By T.J. Buffenarger
KNOXVILLE, Iowa (August 5, 2023) — In a finish for the ages Brian Brown used final corner heroics to win the 33rd Xtream Powered by Mediacom 360 Knoxville Nationals Presented by Great Southern Bank Saturday night at Knoxville Raceway.
During a restart with two laps to go Brown was able to hang to the back bumper of race long leader Aaron Reutzel, pulling alongside him on the final lap down the backstretch, Reutzel slid in front of Brown in turn three, but stumbled on the cushion and allowed Brown to turn under him. Brown and Reutzel nearly touched coming to the line as they drifted towards the inside wall with Brown capturing the victory by 0.020 seconds.
Brown was ecstatic in victory lane after capturing his first 360 Knoxville Nationals title since 2014 and second of his career with the closest finish in the event’s history.
“It’s unbelievable man, we won it in ‘14 and we just haven’t been able to put it all together and every other year,” said Brown in victory lane. “That’s cool for me to win but my grandpa was over there crying. That’s what it means, man this this is what this race means. What a race! If you guys didn’t like that, I don’t know what you did. That was that was a whale of a race and I’m proud to be Knoxville’s 360 Nationals champion.”
Reutzel was obviously disappointed at the end, unable to counter Brown during the final two laps.
“I knew (Brown) was going to get the run down here and my only hope was to complete a good corner and get off so I could basically block him for two laps,” said Reutzel of the restart at the end of the race. “With Brown behind you on those restarts it’s going be tough. (Brown) is one of the best drivers here for a reason. He’s been kicking our ass all year, kicked the Outlaws ass when they came here, so just another ass kicking I guess by Brown, so it sucks. It stings, but it is what is what and I wasn’t mean to be.”
Reutzel started on the front row with Brown and took a commanding lead early in the 25-lap main event with Reutzel taking command on the opening lap with Brown in tow to pull away from the field.
Even with slower traffic becoming a factor on lap 10, Reutzel stretched his advantage over Brown with daring passing of the slower cars and stretched his advantage to 2.582 seconds by lap 14.
With six laps to go Brown was able to clear slower traffic and cut down Reutzel’s lead to 0.821 seconds. Two laps later the caution flag appeared when Justin Sanders slowed on the backstretch with ignition issues. At the same time Tanner Holmes stopped on the front stretch with a problem with power steering.
Brown built up momentum after the restart and tried to slide Reutzel in turns one and two but came up short. Shortly after Garet Williamson and Caleb Johnson made contact and flipped wildly in turn two. Both drivers walked away from the incident under their own power.
This setup a green, white checkered finish. Coming to the white flat Reutzel went down low and Brown was able to blast around the top of the track to pull along side off turn two. They raced side by side with Brown getting the lead into turn three but carried enough momentum to trip on the cushion to allow Reutzel to slide by. Reutzel then stumbled off turn four and gave Brown the chance to turn under him. Brown and Reutzel raced side by side, drifting towards the inside of the wall in tight quarters with each other with Brown winning by a nose over Reutzel.
Due to the 360 Knoxville Nationals paying $500 for every lap led, Reutzel earned $25,000 for running second leading all but the final lap while Brown ended up with $20,500 for winning the race.
Rico Abreu charged from 24th starting position to take the final spot on the podium, earning hard charter and rookie of the year honors for the 360 Knoxville Nationals. Parker Price-Miller and Ryan Timms rounded out the top five.
