By T.J. Buffenbarger
(August 7, 2024) — After an unusual first night of racing to open the 63rd NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s, here are my takeaways from Wednesday’s program.
• The opening night of the 2024 Knoxville Nationals started with one of the most unusual qualifying sessions I can remember since I’ve been covering the event.
The race track itself contributed to part of the havoc. An unusually quick drop off in qualifying times after a handful of cars, followed by the track being very stable, and the bottom of the racetrack being extremely wet right up until the main event produced some unusual results on Wednesday.
Matt Juhl went out first for qualifying and managed to top second fast qualifying Anthony Macri by 0.223 seconds. Some of the bigger names considered contenders to win the Knoxville Nationals like David Gravel and Corey Day qualified eighth and ninth, Buddy Kofoid was 16th, and 11-time Knoxville Nationals champions Donny Schatz was 38th fastest.
All of this set up eight of the top 10 fastest qualifiers not making the main event. Once the B-Mains had been completed though, the breakdown of who made the feature was more evenly distributed than in years past on Wednesday with six of the fastest 10 qualifiers making the feature.
Once the bottom came in during the feature we saw highly entertaining moments like Giovanni Scelzi’s daring pass for the lead driving three wide between Jacob Allen and a slower car, but the bottom being almost unusable early in the night ended up throwing several top contending teams a curve ball that they were not able to recover from.
• While a lot of the conversation about who will win the Nationals has centered around Kyle Larson, David Gravel, and Corey Day, several other contenders made their presence felt on Wednesday.
Anthony Macri had as quiet of a second-place performance in points as I can remember. After a year away from his family car, making the finale last year with Clauson/Marshall Racing, Macri put his family car in prime position being second fastest in qualifying, winning the B-Main, and running from 21st to 10th in the main event.
If Macri had transferred through his heat race the points and this conversation about Saturday would look significantly different.
Another driver you could mention in the same position is Scott Bogucki, who has shown speed all season at Knoxville Raceway. Bogucki ended up third in points after Saturday night, putting himself in prime position to be starting in the first three rows of Saturday’s finale.
Bogucki qualified 11th fastest, in what I consider to be the “sweet spot” in the Nationals format in the 11-15 range. The sixth to third place run in the heat race was key as Bogucki ended up dropping one position in the main event.
I’m not sure if I’m ready to call both Macri and Bogucki contenders for victory on Saturday, but it would not surprise me to see both sniffing around the front and possibly a podium that will not be as quiet and business like as their runs were on Wednesday.
• Some of the perception about issues with the Knoxville Nationals format and qualifying has to do with what I call the “glut” in the upper portion of the field just below the 7-8 elite teams in the sport.
There are so many good drivers and teams right now in winged 410 sprint car racing that it creates a sort of log jam at an event like the Knoxville Nationals that draws around 60 to over 100 cars in the field.
Fourth to 18th in qualifying on Wednesday was separated by 0.191 seconds in qualifying. 13th to 25th was just 0.158 seconds difference in the same session. Those razor thin margins with the quality of drivers and equipment are part of why the heat races have become so challenging for many at the Knoxville Nationals in the past few years.
Throw in a racetrack where the bottom was not as worked in as we typically see on a preliminary night, which eliminated the ability to make mistakes that often produce a lot of passing at Knoxville. Missing the bottom in sliding helplessly into the middle of the track at Knoxville one of the best chances for other drivers to close or make moves to advance their position, and the lack of which contributed to a lot of the weirdness we saw in the Wednesday program.
Hopefully we see the bottom worked in more throughout the week and can give drivers the opportunity to succeed for fail based on the tiny strip of moisture located just below the berm of the race track.