Larson sweeps Ultimate Challenge

California driver Kyle Larson is the story of the year in sprint car racing, and he proved why again on Tuesday night at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa by winning the USAC non-wing $15,000 to win Ultimate Challenge for the second year in a row. Larson is only 20 years old and has signed a driver development deal with Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing. This kid IS the next Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart, or Jeff Gordon. If you want to say you were there when... you better come see him at Knoxville this week during the Knoxville Nationals when he races in the Wednesday night preliminary event.

Larson won the Monday night preliminary USAC feature easily and was locked in the eight car dash race on Tuesday but drew number eight and only made his way to seventh in that race with a fast narrow track. But in the feature when the race track widened out he was able to pass Justin Grant to grab the lead after seven laps to lead laps 8-30. Larson was chased by veteran Dave Darland the second half of the race in traffic, but Darland came up short in the end. Larson also becomes the first repeat winner of the Ultimate Challenge in its eleventh year.

I can’t put into words how impressed I am with Kyle Larson. I’ve never witnessed anything like this phenomenon in my life time. He wins in a non-win sprint car, with a wing, in a midget, or silver crown. In addition to winning the Ultimate Challenge in 2011 he won the Belleville Midget Nationals, swept the USAC four crown event at Eldora Speedway in Ohio, and he won one of the biggest World of Outlaws races last fall, the Gold Cup in Chico, CA. He finished fourth in his NASCAR Truck series debut last month at Kentucky, and he sits second in points in the NASCAR K&N Pro East Series with one win. Seeing him race a winged sprint car at Knoxville the past week has been impressive as well. It’s hard to fathom that a rookie has a chance to run up front at the Knoxville Nationals, but the car and talent is there to have a shot.

Winning Ultimate Challenge heat races was Chris Windom, Damion Gardner, and Justin Grant. Grant also won the dash to start on the pole of the feature where he finished third.

The winged 305 sprint cars were also on hand Yuesday night and it was Pella driver Mike Van Haafton grabbing the win.

The 52nd annual Goodyear Knoxville Nationals stats tonight and ends on Saturday. The Saturday program will be recorded on Speed TV and broadcast at a later date.

Ultimate Challenge results: 1..Kyle Larson, 2. Dave Darland,3. Justin Grant, 4. Chris Windom, 5. Jerry Coons Jr., 6. Thomas Meserall, 7. Brian Clauson, 8. Tracy Hines, 9. Levi Jones, 10. Jon Stanbrough.

Pittman wins FRC, Larson Shines!

Oklahoma native Daryn Pittman dominated the Musco Lighting Front Row Challenge race on Monday night at Oskaloosa’s Southern Iowa Speedway leading all 25 laps. Brian Brown chased Pittman the first half of the race but Pittman was able to pull away once they were in lapped traffic the second half. Pittman also won this event in 2008.

This was also a preliminary night for the USAC non-wing sprint cars with the top two finishers locked in Tuesday’s $15,000 to win Ultimate Challenge event. Kyle Larson, one of the sports brightest shining stars over the past two years is the defending champion and he drove away from the field easily to get the win while Dave Darland finished second to lock into the big pay day tomorrow as well. Larson also competed in the winged FRC as well and drove from 12th to third looking impressive in that race. Larson is a rookie at the Knoxville Nationals this year, but he has a shot to make the championship feature and potentially a top ten.

The night started with time trials and Mark Dobmeier was fastest, but in the feature while running third Dobmeier drove over the cushion in turn three and made hard contact with the fence ending his night. This was also a points race for the All-Stars Circuit of Champions and some of their regular competitors had a rough night as points leader Tim Shaffer lost a engine in his heat race and scratched for the night. Dale Blaney is currently second in points and he too had mechanical problems and pulled in during his heat. David Gravel is third in points and drove from fifteenth to sixth. Cap Henry is fourth in points and had mechanical problems in his heat race as well and salvaged a 17th place finish.

