By T.J. Buffenbarger
Knoxville, IA — (August 8, 2013) —
Brian Brown took another step towards achieving his dream of winning the 2013 FVP Knoxville Nationals Thursday night at Knoxville Raceway. Brown capitalized on a great start to go from fifth to second and then held off multiple challenges by Kerry Madsen for the victory. By virtue of his performance throughout the night Brown ended up second in points to Joey Saldana, earning him the outside front row starting position for Saturday night’s A-Main.
“Being Casey’s General Store Night and having FVP as my sponsor,” said Brown in the post-race press conference. “We have a great team assembled and they work really hard, and they deserve this. I’m pretty excited. Now we have a couple of days to relax, watch some racing, and hopefully be in contention on Saturday night.”
Washington resident Roger Crockett and Scott Winters started on the front row for the 25-Lap feature. Crockett took the lead with Scott Winters, Brian Brown, and Stevie Smith racing three wide for second. Brown moved up from fifth to second in less than a lap with Smith sliding into third. One lap later Kevin Swindell disposed of Winters off of turn two for fourth.
While working lap three John Agan rolled to a stop in turn four. Agan went to the work area and was able to make repairs and rejoin the field.
During the restart Brown dove to the bottom on Crockett, who appeared to go through the middle, and took the lead off of turn two. Madsen motored around the top and took second away from Crockett in turn three. As that action took place Brian Paulus spun in turn three to bring out the caution flag. Paulus was able to restart at the tail of the field.
Brown led Madsen to the restart. Madsen got a run at the top of the track, but Brown went from bottom to top between turns one and two to block. Madsen tried to drive under, but Brown shut the door diving to the bottom of turn three to maintain the lead.
With 10 laps to go Brown came up on slower traffic and allowed Madsen to close in. Behind the lead duo Kevin Swindell moved up through the field taking over third spot on lap 18 from Scott Winters and began to close on the leaders.
Late in the race Brown managed to use the traffic to his advantage and open up enough space for the comfortable victory over Madsen, Swindell, Crockett, and Winters.
Saldana was the fastest qualifier over the 53 car field with a lap of 15.387 seconds. Jack Dover, Wayne Johnson, Stevie Smith, Terry McCarl, and Robby Wolfgang won heat race events. Knoxville Raceway point leader Bronson Maeschen won the C-Main event while Danny Lasoski won the B-Main.
53rd Annual FVP Knoxville Nationals
Knoxville Raceway – Knoxville Iowa
Thursday August 8, 2013
Qualifications: 1. 71M – Joey Saldana, 15.387; 2. 96 – Bronson Maeschen, 15.397; 3. 11 – Steve Kinser, 15.443; 4. 6BR – Bill Rose, 15.477; 5. 33 – Danny Lasoski, 15.478; 6. 4 – Cody Darrah, 15.493; 7. 24R – Rico Abreu, 15.521; 8. 71S – Kevin Swindell, 15.539; 9. 21 – Brian Brown, 15.555; 10. 55 – Brooke Tatnell, 15.582; 11. 13 – Seth Brahmer, 15.604; 12. 29 – Kerry Madsen, 15.616; 13. 19S – Stevie Smith, 15.617; 14. 82 – Scott Winters, 15.621; 15. 11 – Roger Crockett, 15.625; 16. 7 – Craig Dollansky, 15.641; 17. 91 – Dusty Zomer, 15.665; 18. 45 – Danny Holtgraver, 15.667; 19. 24 – Terry McCarl, 15.683; 20. 15H – Sam Hafertepe, Jr. , 15.746; 21. 13 – Mark Dobmeier, 15.769; 22. 59 – Jac Haudenschild, 15.778; 23. 