This Is Eric

New Blog Direction

2018-03-10T21:43:00.001-06:00

I have been thinking about the direction of this Hawkeye Ovals blog for a while. I haven’t had much to say as far as racing content the past couple of years, as you can tell. I’m so immersed in the social media aspect today with racing and the lengthy blog doesn’t seem like the place for a weekly or monthly blog for me, especially when I can share thoughts immediately via Twitter. The other thing is that time hasn’t been on my side with a baby and two jobs. I also have to save some things for my bi-monthly column in FlatOut Magazine. So I am headed into a new direction to keep this blog relevant.

For some reason I feel inspired to write about my own life right now. For one thing, I find writing therapeutic. My English teachers in school of all levels would fall over in shock knowing this today. I hated school from second grade until my last year or so of college. But I’m ready to tell some life stories and I am hoping that I can help some people along the way.

Here’s the short bio of me.

I was born in Albia, Iowa on February 13, 1974 to Stephen and Carol Arnold. We lived in Lovilia, Iowa which is about 20 minutes south of Knoxville on highway 5. That is where my parents grew up. We moved to Newton in 1976 since my Dad was working at Maytag in the factory. From there we stayed in Newton for a long time, my sister Stephanie came along in 1977. I graduated from Newton in 1992 and went to community college. My parents decided to move to Knoxville in 1994 and so I followed them there with me still being in college. In 1996 I ended up working at PPI in Pella and still do. I got married the first time in 2002 and moved back to Newton. My Dad died in May of 2010 and then I got divorced at the end of 2010. That led me to move back to Knoxville with my Mom to help her with things after Dad died, and it was good to be around her at that low point in my life. I remarried in 2013 and moved to Oskaloosa where I am today.

I grew up loving sprint car racing and bowling. Those were the two things I really cared about in life until I had children. I retired from bowling in 2013, and then became more involved in racing by first volunteering to work at Knoxville Raceway and now it’s a lot of responsibility on my shoulders, and I love it.

There is a lot of other stuff that’s happened to me that connects all of those dots. We will explore more of that later.

I have struggled with depression since I was 7 years-old after a tragic car wreck that killed my Grandma, two of my cousins, and nearly took my sister. That was a major turning point in my life, but it took me several counseling sessions to learn that. I have made one suicide attempt which thankfully did not end my life. I have never spoken publically about it. I feel like now is a good time to start talking about it though. Yes it is embarrassing, but suicide is a big deal and I don't think we are doing enough about it in this world. I've lost friends in recent years to suicide and I would like to start helping people if I can somehow. We all have bad days. Life can suck and seem pointless at times. But trust me when I say that there is always some light down that dark road that is so hard to see. So I hope to help people who struggle with depression and anxiety like I do. I’m no doctor, but I am an advocate of seeking professional counseling. I have been in and out of counseling for years and it’s been a huge help for me. If there is one thing I want for people to get out of this in the end, it is to not be ashamed of seeking help and counseling.

More to come in the future. I need a new name for this blog. Any suggestions?

My personal email is ericarnold21374@yahoo.com if anyone feels like contacting me.

Splitting the Field

2017-08-07T16:45:00.001-05:00

There is always a reaction after we announce the field split for the 360 or 410 Nationals. Some good, some bad, some drivers and owners upset, but I promise there is a lot of time and thought that goes into the process of splitting the field and balancing things the best we can. I've been splitting up the fields the past few years now with John McCoy's supervision.

When teams send in their entry form they have a blank to fill our their preferred night to qualify, but that doesn't mean anyone is guaranteed that night. Most teams realize that the show has to be split evenly. And typically 70-75% of the entries pick the first night, usually the reason being that they want an extra day to make repairs if something happens. But 90% of the teams have the same argument with not enough spare parts and such.

The Promoter of the event has to do it's job to put on a good show for the fans and try to keep the competition levels somewhat even for each night. But we still try to give as many teams as possible their preferred night to be good hosts if possible.

Basic Guideline we have.

1. Prior Nationals A Main Qualifiers. We try to get as close to 12 and 12 each night, with an extra emphasis on the top 10 cars being split 5 and 5.

2. Split Series' Equally. We look at points after the Kings Royal weekend from all series and try to split the World of Outlaws teams, Top 10 Knoxville teams, All-Star teams, PA teams, California Teams, Top 10 ASCS teams, etc. equally. It is in everyone's best interest to split all these cars equally. This hopefully gives fans the same amount of cars to follow each night from each series, it helps represent each series well, and gives everyone the best chance to qualify well and not beat each other up all on one night. We wouldn't put the top 7 or 8 Outlaw point teams on one night in the 410 Nationals because we would have fans and teams upset about the balance there for sure.

3. Split teammates. You will notice that the KKR 9 and 49, Shark Racing 1a and 1s, Big Game Sponsored teams, etc. will be split to different nights. The car owner gets a break for entering two cars, and it lets each team help each other on their separate nights.

4. We do tend to give former event champions their preferred night. We don't play favorites, not even with our weekly competitors. But former champions have earned that luxury. Former champions are also guaranteed to get their car number without adding an "X" to it for example. Donny Schatz has picked Wednesday Night for a LONG time and he will always get it. But we are also mindful that not all former champions end up on the same night. This usually is never an issue, but for years and years Cappy wanted to make sure Steve and Sammy were on separate nights and that was obviously a good idea.

5. We have looked at power rankings and using those as well, but that is hard to back up with data because power rankings are opinions. We like to use numbers that data can support and we can defend our reasoning better for splitting.

When deciding who has to move from one night to the next is the agonizing part, because you know you can't make everyone happy. But someone has to move. Each year we get 10-12 teams call and complain, give us reasons why, and its usually the same excuses with not wanting to race back to back nights. However you do get some teams at the last minute that need to switch to the second night because of travel issues, engine is still in the shop, etc. And some teams prefer the second night because they can use one less day of vacation or have an extra day to get here.

There is no perfect system, but I believe what we use is as fair as we can get. And I'll defend the system we have. We try to be flexible to peoples needs, but at times you have to hold your ground. I've had a lot of people ask how we do this, and I thought I might as well be transparent and explain it. But if you are one of the complainers about it not being even, I have a crap load of data to back up what we do, and I probably spend WAY more time on this than they did. So criticism doesn't bother me.

Have a happy and safe Nationals!

2017 Knoxville Nationals Power Rankings

2017-07-25T11:50:00.000-05:00

Sorry I have not posted anything for a while. Life is busy.

The Knoxville Nationals is upon us in a matter of a couple of weeks now, and the 360 Nationals are only a week away. This summer has flown by.

My power rankings for this year are as follows.

1 Schatz
2 Gravel
3 Sweet
4 Brown
5 I.Madsen
6 Stewart
7 K.Madsen
8 J.Johnson
9 Pittman
10 Hodnett

I caught some flack on Twitter about having Kerry too low and Hodnett too high.

Kerry Madsen has been fast this year, but he hasn't shown it at Knoxville for some reason. I think it's a matter of time before that clicks and this is the right time to do it. It's too good of a car, driver, crew chief to not be good at Nationals. But I don't know who I put him in front of on my list at this point.

Greg Hodnett finished inside the top last year. He has been solid this year out in PA, but not dominating like the past few years. He has entered the 360 Nationals and I assume he will be here for the Capitani Classic and FRC as well. He will have plenty of track time in Iowa and I like his chances to get into the top ten again this year.

Drivers just missing my top ten are Rico and Tim Shaffer. I think drivers to look out for are Logan Schuchart, Joey Saldana, Jamie Veal, Lucas Wolfe, and Dusty Zomer.

My favorite is actually David Gravel. I don't want to pick him #1 because it's hard to pick anyone ahead of Donny at this point, but I have this feeling it might be Gravel's moment.

Brian Brown was impressive this past weekend at Knoxville (July 22). I don't know if he is back to being the 2012-2014 Brian Brown for sure, but it sure looked like it this week. My opinion, it is good for Brownie to travel more. I hear some drivers and crew chiefs say that drivers can get in bad habits running the same tracks all of the time. Seeing more tracks with tougher competition can make you sharper, you don't over think things at your "home tracks" and it's a different pace racing with the Outlaws. I love being able to watch Brown every week, but I think the more their team can travel with the WoO, the more his team will benefit from it.

Here some cool stats for the Knoxville Nationals I have run across lately.

No one has had a perfect score of 500 on their qualifying night since 1992. It was done nine times from 1979-1992, four times by Steve Kinser.

The oldest winner is Steve Kinser in 2002 at age 48.
Donny Schatz turns 40 on August 10 this year.

In the 2016 A Main we saw the most lead changes in a 50 lap race with 6. The record was 5 in 2011. The 30 lap record is 4 in 1993 when Stevie Smith nearly pulled off the upset.

The longest consecutive A Main starting streak is 34 by Steve Kinser. Lasoski has the second longest streak of 20. The longest active streaks are Donny Schatz with 19 and Shane Stewart at 16.

Steve Kinser has led the most A Main laps with 301, but Schatz is sitting at 292 and could break that record. Sure the past 6 races have been 50 laps instead of 30, but it's still impressive. I mean, Schatz has 15 top five finishes and the King has the most at 17.

The closest finish is known for 1974 before the days of technology where Dick Gaines past Jan Opperman in a drag race to the finish line and winning by half a car length. 2012 is the closest on record with a time at 0.117 seconds while 2016 was the next closest finish 0.168 seconds.

There is some buzz about Kyle Larson racing the 410 Nationals. It is sounding like he will enter on Wednesday and then if he can get locked into a top 16 spot hope to convince Ganassi to let him race on Saturday. With NASCAR being in Michigan and about a 2 hour plane ride away, it's feasible. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

The Knoxville Raceway Mobile App 3.0 update is out. Download it on your phone and tablets and let us know how you like it with a review in your app store. Thanks to the team at Host Iowa for all they do for the track. I'm looking forward to the advancements coming a year from now that are in the works. Fans won't be disappointed.

Great Loss and Great Opportunity

2017-03-31T09:13:00.003-05:00

It's been a tough winter. It's been a tough year or so honestly. A couple of weeks ago we lost Ralph Capitani, the most beloved person associated with Knoxville Raceway. He was our leader for so long and there aren't enough words to describe how grateful we should all be that he chose to take that leadership role in 1978. He not only helped Knoxville, but other dirt tracks and racing organizations benefited indirectly in my opinion.

In the past year we have lost Cappy, former promoter Ray Grimes and his wife Naomi, car owner and mechanic Gil Sonner, car owner and chassis builder Bob Troslte, jack of all trades mechanic Lenard McCarl, announcer Tim Trier, long-time official Dave Beede, driver Bryan Clauson, and winner of the inaugural Knoxville Nationals Roy Robbins.

This week Tom Schmeh was moved to a hospice center. Tom is the Curator of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum, and before that the Executive Director in charge of the entity as a whole from the beginnings in the early 90's. He has been ill for several months and he could use all the prayers, love, and support we can give him and his sister Ruthanne who is caring for him.

All of these people were extremely influential in the history of Knoxville Raceway. It is hard to imagine a world without all of these people, but the 2017 racing season is near and the show will go on, just as they would have wanted. It's a time to reflect and mourn, but also a time to celebrate these people's lives.

The World of Outlaws season is underway and so far it's Donny Schatz with 6 wins and the rest of the field with 4. David Gravel won for the second time this season on Wednesday at Placerville, CA. Schatz is typically not strong at the beginning of the season but if he is winning races at this rate early, look for him to dominate the rest of this season.

Schatz is making an engine change from Chevy to Ford at some point this season. With the Stewart-Haas NASCAR teams making the change to Ford in 2017, the TSR sprint car will be as well. Ron Shaver has been building engines for Schatz and TSR for a long-time and he helped develop the Ford engine for Casey Luna and Dave Blaney's teams years ago. You can bet that when they do make the switch to Ford power, they won't lose any speed or reliability.

Gravel and Brad Sweet appear to be the best challengers to Schatz early in the season, but there's 80 races to go...

I'm really excited for Austin McCarl this year to have the opportunity to drive the Troy Renfro 2KS car. In my opinion Austin is the best young talent we have in the Midwest and is going to be the guy to beat in the future, especially when guys like Lasoski and his father Terry hang up their helmets. I've been a big fan of Austin since he started racing but he proved he has the talent by making the Nationals A Main in 2011. He just hasn't had the break he needed to showcase his talent. I give him a lot of credit for sticking with his dream and working as a mechanic for his Dad and his own cars. He has been resourceful to keep his car on the track the past couple of years and paid his dues. It's his time to shine and win some races.

At our track employee meeting last week at Knoxville there were a few tidbits I learned. Hand rails will be installed this season in the grandstand to make it easy to go up and down the stairs. Verizon already has good service in Knoxville but they are going to add a boost network at the track for their customers. That will help at peak times with larger crowds. Track announcers will now be heard over a radio scanner frequency. Also there is a virtual reality product coming that will allow you to see with goggles the live view from a camera mounted inside of a car racing on the track. There will be a prototype of this being tested on practice night.

The 64th annual Knoxville Raceway Pella Motors / Kraig Ford Season Opener is April 15. Practice night is Friday the 14th with the kick-off party from 5-7pm with free pizza from Casey's, free drinks thanks to Mahaska and Budweiser. Free food, free beer, free to get in and watch cars hot lap for two hours from 7-9pm, it should be a fun night!

Southern Iowa Speedway 2016 Recap & Stats

2016-10-14T14:30:00.001-05:00

At the conclusion of the race season I always like to go back and look at stats from my still somewhat new hometown track of the Southern Iowa Speedway. I know most of you might read this column for sprint car news but I have become a fan of our local IMCA dirt track racing as well over the past 8-10 years. I do not typically write much about Osky because #1 I don’t have the time with my real job and part-time job at Knoxville Raceway, #2 we typically have two or three other reporters at Osky for Positively Racing there so one more guy like me is a bit overkill. #3 with my kids in baseball and softball I miss a handful of nights at the track. That is why I contribute at Osky with a twitter account for them and post results there as I get them or when I am there I am quicker.

The 2016 season at Osky can be summed up with a few names. Cayden Carter, Curtis VanDerWal, Dustin Griffiths, and Mother Nature. These three drivers dominated this season at the historic half-mile. Ma Nature stuck it to us with no events run during the month of July and washing out the Fair week racing.

Modifieds: Colt Mather won the track championship, his second in Modifieds with his last championship coming in 2008. He won three features. Kyle Brown won the Frost Buster while Cayden Carter swept the Fall Challenge both nights.

Stock Car: Derrick Agee won the Frost Buster and from there Cayden Carter would win the next eight features which prompted a bounty to be put up against him. Mike Hughes would end the streak on June 29 on a night Carter was not racing due to a higher paying race elsewhere that same night. Nathan Wood would win the two shows in August before Carter would sweep both Fall Challenge events. Hughes would win the points title with Carter not competing in the full schedule at the end of the season.

SportMod: Curtis VanDerWal won nine features and dominated this class on his way to a third track championship in four years. Other feature winners were Kyle Prauner, Brett Lowry, Austin Paul, and Brayton Carter.

Hobby Stock: Dustin Griffiths would win his third consecutive track championship thanks to eight feature wins. Danny Thrasher and Nick Ulin would win two features each with Scott Shull winning one and Mike Hughes won the Saturday of the Fall Challenge.

Sport Compact: Shane Evans won the championship with two feature wins. This class had nine different feature winners this season in a very competitive season.