A special King of the Hill eight car tournament bracket event was held with head to head racing to determine who has the opportunity to start on the front row, or take the challenge to win from the tail of the field for $50,000 instead of $5,000. Pittman beat Brown but neither driver accepted the challenge as they coveted the chance to win from up front and the title belt trophy given away to the winner.

Winning heat races were David Gravel, Brian Brown, and Brad Sweet in the FRC, and winning the USAC heat races were Dave Darland, Robert Ballou, and Jac Haudenschild.

Front Row Challenge Results: 1. Daryn Pittman, 2. Brian Brown, 3. Kyle Larson, 4. Tim Kaeding, 5. Ryan Bunton, 6. David Gravel, 7. Kaley Gharst, 8. James McFadden, 9. Tasker Phillips, 10. Paul McMahan, 11. Trey Starks, 12. Sheldon Haudenschild, 13. Caleb Helms, 14. Critter Malone, 15. Jason Meyers, 16. Greg Wilson, 17. Cap Henry, 18. Logan Shuchart, 19. Jonathan Allard, 20. Lee Grosz, 21. Bryan Sebetto, 22. Mark Dobmeier, 23. Brad Sweet.

USAC Ultimate Challenge Prelim Results: 1.. Kyle Larson, 2. Dave Darland, 3. Robert Ballou, 4. Brady Bacon, 5. Levi Jones, 6. Daron Clayton, 7. Darren Hagen, 8. Chris Windom, 9. Chase Stockon, 10. Jerry Coons Jr.

Maeschen wins Capitani Classic

Sunday night at Knoxville Raceway was all about 410 sprint cars for the first annual Capitani Classic. This is a new race added to the schedule this season in honor of long time track race director Ralph Capitani who held that position from 1977-2011 and helped build the world famous facility into what it is today. This is also a final tune-up opportunity for teams before the Knoxville Nationals which begins on Wednesday night. With the Outlaws racing in Missouri the night before and off on Sunday the majority of those teams were on hand and a total of 67 cars competed. Although the competition was tough and stacked, it was local Pleasantville driver Bronson Maeschen taking the $5,000 winner’s check home. Maeschen won his first career feature at Knoxville this year on July 14th, but on this night he was beating some of the best in the business as he led all 25 laps fending off challenges from 2010 Nationals champion Tim Shaffer in lapped traffic.

Brooke Tatnell was the fastest in qualifying and the heat race winners were Josh Schneiderman, Tim Shaffer, Maeschen, Ed Lynch Jr., Shane Stewart, and Donny Schatz. Schatz elected to sit out the feature to save his car for the Nationals later in the week. With six heat races and the top three in each heat qualifying for the A main, the rest of the field was broken in into three B-main’s and those were won by Justin Henderson, Rager Phillips, and Brady Bacon.

After the B-Mains the track was reworked on the bottom and top grooves as the track was starting to become one lane around the bottom with the track abrasive enough to eat up tires and take rubber. It was the right call to make to rework the track, however it was still fast and one lane on the bottom with it being watered and tacky until the closing laps.

This was also a full points event for the Knoxville weekly competitors, and with only five of them qualifying there was a big shake up in the point standings. Davey Heskin has held the point lead almost the entire season, but with Heskin failing to qualify for the A-Main and Terry McCarl finishing 12th on the night the point lead changed hands as McCarl now leads Heskin by eight points.

Capitani Classic results: 1. Bronson Maeschen, 2. Tim Shaffer, 3. Joey Saldana, 4. Cody Darrah, 5. Tim Kaeding, 6. Brad Sweet, 7. Brian Brown, 8. Jason Johnson, 9. Danny Lasoski, 10. Shane Stewart, 11. Daryn Pittman, 12. Terry McCarl, 13. Kyle Larson, 14. Kerry Madsen, 15. Ed Lynch Jr., 16. Tasker Phillips, 17. James McFadden, 18. Rager Phillips, 19. Josh Schneiderman, 20. Brooke Tatnell, 21. Justin Henderson, 22. Wayne Johnson, 23. Brady Bacon, 24. Dale Blaney.

