Sammy Swindell won his qualifying feature at the 360 Nationals
by Stacy Ervin
KNOXVILLE RACEWAY, Knoxville, IA, August 5, 2011 – Sammy Swindell of Germantown, Tennessee, won the second qualifying main event for the 21st Annual Arnold Motor Supply 360 Knoxville Nationals, stealing what looked like it might be a birthday victory from Wayne Johnson.
The first night of qualifying for the event was postponed by rain, so all cars entered in the Lucas Oil ASCS-sanctioned event ran on Friday, August 5, split into a “Thursday” group and a “Friday” group. Rain also threatened on Friday, but moved out of the area for the show.
Johnson started on the pole and led through the first 11 laps while Swindell, who started fourth, tried to wrestle second from outside front-row starter Ryan Anderson. The yellow flag came out at lap two for Larry Ball Jr., who was stopped in turn four.
After going green again, Johnson led while Anderson and Swindell picked up their torrid battle. Swindell finally got the spot on lap six. The race stayed green from there and Swindell started to close on Johnson in traffic at the halfway mark.
Swindell took the lead in turn four coming to the flagstand for lap 12 and never looked back. Johnson held on to second ahead of a hard-charging Shane Stewart in third. Randy Hannagan was fourth and Anderson slid back to fifth.
Danny Lasoski set the Friday group’s fastest time trial at 16.069. Heat races for the Friday group were won by Daryn Pittman, Brooke Tatnell, Tony Shilling, Jake Peters and Danny Wood. Chad Meyer won the C-Main and Larry Ball Jr. won the B-Main.
Friday Qualifiers Results
Time Trials (Qualifying Order), 1 lap: 1. 33L, Danny Lasoski, Dover, MO (13) 16.069; 2. 22H, Randy Hannagan, Pittsboro, IN (24) 16.173; 3. 57, Shane Stewart, Bixby, OK (12) 16.272; 4. 11x, Gregg Bakker, Sioux Falls, SD (47) 16.283; 5. 83, Tim Shaffer, Aliquippa, PA (18) 16.287; 6. 23, Seth Bergman, Snohomish, WA (40) 16.292; 7. 5J, Larry Ball Jr., Knoxville, IA (27) 16.320; 8. 40, Clint Garner, Sioux Falls, SD (48) 16.336; 9. 53D, Jack Dover, Springfield, NE (25) 16.340; 10. D12, Dennis Moore Jr., Grinnell, IA (14) 16.341; 11. 1s, Sammy Swindell, Germantown, TN (23) 16.341; 12. 35, Ronnie Blair, Troy, OH (8) 16.376; 13. 87J, Justin Carver, Millington, TN (20) 16.380; 14. 71R, Ryan Anderson, Deloit, IA (38) 16.397; 15. 38, Wayne Johnson, Knoxville, IA (28) 16.401; 16. 88, Tim Crawley, Benton, AR (33) 16.444; 17. 2, Josh Higday, Des Moines, IA (1) 16.469; 18. 18R, Ryan Roberts, Aurora, NE (19) 16.470; 19. 89G, David Gravel, Watertown, CT (37) 16.478; 20. 04x, Cap Henry, Bellevue, OH (17) 16.543; 21. 3, Nate Van Haaften, Otley, IA (44) 16.546; 22. 2D, Bryan Dobesh, Sioux Falls, SD (29) 16.547; 23. 47T, Tony Shilling, Knoxville, IA (30) 16.548; 24. 57x, Jake Peters, Sioux Falls, SD (16) 16.575; 25. 9, Gary Wright, Hooks, TX (9) 16.580; 26. 27, Daryn Pittman, Owasso, OK (46) 16.596; 27. 14T, Brooke Tatnell, Sans Souci, NSW, Aust. (3) 16.605; 28. 91, Henry Van Dam, Enumclaw, WA (11) 16.606; 29. 09, Matt Juhl, Estherville, IA (4) 16.609; 30. 81, Danny Wood, Norman, OK (15) 16.611; 31. 7, Gary Taylor, Houma, LA (39) 16.703; 32. 1w, Chad Meyer, Sioux Falls, SD (35) 16.718; 33. 23w, Scott Winters, Butterfield, MN (21) 16.723; 34. 41w, Joshua Williams, Glendale, AZ (41) 16.739; 35. 1x, Garry Lee Maier, Cimarron, KS (45) 16.754; 36. 51H, Mike Hess, Springfield, IL (7) 16.773; 37. 7m, Kevin Ramey, Fort Worth, TX (22) 16.836; 38. 87B, Jason Barney, Bremerton, NY (36) 16.841; 39. 9mx, Cody Baker, Lone Jack, MO (43) 16.892; 40. 19s, Steven Cross, Clinton, MO (6) 16.898; 41. 21A, Dustin Beenken, Sheldon, IA (34) 16.921; 42. 45x, Johnny Herrera, Albuquerque, NM (10) 16.925; 43. 8L, Tom Lenz, Marion, IA (32) 16.969; 44. 83P, Ned Powers, Belle Fourche, SD (26) 16.972; 45. 93A, Alan Ambers, Knoxville, IA (31) 17.027; 46. 2H, Jason Eckard, Okoboji, IA (5) 17.035; 47. 3*, Kaley Gharst, Decatur, IL (42) 17.064; 48. 22K, Koby Barksdale, Norman, OK (2) 17.120.