I have been starting to research historic results from Osky and starting to build a decent history database. It’s a shame no historians have kept records here like we do at Knoxville. The past five seasons I have down pretty good thanks to the Speed Net Direct database online.

The past five years here are some interesting numbers.

Top Five in Modified Feature wins: (13) Andrew Schroeder, (11) Cayden Carter, (10) Scott Dickey, (9) Todd Shute, (8) Colt Mather.

Top Five in Stock Car Feature wins: (27) Cayden Carter, (18) Zack VanderBeek, (12) Damon Murty, (7) Brad Pinkerton, (6) Nathan Wood.

Top Five in SportMod Feature wins: (40) Curtis VanDerWal, (10) Jesse Sobbing, (10) Jason McDaniel, (9) Brett Lowry, (4) Carter VandenBerg.

Top Five in Hobby Stock Feature wins: (26) Mike Hughes, (24) Dustin Griffiths, (10) Shannon Anderson, (7) Danny Thrasher, (6) Craig Brown.

Top Five in Sport Compact Feature wins: (20) Bill Whalen Jr., (19) Merv Chandler, (6) John Whalen, (4) Cody Thompson, a four-way tie for fifth with (3) wins are Dallas Chandler, Shaun Slaughter, Trent Orwig, and Shane Evans.

Late Models: Nick Marolf and Todd Cooney have both won 3 features in the past five seasons.

If you combine all of Cayden Carter’s wins across Modifieds, Stock Cars, and Late Models the past five years he has 39 wins. I have already found seven SportMod wins in years prior to that. He has five track championships in three different classes. For a kid who is only 21 years old those are impressive numbers.

VanDerWal has 40 wins in 91 SportMod features the past five years. That is a winning percentage of 44%. If you follow Osky weekly racing, I’ll bet you thought that number was higher didn’t you?

The Southern Iowa Speedway Hall of Fame welcomed three new members this year with Dean Hughes, Terry Schroder, and Pokie West. Congratulations!

I’m hopeful to lineup some driver interviews over the winter this year. If anyone can help me with prior year results at Osky please let me know. Otherwise it looks like I’m spending some time at the library looking through newspaper archives.

Thanks to everyone at the Southern Iowa Speedway for another great racing season!

The Race Against the Clock

2016-10-11T16:06:00.002-05:00

As one of Knoxville Raceway’s Track Historians and keeper of records, one of the most important statistics we keep track of is the clock on race nights. Time management has been something Knoxville Raceway has strived to improve, so that events are completed at a decent time. Race Director, John McCoy, continuously reviews the track’s performance and how we can ensure that fans of all ages have an enjoyable experience at Knoxville.

In 2015 our average time of the final checkered flag for weekly events was 11:07 p.m. Our goal in 2016 was to improve that number to 10:30 p.m.

We made a huge stride in 2016 with the average finish of our weekly events being 10:16 p.m -- an improvement of 51 minutes this season for the final checkered flag.

To accomplish time savings takes a lot of work from a lot of people. From our track preparation crew, to our push truck drivers to the drivers and teams, we are thankful for the cooperation every one showed this year. Having a great track surface ready by 6:40 p.m. each Saturday with drivers already in staging is the first step in having a well-run event.

Group qualifying in time trials has been a huge time savings. Single-car time trials at our World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series and Nationals events averages 46 seconds per car. We, during a weekly Saturday program, qualify our 410 cars at 28 seconds per car. When there are no delays, we are able to complete time trials in seven to eight minutes on most Saturdays.

Throughout the night, we obviously are unable to control the amount of cautions and red-flag periods. However, our safety crew, scorers and push truck drivers were prepared for each of these situations throughout the season. This efficiency also saves time and made hitting an earlier ending time a reality. In the past few seasons, our safety team has sped up their work on red flag clean up from six minutes to three or four minutes, typically.

Also, this year, all classes decreased their number of caution periods during their respective features. In 2015 we averaged 7.5 stoppages per night. This season that number was reduced to 5.3.

In 2015 the average intermission was 16 minutes. This year we cut that number down to eight minutes on the nights we had intermission. Three events excluded an intermission altogether to make up time.

We are grateful for Craig Ford supplying our Pella Motors two-seater each weekend. While the two-seater rides do take a minimal amount of time, they are advantageous to Knoxville Raceway providing a once-in-a-lifetime experience for our sponsors who continue to invest in our track and events to keep our program running.

This season, victory lane was altered slightly as the 305 and 360 winners no longer take individual or team photographs until the conclusion of all events. This change helped specifically when winning drivers were competing in both 410 and 360 classes.

Our latest-ending Saturday show of the season featured a new addition: the children’s Candy Dash sponsored by Casey’s General Stores. The event took 25 minutes and we have researched ways to make this more time-effective in the future. However, we didn’t receive any complaints and most children stayed awake through the 410 feature event due to the candy rush we may have given them! The smiles were worth the extra time.

We don’t just watch the clock during our weekly program, but also during the 5-hour ENERGY Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s General Stores. During this event, we begin the nightly shows at 7:15 p.m., local time, to allow the sun to go down. This helps the track condition stay consistent throughout time trials. With the later start time, we were still able to conclude all racing by 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Thursday, with extreme weather approaching, we started at 6:45 p.m. and concluded at at 9:31 p.m. Friday we started at 7:15 and finished at 11:11 p.m., which was an improvement from the 11:57 ending time in 2015. Our goal for 2017 is to improve this to a 10:45 p.m. end time. Saturday we were done at 11:01 p.m., ahead of last year’s 11:36 p.m. end time, and we will continue to work to improve that as well.

You may remember that we began all of our April events 30 minutes earlier this season at 6:15 p.m. With the sun not up as long in the daytime and cooler temps typically that time of year the racing surface can be ready by that time. We have decided to continue with that time frame for the 2017 season.

Saving time has a lot of components and moving parts. Educating everyone to understand how they affect the show has been the largest part in efficiency the past few seasons.

During the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series events in June, WoO officials actually asked us to slow down, because they were not ready. At that moment it dawned on me, and the rest of the Knoxville Raceway officials, that we had changed our culture for the betterment of our fans.

If you ever have any ideas on how we can continue to improve in our race against the clock we are always open to suggestions. Please email me at erica@knoxvilleraceway.com with those ideas. Thank you for a great 2016 season and we hope to see you again in 2017!

Brian Brown Wins!

2016-05-17T12:08:00.000-05:00

We are through four weeks of racing so far this season at Knoxville Raceway. Only one rain out at this point which is great. We had a nice crowd this past Saturday despite the cool temperatures. Thank You to all of you who came out! The forecast so far for this coming Saturday looks much better.

This was the last weekly show of the season before we go to National Sprint League events for the next three weeks before the Outlaws come to town.

410 Report
25 cars signed in. Time Trials top eight was Bronson Maeschen 14.885, Brian Brown, Ian Madsen, Austin McCarl, Scott Bogucki, Danny Lasoski, Matt Juhl, and Brooke Tatnell. Good to see Bronson go out 21st in the order and lay down a good time. In hot laps Brian Brown had a lap of 14.507, exactly 0.100 off the ten year old track record of 14.407. With the weather conditions it made for some fast time in hot laps, but the track fell off in time trials a bit and the track widened out. Heat Race winners were; Mark Dobmeier, Brian Brown, and AJ Moeller.

The A-Main would see Brooke Tatnell set sail early and lead from the front row. Matt Juhl was able to run him down on a restart and grab the lead coming off of turn two, but Tatnell was better off of turn four and took the lead back. Brian Brown started sixth and was catching the leaders at halfway. On lap 16 Brown and Juhl were side by side at the line and were exactly tied for the second position. Just after crossing the line Bogucki stopped to bring out a yellow. The second position was awarded to Brown by the scorers since he had the quicker lap time. Brown was then able to pass Tatnell for the win. Brownie certainly had the faster car on this night. It looks like the 21 team is back to their top form from a couple of years ago. They have by far been the most consistent car the past four weeks at Knoxville, timing well, and they are the only car with four top five finishes.

360 Report
25 cars signed in. Joe Beaver was quick time at 16.055. Heat race winners were Dusty Zomer, Nate Van Haaften, and Sawyer Phillips. The A Main for the 360’s was the race of the night. Ian Madsen had the lead early until Jamie Ball made his way around him on lap 11. On lap 15 Justin Henderson, who started ninth, passed Ball and went on to get the win. Clint Garner timed bad and started 15th and finished fourth. Billy Alley fifth, and Zomer was sixth after starting 12th.

Henderson appeared to have found the speed they were missing from prior weeks this season on this night and was impressive. Clint Garner was coming on strong at the end. Jamie Ball is having a great start to the 2016 season with a runner up finish and leading some laps

305 Report
18 cars. Chase Wanner was quick time at 16.834. Heat race winners were Mike Mayberry and Joe Simbro. Mayberry got out to a nice lead early and led laps 1-9 until he encountered heavy lapped taffic allowing Corey Kautz to catch him and eventually drive by him for his first career 305 win. The race went caution free.

History and Notes
In the 410 A Main there was some controversy. The lineup for the restart at the end with Brown and Juhl created some confusion. The scoring software from My Laps is set up to give the position to the car with the fastest lap time in the event of a tie. The likelihood of a dead heat at the finish of a race, or when a yellow comes out is almost zero. I can’t ever remember this scenario happening in the past. The scorers thought the lineup was correct, and the field was given the green flag. In the Knoxville rule book in the event of a tie at the checkered flag the position is supposed to go to the car on the outside. Basically a coin flip. However in the rule there is no mention of that event on any other lap during the race, only at the checkered. So there is some wiggle room there with the way the rule is written. But this is such a crazy scenario, it never happens, so it’s hard to be prepared for it. But after looking at the replay you can see that Juhl was the car on the outside. The replay was not available to officials until the race was over. Granted, most race tracks do not have replay capabilities, thankfully Knoxville does, but it’s not like it pops up in a matter of seconds. It took a couple of minutes to bring that up after the race. So the discussion now is how you rewrite the rule to be prepared for the next time this happens and to be more clear. The rules committee will likely have to address this. I mean what if this was the finish of a heat race at the Knoxville Nationals, or for the win worth $150,000. But under no circumstances was anyone showing favoritism toward Brown over Juhl. People that think that there is any conspiracy there are looking for a conspiracy, and there isn’t one. No offence to the 09 team, but the 21 was going to win regardless with four laps left on that restart.

Corey Kautz became the fourth different winner this past Saturday in the 305 class. I’m looking through the history data base and I’m not finding a time where we had four first time feature winners in a row in any class.

The crate engine debate in the 305 class is taking a new twist with Devin Kline ordering one this week. Will we see more of them as the season goes? I think so. Kline has lost two engines this season at Knoxville. One on practice night, another this past week. I don’t blame them for looking for something that is more reliable. If this trend continues, it’s good for the sport in my opinion. If you want to spend upwards of $30,000 on an engine and it only last a few nights you might as well race a 410, but that’s just my opinion.

Bryan Clauson was tenth in Indy practice on Monday. What a story. Hope his third Indy 500 ends with a great result. I will be watching, as will most of you I’m sure. Go get em BC!

Kade Higday was hurt in the feature after the torque tube broke and tore up his ankle. Not sure how long his recovery will be, but he has to be feeling some pain. So say a prayer for this kid to get healthy.

Time Study. Through four nights this season the average time of the final checkered flag is 10:15pm, and that is with the season opener ending at 10:49pm. Last year, we didn’t end any night before 10:15pm. Kudos to everyone for pulling this off. This is a coordinated combined effort with track prep, push trucks, race teams, safety crew, wrecker crew, and all race officials. It isn’t easy for Doug Clark to hold it in for 4 hours!

Points
410: Brown leads Lasoski by 129 points.
360: Garner leads Ball by 92 points.
305: Walraven leads Bowman by 25 points.

I have to apologize for not writing as many blogs this season. With some added responsibilities at Knoxville Raceway being the social media manager, it has taken up any spare time I had. Not to mention my kids softball and baseball schedules, and a baby on the way. Life has been crazy at the Arnold household.

Badlands Speedway season opener is this week. I know this has created some drama with some people and I get it. For some reason people are attracted to drama and that is why they like to watch shows on ESPN with Skip Bayless and Tony Kornheiser. People love to debate. In the end there is room for two tracks to survive that are 350 miles apart. Sure it would be nice to have them on separate nights. But it is what it is and all of us Knoxville will keep working hard to put on the best shows we can.

It’s $1.00 Busch Light Night this week! Man, too bad that didn’t happen 10 years ago when I was sitting in section D with the BHG when I could have taken advantage of that. I have a feeling the BHG boys will drink one for me.

Clasuon Steals the Show at Knoxville Opener!

2016-04-23T10:42:00.000-05:00

The Knoxville Raceway 63rd Season Opener was Saturday and we were blessed with great weather! Sunny, 77 degrees, a little breeze, and low humidity at 28%.

31 cars signed in. Time Trials top eight was Kerry Madsen 15.786, Brian Brown, Danny Lasoski, Justin Henderson, Davey Heskin, Bryan Clauson, Wayne Johnson, and Sammy Swindell. Henderson was fast on lap one, but the engine let go on lap two and they had to scratch the 410 car for the night.

Drivers going double duty on this night in the 410 and 360 class were Justin Henderson and Bryan Clauson. We also had outlaws Sammy Swindell and Kerry Madsen in attendance. We had several ASCS 360 teams entered with Wayne Johnson and Johnny Herrera dropping in a 410 on this night.

410 Report

Heat Race winners were; Ian Madsen (started on row one), Brian Brown (row three), Tim Kaeding (front row). In Heat one Ian Madsen took the lead but a late charge from his brother Kerry led to a drag race to the finish with Ian winning by 0.001 seconds! In heat two Lynton Jeffrey and Mark Dobmeier traded the lead early until Brian Brown got by them all. Jake Bubak crashed in turn two to end the third heat but was OK.

The A-Main saw Bryan Clauson grab the lead until lap four when Lasoski went by and then cruise to the win. The Dude is going to be tough to beat again this year. There was some great racing for third on back with Brown, Heskin Kerry Madsen, and Tasker Phillips who came from the B Main was able to drive from 18th to seventh and had to pass Sammy, TK, Tatnell, and Ian along the way to earn hard charger honors.

410 A Main Finish (started): 1. Danny Lasoski (4); 2. Bryan Clauson (2); 3. Brian Brown (5); 4. Davey Heskin (3); 5. Kerry Madsen (6); 6. Wayne Johnson (1); 7. Tasker Phillips (18); 8. Sammy Swindell (7); 9. Tim Kaeding (14); 10. Brooke Tatnell (8); 11. Johnny Herrera (20); 12. Ian Madsen (12); 13. Austin McCarl (19); 14. Dustin Selvage (17); 15. Matt Juhl (10); 16. Mark Dobmeier (16); 17. Josh Schneiderman (21); 18. AJ Moeller (15); 19. Bob Weuve (24); 20. Craig Dollansky (11); 21. Mike Reinke (22); 22. Bronson Maeschen (9); 23. Lynton Jeffrey (13); 24. Dakota Hendrickson (23). Lap Leaders: Clauson 1-4, Lasoski 5-20. Hard-charger: Phillips

360 Report
33 cars entered. Clint Garner set quick time with a lap of 17.714, followed by Henderson, Ball, Giles, Moro, Baughman, Roberts, and Landis in the top eight. Heat race winners were Garner, Randy Martin, Nate Van Haaften, and Chris Martin. The feature was awesome with Matt Moro and Clint Garner exchanging the lead until tenth place started Bryan Clauson clawed his way to the front on lap 12. Seth Bergman managed to drive from 16th to 8th. Justin Henderson’s disappointing night continued as #1 car backed up from fifth to ninth. It was Clauson’s first 360 win at Knoxville. This guy is a wheel man.