Shane Stewart Wins Fourth 360 Nationals

Shane Stewart has been dominant at the Arnold Motor Supply 360 Knoxville Nationals in recent years and Saturday at Knoxville he led every one of the 25 laps and won by nearly five seconds. Stewart becomes the first driver to win three 360 Nationals in a row and the first to win four total. (2007, 2010, 2011, 2012). All four victories have come with his crew chief and car owner Paul Silva. “That car was just flawless,” said Stewart. “We had a brand new A.R.T. car and a new Wesmar engine. I can’t thank Paul enough for all he does to give me good cars.” After setting quick time and finishing seventh in his Friday qualifying night feature, Stewart accumulated enough points to start outside the front row and he took the lead from the drop of the green flag and pulled away making it look easy and driving through traffic like the veteran he is. The win netted Stewart $10,000. The last two years Stewart was able to carry the 360 Nationals momentum to top five finishes in the 410 Nationals as well. Look for Shane Stewart to be there again next week.

Finishing second was Kevin Swindell who has only raced a sprint car a handful of times this season as the 23 year old Tennessee native chases a NASCAR career, so an impressive run for him and a testament to how much talent he has. Third was 22 year old Oklahoma driver Brady Bacon who was the 410 Nationals rookie of the year in 2011 and also won the USAC non-wing race at Knoxville last year. Bacon has the big half-mile oval figured out and has a chance to make the main event next week as well.

Brian Brown was without a doubt the most entertaining to watch on Saturday night. After a bad qualifying night timing in 35th he only accumulated enough points to start 13th in the Saturday B-Main. Brown made some daring passes the last few laps of the B main to finish fourth and take the last transfer spot to the A main where he started 24th and with no yellow flags was able to drive up to 8th place. If Brown had one or two yellow flags he would have made the top five. Brown was the only car making a lot of passes. The cars up front all drove the high line of the track and stayed separated for the majority of the race.

Winning the Saturday B main was Justin Henderson. Sam Hafertepe Jr. won the C main, Matt Covington won the D main, and Trey Starks won the E main. The start of the C main saw a six car crash on the front straightaway as Austin Johnson and Daryn Pittman made contact and began flipping. Nate Van Haafton, Ryan Roberts, Dylan Peterson, and Koby Barksdale all wrecked trying to avoid Johnson and Pittman. It was a scary crash, especially for Pittman who flipped end over end several times. All six drivers walked away. Another scary crash occurred at the start of the B main involving Gary Taylor of Washington who wrecked on the back stretch in the middle of the field. Luckily the cars behind him were all able to avoid him and Taylor walked away.

Brad Sweet performed double duty on Saturday night as he competed in Newton at the NASCAR Nationwide race finishing 12th and then found a way to Knoxville in time for the 360 Nationals A-Main where he started 17th and finished 17th. Sweet has one World of Outlaws feature win this year and started on the pole of the 410 Nationals in 2011 while subbing for a injured Joey Saldana.

Shane Stewart started eight in the Friday prelim feature and fell back to eleventh at one time, but drove back up to seventh. After that race Stewart was disappointed, but Paul Silva had the set up perfect for Saturday when the title was on the line.
Sunday night is the Capitani Classic 410 tune-up race for the 52nd annual Goodyear Knoxville Nationals that starts Wednesday night and ends on Saturday, August 11.

