By T.J. Buffenbarger
KNOXVILLE, Iowa (August 9, 2022) — Logan Schuchart picked up his second win in a row at the Knoxville Raceway to open the 61st NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals during Brandt Professional Agriculture qualifying night. Schuchart held off a challenge with Donny Schatz with five laps to go in slower traffic to take the victory on a very unusual night of racing where a majority of the top qualifiers failed to make the feature event.
Schuchart used the top of the race track to drive to victory even though at times he was not getting the feel from his Shark Racing entry that he had hoped to.
“As the race went on I didn’t feel as good as what I needed to,” said Schuchart. “I felt like I wanted to move off the top but I felt like I was taking a big chance not really knowing how my car would react to it. Or you it looked like there’s a lot of meat in the middle of the racetrack kind of you know, I had a feeling Donnie would be coming on the bottom, I feel like he always is, but I didn’t want to cut the momentum off to go down there and try it only if a lap car forced me to was going to do it so I just kept running my line and hope that I could you know hold whoever off.”
The initial start only lasted ¾ of a lap when the caution flag appeared when he slowed in turn three. Wimmer was unable to restart as the car left a trail of fluid behind it when he was pushed back to the pit area.
Schuchart took the lead on the second start of the main event through turns one and two. Giovanni Scelzi was able to get a big run off turn two and briefly shot from third to first place going into turn three. Schuchart was able to counter and hold the lead on the opening lap with Scelzi, McFadden, and Knoxville Nationals rookie Cole Macedo in pursuit.
Justin Peck made his presence felt running fifth early in the main event and took the fourth spot from Macedo after racing side by side on lap five coming off turn four. Macedo was able to build up moment on the top of the racetrack to try and counter Peck’s pass only to have the caution flag appear for Davey Heskin slowing off turn two with six laps complete.
During the restart Schuchart pulled away while McFadden drove by Sclezi for second and briefly pressured Schuchart for the lead. Sclezi and Macedo started racing for third with Macedo driving around the cushion to take the position on lap 8.
Shortly after Macedo moved to third the caution flag appeared for Ian Madsen slowing in turn three. Madsen’s team tried to make ignition repairs in the work area, but the car would not fire for the restart.
Schuchart pulled away again during the restart while Scelzi got a run on Macedo to take away the third spot and started to challenge McFadden for second. Scelzi was able to get around McFadden on lap 10.
Further back in the field Donny Schatz made his presence felt driving by Macedo in turns three and four to take away the fourth position on lap 11. Two laps later Schatz used a slide job in turn four to pass McFadden for third.
With 15 laps complete Schuchart started to overtake slower cars for the first time in the main event while Schatz caught Scelzi to challenge for the second position. Schatz drove his car deep into turn three and slid by Scelzi to take second position on lap 17.
With five laps to go Schatz closed in quickly on Schuchart for the lead. Just as Schatz appeared to have the pass setup to move into the top spot, Schuchart made a daring slide job to put two lapped cars between himself and Schatz, one of which slowed dramatically and picked Schatz just enough for Schuchart to build up an insurmountable advantage.
At the checkered flag it was Schuchart taking the victory over Schatz. David Gravel was able to edge Giovanni Scelzi on the final lap to take away the final podium position. McFadden rounded out the top five.
Afterwards Schatz explained his aggressive moves to get to the front to challenge Schuchart, but by the end wanted to ensure himself a chance of being locked into Saturday night’s A-Main.
“I was aggressive trying to get there,” Schatz explained about getting up to second to put himself in position to challenge Schuchart, “But then I got the big picture racing and I didn’t want to put myself in a bad spot. There was several lapped cars, one I think was stopped on the bottom that’s what really caught me off guard. I just started to play a little bit more and was cautious there towards the end and trying to see what I could figure out what the car you know what we need to change. We tried something a little bit different on Sunday, and both felt good, but I think we felt a little bit better on Sunday.”
61st NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s
Brandt Professional Agriculture Qualifying Night
Knoxville Raceway
Knoxville, Iowa
Thursday, August 11, 2022
Qualifying:
1. 11M-Parker Price Miller, 15.362[10]
