on this night and was running well until a left rear tire blew turning his car and collecting Tim Kaeding to end both of their nights as well. This race took 33 minutes from the time it pushed it off until the checkers flew with one yellow and two reds.  At 11:03 the race was over and it started raining at about 11:10, just beating a storm system approaching.

410 A Main Finish (started): 1. Justin Henderson (4); 2. Danny Lasoski (8); 3. Ian Madsen (2); 4. Terry McCarl (5); 5. Davey Heskin (11); 6. Don Droud Jr. (19); 7. Dusty Zomer (13); 8. Brooke Tatnell (6); 9. Brian Brown (3); 10. Austin McCarl (9); 11. Josh Schneiderman (21); 12. Bill Balog (17); 13. Ryan Bunton (23); 14. Chris Martin (16); 15. Dylan Peterson (20); 16. Logan Forler (1); 17. Aaron Reutzel (15); 18. Tim Kaeding (18); 19. Dakota Hendrickson (12); 20. Bronson Maeschen (7); 21. Dustin Selvage (10); 22. Lynton Jeffrey (22); 23. RJ Johnson (14); 24. Tasker Phillips (24). Lap Leaders: Madsen 1-3, Henderson 4-20. Hard-charger: Droud.

360 Report
27 cars.  Clint Garner set quick time at 16.449. Nate Van Haaften was second followed by Jamie Ball, Jon Agan, and Tony Shilling.  Heat winners were Wayne Johnson (second row), Ryan Roberts (front row), and Justin Henderson (third row). 

Wayne Johnson dominated this race from start to finish.  For a while I thought Garner had something for him, but then Henderson came on late and claimed the second position. This race was slowed by three caution periods early but the last ten laps went green and Johnson looked impressive.

360 A Main Finish (started): 1. Wayne Johnson (2); 2. Justin Henderson (6); 3. Clint Garner (3); 4. Nate Van Haaften (4); 5. Tony Shilling (5); 6. Joe Beaver (10); 7. Russ Hall (9); 8. Jack Dover (11); 9. Jon Agan (8); 10. Ryan Roberts (15); 11. Randy Martin (7); 12. Cody Ledger (12); 13. Jamie Ball (19); 14. Chris Martin (22); 15. Dustin Clark (14); 16. Matt Moro (1); 17. Sawyer Phillips (25); 18. Ricky Montgomery (16); 19. Keoni Texeira (18); 20. Tom Lenz (17); 21. Dakota Hendrickson (20); 22. Alan Zoutte (21); 23. Mike Philben (23); 24. Tyler Brooks (24); 25. Calvin Landis (13) DNS – Ryan Giles, John Anderson. Lap Leader: W. Johnson 1-18. Hard-charger: C. Martin.

305 Report
24 cars signed in.  Setting quick time was McKenna Haase with a lap 17.727, she drew 24th in the order going out dead last.  Heat winners were Stacey Alexander, Kade Higday, and Mitchell Alexander.  The A-Main started with Chase Wanner taking the lead and at one point he led by half a straightaway. Rookie Christian Bowman spun and crashed hard in turn one, collecting Trevor Smith.  Both drivers were OK.  From there it was McKenna Haase who reeled in the leaders, passing Stacey Alexander and used the bottom groove to perfection to drive by Wanner on lap six and the crowd went wild.  Through several yellow and restarts McKenna was able to drive away each time and go on to get her first career win at Knoxville.  Unless you’ve been living under a rock you probably already knew that. 

305 A Main (started): 1. McKenna Haase (3); 2. Chase Wanner (1); 3. J Kinder (7); 4. Stacey Alexander (9); 5. Kade Higday (10); 6. Mitchell Alexander (17); 7. Chris Walraven (8); 8. Kevin Hetrick (19); 9. Mike Mayberry (6); 10. Devin Kline (18); 11. Cody Ambers (12); 12. Joe Simbro (14); 13. Brad Comegys (20); 14. Don Dawson III (21); 15. Rob Weuve (22); 16. Lee Patterson (23); 17. Tanner Edwards (2); 18. Christopher Scank (15); 19. Kevin Hiemstra (13); 20. Ben Woods (16); 21. Jeff Wilke (11); 22. Christian Bowman (4); 23. Trevor Smith (5) DNS – Corey Kautz. Lap Leaders: Wanner 1-5, Haase 6-15. Hard-charger: M. Alexander.

Notes
The big story on this night was McKenna Haase making history.  I have a separate story on KnoxvilleRaceway.com about her and the history of women racing at Knoxville.  You can read that story HERE. 

Terry McCarl is a racer.  Scary crash last week, fractured L4 vertabrae, climbs in a car this week, fights through the pain, qualified fourth and finished fourth in the feature.  That was one gutsy performance by him.  I admit I was worried about the guy, but I can’t imagine what it must be like to be Lori McCarl.  The last thing anyone wanted to see was Terry get hurt again.  I already respect Terry on many levels, but this is John Wayne type of respect. (If you have seen El Dorado when The Duke fights with a bullet in his back and only one arm you'll know what I mean.  If you don't know what I mean, you need to watch some John Wayne movies.) 

Austin McCarl is one of my favorite drivers to watch right now.  This guy is a driver.  Good job out of him this week finishing in the top ten and he is tied for ninth in points. 

Danny Lasoski is your point leader by 77 points over Henderson.  It is early, but I don’t look for The Dude to give up the point lead this year.  It’s almost a sure thing.

I was happy to see Don Droud Jr. found something this week.  He made a nice charge through the field to finish sixth.  Don’t be shocked to see him win a race.

Ryan Bunton has passed more cars than anyone so far after two weeks of racing.  Bunton is +18 in the passing +/- number.  Zomer is +17, Henderson +14, Lasoski +11.

It was good to see some Nebraska cars show up.  Cody Ledger, Ryan Roberts, and Jack Dover all joined us this week.  Hope we see them more often along with Stu Snyder and Billy Alley.

If Wayne Johnson is that fast in August for the 360 Nationals, he will be tough to beat.

Chris Walraven is the early point leader for the 305’s.  He needs help raising money yet for Down Syndrome and GiGi’s Playhouse. 

Tough night for the White Lightning Motorsports cars of Jamie Ball, Devin Kline, and Christian Bowman.  Hang in there fellas.  I’m sure it will turn around.

The 360 point battle is going to be good I have a feeling.  Especially for owners points with Sioux Falls drivers Garner (Fluth) and Henderson (Sundby) going at it.  Good to see Nate Van Haaften off to a good start, he only trails Garner by ten points.

The chicken bites were excellent as usual.  I’ll be back next week with more tidbits.