22nd 360 Knoxville Nationals results: 1. Shane Stewart, 2. Kevin Swindell, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Jack Dover, 5. Roger Crockett, 6. Dusty Zomer, 7. Danny Lasoski, 8. Brian Brown, 9. Wayne Johnson, 10. Tim Kaeding, 11. Jason Johnson, 12. Brooke Tatnell, 13. Clint Garner, 14. Tim Shaffer 15. Justin Henderson 16. Paul McMahan, 17. Brad Sweet, 18. Randy Hannagan, 19. Kaley Gharst, 20. Ryan Anderson, 21.Rager Phillips, 22.Danny Wood, 23. Seth Brahmer, 24. Jonathan Cornell

Tatnell wins night 2 of 360 KXV Nats

Night two of the Arnold Motor Supply 360 Nationals saw another great race with Aussie Brooke Tatnell getting the win after making the winning pass on the tenth circuit of the 20 lap feature. Tony Brucce Jr. had the early lead but faded to a 14th place finish. Local Pleasantville, Iowa driver Rager Phillips grabbed the lead. After a lap nine caution Tatnell was able to get around Phillips and pull away.

Tim Kaeding charged from his ninth starting position to second, but after qualifying 18th and finishing second in his heat he ends up 14th overall in points. He will be a guy to keep an eye on in the championship feature starting in the middle of the field.

410 weekly competitor Dusty Zomer started fifth and finished third in the feature. Zomer had a solid night qualifying seventh, fourth in his heat, places him sixth overall and he will definitely be a contender on Saturday night.

Medford, Oregon driver Roger Crockett finished fourth in the feature. He drew a ten in the qualifying order and timed in second quick, finished third in his heat, and that gives him 486 points, enough for the pole on Saturday.

The defending 360 Nationals champion Shane Stewart drew the seventh spot in qualifying order and set quick time, finished third in his heat race, but was bottled up in traffic early in the feature. Starting eighth he fell back to 12th but managed to race his way back to seventh and accumulate 482 points putting him outside the front row and in contention for a chance to win his fourth 360 Nationals crown.

Quietly veteran Oklahoma driver Danny Wood put together a great night qualifying third, fourth in his heat, and 12th in the feature to pick up 465 points and the tenth starting position on Saturday.

Wayne Johnson drew a 37 in qualifying order but managed to time ninth and finish third in his heat race. Starting fourth in the feature he seemed to struggle to get a handle on the car and backed up to eighth. Wayne will still be a contender starting eleventh on Saturday.

Jason Johnson drew a 47 in qualifying order and timed 21st. That earned him a front row starting spot in his heat race which he won. Stating 12th in the feature he was only able to get to tenth, but he had enough to grab the 20th starting position in the championship race Saturday.

The two time World of Outlaws champ Jason Meyers drew 24 in qualifying order but he timed in 35th out of 52 cars. He started seventh in his heat and transferred into the feature by driving up to fourth. Starting 19th in the feature Meyers raced his way to ninth. Disappointing night for his team and he will line up fifth in the C main on Saturday.

Notables having to race the B-Main are Justin Henderson, Tim Shaffer, Jesse Gianetto,
Kyle Larson, Jon Agan, Terry McCarl, Brian Brown, Johnny Herrera. Saturday is shaping up to be a good show and it will quite a B main to see who grabs the four transfer spots into the A.

Hopefully Kyle Larson chooses to race at Knoxville over Belleville on Saturday. And with Brad Sweet qualified in the 17th spot in the championship feature, hopfully he is done with his Nationwide race up the road 30 miles in Newton in time to get to Knoxville.

I will admit I’m a biased Shane Stewart fan and hope he pulls out the three-peat. But I have to think after the first two nights that Danny Lasoski starting fifth is the odds on favorite. He won the 360 Nationals in 1995. I also think Kevin Swindell starting third will be really tough. And if Brian Brown can advance through the B-Main, I think 25 laps is enough for him to climb his way into the top five, and if the cautions come at the right time, I think he has a legit shot to win it. It should be a great night of racing!

The heat race winners were Jason Johnson, Jordan Boston, Brad Loyet, Sam Hafertepe Jr., Johnny Herrera, all five started on the front row of their heat. Kaley Gharst won the B-Main. Jonathan Allard won the C-Main.