2. 19-Brent Marks, 15.543[3]
3. 39-Justin Sanders, 15.544[17]
4. 2KS-Ian Madsen, 15.577[6]
5. 49J-Josh Schneiderman, 15.584[9]
6. 3-Ayrton Gennetten, 15.606[24]
7. 3P-Sawyer Phillips, 15.628[2]
8. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild, 15.632[12]
9. 17W-Shane Golobic, 15.664[11]
10. 2-David Gravel, 15.664[20]
11. 15-Donny Schatz, 15.691[32]
12. 55T-McKenna Haase, 15.700[30]
13. 21H-Brady Bacon, 15.700[7]
14. 7S-Robbie Price, 15.717[13]
15. 7-Justin Henderson, 15.751[29]
16. 71-Cory Eliason, 15.764[46]
17. 24-Terry McCarl, 15.780[16]
18. 7W-Dustin Selvage, 15.791[5]
19. 40-Clint Garner, 15.792[1]
20. 1AU-Marcus Dumesny, 15.798[31]
21. 8-Aaron Reutzel, 15.802[49]
22. 14J-Cole Macedo, 15.803[14]
23. 13-Justin Peck, 15.807[34]
24. 18-Giovanni Scelzi, 15.831[47]
25. 83-James McFadden, 15.869[36]
26. 1S-Logan Schuchart, 15.871[33]
27. 16A-Colby Copeland, 15.896[28]
28. 101-Lachlan McHugh, 15.909[51]
29. 11-Roger Crockett, 15.917[22]
30. 84-Scott Bogucki, 15.923[25]
31. 20-AJ Moeller, 15.937[40]
32. 14-Corey Day, 15.944[42]
33. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg, 15.958[27]
34. 2M-Davey Heskin, 15.963[48]
35. 55W-Mike Wagner, 15.966[18]
36. 17C-Carson Short, 15.979[15]
37. 91-Kyle Reinhardt, 15.983[44]
38. 6B-Brandon Wimmer, 16.003[41]
39. 73-Scotty Thiel, 16.006[38]
40. 13JT-Mark Dobmeier, 16.029[37]
41. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss, 16.032[35]
42. 47X-Dylan Westbrook, 16.138[26]
43. 65-Jordan Goldesberry, 16.151[19]
44. 2KK-Kevin Ingle, 16.174[4]
45. 10-Skylar Prochaska, 16.225[21]
46. 1X-Jake Bubak, 16.283[45]
47. 1M-Don Droud Jr, 16.286[50]
48. 22-Riley Goodno, 16.314[39]
49. 9JR-Derek Hagar, 16.388[43]
50. 45-Rusty Hickman, 16.612[8]
DNS: 52-Blake Hahn, NT
Heat Race #1 (10 Laps)
1. 17C-Carson Short[1]
2. 8-Aaron Reutzel[4]
3. 1S-Logan Schuchart[3]
4. 15-Donny Schatz[6]
5. 20-AJ Moeller[2]
6. 71-Cory Eliason[5]
7. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[7]
8. 11M-Parker Price Miller[8]
9. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[9]
10. 1X-Jake Bubak[10]
Heat Race #2 (10 Laps)
1. 14-Corey Day[2]
2. 91-Kyle Reinhardt[1]
3. 16A-Colby Copeland[3]
4. 14J-Cole Macedo[4]
5. 19-Brent Marks[8]
6. 24-Terry McCarl[5]
7. 55T-McKenna Haase[6]
8. 3P-Sawyer Phillips[7]
9. 47X-Dylan Westbrook[9]
DNS: 1M-Don Droud Jr
Heat Race #3 (10 Laps)
1. 6B-Brandon Wimmer[1]
2. 13-Justin Peck[4]
3. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[2]
4. 101-Lachlan McHugh[3]
5. 39-Justin Sanders[8]
6. 21H-Brady Bacon[6]
7. 7W-Dustin Selvage[5]
8. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[7]
9. 65-Jordan Goldesberry[9]
10. 22-Riley Goodno[10]
Heat Race #4 (10 Laps)
1. 73-Scotty Thiel[1]
2. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[4]
3. 2M-Davey Heskin[2]
4. 11-Roger Crockett[3]
5. 7S-Robbie Price[6]
6. 17W-Shane Golobic[7]
7. 2KS-Ian Madsen[8]
8. 2KK-Kevin Ingle[9]
9. 9JR-Derek Hagar[10]
10. 40-Clint Garner[5]
Heat Race #5 (10 Laps)
1. 13JT-Mark Dobmeier[1]
2. 83-James McFadden[4]
3. 55W-Mike Wagner[2]
4. 2-David Gravel[7]
5. 7-Justin Henderson[6]
6. 84-Scott Bogucki[3]
7. 1AU-Marcus Dumesny[5]
8. 49J-Josh Schneiderman[8]
9. 10-Skylar Prochaska[9]
DNS: 45-Rusty Hickman
C-Main (10 Laps)
1. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[2]
2. 47X-Dylan Westbrook[3]
3. 22-Riley Goodno[8]
4. 65-Jordan Goldesberry[4]
5. 9JR-Derek Hagar[9]
6. 10-Skylar Prochaska[5]
7. 1X-Jake Bubak[6]
8. 40-Clint Garner[1]
DNS: 1M-Don Droud Jr
DNS: 45-Rusty Hickman
DNS: 52-Blake Hahn
B-Main (12 Laps)
1. 11M-Parker Price Miller[1]
2. 19-Brent Marks[2]
3. 2KS-Ian Madsen[4]
4. 39-Justin Sanders[3]
5. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[6]
6. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[8]
7. 17W-Shane Golobic[9]
8. 7-Justin Henderson[13]
9. 21H-Brady Bacon[11]
10. 55T-McKenna Haase[10]
11. 49J-Josh Schneiderman[5]
12. 7W-Dustin Selvage[16]
13. 71-Cory Eliason[14]
14. 7S-Robbie Price[12]
15. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[21]
16. 24-Terry McCarl[15]
17. 3P-Sawyer Phillips[7]
18. 1AU-Marcus Dumesny[17]
19. 22-Riley Goodno[23]
20. 47X-Dylan Westbrook[22]
21. 65-Jordan Goldesberry[24]
22. 2KK-Kevin Ingle[20]
23. 84-Scott Bogucki[18]
DNS: 20-AJ Moeller
A-Main (25 Laps)
1. 1S-Logan Schuchart[1]
2. 15-Donny Schatz[7]
3. 2-David Gravel[8]
4. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[3]
5. 83-James McFadden[2]
6. 8-Aaron Reutzel[6]
7. 13-Justin Peck[4]
8. 14J-Cole Macedo[5]
9. 14-Corey Day[12]
10. 11-Roger Crockett[11]
11. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[13]
12. 11M-Parker Price Miller[21]
13. 19-Brent Marks[22]
14. 16A-Colby Copeland[9]
15. 39-Justin Sanders[24]
16. 91-Kyle Reinhardt[17]
17. 17C-Carson Short[16]
18. 73-Scotty Thiel[19]
19. 55W-Mike Wagner[15]
20. 101-Lachlan McHugh[10]
21. 13JT-Mark Dobmeier[20]
22. 2KS-Ian Madsen[23]
23. 2M-Davey Heskin[14]
24. 6B-Brandon Wimmer[18]