33rd Mediacom 360 Knoxville Nationals Presented by Great Southern Bank
Knoxville Raceway
Knoxville, Iowa
Saturday, August 5, 2023
E-Main (8 Laps)
1. 75AU-Tyler Blank[2]
2. 45X-Kyler Johnson[4]
3. 11M-Brendan Mullen[6]
4. G5-Gage Pulkrabek[8]
5. 22W-Aaron Werner[11]
6. 87X-Shone Evans[5]
7. 33-Alan Zoutte[1]
8. 4H-Cody Hansen[16]
9. 105-Cody Ihlen[9]
10. T4-Tyler Graves[14]
11. 4C-Tuesday Calderwood[7]
12. 17N-Ben Woods[15]
13. 14-Aidan Zoutte[13]
14. 5D-Grae Anderson[17]
15. 83-Austin Miller[3]
16. B29-JJ Beaver[10]
DNS: 938-Bradley Fezard
D-Main (10 Laps)
1. 70-Calvin Landis[1]
2. 8H-Jacob Hughes[2]
3. 18-Ryan Roberts[7]
4. 7M-Chance Morton[3]
5. 27B-Jake Bubak[6]
6. 75X-JT Imperial[4]
7. 98P-Miles Paulus[5]
8. 4J-Kevin Thomas Jr[9]
9. 01-Sammy Swindell[10]
10. 87J-Jace Park[8]
11. 35H-Zach Hampton[13]
12. 2JR-Kelly Miller[12]
13. 11X-Ayrton Gennetten[11]
14. 11M-Brendan Mullen[19]
15. 35L-Cody Ledger[14]
16. 77X-Alex Hill[15]
17. 9M-Liam Martin[16]
18. 45X-Kyler Johnson[18]
19. 4H-Cody Hansen[24]
20. 87X-Shone Evans[22]
21. 22W-Aaron Werner[21]
22. G5-Gage Pulkrabek[20]
23. 33-Alan Zoutte[23]
24. 75AU-Tyler Blank[17]
C-Main (12 Laps)
1. 83H-Justin Henderson[1]
2. 44-Chris Martin[2]
3. 52-Blake Hahn[15]
4. 11N-Harli White[5]
5. 50YR-JJ Hickle[10]
6. 99-Tony Rost[8]
7. 1E-Ian Madsen[14]
8. 18-Ryan Roberts[22]
9. 5M-Collin Moyle[6]
10. 27B-Jake Bubak[24]
11. 86-Timothy Smith[11]
12. 24T-Christopher Thram[13]
13. 41-Colton Hardy[12]
14. 6-Dustin Selvage[19]
15. 8H-Jacob Hughes[21]
16. 7M-Chance Morton[23]
17. 70-Calvin Landis[20]
18. 15-Ryan Turner[16]
19. 83JR-Sam Henderson[17]
20. 6A-Alex Vande Voort[7]
21. 17-Tyler Groenendyk[4]
22. 42-Sye Lynch[9]
23. 53-Joe Beaver[18]
DNS: 83T-Tanner Carrick
B-Main (18 Laps)
1. 7BC-Anthony Macri[2]
2. 88-Austin McCarl[4]
3. 39M-Justin Sanders[1]
4. 24R-Rico Abreu[7]
5. 9T-Kasey Kahne[12]
6. 21H-Brady Bacon[3]
7. 3P-Sawyer Phillips[6]
8. 20-Justin Peck[10]
9. 2-Lynton Jeffrey[8]
10. 17W-Shane Golobic[16]
11. 22-Ryan Leavitt[5]
12. 1-Brenham Crouch[11]
13. 50YR-JJ Hickle[24]
14. 52-Blake Hahn[22]
15. 35-Skylar Prochaska[17]
16. 83H-Justin Henderson[20]
17. 14T-Brooke Tatnell[18]
18. 44-Chris Martin[21]
19. 8M-Kade Morton[13]
20. 11N-Harli White[23]
21. 4-Cameron Martin[15]
22. 27-Carson McCarl[19]
23. 24H-Kade Higday[9]
24. 7TAZ-Tasker Phillips[14]
A-Main (30 Laps)
1. 21-Brian Brown[2]
2. 8-Aaron Reutzel[1]
3. 24R-Rico Abreu[24]
4. 9P-Parker Price Miller[3]
5. 5T-Ryan Timms[6]
6. 26-Zeb Wise[8]
7. 9-Chase Randall[17]
8. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[15]
9. 24-Terry McCarl[9]
10. 55-Kerry Madsen[12]
11. 1K-Kelby Watt[5]
12. 5-Daryn Pittman[19]
13. 7BC-Anthony Macri[21]
14. 2M-Davey Heskin[18]
15. 4W-Jamie Ball[13]
16. 9G-Ryan Giles[20]
17. 16A-Colby Copeland[16]
18. 22K-Kaleb Johnson[7]
19. 24W-Garet Williamson[4]
20. 18T-Tanner Holmes[10]
21. 39M-Justin Sanders[23]
22. 36-Jason Martin[11]
23. 88-Austin McCarl[22]
24. 2C-Wayne Johnson[14]