360 Knoxville Nationals Friday Prelim feature finish: 1. Brooke Tatnell, 2. Tim Kaeding, 3. Dusty Zomer, 4. Roger Crockett, 5. Rager Phillips, 6. Tim Shaffer, 7. Shane Stewart, 8. Wayne Johnson, 9. Jason Meyers, 10. Jason Johnson, 11. Justin Henderson, 12. Danny Wood, 13. Johnny Herrera, 14. Tony Bruce Jr. 15. Jeff Swindell, 16. Kaley Gharst, 17. Sam Hafertepe Jr., 18. Dustin Daggett, 19. Gary Taylor, 20. Brad Loyet, 21. Seth Brahmer, 22. Dennis Moore Jr., 23. Jordan Boston, 24. Matt Juhl.

Saturday A-Main lineup:
11 Crockett – 57 Stewart, 39 Swindell – 99 Bacon, 1m Lasoski – 91 Zomer, 53D Dover – 14T Tatnell, 01 McMahan – 81 Wood, 77x W Johnson – 40 Garner, 28 Cornell – 83JR Kaeding, 71R Anderson – 9P Phillips, 49 Sweet – 22H Hannagan, 6x Gharst – 41 J Johnson

Knoxville Nationals 101

The Knoxville Nationals Grimes Points System (Was created by promoter P. Ray Grimes)

Time Trials: 1st 200 points, 2nd 198, 3rd 196, and drops 2 points per position.

Heat Races: 1st 100, 2nd 97, 3rd 94, and drops 3 points per position.

A-Main: (same as time trials) 24th 154 points.

B-Main: 5th place 142, 6th 140, dropping 2 points per position

The qualifying night heat races are lined up by time trials with 6 cars inverted in the 360 nationals and 8 cars inverted in the 410 nationals. So quick time falls into heat 1 in the 6th position, 2nd quick is in heat 2 in the 6th position, etc.

Heat race finishing position 1-4 transfer to the A-main, positions 5-8 go the B main, 9-10 to the C main.

The C and B mains are lined up by time trials with no invert, so the fastest car in the B main starts on the pole.

The A main has a invert of 8. So the fastest car transferring from the heat races will start 8th, second quickest in 7th…. 8th fastest of the cars transferring from the heats is on the pole. 9th fastest starts 9th, etc. All heats and mains are lined up according to your qualifying time.

At then end of the night the points are added up. So quick time in qualifying earns the same amount of points as winning the A-Main (200) and a perfect score is 500.

After both qualifying nights the points are combined and the top cars are locked in and lined up by point totals. Make sense?

This system has been used for long long time, and it works.

Every position matters in every event. No settling for a transfer spot in the heat race, you have to keep racing to earn more points. And qualifying is a huge part of the format as it's just as important as the feature, and determines the lineup of everything. And you don't get your time spot back if you transfer to the A main. You tag the tail. There are no extra passing points.

The top 16 over all from Wednesday and Thursday points are locked in for Saturday's A-Main. Position 17-26 points have the option to start up front in the Saturday B-Main or hit the reset button and race Friday night. Positions 17-20 of the Saturday A-Main are made up of the top four finishers on Friday night's feature. Friday night feature finishers 5-14 make up the last five rows of the B-Main Saturday, and as they finish on Friday from there is where you start in the C, D, and E on Saturday.


KNOXVILLE NATIONALS POINTS SYSTEM

A-Main and Time Trials: 1-200, 2-198, 3-196, 4-194, 5-192, 6-190, 7-188, 8-186, 9-184, 10-182, 11-180, 12-178, 13-176, 14-174, 15-172, 16-170, 17-168, 18-166, 19-164, 20-162...