360 A Main Finish (started): 1. Bryan Clauson (10); 2. Clint Garner (6); 3. Josh Baughman (1); 4. Matt Moro (2); 5. Jamie Ball (4); 6. Ryan Roberts (7); 7. Matt Covington (12); 8. Seth Bergman (16); 9. Justin Henderson (5); 10. Blake Hahn (11); 11. Ryan Giles (3); 12. Jon Agan (8); 13. Joe Beaver (13); 14. Tony Shilling (21); 15. Nate Van Haaften (15); 16. Tyler Thomas (22); 17. Calvin Landis (9); 18. Chris Martin (20); 19. Chris Morgan (23); 20. Sawyer Phillips (17); 21. Brandon Hanks (14); 22. Randy Martin (18); 23. Josh Riggins (24); 24. Kade Higday (19). Lap Leaders: Garner 1, Moro 2-3, Garner 4-11, Clauson 12-18. Hard-charger: Clauson.

305 Report
23 cars. Devin Kline set quick time with a lap of 17.579. Heat race winners were Mitchell Alexander, Billy Bell, and Chris Walraven. Defending 305 track champion Stacey Alexander did not start his heat race. The feature was exciting. Walraven, who is the only 305 competitor using the new crate engine package was able to hold off the field after starting up front. Kline and Haase definitely had more speed than Walraven but they raced each other and through traffic couldn’t catch the veteran Walraven in clean air.

305 A Main Finish (started): 1. Chris Walraven (1); 2. McKenna Haase (3); 3. Devin Kline (6); 4. Christian Bowman (5); 5. Trevor Smith (9); 6. Matthew Stelzer (14); 7. Mitchell Alexander (7); 8. Corey Kautz (8); 9. Mike Houseman Jr. (17); 10. Joe Simbro (12); 11. Cliff Jones (18); 12. Mike Mayberry (10); 13. Tyler Glass (16); 14. Billy Bell (11); 15. Tyler Dollison (19); 16. Brad Comegys (2); 17. Cody Ambers (13); 18. Chase Wanner (4); 19. Dan Henning (15) DNS – Jeff Wilke, Stacey Alexander, Josh Jones, AJ Johnson. Lap Leader: Walraven 1-15. Hard-charger: Stelzer.

History and Notes
Danny Lasoski gets win #107 and becomes the oldest driver to ever win a 410 feature at Knoxville. If Sammy wins a feature this season at Knoxville he would become the oldest. Or Steve Kinser, who hasn’t won a feature here since 2005. Now, how many will the Dude win before he hangs up the helmet? I see no reason why he can’t get to 111 to 115 wins this year. But this wins record will never be broken.

Disappointing night for the BDS #1 team. Look for them to bounce back this week.

Awesome to have Sammy and Kerry with us. Look for them to show up a few more times this year.

Bryan Clauson is a great story. A two-time USAC sprint car champion in 2012-2013, and a two-time USAC Midget champion in 2010-2011, and two-time starter of the Indy 500. To have him here racing is pretty cool, and the fact he is entered again this year for the Indy 500 is special. This just doesn’t happen to have a guy like him here racing regularly, so soak up BC as much as you can.

I think this crate engine package that Competition Director Mike Proffit has come up with is a great alternative for teams wanting to race in the 305 class competitively for way less money. I’m hearing reports that some 305 teams are spending anywhere from $25,000 to… wait for it… $45,000 for a killer engine. These engines are way too expensive for a class racing for $400 to win and supposed to be a “hobby” or “entry level” division. If a team can spend $15,000 for a sealed crate engine that requires less maintenance, is durable, and still win races, that is a win/win for everyone, well except the teams that spent all that money on high priced engines. Hopefully this is a sign that costs will come down.

Points

410: Lasoski leads the 410 points over Brown by 9.
360: Garner leads the 360 points.
305: Devin Kline leads the 305 ponts.

Remembering Brett Golik

2015-12-24T13:41:00.001-06:00

This column originally appeared in the Newton Daily News after the death of Brett Golik. Today marks the five year anniversary of his death and looking back, Brett is still missed and I thought this serves as a good reminder of what to be thankful for today.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The community of Newton and the Knoxville Raceway sprint car family lost a courageous competitor this past week with the passing of 40 year old Brett Golik. Brett battled brain cancer for two and half years and in that time frame, Brett made an effort to try to right the wrongs in his life. He became an inspiration trying to make people aware of supporting cancer research and his faith.
I didn’t know Brett personally, but as an avid race fan I followed Brett’s career at Knoxville. I respected Brett for chasing his dream. He worked at Maytag in the factory for ten years and found a way to put a yellow numbered 5G sprint car on the famed half mile oval for 18 seasons. It took Brett a few years to become competitive but he was able to pick up three wins in the 360 division. One of those wins was a classic battle with Knoxville legend David Hesmer from Marshalltown who is a four time track champion and is the all time wins leader in the 360 class. Hesmer remembered the night Golik had the better car and beat him to the finish line.

”Brett won the A-main one night when I was driving for Archie Ergenbright,” said Hesmer. “Brett started towards the front and I made it to second but Brett had a pretty good size lead. I was catching him, but I was going to run out of time. With two laps to go there is a yellow and I thought we got this race now. On the restart I thought I could pass the 5G. I had been running low and Brett was running the cushion. The green came out, I went low, but Brett drove two perfect laps on the cushion and won the race. The fastest car won the race, but I don’t mind taking second when we were not the fastest car and the winner drives two perfect laps!” Brett won three features and finished as high as seventh in the 360 points in 2000 and won features on Sep 5, 1998, July 17, 1999, and May 20, 2000.

Another fellow competitor of Golik’s in the 360 class is Brett Mather from Ames. Mather is a quiet guy and doesn’t socialize much, but he remembered Golik as a good guy who knew how hard it was to keep a sprint car running on the track from week to week. “Brett Golik is the only person to come to me after a crash and apologize,” said Mather. “I didn’t quite know what to say because he came along and got caught up in my crash, he had no where to go. It wrecked his car as bad as mine and I should have been apologizing to him! I’ve kept my distance from fellow racers because it’s hard when accidents happen and you can cost others a lot of money but I looked differently at Golik after that day.”

There is one story that I have a personal connection with Brett that has nothing to do with racing. It has to do with his efforts to make peace with the wrongs in his life after finding out his condition was terminal. Brett showed up on the door step of my aunt & uncle in Newton one afternoon almost two years ago to apologize for bullying my cousin when they were little kids. My cousin was killed in a 1981 car accident at the age of ten. Brett had tremendous guilt for his actions back when they were kids and after nearly 30 years he felt he had to own up to it. So he apologized repeatedly to my aunt and uncle and begged for their forgiveness. My aunt & uncle knew nothing about these incidents but they said he was forgiven for whatever he had done, it was a long time ago and they were just kids after all. Brett then offered them an envelope with some cash in it. Of course my aunt and uncle refused to take the money and asked Brett to donate the money to a charity or use it to pay for his medical bills. But Brett insisted repeatedly that he had to give the money to them or he wouldn't feel like he had done right. He refused to walk away without them taking this gift, so they finally took it and later donated it to a charity of their choice. But that takes a lot of courage to do something like that, and he did this for other people as well to try to make things right before he met his maker.

Brett is a reminder that life is short, but because of his illness Brett was able to find God and the Holy Spirit was truly alive in him. Brett has inspired me to become a better person, treat people right, to be more forgiving, and give the glory to God. My prayers are with his wife Jennifer and father James. Godspeed.

Henderson Wins Two, Knoxville & Jackson Notes

2015-09-08T12:27:00.000-05:00

Knoxville Raceway Season Championship night always sneaks up on us too fast at the end of the season doesn't it? I’m still catching up on racing stuff post-Nationals so I apologize for the lateness of my blog here. I haven't been able to come up with my Nationals story yet. The next few weeks we still have some sprint car racing happening in the Midwest with WoO, ASCS, NSL, Sprint Invaders, so get out there and catch them while you can. The 410 and 360 championships were locked up coming into the night, but the 305 was still up for grabs.

410 Report
26 cars enterted. Top 10 Qualifying: Justin Henderson set quick time for the fourth time this season with a lap of 14.922. He also set quick time four times in 2014. The rest of the top ten were Dusty Zomer, Brian Brown, Bronson Maeschen, Ian Madsen, Bryan Clauson, Mark Dobmeier, Austin McCarl, Danny Lasoski, and AJ Moeller.

Heat winners were Ryan Bunton (front row), Lynton Jeffrey (row two), and Danny Lasoski (row two). Madsen and Clauson both finished seventh in their respective heat races and missed the transfer to the A-Main, moving Lasoski and Moeller into the top eight redraw. Madsen would win the B-Main and Clauson would finish second and the drivers would earn the ninth and tenth starting spots in the A Main.

The A-Main was all Henderson starting from the pole and he would lead all 25 laps on his way to his fourth 410 feature win of the season at Knoxville, first career NSL feature event win, and the win paid $5,000. Brian Brown looked great in this race starting sixth and was closing on Henderson at the end on his way to a runner-up finish.

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

360 Report
23 cars enteted. Justin Henderson set quick time for the eighth time this season with a lap of 15.805. Henderson set quick time seven times last season. The top ten was Ryan Giles, Jamie Ball, Matt Moro, Keoni Texeira, Sawyer Phillips, Clint Garner, Dusty Zomer, Tony Shilling, and Jon Agan. Heat winners were Jon Agan (row two), Dusty Zomer (row two), and Joe Beaver (row two).

The A-Main saw Justin Henderson lead the entire distance, his own challenge came early from Dusty Zomer but Henderson was able to pull away. Ball was up to third and looking good but on lap 17 both Zomer ball dropped out of the race, perhaps out of fuel after several cautions. Giles passed Garner with a few laps remaining to get on the podium.

360 A Main Finish (started): 1. Justin Henderson (1); 2. Matt Moro (5); 3. Ryan Giles (7); 4. Clint Garner (4); 5. Sawyer Phillips (2); 6. Nate Van Haaften (13); 7. Jon Agan (9); 8. Tony Shilling (8); 9. Randy Martin (14); 10. Bill Balog (12); 11. Joe Beaver (11); 12. Ricky Montgomery (18); 13. Alan Zoutte (15); 14. Tyler Brooks (20); 15. Dusty Zomer (3); 16. Jamie Ball (6); 17. Taylor Forbes (17); 18. J Kinder (10); 19. Keoni Texeira (21); 20. Tom Lenz (16); 21. Jamie Zaputil (19); 22. John Anderson (22) DNS – Calvin Landis. Lap Leader: Henderson 1-20. Hard-charger: Van Haaften.

305 Report
30 cars entered (tied record). Chris Walraven set quick time for the second time this season with a lap of 17.026. The rest of the top five was Devin Kline, Matthew Stelzer, Trevor Smith, and Mike Mayberry. Heat winners were Chase Wanner, Brad Comegys, and Joe Simbro, all three from the front row. In the A-Main is was a 53 minute endurance test from push off to the finish. McKenna Haase was leading but Kline was able to catch her late in traffic. Racing for the lead Haase went high in turn three to pass the lapped car of Ambers and made contact sending McKenna end over end four times in a scary crash. She was OK. From there Kline went on to win for the fifth time this season. Stacey Alexander started eleventh on this night and finished fourth to clinch the 305 championship.

305 A Main Finish (started): 1. Devin Kline (1); 2. Trevor Smith (6); 3. Christian Bowman (2); 4. Stacey Alexander (11); 5. Chris Walraven (9); 6. Jeff Wilke (8); 7. Matthew Stelzer (7); 8. Brad Comegys (14); 9. Mitchell Alexander (19); 10. Chase Wanner (16); 11. Billy Bell (24); 12. Kade Higday (10); 13. Corey Kautz (17); 14. Nick Tucker (3); 15. Kevin Hiemstra (13); 16. Cody Ambers (18); 17. Lee Patterson (23); 18. McKenna Haase (4); 19. Mike Mayberry (5); 20. Josh Jones (12); 21. Mike Johnston (20); 22. Shawn Deman (21); 23. Joe Simbro (15); 24. Don Dawson III (22). Lap Leaders: Haase 1-12, Kline 13-15. Hard-charger: Bell.

History and Notes
After seeing three new track champions a year ago, this year we have Lasoski winning this tenth, Garner wins his sixth, and Alexander his first.

Danny Lasoski dominated the 410 class this season, winning by 374 points over second place Henderson. This was also the tenth championship for crew chief Guy Forbrook and the seventh championship for these two guys together. Congrats to both of them. Their season stats; 13 top five finishes in 14 features. Their only night out of the top five was a 13th place finish during the fog shortened World of Outlaws feature. Their time trial average was 2.8, including three quick times. They won four heat races which is second most of anyone this season. Led 65 feature laps in seven features. I think the only car that passed him all season was Shane Stewart at the Capitani Classic. Lasoski made the top eight redraw ten times, the most of anyone. What a great season and clearly the best team.

Instead of an invert of eight being used every night in each class this season, we had a redraw of the fastest eight cars that advanced through their heat races. This seemed more fair for everyone, especially with the draw being determined by a different class each night. Here are some stats of how many times drivers were in the top eight redraw, their draws, and their average.

Top eight redraw stats this season.
Lasoski, 10 draws: 6, 8, 3, 1, 1, 3, 2, 3, 5, and 3 for an average of 3.5.
Henderson, 8 draws: 4, 1, 4, 1, 5, 2, 2, and 1 for an average of 2.5
McCarl, 5 draws: 3, 5, 3 5, 1, average of 3.4.
Madsen, 6 draws: 2, 8, 3, 1, 2, 4, average of 3.3.
Brown, 8 draws: 3, 4, 7, 5, 8, 4, 6, 6, average of 5.4.
Tatnell, 5 draws: 6, 7, 4, 7, 4, average of 5.6
Zomer, 4 draws: 7, 7, 4, 7, average of 6.3.
Heskin, 3 draws: 7, 3, 8, average of 6.0.

Last year’s champ Ian Madsen finished fourth in points this year. No wins, six top fives, ten top tens, one quick time, time trial average of 6.9 and average feature finish of 8.6. A solid season, but not as good as they were wanting I think. The competition is so tough and they have nothing to hand their heads about.

Who was the Most Improved 410 driver? That is a tough one. Looking at 2014 points finishes Josh Schneiderman improved from 15th to 11th. Dakota Hendrickson 17th to 13th. Tasker Phillips 18th to 14th. Schneiderman and Hendrickson both had one top ten, while Phillips had two top ten finishes. Based on that you have to give the nod to Tasker in my opinion, but all three drivers showed improvement from last year.

In (14) 410 A-Main’s this year, six were won from the front row, five from row two, two from row three, and Zomer won from tenth in the second feature on twin feature night.

Clock Management:
I did a time study again this year for all the weekly shows and here are some interesting stats. I also have the 2014 stats here as well.

Average first push off for hot laps. 6:50pm (6:52 in 2014).
Average time for last checkered flag. 11:07pm (10:55 in 2014).

Average 305 A-Main length from push off to checkered flag:
29 minutes, average of 3.6 cautions/reds. (17 and 2.2).Yikes... 17 to 29 minutes in average time.

Average 360 A-Main length from push off to checkered flag:
17 minutes, average of 2.1 cautions/reds. (17 and 1.7).

