KNOXVILLE, IA (August 2, 2024) — Sam Hafertepe Jr. took advantage of his front row starting position to win Friday’s preliminary feature during the 34th Xtream powered by Mediacom 360 Knoxville Nationals presented by Great Southern Bank at Knoxville Raceway. Hafertepe led all 20-laps in route to his third career 360 Nationals preliminary victory and fourth win of his career at Knoxville Raceway.
Despite leading every lap, Hafertepe was under constant pressure from Brian Brown and pursued late in the feature by Cory Eliason.
“I saw nose that we’d move and maybe play a little defense,” said Hafertepe of trying to defend the lead. “You watch these guys run all year and the way they run this place, I just tried to mimic some of the block moves.”
Hafertepe took the lead with Brown in pursuit. Despite pressure during multiple restarts, Hafertepe was able to use the bottom of the race track to defend his position. Brown soon found himself trading second position back and forth with Eliason, with Eliason taking the position on lap 16.
Hafertepe built up enough advantage to win by 0.711 seconds over Eliason, Brown, Jake Bubak, and Kasey Kahne.
Despite the victory, Hafertepe was thinking ahead to Saturday’s finale where he will be starting further back in the field after qualifying 16th earlier in the evening.
“Definitely not where we wanted to be going out that late,” said Hafertepe about his qualifying effort. “Just couldn’t muster up any better the time that we put down but to win the feature, that’s a good recovery.”
Hafertepe seemed optimistic despite the pronosis of having to start further back Saturday’s finale.
“We’re gonna be deep and these days 360’s are really hard to pass. Everybody’s more competitive. It’s gonna be a tough task. We have to work on our car a little bit more to get a little bit better across the middle and I think we can do that. We’ll be okay.”
34th Xtream powered by Mediacom 360 Knoxville Nationals presented by Great Southern Bank
Knoxville Raceway
Knoxville, Iowa
Friday, August 2, 2024
Qualifying
1. 17-Tyler Groenendyk, 16.405[10]
2. 26-Zeb Wise, 16.424[9]
3. 7BC-Tyler Courtney, 16.466[36]
4. 2C-Hank Davis, 16.537[5]
5. 1TZ-Tasker Phillips, 16.606[3]
6. 40-Clint Garner, 16.614[13]
7. 35-Skylar Prochaska, 16.677[7]
8. 55-Kerry Madsen, 16.688[21]
9. 8-Cory Eliason, 16.701[33]
10. 15-Ryan Turner, 16.717[4]
11. 10-Scott Bogucki, 16.739[22]
12. 11M-Brendan Mullen, 16.749[2]
13. 27B-Jake Bubak, 16.750[12]
14. 1-Brenham Crouch, 16.757[42]
15. 21-Brian Brown, 16.775[34]
16. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, 16.790[47]
17. 9-Kasey Kahne, 16.805[28]
18. 3P-Sawyer Phillips, 16.813[19]
19. 2M-Ryan Giles, 16.815[30]
20. 77X-Alex Hill, 16.861[15]
21. 69K-Daryn Pittman, 16.867[51]
22. 9P-Parker Price Miller, 16.911[20]
23. 49X-Tim Shaffer, 16.926[48]
24. 5A-Alex Vande Voort, 16.928[11]
25. 98P-Miles Paulus, 16.967[41]
26. 9M-Liam Martin, 16.974[37]
27. 27-Carson McCarl, 16.993[35]
28. 41-Colton Hardy, 17.007[26]
29. 88T-Tanner Thorson, 17.019[46]
30. 47T-Dustin Selvage, 17.050[43]
31. 4Z-Dusty Zomer, 17.055[29]
32. 7A-Jack Anderson, 17.062[18]
33. 71-Brady Baker, 17.108[16]
34. 53-Joe Beaver, 17.223[53]
35. 1Z-Justin Zimmerman, 17.226[1]
36. 48T-Tyler Thompson, 17.240[8]
37. 14T-Brooke Tatnell, 17.275[27]
38. 15D-Andrew Deal, 17.325[32]
39. 16G-Austyn Gossel, 17.332[31]
40. 29-Emilio Hoover, 17.340[23]
41. 18-Ryan Roberts, 17.349[50]
