8/7/09
Knoxville Raceway
360 Nationals Night #2
59 cars
Cale Conley (6th car out to time) set a new 360 track record in his first visit to Knoxville at 15.973 seconds. Jack Dover (1st car out) was second quick, followed by Kevin Ramey (15th), Danny Wood (44th), Terry McCarl (35th), Bronson Maeschen (51st), Kenny Jacobs (48th), Brad Sweet (45th), Dennis Moore Jr. (5th) and Brady Bacon (2nd). The track stayed faster through qualifying than it did Thursday.
Heat one (started): 1. Zach Chappell 50z (1) 2. Brian Brown 21 (3) 3. Maeschen 1 (5) 4. Don Young 75 (2) / 5. Conley 3c (6) 6. Henry Van Dam 23n (7) 7. Brent Kronfuss 9K (4) 8. Jay Russell 76 (9) / 9. Danny Smith 5$ (8) 10. Corey Moore 17c (10)
Chappell led the distance in the 8-lapper. Brown and Maeschen stuck the low side to move by Young. Conley fell one spot short.
Heat two (started): 1. Ryan Roberts 18 (1) 2. Davey Heskin 56 (4) 3. Dover 53D (6) 4. Lou Kennedy Jr. 21K (2) / 5. Jacobs 6K (5) 6. Wade Nygaard 9N (7) 7. Sean McClelland 1s (8) 8. Justin Zimmerman K9 (9) / 9. Joe McCarthy 19 (3) 10. Butch Hanssen 8K (10)
Roberts led flag to flag. A slowdown occured on lap two, when McCarthy and Hanssen tangled in turn one, eliminating Hanssen.
Heat three (started): 1. Dusty Zomer 17G (1) 2. Gary Wright 9x (2) 3. Gregg Bakker 11x (4) 4. Johnny Herrera 45x (3) / 5. Sweet 91E (5) 6. Ramey 7m (6) 7. Gary Taylor 91 (7) 8. Robby Wolfgang 1a (9) / 9. Don Droud Jr. 2J (10) 10. Seth Bergman 23 (8)
This heat may have been the stoutest of the week, and everyone was close to the same speed. It resulted in not much passing, and the two fastest qualifiers heading to the B.
Heat four (started): 1. Tim Crawley 88 (2) 2. Sam Hafertepe Jr. 15 (4) 3. Kenneth Walker 2w (1) 4. Garry Lee Maier 1x (3) / 5. Moore Jr. 20 (5) 6. Scott Winters 23w (7) 7. Jesse Hockett 13 (9) 8. Wood 94 (6) / 9. Joe Beaver 53 (8) 10. Ryan Bickett 17B (10)
Crawley led throughout, but Hafertepe Jr. showed plenty of speed. Maier slid across turn two with two laps to go to negate a bid by Moore Jr. for the final transfer.
Heat five (started): 1. Ben Gregg 22B (1) 2. Rager Phillips 9P (2) 3. Travis Rilat 29 (4) 4. McCarl 24 (6) / 5. Brady Bacon 99 (5) 6. Brad Foster 00 (7) 7. Tommy Bryant 85 (9) 8. Russ Hall 29T (3) / 9. Chad Meyer 1w (8) DNS - Tyler Godwin 4c
Gregg led the distance on the high side. R. Hall shuffled back to the rear on lap one before regaining his momentum. McCarl became the fourth of the ten fastest qualifiers to transfer to the A through the heats.
C main (started): 1. McCarthy (1) 2. Hanssen (4) / 3. Bickett (6) 4. Bergman (3) 5. Meyer (5) 6. Ray Allen Kulhanek 5* (8) 7. Droud Jr. (9) 8. Smith (2) 9. Chris Schmelzle 57c (12) 10. Josh Padellford 34 (11) 11. C. Moore (7) 12. Gavin Punch 81AU (13) 13. Chad Heimbaugh 04 (15) 14. Steven Richardson 72 (16) 15. Steven Cross 19s (17) 16. Brandon Schure 21TX (10) 17. Travis Porter 31P (14) DNS - Beaver, Godwin
McCarthy and Hanssen led the 10-lap distance, producing a sweep for Masters Classic regulars. Schure went up in smoke in the late stages.
B main (started): 1. Conley (1) 2. Ramey (2) 3. Wood (3) 4. Sweet (5) / 5. Bacon (7) 6. Moore Jr. (6) 7. Van Dam (10) 8. Taylor (12) 9. Hockett (19) 10. Winters (13) 11. Nygaard (11) 12. R. Hall (9) 13. McClelland (15) 14. Kronfuss (8) 15. Wolfgang (18) 16. Foster (14) 17. Russell (16) 18. Hanssen (22) 19. Bryant (20) 20. McCarthy (21) 21. Zimmerman (17) 22. Jacobs (4)
After the first start was called back, contact from another car upended Jacobs before the green. He was unhurt. The third time was not the charm as Zimmerman flipped in turn four before a lap could be run. One lap was in the books when McCarthy flipped hard in turn one. No one was injured. Conley led Ramey, Wood, Moore Jr. and Sweet back to green flag racing in the 12-lapper. We were halfway home when Bryant came to a stop on the top of turn two. By then, Sweet had moved by Moore Jr. for the final transfer and the lead four remained the same despite a great battle for second between Ramey and Wood.
A main (started): 1. McCarl (7) 2. Brown (1) 3. Rilat (2) 4. Hafertepe Jr. (3) 5. Bakker (4) 6. Maeschen (6) 7. Maier (10) 8. Crawley (14) 9. Kennedy Jr. (12) 10. Heskin (5) 11. Wood (23) 12. Herrera (9) 13. Wright (13) 14. Zomer (18) 15. Ramey (22) 16. Phillips (15) 17. Sweet (24) 18. Conley (21) 19. Roberts (17) 20. Chappell (16) 21. Walker (19) 22. Dover (8) 23. Young (11) 24. Gregg (20)
Brown shot out to an early lead in the 20-lapper ahead of Rilat, Bakker and Dover, who moved forward four spots by the third turn. On lap five, Young tagged the wall and collected Gregg, bringing out the race's first caution. Brown led Rilat, Bakker, Dover and McCarl back to the green flag. Brown continued to pull away ahead of Dover, while Rilat and Bakker battled for third. McCarl entered the fray and slipped by Bakker for third before a lap 11 stoppage for second running Dover who looked to have motor problems. Now Brown led Rilat, McCarl, Bakker and Hafertepe back to green flag racing. Brown pulled away until the last five laps, when McCarl started using a different line. The pair was nose to tail at the white flag. Entering turn three, Brown went high and slipped over the cushion slightly. McCarl turned a perfect corner on the bottom and slid in front of the leader for a last corner win. It was his fourth career 360 win at Knoxville and was worth $3000.