Average 410 A-Main length from push off to checkered flag:
22 minutes, average of 1.8 cautions/reds. (25 and 2.1).

Car Count Averages: This year (last year)
410: 32.5 (33.4)
360: 27.9 (26.6)
305: 25.9 (23.7)
Total: 85.4 (84.7)
Car count was up overall, except down 1 car in the 410 class.

Jackson Nationals

I attended Saturday night of the Jackson Nationals this past weekend. I hadn’t been up there since 1990. My first trip was in 1984 to see Bobby Davis Jr. win the event after a good race with Brad Doty. Back then they had a covered wooden grandstand and it seemed like a big event. Then it just disappeared from the 410 sprint car radar until this year with Tod Quiring buying the track and putting up $25,000 to the winner as part of the new NSL.

I liked the format with the Nationals style points system being used both nights cumulatively. The race was one lane around the top and Sammy led the whole distance. Dollansky was able to sneak by Lasoski on a restart for second. The bottom groove wasn’t there and passing was difficult, but somehow Heskin was able to find something down low and made his way to sixth after starting 18th. McCarl made it from ninth to fifth.

There was a good crowd in attendance, maybe 4,500 which was almost full capacity there, but it was a long night. The event was managed terribly as far as time. In fact Doug Clark had to wave his flag to get the attention of the pit steward to get cars pushed off on more than one occasion. Hot Laps didn’t start until almost 7:30 and two sessions of 360 hot laps were needed as the track was wet. With only two classes of cars, not high car counts in either class, not enough push trucks, and no reworking the track or weather delays, somehow the checkers flew at 11:51pm. There was about a 20 minute intermission with fireworks that was cool. If this were a Knoxville show, I would have seen a flood of tweets coming in about moving the show along. I’m sure they will learn.

Knoxvlle Nationals 101

2015-08-11T11:00:00.000-05:00

The Knoxville Nationals qualifying scoring system is something I get questions about frequently. The Knoxville Nationals Point System was created by promoter Ray Grimes and his wife Naomi.

A perfect score is 500 points. 200 for time trials, 100 for a heat race win, and 200 for a feature win.

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 place = 154 points.

Quick time in time trials earns the same amount of points as winning the A-Main (200).

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

The qualifying night heat races are the best races of the whole week. They are lined up by time trials with 8 cars inverted. (360 Nationals 6 cars are inverted.) Normal race formats at Knoxville the cars are inverted by 6, and WoO events the invert is 4. So heat races are intense and pressure packed, because you must finish in the top four to advance to the A-Main.

Quick time in time trials falls into heat 1 in the 8th position, 2nd quick is in heat 2 in the 8th position, etc. Heat race finishing positions 1-4 transfer to the A-main, positions 5-8 go to 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 (inside row 1).

The A main also has an 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, 10th fastest starts 10th, etc.

Invert of 8 cars example.

Row 1: 8-7 Row 6: 11-12

Row 2: 6-5 Row 7: 13-14

Row 3: 4-3 Row 8: 15-16

Row 4: 2-1 Row 9: 17-18

Row 5: 9-10 Row 10: 19-20

All heats and main's are lined up according to your qualifying time. The B-Main transfer cars start on the tail of the A-Main in positions 21-24 in the order they finished, they DO NOT earn their time slot back.

There are no extra passing points.

At then end of the night the points are added up. You can see them live as the night goes on the Knoxville Raceway Mobile App if you click on "More" and scroll down to "Nationals Points" in the app.

This system has been used since 1977, 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. Qualifying is a huge part of the format as it is just as important as the feature, and determines the lineup of everything.

After both qualifying nights, the points are combined. The top 16 over all from Wednesday and Thursday points are locked in for Saturday’s A-Main. Position 17-26 in points have the option to start up front in the Saturday B-Main, or hit the reset button and race Friday night in the "Hard Knox" program.

Positions 17-20 of the Saturday A-Main are up for grabs on "Hard Knox" Friday night. The top four finishers from Friday night’s A-Main will fill those sports. Friday night finishers 5-14 will make up the last five rows of the B-Main Saturday, and as they finish on Friday from there in the B and C main is where you start in the C, D, and E on Saturday night.

There is one wild card in that the winner of the World Challenge on Friday can earn a 25th starting position in the Knoxville Nationals Championship A-Main on Saturday. If the winner is not already locked in, they will take the 25th spot rather than trying to work their way in from the B or C Main. Only the winner is eligible for that golden ticket.

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

Any further questions, feel free to tweet me @_EricArnold or contact me by e-mail at arniebhg@yahoo.com.

McCarl Wins 4th 360 Nationals

2015-08-09T11:31:00.001-05:00

Studio 92 Photo

Terry McCarl won his fourth career 360 Nationals Saturday night at the Knoxville Raceway. The Saturday A-Main T-Mac drove away and the longer the race went the better his car seemed to be compared to his competition. He pulled away and was out to a four second lead in traffic, which is encouraging for Terry going into next week. Congrats to his team. I know those guys work hard. I’m really happy for crew chief Doug Rankin who has so much passion for the sport, Austin and Carson pitch in as well, a Jayme Moyle engine under the hood, it was a good combination. They had everything go their way with drawing number one in the qualifying order and made it through their heat race. Hopefully next week goes as well for them.

Big thanks to Arnold Motor Supply and Great Southern Bank for their help in putting this show on this year!

The race itself saw all the leaders riding around the top side of the track which apparently was the fastest way around as no one stuck to the bottom after the opening laps. T-Mac could go anywhere in traffic however. For the fifth consecutive 360 Nationals, the leader led all 25 laps, and sixth out of seven years. The cars all seem so equal. Sammy, Dude, Wayne, Brown, no one could make a run and move forward it seemed like. Zomer looked strong on Friday night on the bottom but he couldn’t make it work to get past McCarl on this night. Lasoski looked dominant on Thursday night but couldn’t get to the front on Saturday.

Aaron Reutzel is the real deal. He made a bonsai pass for third early on Wayne Johnson and held on the rest of the way to finish on the podium.

Bronson Maeschen came from the B-Main to tenth for hard charger honors. Rookie Ryan Giles was best of his class to take top finishing rookie honors beating out Bryan Clauson and Tyler Thomas.

A Main Finish (started): 1. Terry McCarl (1); 2. Dusty Zomer (2); 3. Aaron Reutzel (6); 4. Wayne Johnson (4); 5. Sammy Swindell (5); 6. Clint Garner (3); 7. Brian Brown (11); 8. Danny Lasoski (8); 9. Kevin Swindell (15); 10. Bronson Maeschen (24); 11. Calvin Landis (9); 12. Tony Shilling (23); 13. Tony Bruce Jr. (12); 14. Jon Agan (17); 15. Jamie Ball (18); 16. Ryan Giles (10); 17. Billy Alley (22); 18. Casey Friedrichsen (14); 19. Bryan Clauson (13); 20. Tyler Thomas (20); 21. Jac Haudenschild (16); 22. Justin Henderson (19); 23. Tim Shaffer (7); 24. Ryan Roberts (21).

Stats
McCarl's four wins now only trails Shane Stewart with five wins at the 360 Nationals. T-Mac now has led 92 laps in the championship feature, second behind Shane's 112.

Wayne Johnson gets his seventh career top five, tied for most all time, He also gets his tenth top ten.

Official Car Count was 102. We had 103 in 2014 and 2013, 108 in 2012.

Notes
Unfortunately with the Saturday weather forecast the 305 class was cancelled to make sure we could get the 360 Nationals in before 9:00pm. It’s a bummer for the 305 teams to miss out on a chance to race in front of a big crowd, but it was the right call. Multiple weather forecasters were giving the track a window of 9pm to finish racing before rain and hail approached. The weather slowed up a bit and didn’t reach Knoxville until the 11pm hour. Hard to predict what Mother Nature will do.

Disappointing 360 Nationals for Justin Henderson. He had the most dominant car all season in the 360 class at Knoxville but they struggled on qualifying night to make the transfer through their heat finishing fifth and finished 16th in the A-Main after running the B Main. They just didn't have the car through traffic, unlike them all season. I'm still scratching my head. Same could be said for Billy Alley who finished 17th after starting 22nd in the A-Main.

I met a lot of good people this week, I'm sure I will meet some more this next week. Racing people are so great.

I talked with Thomas Kennedy from Winnepeg on Saturday afternoon. Great guy, and its great to have some Canadian flavor to the event. They work hard to get to Knoxville and they were ecstatic to make the A-Main on Friday night, his first time making an A at Knoxville. They finished seventh in the B on Saturday.

Make sure you check out the Tribute to Doug Wolfgang display in the NSCHoF&M. Wolfie is the reason I fell in love with sprint car racing as a three year-old kid in 1977 when he won ten features in a row. Great driver, mechanic, great character in racing history, and even better family man. I have a lot of respect for what he accomplished.

NASCAR Trucks at Knoxville? Big rumor this week through the media, but not likely in my opinion. First Knoxville would need to construct a four foot tall concrete wall around the outside of the track. Those trucks weigh way, way, WAY more than a sprint car or late model. The current wood and aluminum guard rail wouldn't hold them. Then there is a matter of having a infield care center and a infield media center. This would be a costly investment from the Marion County Fair Board. It would also put sprint car drivers in more harms way with a concrete wall I feel. I won't say it will never happen, but these are the things to consider facility wise to get there.

Another 360 Nationals in the record books. Capitani Classic is tonight!

Henderson & Landis Win!

2015-08-06T12:53:00.002-05:00

Calvin Landis (Studio 92 Photo)

Candi’s Flowers Night this past Saturday saw one of the best races I’ve ever seen in the 360 class. I applaud the drivers for putting on a good show and for making all 18 laps without a caution. The weather on this night warm and humid with the dew point above 70 once again making for an excellent racing surface.

Visitors on this night were numerous, especially in the 360 class with the ASCS teams racing the two previous nights at I-80 in Nebraska and an off night on Saturday. Jeff Swindell, Aaron Reutzel, Scottie McDonald, Matt Covington, Tony Bruce Jr., Josh Baughman, Johnny Herrera, Wayne Johnson, Bill Balg, Justyn Cox, Jordan Weaver, Lee Grosz, Blake Hahn, and Kris Miller.

Drivers going double duty on this night in the 410 and 360 classes were Justin Henderson, Tony Shilling, and Brian Brown was timing his 360 only in preparation for the 360 Nationals.

410 Report
33 cars signed in. Time Trials top eight was Ian Madsen 15.504, Danny Lasoski, Dusty Zomer, Brian Brown, AJ Moeller, Terry McCarl, Jamie Veal, and Justin Henderson.

Heat Race winners were; Tasker Phillips (row one), Danny Lasoski (row three), Tim Kaeding (row one). In Heat one Tasker Phillips looked strong passing Brooke Tatnell. Tasker has looked much improved the pat few weeks. He has had a helping hand from Danny Lasoski and Guy Forbrook in the area and I’m sure that has helped, plus give him some confidence. Lasoski looked great winning from the third row.

In the A Main Logan Forler crashed in turn one on the initial start but was OK. Justin Henderson was out front early and had a two second lead at point before he entered lapped traffic. About halfway McCarl began to real in Henderson as did Zomer and Lasoski were closing in traffic. A red flag on lap 13 for Scott Bogucki crashing gave Henderson clean air on the restart and he was able to hold off McCarl by five car lengths. Zomer and Lasoski had a nice battle for third. The track was tacky top to bottom and plenty of racing grooves to pick from, but one wasn’t faster than the other in the 20 lapper. After taking the checkered flag Tasker Phillips crashed past the flag stand after apparent contact with Ian Madsen, which led to a heated exchange or words after the race in the pit area between the two drivers. Henderson’s win was his third of the season in the 410 class.

410 A Main Finish (started): 1. Justin Henderson (2); 2. Terry McCarl (1); 3. Dusty Zomer (4); 4. Danny Lasoski (5); 5. Brian Brown (6); 6. Davey Heskin (10); 7. Lynton Jeffrey (3); 8. Brooke Tatnell (16); 9. Jamie Veal (8); 10. Bronson Maeschen (11); 11. Ian Madsen (9); 12. Tasker Phillips (13); 13. Craig Dollansky (20); 14. Tim Kaeding (15); 15. Willie Croft (14); 16. AJ Moeller (7); 17. Josh Schneiderman (19); 18. Brady Bacon (17); 19. Austin Johnson (21); 20. Scott Bogucki (22); 21. RJ Johnson (23); 22. Paige Polyak (18); 23. Garry Brazier (24); 24. Logan Forler (12). Lap Leader: Henderson 1-20. Hard-charger: Tatnell.

360 Report
39 cars signed in, a season high. Justin Henderson was quick time. The rest of the top eight were Calvin Landis, John Hall, Sottie McDonald, Joe Beaver, Matt Covington, Tony Bruce Jr. and Brian Brown. Brown put the 360 away after time trials. Heat race winners were Jamie Ball (front row), Wayne Johnson (row two), Clint Garner (row one), and Johnny Herrera (row two). Clint Garner made an engine change before the A Main.

The A Main had five lead changes and went non-stop with no cautions. On the start Josh Baughman and Calvin Lands were wheel to wheel in the opening laps. If you haven’t seen the replay of this feature, look it up on the Knoxville Raceway YouTube page, or at the bottom of the homepage in the videos section. It was awesome. Wayne Johnson came from 12^th starting position to the lead on lap 16 only to shred a left rear tire in turn four coming to the checkers. Baughman and Landis snuck by him and banged wheels coming down the front stretch to the finish line as Landis won by 0.065 second, basically a front wheel. Amazing race!

360 A Main Finish (started): 1. Calvin Landis (4); 2. Josh Baughman (2); 3. Tony Bruce Jr. (1); 4. Justin Henderson (5); 5. Johnny Herrera (14); 6. Jon Agan (3); 7. Clint Garner (16); 8. Wayne Johnson (12); 9. Nate Van Haaften (10); 10. Ryan Giles (8); 11. Scottie McDonald (6); 12. Russ Hall (20); 13. Matt Covington (7); 14. Bill Balog (15); 15. Jamie Ball (18); 16. Jordyn Brazier (11); 17. Bart Friedrichsen (17); 18. Joe Beaver (23); 19. Tony Shilling (24); 20. John Hall (9); 21. Matt Moro (13); 22. Ryan Roberts (21); 23. Justyn Cox (19); 24. Jeff Swindell (22).
Lap Leaders: Landis 1-9, Baughman 10-13, Bruce Jr. 14, Baughman 15, W. Johnson 16-17, Landis 18.
Hard-charger: Herrera.

This week is the 360 Nationals and the 305’s will compete on Saturday night. 410’s only on Sunday for the Capitani Classic.

Points
410: Lasoski leads the 410 points over Henderson by 332 points.
360: Garner I out to a 386 point lead over Van Haaften.
305: Stacey Alexander leads Devin Kline by 128 points.

Brian Stickel resigned on Monday night at the Fair Board meeting. Stickel took over as the GM in 2013 after Toby Kruse held that position for one race season in 2012. After three successful seasons Stickel has decided to leave. It’s too bad but I get both sides of the story. Stickel hired me to do social media in the 2011 season and named me Track Historian the following season. Since then my life has dramatically changed and I love being a part of Knoxville Raceway and sharing my enthusiasm for sprint car racing with the fans and helping to promote the track in a positive manner. I want to publicly thank Brian Stickel for being the man that hired me and gave me an opportunity. I did it for a only a press pass in the beginning, now I make a little money but I’m sure it doesn’t amount to much per hour if I figured it out.