42. 7-Tyler Lee, 17.411[45]
43. 14-Aidan Zoutte, 17.466[14]
44. 11N-Kasey Jedrzejek, 17.513[40]
45. 3R-Russell Potter, 17.556[6]
46. 41D-Dan Henning, 17.595[25]
47. 13V-Seth Brahmer, 17.673[49]
48. 91-Michael Day, 17.786[38]
49. 938-Bradley Fezard, 18.161[52]
50. 22W-Aaron Werner, 18.283[17]
51. 4C-Tuesday Calderwood, 18.619[39]
52. 24N-Nathan Mills[24]
53. G5H-Josh Higday[44]
Heat Race #1 (8 Laps)
1. 17-Tyler Groenendyk[6]
2. 69K-Daryn Pittman[2]
3. 9M-Liam Martin[1]
4. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[3]
5. 4Z-Dusty Zomer[7]
6. 40-Clint Garner[5]
7. 18-Ryan Roberts[9]
8. 48T-Tyler Thompson[8]
9. 41D-Dan Henning[10]
10. 10-Scott Bogucki[4]
Heat Race #2 (8 Laps)
1. 9P-Parker Price Miller[2]
2. 27-Carson McCarl[1]
3. 9-Kasey Kahne[3]
4. 35-Skylar Prochaska[5]
5. 26-Zeb Wise[6]
6. 7A-Jack Anderson[7]
7. 11M-Brendan Mullen[4]
8. 14T-Brooke Tatnell[8]
9. 13V-Seth Brahmer[10]
10. 7-Tyler Lee[9]
Heat Race #3 (8 Laps)
1. 41-Colton Hardy[1]
2. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[6]
3. 3P-Sawyer Phillips[3]
4. 27B-Jake Bubak[4]
5. 49X-Tim Shaffer[2]
6. 55-Kerry Madsen[5]
7. 15D-Andrew Deal[8]
8. 71-Brady Baker[7]
9. 91-Michael Day[10]
10. 14-Aidan Zoutte[9]
Heat Race #4 (8 Laps)
1. 88T-Tanner Thorson[1]
2. 2M-Ryan Giles[3]
3. 8-Cory Eliason[5]
4. 53-Joe Beaver[7]
5. 5A-Alex Vande Voort[2]
6. 1-Brenham Crouch[4]
7. 2C-Hank Davis[6]
8. 11N-Kasey Jedrzejek[9]
9. 16G-Austyn Gossel[8]
10. 938-Bradley Fezard[10]
Heat Race #5 (8 Laps)
1. 21-Brian Brown[4]
2. 77X-Alex Hill[3]
3. 1TZ-Tasker Phillips[6]
4. 98P-Miles Paulus[2]
5. 15-Ryan Turner[5]
6. 1Z-Justin Zimmerman[7]
7. 3R-Russell Potter[9]
8. 29-Emilio Hoover[8]
9. 22W-Aaron Werner[10]
10. 47T-Dustin Selvage[1]
Last Chance Heat Race #- Points Only
1. 4C-Tuesday Calderwood[1]
2. 24N-Nathan Mills[2]
3. G5H-Josh Higday[3]
C-Main (10 Laps)
1. 7-Tyler Lee[4]
2. 13V-Seth Brahmer[7]
3. 91-Michael Day[8]
4. 4C-Tuesday Calderwood[11]
5. 16G-Austyn Gossel[3]
6. 938-Bradley Fezard[9]
7. 41D-Dan Henning[6]
8. 22W-Aaron Werner[10]
9. 14-Aidan Zoutte[5]
10. 10-Scott Bogucki[1]
11. 47T-Dustin Selvage[2]
12. 24N-Nathan Mills[12]
13. G5H-Josh Higday[13]
B-Main (12 Laps)
1. 55-Kerry Madsen[4]
2. 2C-Hank Davis[2]
3. 49X-Tim Shaffer[8]
4. 26-Zeb Wise[1]
5. 40-Clint Garner[3]
6. 7A-Jack Anderson[11]
7. 4Z-Dusty Zomer[10]
8. 11M-Brendan Mullen[6]
9. 1-Brenham Crouch[7]
10. 14T-Brooke Tatnell[15]
11. 5A-Alex Vande Voort[9]
12. 15-Ryan Turner[5]
13. 29-Emilio Hoover[17]
14. 71-Brady Baker[12]
15. 18-Ryan Roberts[18]
16. 1Z-Justin Zimmerman[13]
17. 15D-Andrew Deal[16]
18. 48T-Tyler Thompson[14]
19. 7-Tyler Lee[21]
20. 13V-Seth Brahmer[22]
21. 3R-Russell Potter[20]
22. 11N-Kasey Jedrzejek[19]
23. 4C-Tuesday Calderwood[24]
24. 91-Michael Day[23]
A-Main (20 Laps)
1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[1]
2. 8-Cory Eliason[4]
3. 21-Brian Brown[2]
4. 27B-Jake Bubak[3]
5. 9-Kasey Kahne[9]
6. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[7]
7. 2M-Ryan Giles[11]
8. 55-Kerry Madsen[21]
9. 1TZ-Tasker Phillips[6]
10. 77X-Alex Hill[12]
11. 27-Carson McCarl[17]
12. 35-Skylar Prochaska[5]
13. 3P-Sawyer Phillips[10]
14. 49X-Tim Shaffer[23]
15. 26-Zeb Wise[24]
16. 17-Tyler Groenendyk[8]
17. 88T-Tanner Thorson[19]
18. 69K-Daryn Pittman[13]
19. 41-Colton Hardy[18]
20. 53-Joe Beaver[20]
21. 98P-Miles Paulus[15]
22. 2C-Hank Davis[22]
23. 9P-Parker Price Miller[14]
24. 9M-Liam Martin[16]