8/5/10
Knoxville Raceway
360 Nationals
Night #1
49 cars
Chad Humston (10th car out to time) set quick time at 15.875 seconds. Bronson Maeschen (14th car out) was second quick, followed by Johnny Anderson (39th), Matt Covington (20th), Dustin Selvage (38th), Scott Winters (46th), Tony Bruce Jr. (29th), Matt Moro (47th), Danny Heskin (34th) and Lee Sowell (33rd). The track was soggy and took awhile to come in, leaving the late qualifiers with a slight advantage.
Heat one (started): 1. Eric Baldaccini 4B (1) 2. Humston 1m ( 6) 3. Jason Johnson 41 (3) 4. Tim Kaeding 83 (4) / 5. Jonathan Cornell 28 (2) 6. Winters 23w (5) 7. Channin Tankersley 71 (8) 8. Matt Heinzerling 22x (7) / 9. Dave Hall 51 (9) 10. Jody Rosenboom 27 (10)
Heats went eight laps in distance, and transferred the top four to the A, the next four to the B, and the last two to the C. Baldaccini led the distance, but Humston was impressive, passing Kaeding and Johnson at the outset, and moving by Cornell for second. Kaeding grabbed the last transfer with two to go.
Heat two (started): 1. Brian Brown 21 (4) 2. RJ Johnson 71x (2) 3. Brady Bacon 99 (3) 4. Maeschen 1 (6) / 5. Bruce Jr. 18 (5) 6. Joe Beaver 53x (7) 7. Kelly Miller 44 (2) 8. Rob Kubli 19L (8) / 9. Jordan Martens 13JM (10) 10. Cody Friedrichsen 20 (9)
RJ Johnson took the lead early, but Brown picked it up and pulled away on lap three. Maeschen was able to pass Miller at the halfway point for the final transfer. Friedrichsen blew his left rear tire at the halfway point to bring out caution.
Heat three (started): 1. Danny Jennings 1J (2) 2. Zach Chappell 50z (4) 3. Kyle Hirst 6 (1) 4. Justyn Cox 5H (7) / 5. Moro 2m (5) 6. Anderson 7a (6) 7. Donovan Peterson 3D (8) 8. Justin Whitehead 8w (9) / 9. Erin Crocker 98 (3) DNS - Thomas Kennedy 20K
Crocker flipped in turn one after something broke at the fall of the green flag. She was unhurt. Jennings led flag to flag. 'Cox used a move around Moro and Anderson to take the final transfer spot.
Heat four (started): 1. Billy Alley 22 (2) 2. Randy Martin 14 (1) 3. Covington 95 (6) 4. Jamie Veal 35AU (4) / 5. Heskin 6x (5) 6. Ricky Logan 10a (7) 7. Jake Martens 0 (3) 8. Nate Van Haaften 3 (8) / 9. Alan Zoutte 33 (9) 10. Logan Walker 38 (10)
Alley dominated this one. Covington was the prime mover, using the tacky bottom to advance to third.
Heat five (started): 1. Selvage 7s (6) 2. DJ Brink 21B (1) 3. Bryan Dobesh 54 (4) 4. Lee Grosz 4J (3) / 5. Kolt Walker 45K (2) 6. Don Droud Jr. 86 (7) 7. Sowell 51s (5) 8. Todd Evans 14E (8) / 9. Doc Sloan A12 (9)
Brink lead early, but Selvage was making steady progress. He picked off Walker, Grosz, Dobesh and finally Brink to take the lead on lap six.
C main (started): 1. Hall (1) 2. Friedrichsen (2) / 3. Jo. Martens (6) 4. Rosenboom (5) 5. Zoutte (3) 6. Sloan (4) 7. L. Walker (8) 8. T. Kennedy (7) DNS - Crocker
Hall led the distance in the mostly single-file 8-lapper.
B main (started): 1. Bruce Jr. (3) 2. Winters (2) 3. Moro (4) 4. Anderson (1) / 5. Cornell (6) 6. Heskin (5) 7. Logan (13) 8. Ja. Martens (7) 9. K. Walker (8) 10. Tankersley (15) 11. Van Haaften (14) 12. Miller (9) 13. Beaver (10) 14. Friedrichsen (18) 15. Heinzerling (11) 16. Kubli (12) 17. Evans (19) 18. Whitehead (16) 19. Peterson (17) 20. D. Hall (20)
Winters led early. After a good battle and a stumble by Winters, Bruce Jr. took the lead for good on lap seven. Cornell knocked on the door in traffic, but was denied a transfer spot.
A main (started): 1. Brown (3) 2. Selvage (5) 3. Humston (8) 4. J. Johnson (10) 5. Veal (1) 6. Maeschen (7) 7. Grosz (12) 8. Covington (6) 9. Bacon (11) 10. Bruce Jr. (21) 11. Winters (22) 12. Jennings (13) 13. Dobesh (9) 14. Baldaccini (15) 15. Anderson (24) 16. Kaeding (4) 17. Moro (23) 18. RJ Johnson (16) 19. Martin (18) 20. Alley (14) 21. Hirst (17) 22. Cox (20) 23. Brink (19) 24. Chappell (2)
Chappell jumped out to an early lead on Veal, then Brown stormed by them to lead lap two. After a couple of laps, Selvage was on his way to the front, picking off Kaeding, Veal, then Chappell. Kaeding suffered a blown right rear tire on lap five while running fourth. Brown was strong on the restart, with Selvage moving up. A fifth running Chappell broke a rear-end on lap 13. The restart saw Brown ahead of Selvage, Veal and Maeschen. Humston got a good jump on the restart and worked his way forward to a top three finish. Selvage was strong, but so was Brown, who held on for his 9th career 360 win at Knoxville and $3,000. Bruce Jr. was the hard-charger.
Points Thursday...
493 Humston
490 Selvage
479 Maeschen
478 Brown
474 Covington
458 Bruce Jr.
458 J. Johnson
457 Veal
455 Winters
453 Anderson
446 Bacon
442 Moro
442 Dobesh
441 Kaeding
441 Grosz
434 Jennings
427 Chappell
424 Baldaccini
416 Alley
412 Danny Heskin
411 RJ Johnson
405 Martin
400 Hirst
395 Brink
390 Cornell
385 Cox
382 Ja. Martens
374 Sowell
374 K. Walker
368 Miller
357 Logan
349 Beaver
344 Tankersley
341 Heinzerling
333 Van Haaften
327 Kubli
326 Crocker
325 Droud
322 Peterson
319 Evans
315 Friedrichsen
311 Whitehead
308 D. Hall
282 Zoutte
280 Jo. Martens
278 Sloan
277 Rosenboom
265 T. Kennedy
265 L. Walker