I think Knoxville has the best facility in the world. Although I do recognize that there is an arms race of sorts happening when it comes to facility amenities with what other tracks are doing to raise the bar. But growth and facility improvements will likely happen at Knoxville and things will continue to improve with time. I love the track and put it first before myself, and I always have. It’s the one thing in life that never disappoints or lets me down, the races at Knoxville. It is my sanctuary. And I’m happy to be a part of it. The show will go on.

Lasoski Wins #106, Zomer Blazin' Hot

2015-07-28T07:20:00.001-05:00

Saturday wasn’t a full moon but a lot of crazy things happened on this night. The track received 1.5” of rain around 7:00am and there was a power outage around town, including for two hours at the track. The track crews did their part to get the track and pit area ready and kudos to them. We had several crashes, some of them lengthy delays in clean up, and another power outage that took out several light poles during the 360 heat races. Some weird wild stuff I tell ya.

Drivers going double duty on this night in the 410 and 360 class were Justin Henderson, Terry McCarl, Dusty Zomer, Logan Forler, Danny Lasoski, and Jamie Ball entered in both the 360 and 305 class.

410 Report
27 cars signed in. Time Trials top eight was Danny Lasoski 15.216, Tim Kaeding, Bronson Maeschen, Dusty Zomer, Justin Henderson, Terry McCarl, Lynton Jeffrey, Craig Dollansky.

Heat Race winners were; Lynton Jeffrey (row two), Josh Schneiderman (front row), Tasker Phillips (front row). In Heat two Scott Bogucki jumped the berm in turn three and collected Tim Kaeding and they both crashed. In heat three Bronson Maeschen flipped in turn four end of over end a couple of times and destroyed his car. All drivers were OK but done for the night. With those cars out there was no need for a B-Main in the 410 class.

The A-Main saw Lyton Jeffrey jump to the lead going through turns one and two before Henderson drove around the outside of him through turns three and four. Jeffrey slid Henderson in turn one the next lap but Henderson drove back under him and started to pull away. As Henderson caught the lapped traffic Lasoski began reeling him in and on lap 15 snuck underneath in turn two to take the lead and then go on to get the win. McCarl was all over the back of Henderson on the last lap but Henderson held on at the end for second. There was some great racing in the middle of the pack with Dollansky, Zomer, Brown, and Balog.

410 A Main Finish (started): 1. Danny Lasoski (3); 2. Justin Henderson (2); 3. Terry McCarl (5); 4. Lynton Jeffrey (1); 5. Dusty Zomer (7); 6. Craig Dollansky (6); 7. Brian Brown (4); 8. Bill Balog (11); 9. Ian Madsen (9); 10. Bryan Clauson (12); 11. Ryan Bunton (10); 12. Christopher Bell (13); 13. Davey Heskin (8); 14. Brooke Tatnell (18); 15. Logan Forler (17); 16. AJ Moeller (14); 17. Josh Schneiderman (15); 18. Jordyn Brazier (19); 19. Bob Weuve (23); 20. Shane Quam (22); 21. Tom Jeffrey (24); 22. RJ Johnson (20); 23. Tasker Phillips (16); 24. Dakota Hendrickson (21). Lap Leaders: Henderson 1-15, Lasoski 16-20. Hard-charger: Tatnell.

360 Report
29 cars. Terry McCarl was quick time in his first 360 appearance at Knoxville this season. The rest of the top eight were Clint Garner, Henderson, Zomer, Ryan Giles, Tony Shilling, Nate Van Haaften, and Jon Agan. Heat race winners were Scottie McDonald from Texas, Agan, and Henderson. In heat two Jonathan Cornell spun and collected Joe Beaver. Shortly after this accident is when the lights went out for 19 minutes. Beaver was able to scramble and make repairs in time for the feature while Cornell called it a night.

In the A Main Terry McCarl led early but a caution on lap three for a spinning Sawyer Phillips bunched up the field. On the restart it was McCarl, Henderson, Zomer, Giles, and Van Haaften. Zomer went low on the restart and had clear track in front of him and stuck his left rear in the moisture down low to pass both Henderson and McCarl when they came around to complete lap four. Zomer looked strong in this race coming from fifth to the front in a matter of a few laps. In the middle of the pack Van Haaften, Garner, Moro, and Giles put on a great show as the top three drove away from the field.

360 A Main Finish (started): 1. Dusty Zomer (5); 2. Terry McCarl (3); 3. Justin Henderson (2); 4. Nate Van Haaften (4); 5. Clint Garner (7); 6. Matt Moro (9); 7. Ryan Giles (1); 8. Jamie Ball (12); 9. Josh Baughman (10); 10. Tony Shilling (6); 11. Joe Beaver (19); 12. Jon Agan (8); 13. Logan Forler (18); 14. Chris Martin (15); 15. Cody Ledger (23); 16. Tom Lenz (16); 17. Scottie McDonald (14); 18. Corey Timmerman (22); 19. Alan Zoutte (11); 20. Mike Philben (20); 21. John Hall (13); 22. Ricky Montgomery (17); 23. Sawyer Phillips (26); 24. Mike Dapra (24); 25. Danny Lasoski (25); 26. John Anderson (21). Lap Leaders: McCarl 1-3, Zomer 4-18. Hard-charger: Beaver.

305 Report
24 cars. Rookie Christian Bowman set quick time while Jamie Ball was second quick followed by Kline, Walraven, Comegys, Jones, Stelzer, and Haase. Heat winners were Stacey Alexander, Kade Higday, and Mitchell Alexander.

Kline drew the front row and led the entire distance. Haase charged from seventh to third, Ball from sixth to second. The race went green until lap ten when there was a crash between Robby Weuve, Kevin Hiemstra, and a third place running Matthew Stelzer was collected in the crash. From there it was Kline driving to victory once again.

305 A Main Finish (started): 1. Devin Kline (2); 2. Jamie Ball (6); 3. McKenna Haase (7); 4. Chris Walraven (5); 5. Brad Comegys (1); 6. Christian Bowman (3); 7. Mitchell Alexander (14); 8. Kade Higday (11); 9. Stacey Alexander (13); 10. Mike Mayberry (18); 11. Trevor Smith (10); 12. Jeff Wilke (9); 13. Joe Simbro (16); 14. Corey Kautz (8); 15. Cody Ambers (15); 16. Billy Bell (17); 17. Lee Patterson (23); 18. Matthew Stelzer (4); 19. Rob Weuve (22); 20. Kevin Hiemstra (20). Lap Leader: Kline 1-12. Hard-charger: Mayberry.

History and Notes
Lasoski cruised to his fifth win this season and 106th over all at Knoxville. This team is looking stronger each week and they haven’t qualified worse than fourth all season. Maybe this is their year.

Dusty Zomer is on a roll. He won at Knoxville and Jackson last week, and then again in a 360 at Knoxville this week. If they can get a good time trial lap in at Nationals I think they can be a top ten car. I’m really happy for Zomer, he deserved an opportunity like this to drive in a good quality car like the LaHaise 82. And I’m glad that team has stuck together since the end of last year.

The 410 point standings are strung out. Lasoski has a firm grip on the lead. Henderson is 294 points ahead of McCarl in third, McCarl is 113 ahead of Madsen in fourth, and Madsen is 254 ahead of Brown in fifth. Don’t see much changing with only three weekly shows remaining.

The Capitani Classic will have a $3,000 to win King of the Hill type event to decide the starting lineup for the A-Main thanks to Kustom Concrete Pumping.

Dakota Hendrickson took a nasty ride. His father tells me his safety equipment held up well but he is a little banged up. Hopefully he heals in time to return to the seat this coming weekend.

Craig Dollansky is looking stronger every week in the Renfro 2KS car. They have had trouble qualifying until this week. In sequential order Dollansky has timed 21, 10, 29, 21, and 8 this week. They seem to be up to speed with the leaders in the feature and if they can qualify better at Nationals I see no reason why this team can’t make the Nationals A Main.

In the 305 class Rob Edwards was subbing for his nephew Tanner and crashed in his heat. Somehow during his crash a lot of mud packed in his floor board and trapped his feet in the car. It took over 20 minutes to get his feet free. He was then transported to the Knoxville hospital and later to Des Moines for treatment of his ankle and leg.

In the 305’s Jamie Ball entered and finished second. It’s obvious this team is trying to affect the 305 point championship to help Devin Kline gain on Stacey Alexander, and it worked this week. Ball will not be allowed to compete in two weeks during the 360 Nationals. No double duty drivers on Saturday of 360 Nationals.

I attended the NSL show at Des Moines last week. Huge crowd of 9,000 people paid I heard. 18 cars showed up to race and it was rubber down in the first heat race. I wasn’t surprised in a way, because over the years I haven’t seen a real good sprint car race there, but rubber down was a bummer for sure. The track configuration is like a paperclip, long straightaways and not much banking in the tight corners. There is a chance this was the last 410 sprint car race at the Iowa State Fairgrounds with rumors of the track being shut down next year circling. The same rumor was floating around last year though so who knows. I hope racing stays alive in Des Moines, but it’s up to the Fair Board there and in the grand scheme of things racing is small potatoes for them. It’s a great location to get fans to come if a good series like the NSL rolls in. Kudos to Tony Moro, Carl Moyer, and that group for working their tails off to keep racing alive in Des Moines.

Look for a preliminary set of Nationals qualifying nights to be released soon. The majority of the teams are requesting Wednesday for the 410 and Thursday for the 360. The field is unbalanced as it sits now so don’t panic race fans. If teams don’t sort it out on their own in the coming days, we will have to go down the point standings of each series and track and go with odd cars Wednesday and even cars Thursday. I hope it doesn’t come down to that.

Points
410: Lasoski leads the 410 points over Henderson by 326 points.
360: Garner leads the 360 points over Van Haaften by 360 points.
305: Stacey Alexander leads Devin Kline by 128 points.

Brown & Zomer Win on Twin Features Night!

2015-07-20T10:26:00.000-05:00

Twin Features night is always a pivotal night in the points for the Knoxville Raceway track championship. This year Danny Lasoski is looking for his tenth championship and had a 249 point lead before the night started. A good night for the Dude and his tenth championship is nearly assured with only four weekly nights left on the schedule after this week. With Twin Feature night scheduled on the same weekend as the Kings Royal in Ohio the car count was lower than in some recent weeks, or years past when teams liked to show up for the extra laps in preparation for the Nationals in August. This is good news for the Knoxville Regulars in that there were fewer cars enabling them to have the opportunity to get more points on a night where points mean more than ever. Brad Loyet was the only “visitor” on this night in the 410 class and Billy Alley made his second Knoxville appearance of the season in the 360 class.

This night was the warmest of the season so far. 84 degrees, not much wind, 74% humidity, and a dew point of 75 degrees which means it was muggy out. When the dew point is above 70, you can guarantee the race track will hold together well all night and it did. The track was well prepared and it was good conditions for racing, lap times were slower, which is the perfect recipe for good racing.

410 Report
30 cars signed in. Time Trials top eight were Justin Henderson 15.167, Danny Lasoski, Tim Kaeding, Brian Brown, Ian Madsen, Dustin Selvage, Terry McCarl, and Dusty Zomer. Selvage was the only driver out of the top eight not to transfer from his heat race.

Heat race winners were Terry McCarl (row two), Danny Lasoski (row three), and Dakota Hendrickson (row one). The racing surface was in excellent shape on this night making for a lot of great racing in the heats.

There was some controversy in heat three with Craig Dollansky after the race was over. He originally was disqualified for not going to the scales immediately and going to his pit. However it was later determined he stopped near his pit with a small fire. He then rolled to the scales and met minimum weight. No one could confirm if his car rolled on to the concrete pit area before going to the scales so he was given his finishing spot back.

The first A-Main was without a doubt the best feature of the season. Justin Henderson jumped the inside berm in turn four on the start and Lasoski jumped out to the lead early. Brian Brown passed Lasoski on lap three and pulled away. With five laps to go Tim Kaeding caught the leaders through lapped traffic was able to pass Henderson, Lasoski, and then Brown on the last lap to cross the line first. Brown finished the race with a bent radius rod on the right front that slowed him down a bit in the closing laps. After the race in tech Kaeding’s #3 was disqualified for an illegal muffler, more specifically internal parts that are required to be there were missing, so the muffler was tampered with in some way. Everyone is looking for an edge, but tech inspection has been heightened in recent weeks. The win is Brown’s 30th at Knoxville.

410 A Main #1 Finish (started): 1. Brian Brown (4); 2. Danny Lasoski (2); 3. Justin Henderson (1); 4. Terry McCarl (6); 5. Ian Madsen (5); 6. Dusty Zomer (7); 7. Bill Balog (8); 8. Davey Heskin (11); 9. Tasker Phillips (10); 10. Craig Dollansky (19); 11. Bronson Maeschen (13); 12. Dakota Hendrickson (17); 13. Lynton Jeffrey (15); 14. Logan Forler (14); 15. Dustin Selvage (9); 16. Brad Loyet (23); 17. RJ Johnson (20); 18. Chris Martin (18); 19. Brooke Tatnell (16); 20. AJ Moeller (21); 21. Mike Moore (22); 22. Jordyn Brazier (24); 23. Josh Schneiderman (12); DQ (muffler) - Tim Kaeding (3). Lap Leaders: Lasoski 1-2, Brown 3-19, Kaeding 20. Hard-charger: Dollansky.

A-Main two on Twin Features night is always entertaining with the lead lap cars from the first feature being inverted, which on this night put Dustin Selvage and Logan Forler on the front row and the top two finishers in row seven. Selvage was out to a good size lead early but a couple of cautions allowed the field to catch up to him. Dusty Zomer started tenth and quickly worked his way towards the front and by halfway was gaining on Selvage and Hendrickson for second. On lap 12 Zomer made the pass for the lead and went on to pick up his first win of the season, and his first win at Knoxville in almost four years (July 30, 2011). Heskin was gaining on Zomer with three laps remaining but lost ground the last couple of laps to finish second. Lasoski was the hard charger in third.

410 A Main #2 Finish (started): 1. Dusty Zomer (10); 2. Davey Heskin (8); 3. Danny Lasoski (14); 4. Craig Dollansky (6); 5. Dustin Selvage (1); 6. Dakota Hendrickson (4); 7. Justin Henderson (11); 8. Logan Forler (2); 9. Terry McCarl (12); 10. Tasker Phillips (5); 11. Ian Madsen (9); 12. Lynton Jeffrey (3); 13. Brooke Tatnell (20); 14. Brad Loyet (15); 15. Mike Moore (22); 16. Chris Martin (17); 17. Bob Weuve (23); 18. RJ Johnson (18); 19. Bill Balog (7); 20. Brian Brown (13); 21. Josh Schneiderman (24); 22. AJ Moeller (19); 23. Jordyn Brazier (21); DQ (muffler) - Tim Kaeding (16). DNS – Bronson Maeschen. Lap Leaders: Selvage 1-11, Zomer 12-20. Hard-charger: Lasoski.

360 Report
26 cars signed in. Justin Henderson set quick time for the sixth time this season in the 360 class at 16.041. The rest of the top eight in time trials were Calvin Lands, Billy Alley, Ian Madsen, Nate Van Haaften, Clint Garner, Joe Beaver, and Jamie Ball. Heat race winners were Sawyer Phillips, Jon Agan, and Clint Garner.

