McCarl Wins #55

Independence Day at Knoxville Raceway had plenty of fireworks on the race track this past Saturday night! We welcomed back the National Sprint League and it was 360 Twin Features night while the 305 class had the night off. Driver competing in both classes on this night were Justin Henderson, Ian Madsen, Bryan Clauson, Chris Martin, and Dusty Zomer. Henderson does this every week but the other teams were taking advantage of the two features and extra laps to prepare for the 360 Nationals coming up next month. Jake Bubak returned for his second appearance in the 360 class while Ohio’s Paige Polyak entered on this night in the 410 class as she tries to get more laps to improve on her 410 Nationals D-Main finish last year. Polyak is the only woman to win a sprint car race at Eldora Speedway.



410 Report
32 cars signed in. Time Trials top eight Lynton Jeffrey at 15.236 followed by Ian Madsen, Danny Lasoski, Brooke Tatnell, Tim Kaeding, Brian Brown, Dustin Selvage, and Justin Henderson.

Heat race winners were AJ Moeller, Dakota Hendrickson, Paige Polyak, and Justin Henderson. Henderson was impressive winning from the third row on a tacky and fast track. There were two racing grooves available but both were fast making it hard to pass. Quick timer Jeffrey was unable to get a top five starting spot and was forced to run the B-Main. Bryan Clauson and Josh Schneiderman both had mechanical problems and pulled in during their heats.

Brian Brown has had the worst luck this year and it hit a new low this week. During his hest race a large piece of mud from another car hurled at his and come through his right arm guard. Brownie slowed to a stop and climbed from the car but his right arm was hurt bad enough that he took a ride to the hospital to get checked out. His arm was not broken, but required stitches.

In another heat race incident Davey Heskin jumped the berm entering turn one, lost control and made contact with Brooke Tatnell. Both cars suffered damage and had to the run the B-Main, but only Heskin advanced. Tatnell’s #55 car had a lot of damage and his crew thrashed to get it back on the track in time for the B-Main. It was a tough break for both drivers.

The A-Main was a classic McCar/Lasoski battle that we have seen so many times over the years. McCarl shot from his second row starting spot and passed his son Austin coming off of turn four to grab the lead. From there Lasoski challenged T-Mac several times, pulling alongside him on multiple occasions, nearly catching him in lapped traffic, and had a few opportunities on restarts, but McCarl was better on this night and went on to win his 55th career 410 feature at Knoxville. 

410 A Main Finish (started): 1. Terry McCarl (3); 2. Danny Lasoski (2); 3. Ian Madsen (4); 4. Justin Henderson (5); 5. Mark Dobmeier (7); 6. Tim Kaeding (6); 7. Bill Balog (8); 8. Dusty Zomer (12); 9. Austin McCarl (1); 10. Bryan Clauson (10); 11. Bronson Maeschen (11); 12. Jamie Veal (15); 13. Craig Dollansky (22); 14. Lynton Jeffrey (9); 15. Dakota Hendrickson (17); 16. Davey Heskin (24); 17. Ryan Bunton (19); 18. Logan Forler (20); 19. Paige Polyak (18); 20. Matt Juhl (14); 21. AJ Moeller (16); 22. Tasker Phillips (13); 23. RJ Johnson (21); 24. Dustin Selvage (23). Lap Leader: T. McCarl 1-25. KSE Hard-charger: Dollansky.

360 Report
26 cars signed in. Clint Garner set quick time at 15.985 followed by Ian Madsen, Justin Henderson, Jamie Ball, and Nate Van Haaften. Heat race winners were Joe Beaver, Dakota Hendrickson, and Dusty Zomer.

A Main #1 was all Jon Agan as he led all 18 laps. He held off Ian Madsen in the open and through lapped traffic both running a great race and earning a well deserved win. As the leaders took the checkered flag the caution came out for a car spinning in turn four that collected Clint Garner who was running fourth and ending being scored as the last car on the lead lap in 14th, which put him on the pole for A-Main #2.

360 A Main #1 Finish (started): 1. Jon Agan (1); 2. Ian Madsen (2); 3. Tony Shilling (3); 4. Justin Henderson (6); 5. Jamie Ball (5); 6. Joe Beaver (10); 7. Calvin Landis (8); 8. Dusty Zomer (15); 9. Jake Bubak (12); 10. Nate Van Haaften (7); 11. Sawyer Phillips (13); 12. Matt Moro (11); 13. Dakota Hendrickson (14); 14. Clint Garner (4); 15. Ryan Giles (16); 16. Bart Friedrichsen (18); 17. Tom Lenz (19); 18. Ricky Montgomery (20); 19. Tony Rost (22); 20. Chris Martin (17); 21. Corey Timmerman (24); 22. Alan Zoutte (23); 23. John Anderson (21); 24. Bryan Clauson (9). Lap Leader: Agan 1-18. Hard-charger: Zomer.

Clint Garner was able to pull away early but a late race caution and restart gave Justin Henderson the opportunity he needed to catch and pass Garner with three laps to go to get his third 360 feature win of the season. It was an impressive win for Henderson after starting eleventh, the furthest anyone has come from to win this season in any class. Ian Madsen made a nice run from 13th to fourth, as did Clauson from 22nd to seventh.

360 A Main #2 Finish (started): 1. Justin Henderson (11); 2. Clint Garner (1); 3. Dusty Zomer (7); 4. Ian Madsen (13); 5. Matt Moro (3); 6. Joe Beaver (9); 7. Bryan Clauson (22); 8. Jamie Ball (8); 9. Nate Van Haaften (5); 10. Dakota Hendrickson (2); 11. Calvin Landis (6); 12. Ryan Giles (15); 13. Sawyer Phillips (4); 14. Ricky Montgomery (16); 15. Chris Martin (18); 16. Bart Friedrichsen (14); 17. Tom Lenz (17); 18. Corey Timmerman (21); 19. Alan Zoutte (20); 20. Tony Shilling (10); 21. Tony Rost (19); 22. Jon Agan (12); 23. Jake Bubak (24); 24. John Anderson (23). Lap Leaders: Garner 1-14, Henderson 15-18. Hard-charger: Clauson.

History and Notes
Terry McCarl gets win 55 almost 29 years to the day of his first win on July 5, 1986. And finishing second that was Lasoski. I’m going to have to look up how many times those two drivers have finished 1-2 over the years. (Winter Project).

God Bless America and Katie Davis! So glad we were able to hear her voice this week!

It was cool to see Ryan Bunton’s car with lots of signatures of veterans this week. Keep them coming! 

Christopher Bell is expected to be back with Keith Kunz this coming Saturday night!

Friday night the Marion County Fair gets underway with a concert by country music star Tyler Farr. He had number one single a couple of weeks ago so I’m looking forward to it. Also with the Fair this weekend means we have FREE kids night this Saturday night and the feature winners also win a side of beef and half a hog. I miss the old days when they actually brought a bull down to victory lane.

Sunday is the 2nd annual Dirt Kart event on a 1/8 mile oval constructed on the front stretch. Come on out and support these drivers if you can, and the ticket prices are cheap.

Nationals Top 10 Power Rankings
1. Schatz, 2. Lasoski, 3. Madsen, 4. Henderson, 5. Stewart, 6. Brown, 7. McMahan, 8. Pittman, 9. McCarl, 10. Saldana.

Points
410: Lasoski leads the 410 points over Henderson by 249 points.
360: Garner extended his point lead from 150 last week to 316 points..
305: Stacey Alexander leads Devin Kline by 71 points.

Food Report
Chicken Bites…. Yummy.