Heats: 1-100, 2-97, 3-94, 4-91, 5-88, 6-85, 7-82, 8-79, 9-76, 10-73

The Dude wins night number one of Sprint Week

The first of two preliminary nights of the Arnold Motor Supply 360 Knoxville Nationals got off to huge start on Thursday night as fellow Missouri competitors Danny Lasoski and Jonathan Cornell battled back and forth the entire 20 lap feature. Just when it looked like Cornell had a run to pass Lasoski on the last lap Cornell’s left rear tire popped coming off of turn four and he coasted across the finish line in a heartbreaking fifth place. Cornell led laps 1-4, Lasoski 5-11, Cornell 12-13, and Lasoski 14-20, and those are just at the finish line, that doesn’t count the other passes in the race. But what a great race! The 360 Nationals is my favorite event of the year. Better racing in my opinion.

The win for Lasoski was enough to place him third overall in Nationals qualifying points system for the night after timing tenth and finishing second in his heat race.

After qualifying a disappointing 35th Brian Brown advanced from his heat race and into the feature where he started 19th and raced his way to second place putting on a great show for the fans.

Kevin Swindell went out late in the qualifying draw and managed to clock in sixth fastest and then finished third in the feature. That is enough to give Swindell a share of the overall points lead after night as he is tied with Brady Bacon who put together a solid night timing second, finished third in his heat, and seventh in the feature.

Also having good points nights was Nebraska’s Jack Dover who finished fourth in the feature and is fourth in the point totals. Paul McMahan is fifth after a eighth place feature finish.

Clint Garner sits sixth in points after he set quick time at the beginning of the night thanks to the Parker Performance engine under the hood. Winning time trials is worth the same amount of points as the feature. Garner wasn’t able to finish in the top four of his heat race and had to run the B-main where he finished second. After starting 22nd in the A-main he clawed his way up to 13th.

Randy Hannagan was looking good qualifying fifth, winning his heat race, and was marching to the front of the feature when his car popped out of gear on lap five and had to pull the car in for a 23rd place finish. Although Hannagan sits tenth in points, his team has to be disappointed of what might have been.

The underdog story of the night was Deloit, Iowa driver Ryan Anderson who used a 12th place qualifying, second place heat race finish, and a ninth place feature finish to net a eighth place point total.

The track was perfect for racing. Kudos to the Dunkin's on track prep.

It's too bad the draw order is such an advantage/disadvantage. Other than using one lap instead of two I don't know how you can make it any more fair. It's just amazing how quickly the track changes. The top ten in qualifying and by order of draw was: 1. Garner (11th), 2. Bacon (3), 3. Martin (1), 4. Selvage (25), 5. Hannagan (10), 6. Swindell (53), 7. Agan (46), 8. Dover (21), 9. McMahan (20), 10. Lasoski (34). I'm not saying someone like Randy Martin might not have timed in the top ten regardless of drawing 1 or 50, but it's an obvious advantage to pull one of the top numbers compared to Brown, Pittman, Stenhouse, McCarl, etc. And for drivers like Kevin Swindell, Selvage, Agan, and Lasoski to time so well later in the order shows how good they were.

Winning heat races was Kyle Larson, Tony Schilling, Danny Jennings, Jesse Giianetto, and Randy Hannagan. Terry McCarl won the B-Main.

56 cars raced on night number one and 56 more are scheduled for Friday night before the field is combined into the respective championship features on Saturday night!

360 Knoxville Nationals Thursday Prelim feature finish: 1. Danny Lasoski, 2. Brian Brown, 3. Kevin Swindell, 4. Jack Dover, 5. Jonathan Cornell, 6. Brad Sweet, 7. Brady Bacon, 8. Paul McMahan, 9. Ryan Anderson, 10. Kyle Larson, 11. Jesse Gianetto, 12. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 13. Clint Garner, 14. Tony Schilling, 15. RJ Johnson, 16. Henry Van Dam, 17. Terry McCarl, 18. Jake Martens, 19. Bobby Mincer, 20. Tony Norem, 21. Danny Jennings, 22. Logan Forler, 23. Randy Hannagan, 24. Jon Agan.