Billy Alley drew the pole in the top eight redraw and led every lap in an impressive run for him Alley is two for two at Knoxville this season and the two time 360 Nationals champion should be a solid contender again this year. Henderson finished second but had nothing for Alley on a late restart. Ian Madsen was third performing double duty in preparation for the 360 Nationals.

360 A Main Finish (started): 1. Billy Alley (1); 2. Justin Henderson (6); 3. Ian Madsen (8); 4. Clint Garner (7); 5. Dakota Hendrickson (2); 6. Nate Van Haaften (4); 7. Jamie Ball (9); 8. Joe Beaver (5); 9. Jon Agan (11); 10. Calvin Landis (3); 11. Russ Hall (14); 12. Matt Moro (15); 13. Ricky Montgomery (17); 14. Sawyer Phillips (16); 15. Logan Forler (19); 16. Tom Lenz (18); 17. Ryan Giles (13); 18. Corey Timmerman (22); 19. John Anderson (21); 20. Tony Shilling (10); 21. Cody Ledger (20); 22. Alan Zoutte (12); 23. Chris Walraven (23); 24. Tyler Brooks (25); 25. Mike Dapra (24). Lap Leader: Alley 1-18. Hard-charger: Henderson.

History and Notes
Brian Brown gets his 30th win. His first win was on May 24, 2003. In twelve years he has won 30 features. That is a good pace for the 34 year old driver. Maybe not the pace of Lasoski, but 10 years from now the odds of Brown being next to Lasoski at the top of the Knoxville wins list is pretty good if he continues to race weekly.

Brian Brown stopped early in the second race with no steering. He went to the work area and they filled it up with fluid, but a few laps later he stopped on the track again and his race was over. There are no words left to describe his season at Knoxville, but maybe the win in the first race is the kind of black magic they needed to exercise the demons. One thing I know is that he passed both Lasoski and Henderson to get that win, so he has a fast car.

I feel for Tim Kaeding and his team but rules are rules. Kaeding drove a good race and passed some really good competition. I’m not sure how much the muffler affected the outcome but he looked impressive for sure.

The cars performing the best overall in the Twin Features by average of their two race finishes were: Lasoski 2.5, Zomer 3.5, Henderson 5.0, Heskin 5.0, McCarl 6.5, Dollansky 7.0, Madsen 8.0.

Bryan Clauson and the Wood Racing 17w team elected to race at the Kings Royal where they were quick time and finished 13th. They crashed on Friday night in their heat, won the B, and managed to finish 15th.

Austin McCarl entered and timed, then had to park his car on this night to get his 100 show up points and keep eligible for end of the year awards. Austin’s engine broke in Park Jefferson last week in an NSL event. He should have a fresh engine ready for the Capitani Classic and Nationals. If Austin has a fresh bullet and can time well at the Nationals, he could be a Nationals A-Main qualifier again. I would love to see Austin get his first win at Knoxville. It’s coming.

As most people are aware by now, Kade Higday was awarded the 305 feature win from June 27 after the 5J of Devin Kline was disqualified for an illegal tire. I don’t want to get into the specifics but after sitting down with John McCoy and discussing this I have a lot of confidence in this ruling. The whole deal stinks for everyone involved. Kline has some talent and I have no doubt he will win again, but it sucks for him that this asterisk will stick with him for a while.

I do want to congratulate Kade Higday on his first career win. He drove his butt off that night on a tough track. I’m sure it’s not how he dreamed of winning his first race at Knoxville, but you take em any way you can. It sounds like he will be given proper victory lane treatment this coming week. Higday is the second youngest 305 feature winner at 16 years, 9 months old, roughly eight months older than Carson McCarl was when he won in 2011.

Higday and his father Josh now are in a fairly elite club of father and sons to win at the historic half-mile. Off the top of my head I can think of the following: Steve & Kraig Kinser, Joe & Joey Saldana, Lenard & Terry McCarl, Terry & Carson McCarl, Sammy & Kevin Swindell, Sonny & Greg Helms, Larry Ball Jr. & Jamie Ball…. I probably missed at least one, but that is just off the top of my head.

FREE kids night from July 11 has been rescheduled for this coming Saturday night!

Points
410: Lasoski leads the points over Henderson by 302 points.
360: Garner leads the points over Van Haaften by 339 points.
305: Stacey Alexander leads Christian Bowman by 220 points.

McCarl Wins #55

2015-07-06T21:52:00.002-05:00

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.

The Lasoski Reign Continues

2015-06-22T22:20:00.001-05:00

Mother Nature tried to spoil our night with a rain shower just past the 5:00pm hour. After a good 15 minute rain and assessing the situation it was decided to try to get the races in with a pushed back start time to 9:00pm, and cars hit the track around 9:15pm. Thankfully the car count was the lowest of the year and we finished at 12:44am with no B Main’s needed. The track was fast, tacky, and narrow, but we got the race in.

We didn’t have Dusty Zomer or Tim Kaeding on this night, they opted to race with the World of Outlaws in Huron, SD instead of driving to Knoxville with a high chance of rain. We did gain some visitors however with car owner Keith Kunz making his sprint car debut at Knoxville with Christopher Bell. That team might be back this coming week as they try to get some laps in before the Knoxville Nationals. We also welcomed two-time Little 500 champion Jacob Wilson, who competed earlier in the day in the USAC Silver Crown event in Newton. Jordyn Brazier made his Knoxville and United States debut on Saturday, he is the son of Garry who will also be competing at Knoxville later this summer.

410 Report
27 cars signed in. Time Trials top eight was Justin Henderson 14.605 (ninth fastest lap all-time at Knoxville), Lasoski, Brown, Heskin, Madsen, Moeller, Jeffrey, Tatnell.

Heat race winners were Christopher Bell (front row), Dakota Hendrickson (front row), Brian Brown (row three). Glenn Saville lost a right rear in his heat and flipped hard in turns one and two, the wheel ended up hitting the NSCHoF&M but no damage. Saville was OK.

The A-Main saw Ian Madsen pull away early but once the leaders got to traffic Justin Henderson was able to catch Madsen and get by him on lap seven. On lap eight Brian Brown was running fourth and crashed after contact with a lapped car that ended his night. The race appeared to be Henderson’s as the laps clicked off, but as he entered turn three on lap 18 his front nose panel came off and flew up into the wing mounts and roll cage, blocking his view causing him to slow and roll to a stop. Lasoski inherited the lead and drove away from there. Jeffrey made a nice run to finish third from his eighth starting position. Selvage had a nice run as well starting 17th to finish ninth. Henderson finished 12th.

410 A Main Finish (started): 1. Danny Lasoski (2); 2. Ian Madsen (1); 3. Lynton Jeffrey (8); 4. Brooke Tatnell (7); 5. Davey Heskin (3); 6. Bronson Maeschen (10); 7. Terry McCarl (9); 8. Josh Schneiderman (11); 9. Dustin Selvage (17); 10. Craig Dollansky (18); 11. Christopher Bell (13); 12. Justin Henderson (4); 13. RJ Johnson (12); 14. Chris Martin (19); 15. AJ Moeller (6); 16. Bobby Mincer (24); 17. Ryan Bunton (20); 18. Jordyn Brazier (21); 19. Bob Weuve (23); 20. Scott Bogucki (16); 21. Brian Brown (5); 22. Austin McCarl (15); 23. Dakota Hendrickson (14); 24. Tasker Phillips (22) DNS – Glen Saville, Mark Johnson, Jacob Wilson. Lap Leaders: Madsen 1-6, Henderson 7-17, Lasoski 18-20. Hard-charger: Selvage.

360 Report
22 cars. Justin Henderson was quick time for the fourth time this season followed by Garner, Ball, Landis, VanHaaften, Beaver, Shilling, and Moro. Heat race winners were Russ Hall (first row), Rand Martin (first row), and Sawyer Phillips (first row).

Clint Garner drew the front row and led the entire distance to get his first feature win of the year. Van Haaften and Henderson had a nice battle for second for a while before Henderson grabbed it. Russ Hall, Jon Agan, and Jamie Ball all had problems and pulled in as all three of those teams have had some bad luck in recent weeks.

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

305 Report
23 cars. Trevor Smith set quick time at 16.820, a new track record. McKenna Haase was second quick followed by Kline, Bowman, Stelzer, Kautz, Wilke, and Edwards. Heat winners were Jeff Wilke (second row), Stacey Alexander (first row), and Joe Simbro (first row).

Matthew Stelzer was out front early but his engine laid down on him after five laps giving the lead to McKenna Haase who was showing some smoke from under the hood just before the caution for Stelzer stopping. On the restart Haase didn’t have the power she needed and slowed up as Kline went by going into turn one and led the rest of the way to pick up his fifth career 305 feature win.

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

History and Notes
Trevor Smith set the new 305 one lap track record at 16.820, beating the two year old record held by Matthew Stephenson at 16.846. Smith is a rookie from Sanborn, IA which is roughly a four drive from northwest Iowa near Spencer.

This coming Saturday is Mid-Season Championship, an NSL series $5,000 to win event, and Knoxville Raceway Hall of Fame inductions. I can't wait to help present awards to Brent Antil, John McCoy, Dennis Moore Jr., and the family of Mark Wilson.

The checkered flag waved at 12:44am. As late as that was it was still 94 minutes earlier than the past week. This weather pattern needs to stop.

Jamie Ball and Jon Agan, keep your heads up. These two guys have been in a funk and I'm sure things will turn around in the second half of the season. Same goes for Matthew Stelzer.

It was great to see Kendra Jacobs this week at Knoxville. This lady works hard on the Kick-It fundraisers and she is obviously stepping up her game coming to Knoxville 53 days before the Nationals to be prepared. Not to mention her work with MRN Winged Nation. She is a great ambassador for sprint car racing, keep up the great work KJ!

The moths were back again this week…. and they have a Twitter account. The Forage Looper Moth seems to be the pesky species that needs to die. From my two minutes of research they won’t die until this fall. We could be stuck with them all summer.

Points
410: Lasoski leads the 410 points over Henderson by 204 points. It ain’t over, right?
360: Garner extended his point lead from 111 last week to 150 over Van Haaften this week.
305: Stacey Alexander leads Devin Kline by 93 points.

Food Report
Regular chicken bites this night. Good, tasty, easier on my tummy.

Schatz wins Fog Shortened Race

2015-06-17T00:02:00.001-05:00

I’ve seen it all now. What a crazy and wacky night of events with Mother Nature throwing more wrenches at us than AJ Foyt climbing out of his car in a rage at Indy. Morning showers, overcast all day, water seeping up from sheepsfoot holes delaying hot laps, the sun pops out during hot laps and time trials and dries out the track quickly, then we have nice wide racing surface after the heats, only to have a pesky shower pop up out of nowhere on the radar and cause a rain delay. The shower popped up about 15 miles southwest of the track, turned west, then back east. When the rain cleared out a thick attack of moths encountered the raceway. Then we get back to racing after 1:00am and just as the 410 feature pushes off a thick fog rolls in and stops a race just past halfway. In a matter of ten minutes the visibility went from perfect to 1/8 of a mile.

Donny Schatz won, not surprising. I give credit to our announcers Johnny Gibson and Tony Bokhoven for calling that race, their eyes were better than mine. The track prep crew and push truck drivers put in a long day. We have so many great people at Knoxville, but these people are the best in the business.

The World of Outlaws has installed a new qualifying system for fields of 32 cars or more. The field is split into two groups, groups A and B. So with the two groups of 21 group A is lined up in heats one and two, group B is in heats three and four. This is supposed to keep the field more balanced and fair, but on this night it didn’t matter much when you sorted the times together honestly.

Lost in all this was Ryan Giles winning his first 360 feature in only his fifth night in a sprint car. That is impressive. Giles is on the David Hesmer fast track learning curve there. Hesmer won on his first night in a sprint car at Knoxville from eleventh back in 1988.

410 Report
42 cars signed in. Time Trials Group A: Kerry Madsen was quickest 15.388, followed by Henderson, Lasoski, Schuchart, and Schatz. Group B quick time was Joey Saldana 15.591, Pittman, Jeffrey, Swindell, and Sweet.

Each heat race was won from the front row with the Outlaws format of inverting four. Heat winners were Donny Schatz, Brian Brown, Ian Madsen and Terry McCarl. Saldana, Pittman, Stewart, Schuchart, and Tim Kaeding all had to run the B main after not finishing in the top five of their heat race. The Dash invert draw was six, which put Schatz on the front row and he would win the dash to earn the pole of the A main.

The rain fell at 9:18pm and lasted almost an hour. After the rains stopped it was a little over two hours to rework the track and infield the B Main’s and A were run, only the A was shortened due to fog. On lap 15 Bronson Maeschen slowed to a stop and the call was made to end the race.

The A-Main was all Donny Schatz. He never pulled away from runner up Henderson with the with the field racing on a very fast one lane track. The Knoxville Regulars didn’t get the win, but they had three finish in the top five.

410 A Main Finish (started): 1. Donny Schatz (1); 2. Justin Henderson (2); 3. Kerry Madsen (4); 4. Brian Brown (5); 5. Ian Madsen (3); 6. Joey Saldana (10); 7. Sammy Swindell (7); 8. Lynton Jeffrey (6); 9. Daryn Pittman (12); 10. Brad Sweet (14); 11. Terry McCarl (8); 12. Paul McMahan (16); 13. Danny Lasoski (9); 14. Brent Marks (13); 15. Jamie Veal (17); 16. Dusty Zomer (18); 17. Tim Kaeding (26, prov.); 18. Logan Schuchart (11); 19. Jason Sides (22); 20. Shane Stewart (25, prov.); 21. David Gravel (21); 22. Steve Kinser (19); 23. Bronson Maeschen (20); 24. Davey Heskin (24); 25. Brooke Tatnell (15); 26. Josh Schneiderman (23). Lap Leader: Schatz 1-15. Hard-charger: Kaeding.

360 Report
22 cars. Tony Shilling set quick time at 15.977. Justin Henderson was second followed by Ryan Giles, Nate Van Haaften, and Clint Garner. Heat winners were Jamie Ball (first row), Sawyer Phillips (first row), and Russ Hall (second row).

Nate Van Haaften took the lead from his outside row one starting position and had a nice size lead until he caught the tail end of the field and Shilling was able to close in when they got close to traffic. With the track fast and narrow it was tough to race. On lap 11 Van Haaften got above the cushion in turn four and Shilling tried to capitalize, but Shilling and Van Haaften made contact and both drivers crashed hard in a scary incident where both drivers walked away. Ryan Giles inherited the lead and on the restart pulled away to win easily for his first career win in just his fifth night racing a sprint car.

360 A Main Finish (started): 1. Ryan Giles (1); 2. Dustin Clark (3); 3. Matt Moro (5); 4. Joe Beaver (6); 5. Justin Henderson (7); 6. Clint Garner (8); 7. Jon Agan (9); 8. Russ Hall (11); 9. Randy Martin (14); 10. Calvin Landis (10); 11. Austin Alumbaugh (19); 12. Jamie Ball (15); 13. Devin Kline (18); 14. Tom Lenz (12); 15. Keoni Texeira (20); 16. Alan Zoutte (16); 17. Sawyer Phillips (13); 18. Nate Van Haaften (2); 19. Tony Shilling (4); 20. Ricky Montgomery (17); 21. John Anderson (21) DNS – Corey Nelson. Lap Leaders: Van Haaften 1-10, Giles 11-18. Hard-charger: Alumbaugh

History and Notes
Logan Schuchart crushed the 12 lap track record at 2:58.6, and then Joey Saldana broke it a few minutes later in the second B main with a 2:56.9. The old record had stood since 2008 by Tim Shaffer in a time of 3:09.2.