71J – R.J. Johnson, 15.824; 24. 20K – Thomas Kennedy, 15.826; 25. w20 – Greg Wilson, 15.861; 26. 9P – Rager Phillips, 15.874; 27. 4s – Danny Smith, 15.898; 28. 3R – Ryan Bunton, 15.914; 29. 80 – Trey Gustin, 15.953; 30. 74x – Josh Hodges, 15.954; 31. 23K – Rob Kubli, 16.007; 32. 28 – Brian Paulus, 16.008; 33. 17B – Bill Balog, 16.016; 34. 27 – Lance Dewease, 16.036; 35. 4A – Jon Agan, 16.056; 36. 17 – Jack Dover, 16.065; 37. 14AJ – Wayne Johnson, 16.086; 38. 88 – Jerrod Schneiderman, 16.093; 39. O5L – Brad Loyet, 16.210; 40. 1B – Robby Wolfgang, 16.292; 41. 20 – A.J.Moeller, 16.327; 42. 1K – Chris Shirek, 16.328; 43. 44W – Austin Wheatley, 16.353; 44. 23 – Jimmy Light, 16.388; 45. 7G – Kaley Gharst, 16.395; 46. 83 – Tim Shaffer, 16.429; 47. 1S – Logan Schuchart, 16.436; 48. 69 – Mike Moore, 16.586; 49. 21x – Bryan Clauson, 16.621; 50. 1x – Tony Bruce, Jr. , 16.702; 51. O1 – Paul Morris, 16.829; 52. 71 – Robert Bell, NT; 53. 93H – Sheldon Haudenschild, NT;
Heat Race #1 (10 Laps): 1. Jack Dover, 2. Mark Domeier, 3. Craig Dollansky, 4. Joey Saldana, 5. Cody Darrah, 6. R.J. Phillips, 7. Rob Kubli, 8. A.J. Moeller, 9. Seth Brahmer, 10. Kaley Gharst. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #2 (10 Laps): 1. Wayne Johnson, 2. Kerry Madsen, 3. Jac Haudenschild, 4. Brian Paulus, 5. Dusty Zomer, 6. Tim Shaffer, 7. Rico Abreu, 8. Chris Shirek, 9. Danny Smith, 10. Bronson Maeschen. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #3 (10 Laps): 1. Stevie Smith, 2. Steve Kinser, 3. Bill Balog, 4. Kevin Swindell, 5. Danny Holtgraver, 6. R.J. Johnson, 7. Logan Schuchart, 8. Mike Moore, 9. Jerrod Schneiderman, 10. Ryan Bunton. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #4 (10 Laps): 1. Terry McCarl, 2. Brian Brown, 3. Scott Winters, 4. Brad Loyet, 5. Lance Dewease, 6. Thomas Kennedy, 7. Austin Wheatley, 8. Bryan Clauson, 9. Trey Gustin, 10. Bill Rose. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #5 (10 Laps): 1. Robby Wolfgang, 2. Jon Agan, 3. Sam Hafertepe, Jr., 4. Roger Crockett, 5. Danny Lasoski, 6. Brook Tatnell, 7. Josh Hodges, 8. Greg Wilson, 9. Tony Bruce, Jr., 10. Jimmy Light. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
C-Main (8 Laps): 1. Bronson Maeschen, 2. Tony Bruce, Jr., 3. Bill Rose, 4. Kaley Gharst, 5. Danny Smith, 6. Jimmy Light, 7. Trey Gustin, 8. Paul Morris. DNS: Seth Brahmer, Ryan Bunton, Jerrod Schneiderman, Robert Bell, Sheldon Haudenschild. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
B-Main (12 Laps): B-Main Finish: 1. Danny Lasoski, 2. Cody Darrah, 3. Rico Abreu, 4. Dusty Zomer, 5. Brooke Tatnell, 6. Danny Holtgraver, 7. Rager Phillips, 8. Thomas Kennedy, 9. R.J. Johnson, 10. Greg Wilson, 11. Lance Dewease, 12. Tony Bruce, Jr., 13. Josh Hodges, 14. Logan Schuchart, 15. Austin Wheatley, 16. Bill Rose, 17. Bryan Clauson, 18. Rob Kubli, 19. Kaley Gharst, 20. Mike Moore, 21. A.J. Moeller, 22. Chris Shirek, 23. Tim Shaffer, 24. Bronson Maeschen. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
A-Main (25 Laps): 1. Brian Brown, 2. Kerry Madsen, 3. Kevin Swindell, 4. Roger Crockett, 5. Scott Winters, 6. Cody Darrah, 7. Joey Saldana, 8. Craig Dollansky, 9. Terry McCarl 10. Stevie Smith, 11. Danny Lasoski, 12. Wayne Johnson, 13. Dusty Zomer, 14. Mark Dobmeier, 15. Sam Hafertepe, Jr., 16. Jack Dover, 17. Steve Kinser, 18. Jac Haudenschild, 19. Bill Balog, 20. Brad Loyet, 21. Rico Abreu, 22. Robby Wolfgang, 23. John Agan, 24. Brian Paulus.