Heat one (started), 8 laps, NT: 1. Daryn Pittman (1) 2. Sammy Swindell (4) 3. Tim Crawley (3) 4. Nate Van Haaften (2) / 5. Seth Bergman (5) 6. Gary Taylor (7) 7. Mike Hess (8) 8. Jason Eckard (10) / 9. Danny Lasoski (6) 10. Dustin Beenken (9)
Heat two (started), 8 laps, 2:12.3: 1. Brooke Tatnell (1) 2. Bryan Dobesh (2) 3. Randy Hannagan (6) 4. Josh Higday (3) / 5. Ronnie Blair (4) 6. Johnny Herrera (9) 7. Larry Ball Jr. (5) 8. Kevin Ramey (8) / 9. Chad Meyer (7) DNS – Kaley Gharst
Heat three (started), 8 laps, 2:14.4: 1. Tony Shilling (2) 2. Shane Stewart (6) 3. Henry Van Dam (1) 4. Justin Carver (4) / 5. Ryan Roberts (3) 6. Clint Garner (5) 7. Scott Winters (7) 8. Koby Barksdale (10) / 9. Tom Lenz (9) 10. Jason Barney (8)
Heat four (started), 8 laps, 2:14.0: 1. Jake Peters (2) 2. Ryan Anderson (4) 3. Gregg Bakker (6) 4. David Gravel (3) / 5. Jack Dover (5) 6. Matt Juhl (1) 7. Cody Baker (8) 8. Ned Powers (9) / 9. Joshua Williams (7)
Heat five (started), 8 laps, 2:13.3: 1. Danny Wood (1) 2. Wayne Johnson (4) 3. Gary Wright (2) 4. Tim Shaffer (6) / 5. Cap Henry (3) 6. Dennis Moore Jr. (5) 7. Garry Lee Maier (7) 8. Alan Ambers (9) / 9. Steven Cross (8)
C main (started), 7 laps, 1:58.0: 1. Chad Meyer (1) 2. Joshua Williams (2) / 3. Jason Barney (3) 4. Kaley Gharst (7) 5. Dustin Beenken (5) 6. Steven Cross (4) 7. Tom Lenz (6) DNS – Danny Lasoski
B main (started), 12 laps, 3:26.2: 1. Larry Ball Jr. (2) 2. Clint Garner (3) 3. Seth Bergman (1) 4. Jack Dover (4) / 5. Cap Henry (8) 6. Dennis Moore Jr. (5) 7. Johnny Herrera (16) 8. Ronnie Blair (6) 9. Gary Taylor (10) 10. Scott Winters (11) 11. Ryan Roberts (7) 12. Garry Lee Maier (12) 13. Matt Juhl (9) 14. Kevin Ramey (14) 15. Chad Meyer (21) 16. Koby Barksdale (20) 17. Jason Eckard (19) 18. Mike Hess (13) 19. Cody Baker (15) 20. Ned Powers (17) 21. Alan Ambers (18) 22. Joshua Williams (22)
A main (started), 20 laps, NT: 1. Sammy Swindell (4) 2. Wayne Johnson (1) 3. Shane Stewart (7) 4. Randy Hannagan (8) 5. Ryan Anderson (2) 6. Justin Carver (3) 7. David Gravel (11) 8. Tim Shaffer (5) 9. Daryn Pittman (17) 10. Josh Higday (10) 11. Brooke Tatnell (18) 12. Gregg Bakker (6) 13. Tim Crawley (9) 14. Danny Wood (20) 15. Clint Garner (22) 16. Nate Van Haaften (12) 17. Seth Bergman (23) 18. Tony Shilling (14) 19. Jake Peters (15) 20. Henry Van Dam (19) 21. Bryan Dobesh (13) 22. Gary Wright (16) 23. Larry Ball Jr. (21) DNS - 24. Jack Dover. Lap Leaders: W. Johnson 1-11, S. Swindell 12-20.