The last time fog stopped us from racing was the 1980 Knoxville Nationals which forced the championship A main to be held on Sunday afternoon.

Points
410: Lasoski leads the 410 points over Henderson by 98 points, it was a 203 point lead last week.
360: Garner extended his point lead from 33 last week to 111 over Van Haaften this week.
305: Stacey Alexander leads McKenna Haase by 73 points.

Food Report
Had the cheeseburger this week, with a side of chicken bites. Cheeseburger was good. Also a bag of homemade chips from Mo’s Grub was circulating the press box. I sampled a few. Very tasty.

Lasoski, Alley, Haase Win on Slideways Night!

2015-06-08T15:51:00.000-05:00

Bing Bang Media photo

After last week’s no chance of rain, but pesky drizzle and cancellation, Mother Nature cleared up for a great night of racing this week. It was another full field with 92 sprint cars entered. The World of Outlaws event at Lakeside Speedway was rained out early in the morning allowing several teams to drive three hours north to Knoxville to tune up for next week’s Mediacom Shootout. Shane Stewart, Kerry Madsen, Paul McMahan, Jason Sides, Kraig Kinser, David Gravel, Logan Schuchart, and Jacob Allen all made the tow. For $15 fans were able to see eight of the thirteen full-time Outlaws. And for $30 you can see all of them this coming Saturday!

Weather conditions at 7:00pm Saturday were 75° and overcast with 65% humidity, winds out of the SE at 11 mph, and a dew point of 62°. The track widened out quickly and the lap times were slow in time trials but the track was awesome all night long and plenty of room to race.

410 Report
42 cars signed in. Top eight in qualifying: Danny Lasoski set quick time for the second time this season with a lap of 15.286 (118 mph), followed by Shane Stewart, Terry McCarl, Brian Brown, Kerry Madsen, David Gravel, Brooke Tatnell, and Jason Sides. Justin Henderson timed 15th and the BDS Motorsports team pulled the engine and put in a new one in time for their heat race. Schuchart and Allen neither timed well and called it a night after time trials.

Heat winners were Matt Moro (front row), Dustin Selvage (front row), Kraig Kinser (front row), and Brian Brown (row three). Seven of the top eight in time trials advanced through their heats to the A Main. Bronson Maeschen finished fifth but went to his pit stall before going to the scales and was DQ’d. Ian Madsen then was awarded fifth place, giving him a transfer spot to the A. Tim Kaeding finished sixth in his heat to put him in the B Main where he would pull in halfway while running second, ending his night. Terry McCarl broke a rear end in his heat, started up front in the B which he won, and then was able to start ninth in the A Main, taking advantage of the new rule this year where the top two in the A get their time spot back, but cannot start better than ninth.

The A-Main went the 20-lap distance non-stop. Danny Lasoski drew the pole in the redraw and led the entire race, making a statement winning over second place Kerry Madsen by eight full seconds. Although Lasoski drove away from the field, the race from second through seventh was awesome! Gravel was running second early and was passed by Ian Madsen, then Kerry Madsen passed them both while Terry McCarl and Brian Brown raced their way into that group. McCarl would take third at the end to make it a full podium of past Knoxville track champions. Gravel would get back by Ian to finish fourth and Ian would round out the top five. Shane Stewart was racing with the leaders and was fifth at halfway, but he jumped the cushion in turn four, lost a few spots, then slowed and pulled in.

410 A Main Finish (started): 1. Danny Lasoski (1); 2. Kerry Madsen (6); 3. Terry McCarl (9); 4. David Gravel (2); 5. Ian Madsen (3); 6. Paul McMahan (10); 7. Brian Brown (7); 8. Jason Sides (8); 9. Davey Heskin (11); 10. Kraig Kinser (17); 11. Brooke Tatnell (4); 12. Dusty Zomer (12); 13. Justin Henderson (14); 14. Austin McCarl (18); 15. Bronson Maeschen (13); 16. Lynton Jeffrey (24); 17. Josh Schneiderman (15); 18. Bryan Clauson (22); 19. Dustin Selvage (16); 20. Dakota Hendrickson (20); 21. Tasker Phillips (23); 22. Don Droud Jr. (21); 23. Shane Stewart (5); 24. Matt Moro (19). Lap Leader: Lasoski 1-20. Hard-charger: Jeffrey.

360 Report
28 cars. Justin Henderson set quick time for the third time this season at 16.144. Clint Garner was second followed by Jamie Ball, Billy Alley, and Russ Hall. Heat winners were Justin Henderson (third row), Nate Van Haaften (second row), and Jack Dover (second row).

Henderson took off and led most of the distance but late once he got into lapped traffic Billy Alley was able to catch Henderson and pass him as they came to the white flag and Alley would go on to win his 12th career 360 feature at Knoxville. This was Alley’s first visit to Knoxville this season and a well deserved and popular win.

360 A Main Finish (started): 1. Billy Alley (6); 2. Justin Henderson (1); 3. Nate Van Haaften (3); 4. Clint Garner (5); 5. Tony Shilling (8); 6. Calvin Landis (11); 7. Joe Beaver (12); 8. Jack Dover (9); 9. Matt Moro (20); 10. Jon Agan (14); 11. Randy Martin (16); 12. Dustin Clark (10); 13. Tom Lenz (15); 14. Ryan Giles (13); 15. Cody Ledger (18); 16. Jamie Ball (7); 17. Jay Russell (21); 18. Ryan Roberts (19); 19. Ricky Montgomery (23); 20. Sawyer Phillips (4); 21. Keoni Texeira (22); 22. John Hall (17); 23. Alan Zoutte (24); 24. Russ Hall (2). Lap Leaders: Henderson 1-16, Alley 17-18. Hard-charger: Moro.

305 Report
23 cars signed in. Setting quick time was McKenna Haase for the second time this season with a lap of 17.568. Heat winners were Tanner Edwards, Kade Higday, and Mitchell Alexander. McKenna would lead the entire distance of this race and survived five restarts, three yellows and two reds. McKenna’s biggest scare came on the last restart when she missed the bottom going into turn one allowing Stacey Alexander to close in, but McKenna was able to get her tires back underneath her in turn two and pulled away down the backstretch for her second win! The line for autographs and t-shirts at her trailer afterwards was a LONG one. Devin Kline had a good run going and was running second but pulled in midway.

This race was shorted due to time. For the third feature in a row the 305’s had five yellow/red periods. They are under a 20 minute time limit from the drop of the green flag until they can perform better. After the second red flag the 20 minutes was up and the call was made to go green-white-checkered. Not sure why this year’s class of 305’s are having so much trouble keeping cars together and off the fences, but until they can show improvement this will be the rule.

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

Points
Lasoski leads the 410 points over Henderson by 203 points. Game Over.
Garner and Van Haaften have a tight race in the 360 class with Garner leading by 33.
Henderson and BDS Motorsports likely will run away with the 360 owners championship.
Stacey Alexander leads McKenna Haase by 73 points.

History and Notes
Lasoski gets win number 103.
Billy Alley wins his 12th 360 feature, now 8th on the 360 wins list.
McKenna is now the only woman to win two sprint car features.
Scott Bogucki is the newest Australian to compete at Knoxville, the 34th Aussie on my list. He is from McLaren Vale, SA. I have a complete list of International driver here.
42 is the highest 410 car count of the season so far.

Lasoski also won the World of Outlaws race the night before at I-80 Speedway in Nebraska, passing Schatz with a couple of laps to go. The Lasoski-Forbrook-Quiring team is strong and Dude’s confidence his higher than it has been in a long time. In my opinion, he is the man most likely to beat Schatz this August, and the preview of that will be this Saturday night when Schatz and the full field of the Outlaws rolls into town!

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

The Outlaws are at Denison, Iowa on Friday and Knoxville Saturday. Hoping for a strong showing from our local "Knoxville Regulars" contingent both nights.

Henderson Wins Two!

2015-05-26T12:14:00.002-05:00

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.

Sassy Haase Makes History!

2015-05-18T09:58:00.002-05:00

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.

2015 Knoxville Raceway Season Opener

2015-05-13T11:32:00.000-05:00

Finally Mother Nature cooperated and the Season Opener for the 2015 Lucas Oil Knoxville Championship Cup Series was this past Saturday night. This was the first event for the FVP National Sprint League at Knoxville and with the ASCS National tour rained out early in the day we had a high number of entries, 98 total sprint cars in the pit area on this night. That was more than any night last season and not since July 28, 2012 have we had 98 or more cars. Everyone was excited to be racing at Knoxville!

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 heavy and fast, but it widened out nicely for the features. It was chilly for the fans late but with free kids night the crowd was good.

410 Report
38 cars signed in. Top 10 Qualifying: Danny Lasoski set quick time with a lap of 14.967 (120.2 mph), followed by Heskin, Austin McCarl, Kaeding, Brown, Terry McCarl, Bill Balog, Wayne Johnson, Schneiderman, Clauson. Good job by Kaeding and Brown who went out late in the order (33rd and 36th) and timed in the top five.

Heat winners were Henderson, RJ Johnson, Madsen and Zomer. With 32 or more cars qualifying the format becomes four heat races, making the drivers have to finish in the top five of their heat race to transfer to the A-Main. Henderson and Johnson won from the front row of their heats while Madsen and Zomer both won from row two.

Brown was the only driver in the top eight of qualifying not to transfer to the feature from his heat race, but he would go on to win the B-Main. New rule this year at Knoxville is that the first and second place finishers in the B are able to earn their time slot back in the A main lineup (but cannot start better than ninth) while third and fourth place cars have to tag the tail of the A. This rule change makes the B more interesting, it rewards someone who qualified well who couldn’t make it through their heat, but this change devalues the heat races somewhat.

The A-Main racing was simply awesome. Bill Balog started on the pole and led until lap five when Wayne Johnson caught him and made the pass. A lap later Lasoski also went past Balog. Lasoski caught Johnson in traffic and made the pass on lap 15. Tim Kaeding nearly spun his car early in the race but recovered and charged up to second place. At the end of the 25 lapper TK was just as fast the Dude. Bryan Clauson drove from tenth to fourth and will now be in Indianapolis for a couple of weeks to try for his second Indy 500 start. Zomer and Henderson were the hard-chargers both advancing 11 positions.

Danny Lasoski (Studio 92 Photo)

Lasoski picked up career win #102 at Knoxville, and wins the inaugural NSL event at the track. He also broke another track record, now winning his sixth Season Opener, breaking a tie with five wins with Sammy Swindell.

410 A Main Finish (started): 1. Danny Lasoski (6); 2. Tim Kaeding (8); 3. Wayne Johnson (2); 4. Bryan Clauson (10); 5. Dusty Zomer (16); 6. Mark Dobmeier (11); 7. Justin Henderson (18); 8. Bill Balog (1); 9. Brooke Tatnell (12); 10. Ian Madsen (15); 11. Dustin Selvage (17); 12. Davey Heskin (7); 13. Josh Schneiderman (4); 14. Austin McCarl (5); 15. Ryan Bunton (23); 16. Bronson Maeschen (14); 17. Kaley Gharst (22); 18. Lynton Jeffrey (13); 19. Logan Forler (19); 20. Brian Brown (9); 21. Terry McCarl (3); 22. Brad Loyet (20); 23. RJ Johnson (21); 24. Dylan Peterson (24). Lap Leaders: Balog 1-5, W. Johnson 6-15, Lasoski 16-25. KSE Hard-charger: Zomer.

360 Report
32 cars. Justin Henderson set quick time at 15.941. Not surprising since Henderson set quick time seven times last year in the 360 class. Clint Garner was second followed by Joe Beaver, Tony Bruce Jr., and Randy Martin. Heat winners were Blake Hahn (front row), Jordan Weaver (front row), Tony Shilling (front row), and Tony Bruce Jr. (third row). TBJ looked impressive in the fourth heat race.

Russ Hall started outside row two and drove past the front row of Matt Moro and Jon Agan through turns one and two and set sail. On lap 15 Henderson began reeling in Hall in traffic and made the pass on lap 16, but Hall was not to be denied and he went back by Henderson on the next lap to get his third career 360 win. Tony Bruce was fast coming from eighth to third. On lap 14 Agan was running second and made contact with a lapped car sending him to the pits ending his night. Rough start to the season for Agan who also had some bad luck in Osky last week in the Sprint Invaders show. Jamie Ball had to pit early to change a tire, but later pulled in.

360 A Main Finish (started): 1. Russ Hall (4); 2. Justin Henderson (6); 3. Tony Bruce Jr. (8); 4. Matt Moro (1); 5. Nate Van Haaften (11); 6. Joe Beaver (5); 7. Tony Shilling (17); 8. Clint Garner (7); 9. Randy Martin (3); 10. Josh Baughman (12); 11. Tom Lenz (18); 12. Jake Bubak (22); 13. Dakota Hendrickson (9); 14. Blake Hahn (19); 15. Jordan Weaver (20); 16. Dustin Clark (15); 17. Sawyer Phillips (16); 18. Ryan Giles (24); 19. Jon Agan (2); 20. Bart Friedrichsen (21); 21. Jamie Ball (13); 22. Calvin Landis (14); 23. Casey Friedrichsen (10); 24. Cody Ledger (23). Lap Leader: R. Hall 1-15, Henderson 16, R. Hall 17-18. Hard-charger: Shilling.

305 Report
28 cars signed in. Chris Walraven was quick time with a lap of 16.966. Walraven is racing for his charity Gigi’s Playhouse this year with their winnings going to support a good cause for Downs Syndrome children. Heat winners were Stacey Alexander, Jeff Wilke, and Chase Wanner. Devin Kline drew the pole with the 2014 champion J Kinder alongside of him. Kinder drove away to lead the first nine laps until a caution slowed the field down. McKenna Haase started eighth and was running fourth. On the restart both Kinder and Haase had no power and went pit side and Kline inherited the lead and would go on to win his third career feature. Stacey Alexander drove from 16th to second, Walraven was third. Kade Higday advanced ten positions from 17th to seventh.

305 A Main (started): 1. Devin Kline (1); 2. Stacey Alexander (16); 3. Chris Walraven (6); 4. Kevin Hetrick (5); 5. Christian Bowman (3); 6. Trevor Smith (4); 7. Kade Higday (17); 8. Chase Wanner (18); 9. Jeff Wilke (11); 10. Mike Mayberry (28); 11. Tanner Edwards (13); 12. Brad Comegys (22); 13. Don Dawson III (25); 14. Corey Kautz (23); 15. Kevin Hiemstra (19); 16. Lee Patterson (27); 17. Rob Weuve (24); 18. Ben Woods (7); 19. Joe Simbro (10); 20. J Kinder (2); 21. McKenna Haase (8); 22. Josh Jones (12); 23. Cody Ambers (9); 24. Christopher Scank (20); 25. Mitchell Alexander (15); 26. Cliff Jones (26) DNS – Casey Friedrichsen, Dan Henning. Lap Leaders: Kinder 1-9, Kline 10-15. Hard-charger: S. Alexander.

We also had 12 Dirt Trucks on this night with Matt Moro picking up that win. This race was a Memorial for Mark Fee who passed away over the winter. Mark was a Fair Board Member and a long-time supporter of dirt track racing, racing stock cars and trucks in central Iowa over the years. It was good to see the Dirt Trucks make their annual appearance at Knoxville. You can learn more about the DTRA at www.racedtra.com.

