By T.J. Buffenbarger
KNOXVILLE, Iowa (August 13, 2022) – Kyle Reinhardt from Neptune City, NJ won the C-Main event during Saturday’s finale of the 61st NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s at Knoxville Raceway. Reinhardt took the lead from McKenna Haase for the lead and drove away from the field while third through sixth positions were in doubt until the final lap.
Reinhard and McKenna Haase started on the front row and raced to the bottom of turn one with Haase taking the lead off turn two. Reinhardt, Logan Wagner, and Sye Lynch held transfer positions early as Cory Eliason and Hunter Schuerenberg chased down the lead quartet.
Eliason asserted himself quickly taking the fourth and final transfer spot from Lynch on lap three through turns three and four. Schuerenberg followed suit and drove around Lynch one lap later through turns three and four to take the fifth position.
Up front Reinhardt took the lead from Haase and checked out from the rest of the field. By lap seven Reinhardt was overtaking the back of the field. Further back Schuerenberg briefly challenged Eliason for the final transfer spot, but Eliason got a tremendous drive off the bottom of turn two to drive away and caught Haase and Wagner for second and third positions.
This setup a five car race for second position on back. Wagner tried to drive under Haase off turn two, but lost momentum as the field stacked up, allowing Marcus Dumesny to join the fray in sixth position while Wagner dropped out of a transfer spot.
Coming to the white flag Eliason drove through the middle of the pack to go into second position. Up front it was all Reinhardt taking the victory with Eliason in second. Schuerenberg was able to get by Haase for third while Dumesny and Haase traded the final transfer spot twice with Haase edging the defending Australian Sprint Car champion by a nose for the final transfer position.
61st NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s
Knoxville Raceway
Knoxville, Iowa
Friday, August 13, 2022
C-Main (15 Laps):
1. 91-Kyle Reinhardt[1]
2. 71-Cory Eliason[6]
3. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[9]
4. 55T-McKenna Haase[2]
5. 1AU-Marcus Dumesny[7]
6. 1-Logan Wagner[4]
7. 17W-Shane Golobic[14]
8. 42-Sye Lynch[3]
9. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[11]
10. 6B-Brandon Wimmer[8]
11. 22-Riley Goodno[12]
12. 49X-Cale Thomas[5]
13. 13JT-Mark Dobmeier[18]
14. 45-Rusty Hickman[22]
15. 52-Blake Hahn[20]
16. 2M-Davey Heskin[21]
17. 17B-Bill Balog[15]
18. 101-Lachlan McHugh[23]
19. 1M-Don Droud Jr[16]
20. 55W-Mike Wagner[19]
21. 73-Scotty Thiel[13]
22. 17S-Sammy Swindell[24]
23. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[10]
24. 20G-Noah Gass[17]
(First four finishers transferred to the B-Main)