PETERSEN MEDIA
– After losing a heartbreaker at the Knoxville Raceway two weeks ago, Ian Madsen backed up last weekends win, as he triumphed for his second straight Knoxville Championship Cup feature event win, as he won Sunday night’s Capitani Classic, and took the point lead, with just one night of action remaining.
“I was so angry after time trials, I never imagined we would be standing on top of the podium, celebrating a win,” Madsen said.
With a beefed up 71 car field on hand for one final night of action prior to the Knoxville Nationals, Madsen struggled a tick during time trials, as he timed his KCP Racing/Nehring Construction/Kline Electric No. 18 machine in 23rd fastest.
After a rousing heat race battle with Tony Bruce Jr, Madsen’s second place finish would put him in the feature event, and as fate would have it, he would start on the pole of the race, next to older brother, Kerry.
When Doug Clark’s green flag waived, it was Madsen jumping into the lead, as Justin Henderson quickly pressured him from his second row starting spot, to lead down the backstretch, but Madsen made a bold move on the cushion in turn four to re take the lead, and begin distancing himself from the field.
Working his way to nearly a straight away lead, Madsen put together a very strong laps, but soon began feeling pressure, as a group of cars behind him slowly reeled him in as he worked in traffic.
A late restart bunched the field up, but Madsen proved to be too good on this night, as he raced his way to victory at the Third Annual Capitani Classic.
“This KCP Racing team is a fun team to be a part of, and it is awesome to win this race with such a huge car count here,” Madsen said. “I can’t thank my guys enough for getting us ready after a disappointing 360 Nationals. Hopefully this sets us up for a strong 410 Nationals.”
On Friday night, Madsen and his team were in action during the Knoxvile ASCS 360 Nationals, and after early problems hampered them, Madsen timed in 15th fastest.
Finishing second in his heat race, the St. Marys, NSW driver lined his Royal Flooring/Greenland Homes of IA/QTC backed entry up in the fifth row of the 20-lap preliminary night feature event.
When the green flew on this night, Madsen quickly jumped in to the seventh spot, where he ran for the first five laps, before the caution flew, bunching the field back up. When the action resumed Madsen was able to make work of Josh Higday to take over the sixth spot, before the red flew on the eighth lap, putting Madsen in the fifth position.
Back underway; Madsen began a torrid fight with Bronson Maeschen, for the fourth spot. On the 13th lap, Madsen got by Maeschen, but the caution flag flew negating the pass, and stacking the field back up. In the final laps, Madsen ran in the fifth spot, but as the white flag flew, he made his move around Maeschen to take fourth, where he would finish, and put himself in the fifth row for Saturday night’s feature event.
“It was a great way for our team to rebound,” Madsen said. “We had some issues, and missed our spot qualifying, but everyone worked so hard, and locked into the feature event on Saturday.”
Saturday night’s race simply did not go the way Madsen and his KCP Racing team had hoped. After putting a nice charge on during Friday’s feature event, Madsen struggled to get his machine moving forward, as he slowly drifted through the field.
Battling as hard as he could, Madsen’s 360 Nationals would end with a 14th place finish.
“We were disappointed with the result, but it was not to a lack of effort by this entire organization,” he said. “We haven’t’ run much 360 stuff lately, and we made the show, and were in a really good position, but we just missed it a little. To come back on Sunday night and win, was huge for us, and another vote of confidence for this team and how strong we are.”
Ian and his KCP acing team would like to thank Nehring Construction, Team Kline Electric, Logan Contractors Supply, Royal Flooring, Greenland Homes of Iowa, Quality Traffic Control, Factory Kahne, Rider Racing Engines, JRS Excavating, Brown and Miller Racing Solutions, Kent Performance, The Stone Shop, Aspen Air Inc. Heating and Cooling, Gator Excavating, TammyHeckart.com, Kent Performance, Revolution Race Gear, Lucas Oil, Wings Unlimited, and Kustom Concrete Pumping for their support.
2014 BY THE NUMBERS:Starts-61, Wins-8, Top-5’s- 26, Top 10’s-37
ON TAP:The KCP Racing team will be in action at the Knoxville Raceway for the FVP Knoxville Nationals with their qualifying night scheduled for Thursday. The KCP Racing team has a special paint scheme for the Nationals, and will be unveiling that on Tuesday morning.
STAY CONNECTED:To keep up with Ian make sure you follow him on twitter by clicking over to www.twitter.com/IanMadsen. You can also visit the teams website at www.kcpracing.com.
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