Notes
The competition in the 410 class is tougher than advertised. Lasoski, McCarl, Brown, Kaeding, Henderson, Heskin, Clauson, Zomer, Dobmeier… that being said, I think Lasoski is the man to beat. I look for Lasoski to win a lot more races in 2015 and probably dominate the NSL. He is now the point leader for both the NSL and at Knoxville. Him and Guy Forbrook with solid financial backing are going to be a tough combo to beat and can probably have a shot at winning the Nationals. It will be interesting with Brown and Kaeding being the other top dogs in the Midwest.

Hopefully the other top dog, Terry McCarl will be back racing soon. He was involved in a nasty accident with Brad Loyet on lap two of the A-Main which he suffered a fractured L4 vertebrae (lower back by your hips). Terry had some mechanical problems and slowed coming down the front stretch, Brian Brown tagged Terry but was able to drive away after getting all four wheels off the ground, then Loyet had no time to react and hit Terry as he was nearly stopped on the track. Terry was able to walk to the ambulance. Thank goodness for the safety innovations in the past 10-15 years. Keep up with Terry’s latest condition on his website, Facebook, and Twitter. Praying for a speedy recovery for Terry.

The level of competition in the 360 class is high as well. This might be one of the toughest field of cars I’ve ever seen in that class this year. Clint Garner is back in the 360 class. The five time track champion is one of the best at Knoxville in the 360, but the competition is stiff with Henderson, Beaver, Agan, Hall, Ball, Moro, Van Haaften. It should be an interesting season in the 360 class with those heavyweights.

The 305 class is going to come down to Kinder being able to keep his car together. It sounded like his engine was toast. Kline and Walraven are the next two guys in line to win the championship I think. Both have fast cars. Matthew Stelzer missed this week due to a wedding but he will be back this coming week.

The chicken bites were excellent!

I’ll be back next week with more tidbits.

Porter Wins Osky Hobby Stock Special!

2015-04-23T00:42:00.001-05:00

Wednesday night at the Southern Iowa Speedway was a cold one. With temperatures in the low 50’s and steady wind out of the north-west we saw a lot of jackets, blankets, gloves, hats, and hot chocolate. The low attendance on this night was a shame as the racing on the track was the best we have seen all year. The Hobby Stocks were racing for $500 to win on this night and four-time Winston Cup Series race winner Ken Schrader was in attendance with this Modified.

The Sport Compacts kicked the night off with a great battle between Trent Orwig and John Whalen Jr. as they were bumper to bumper the whole distance with Orwig claiming the close win.

The Stock Car feature was phenomenal with Daniel Hilsabeck leading the first half of the race. As the race unfolded Damon Murty charged towards the front and while racing with Todd Reitzler they made contact coming down the front stretch, which sent Reitzler into the outside guard rail. Nathan Wood would get by Reitzler and Murty to take second, while Mike Hughes clawed his way into the lead group from his fourth row starting position. The race saw Hilsabeck, Wood, Murty, and Reitzler all over each other. A caution came out and Reitzler pulled up next to Murty and let his feelings be known of the aggressive racing. The race track was holding up great with a heavy cushion to lean on. On the restart Murty was able to get by Hilsabeck to take the lead while Mike Hughes used the high line to climb to second as Wood and Reitzler raced for third and Hilsabeck would fall to sixth. Hughes was on Murty’s tail the last three laps but wasn’t able to make the pass and Murty would get the hard fought win.

The SportMod feature saw Curt VanDerWal start in the fourth row and he picked off cars lap after lap as he worked through the field. As he passed the flag stand on lap seven VanDerWal was our front in clean air. From there it was all VanDerWal who would win for the second week in a row.

Ten Modofied’s entered on this night and Scott Dickey is tough to beat when he gets out front. Dickey would lead most of the race, but Todd Shute came roaring past Andrew Schroeder and set his sights on Dickey. With a few laps to go Shute was able to pass Dickey for the lead and get the win.

The $500 to win 20-lap Hobby Stock feature was the last event on this night and Dale Porter of Bloomfield drove his way to victory after passing Justin Ulin early in the race. Porter would drive away and win easily. The race for second was between Ulin and Dustin Griffiths. Lap after lap Griffiths worked on Ulin but wasn’t able to make the pass and came up just short. Craig Brown was gaining on Ulin and Griffiths as they raced each other and was on Griffiths bumper at the finish. Brad Stephens had a good run to finish in the top five.

For a cold, sunny, windy day the race track was in superb shape with a tacky bottom and cushion. Kudos to Mike Van Genderen on the track prep this week.

Terry McCarl and Lynton Jeffrey brought their sprint cars to hot lap on two occasions. I clocked McCarl with a stop watch at a lap at 14.9, which would be a one-lap track record I believe. These two cars were hauling the mail with the cool conditions and tacky surface.

Next Wednesday April 29 is KBOE Radio Night and the following week May 6 is the 2^nd annual Sprint Invaders sprint cars event.

Don’t forget to follow the Southern Iowa Speedway on Facebook, Twitter, and now Instagram!

Modifieds
Heat Race: Scott Dickey
Feature: 1. Todd Shute, 2. Scott Dickey, 3. 02 Andrew Schroeder, 4. Carter VanDenBerg, 5. Cayden Carter, 6. Brandon Banks, 7. Tyler Groenendyk, 8. Ken Schrader, 9. Jake Murray, 10.Kyle Brown.

Stock Cars
Heat 1: Damon Murty
Heat 2: Doug Sylvester
Heat 3: Zack VanderBeek
Feature: 1. 99D Damon Murty, 2. 11 Mike Hughes, 3. 52 Nathan Wood, 4. 22R Todd Reitzler, 5. 79s Jason See, 6. 77n Daniel Hilsbeck, 7. 18 Kris Walker, 8. 17P Brad Pinkerton

Sport Mod
Heat 1: Brayton Carter
Heat 2: Colton Livezey
Feature: 1. 1V Curtis VanDerWal, 2. 29 Colton Livezy, 3. 01 Brayton Carter, 4. 72 Brett Lowry, 5. 9A Logan Anderson, 6. 34Z Cory VanZante, 7. 352 Charlie Weber, 8. 7A Aaron Osweiler, 9. 16 Matthew VanGeldner, 10. 80 Jim Walker

Hobby Stock
Heat 1: Kincaid
Heat 2: Brad Stephens
Heat 3: Justin Ulin
Feature: 1. 10 Dale Porter, 2. 21 Justin Ulin, 3. 10G Dustin Griffiths, 4. 69 Craig Brown, 5. 55 Brad Stephens, 6. 3B Justin Bunnell, 7. 77 Derek Hodges, 8. 84 Danny Thrasher, 9. 96R Jamie Songer, 10. 9 Jared Stephens.

Sport Compact 4-Cyl
Heat: Trent Orwig
Feature: 1. 33 Trent Orwig, 2. 00w Bill Whalen Jr., 3. 77 John Whalen, 4. 118 Jon Girdley, 5. 95 Tim Beavins, 6. 22m Curt Myers, 7. 52 Billy Cain, 8. 2m Matt Moore

2015 Knoxville Raceway 360 Preview

2015-04-15T14:06:00.001-05:00

The Knoxville Raceway 360 class should be highly competitive. Justin Henderson returns in the BDS Motorsports #1 and will try to defend their 2014 owner’s championship while Henderson will compete for 410 driver points only. The driver’s championship will be a tough one with several strong contenders.

Joe Beaver won his first Lucas Oil Knoxville Championship Cup in 2014 and won three features. Beaver has to be considered the favorite coming into the season but he will have the target on his back this year with several good drivers trying to win the championship.

Jon Agan is sure to be a contender for his first championship. He finished 177 points behind Beaver last year and although he didn’t get a win at Knoxville he had just as many top five finishes (seven) as Beaver did, and he won the Sprint Invaders championship. I look for Agan to be better in 2015 and win some features.

Jamie Ball exceeded expectation in 2014 and finished third in points and won his first 360 feature. Ball will once again be piloting the 5J and the 24 year-old is becoming a seasoned driver with a bright future ahead of him. Can he win more races in 2015? Can he compete for a championship? The answer to those questions are likely to be, yes.

Russ Hall was seventh in points in 2013 and he improved to fourth in 2014. The 2013 Sprint Invaders series champion has been one of the best drivers in the 360 class in recent years and he has won two features. If the 29 team can improve their qualifying effort and start closer to the front look for them to win some races.

Nate Van Haaften has been one of the best 360 drivers in recent years, winning four features the past four seasons. He was third in 2013 points and fifth in 2014. He was voted 360 most improved driver in 2011. Look for Nate to be eyeing his first championship and getting a win.

Dylan Peterson from South Dakota surprised everyone last year finishing sixth in points and grabbing the rookie of the year title. After finishing in the top ten in three of his last five features Peterson shot up the standings. You could see his improvement as the season went with more experience and confidence. Look for Peterson to maybe get his first feature win this year.

Jarrod Schneiderman competed in the 360 class in 2014 and finished seventh in points. Jarrod has shown improvement the past couple of years and could be another guy who could get his first win this year at Knoxville.

Matt Moro ended the 2014 season by winning on season championship night. The 2008 champion of the 360 class is looking to bounce back from a tenth place points finish last year and get back into the hunt for a second championship.

After taking five years off from racing Calvin Landis came back in 2014 driving the #10 car owned by Mike VanderEcken. The Arizona native who now calls Knoxville home finished eighth in points and just maybe we will see him in victory lane.

Other drivers that should be competing each week are Alan Ambers, David Hall, Laney Feight, Tyler Groenendyk, Mike Houseman Jr., Tom Lenz, Ricky Montgomery, Sawyer Phillips, Tony Shilling, and Alan Zoutte. The only 360 Rookie scheduled to compete this year is Mike Philben who is moving up from the 305 class.

Come out Saturday night for the Pella Motors, Race For Your School night as we open up our 62nd season of weekly racing! Kids 19 and under are free admission!

2015 Knoxville Raceway 410 Preview

2015-04-14T09:11:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Lucas Oil and MavTV national television, the 2015 Knoxville Championship Cup Series season will have a field of competitors that is stronger than ever. A check for $20,000 awaits the KCCS champion at the end of the season and there are 17 nights of racing to see who comes out on top. The season begins this Saturday, April 18 and the KCCS finals are August 29.

Ian Madsen won his first Lucas Oil Knoxville Championship Cup in 2014 after compiling three feature wins, seven top five’s, and 11 top ten finishes last year. After a solid second place finish in 2013 the KCP Racing team stepped up in 2014 to win the title. Now the target is on their back but they are not by any means resting on their laurels. The team raced with the World of Outlaws on the west coast in the month of March to get ready for this year after making a change in chassis manufacturers. Ian once again raced this winter in his homeland of Australia and his reflexes should be as sharp as ever.

Terry McCarl is a seven time KCCS champion and has 54 career wins at Knoxville Raceway. He finished a close second in points last season, only 71 points out. T-Mac started his 2015 season strong against the World of Outlaws in Florida and on the west coast with a win in Las Vegas, three top five’s, and six top ten finishes in twelve nights. Terry also went down to Australia for a few weeks in January and is looking as strong as ever to try to win his eighth track championship.

Justin Henderson finished third in points in 2014 and he has finished in the top five of the Knoxville Nationals each of the past two years in the Sundby #1. This team set quick time on four occasions last year and was only 85 points out of first.

Two-time track champion Brian Brown finished fourth in points in 2014 despite missing one week. “Blackjack” has been fast in recent years at the Knoxville Nationals as well, finishing runner-up to Donny Schatz each of the past three years. Brown won his first career 360 Knoxville Nationals last year and figures to make 2015 his year. Brown is scheduled to miss two races this year but as good as he was last year you can certainly count on him being in the top five and winning some features.

2013 track champion Bronson Maeschen finished ninth in points in 2014. The farmer from nearby Pleasantville is looking to rebound in 2015 by getting back into victory lane and compete for the championship once again.

Davey Heskin has been knocking on the door to win his first track championship in recent years. The Minnesota native has four career wins at Knoxville and he was the 2012 championship runner-up in a close point battle. He has finished in the top ten of the Knoxville Nationals twice and at age 24 he is still a growing talent in the Knoxville Regular stable. Look for Davey to be up front in 2015.

Just when you thought the field couldn’t get any tougher, add four-time Knoxville Nationals champion Danny “The Dude” Lasoski back to the full-time roster. The nine-time track champion and all-time career feature wins record holder is behind the Big Game Treestands/Muddy sprint car AND he is reunited with crew chief Guy Forbrook. Can Danny win his tenth title? Can he add to his record of 101 wins? It’s hard to bet against this combination.

Brooke Tatnell is back in the Vermeer #55 this season. The Aussie had a good winter in Australia winning the World Series Sprintcars championship for a record ninth time. The Knoxville one-lap track record holder finished tenth in Knoxville points in 2014 and is hoping to improve that in 2015. Tatnell has won six features at Knoxville over the years and should be a solid contender this year.

Dusty Zomer of South Dakota finished seventh in points 2014 and has been in the top ten at the end of the season in each of the past seven seasons at Knoxville. He has nine career 410 wins at Knoxville and for 2015 he has changed rides and will drive the LaHaise #82, a car that qualified for the Knoxville Nationals A-Main last year with Bryan Clauson.

Grand Forks, North Dakota driver Mark Dobmeier has left the Lunstra team for the newly formed Jimco Motorsports team. They will keep the #13 on the side of the wing panels. Dobmeier has finished in the top ten of points in seven of the last eight seasons and won 13 features along the way.

As if the field of drivers/teams wasn’t strong enough as it is, enter Tim Kaeding in the Lunstra #3 car. The driver from Northern California is a two-time King of the West series champion (formerly known as Golden State Challenge series), has four wins at Knoxville and 19 World of Outlaw wins on his resume. He is one of the best in the business and it’s going to be exciting to watch him every week at Knoxville and he will for sure be a contender for the championship and some feature wins.

Clint Garner will be back in the Fluth #40 sprinter for their second consecutive year in the 410 class. After winning five consecutive 360 KCCS championships, they moved up to the 410 division in 2014. Garner finished 12^th in points last year and improved as the season went. Garner has experience in the 410 class, finishing third in 410 points in 2006 and has two 410 feature wins at Knoxville. This driver will be a serious contender in the 410 class.

Don Droud Jr. has parted ways with the Sonner 47 team and has climbed into the newly formed Troy Renfro owned TKS Motorsports #2KS. The veteran driver from Nebraska finished second in KCCS points four different times and has 12 career feature wins at the famed half-mile. Droud could be the sleeper team to watch out for in 2015.

There are several other drivers that have a shot to win a feature on any given night. Lynton Jeffrey finished eighth in points last year and has three career wins at Knoxville. Dustin Selvage is back his own #7 car for 2015 and he is looking to get his first career 410 win. Ryan Bunton is in the Williams #7K and is hoping to carry the momentum of qualifying for the Knoxville Nationals A-Main last year into 2015. Josh Schneiderman is also a driver that could pick up his first career 410 Knoxville feature win this season.

Bryan Clauson will be competing most weeks at Knoxville Raceway in the Wood 17w car, but will miss a couple of weeks due to his attempt to qualify for this second Indianapolis 500 in May. It has been a while since a weekly driver at Knoxville made the Indy 500, perhaps since Joe Saldana.

2015 will be a season to remember at Knoxville Raceway! Come out Saturday night for the Pella Motors, Race for Your School night, as we open up our 62nd season of weekly racing! Kids 19 and under free admission!