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Knoxville Nationals: Making the A the Hard Knox way
By Matt Weaver,
4 hours ago
This is arguably the most star-studded Hard Knox Night in the history of the current Knoxville Nationals format.
Thanks to the first two nights of qualifying for The Granddaddy of Them All , we now know who will occupy the first eight rows for the start of the $190,000-to-win A-Feature on Saturday night. There are also some names you typically wouldn’t expect.
There’s no five-time World of Outlaws champion and 2018 race winner Brad Sweet, no 2019 winner and Outlaws points leader David Gravel, no national touring stars Justin Peck, James McFadden, Cory Eliason and Brock Zearfoss.
However, they are also locked into Saturday night’s B-Main with a chance to race their way into the feature by finishing in the top-four of the penultimate race of the night.
It’s looking outside of the 16 already locked into the feature and the 10 already locked into the B main that you see some really powerful Sprint Car names and now they’re all looking to make the show the hard way … er … the Hard Knox Way.
Friday night received this name because these are the drivers who received ‘hard knocks’ during their qualifying nights.
This is arguably the most star-studded Hard Knox Night in the history of the current Knoxville Nationals format.
Thanks to the first two nights of qualifying for The Granddaddy of Them All , we now know who will occupy the first eight rows for the start of the A Feature on Saturday night. There are also some names you typically wouldn’t expect.
There’s no five-time World of Outlaws champion and 2018 race winner Brad Sweet, no 2019 winner and Outlaws points leader David Gravel, no national touring stars Justin Peck, James McFadden, Cory Eliason and Brock Zearfoss.
However, they are also locked into Saturday night’s B-Main with a chance to race their way into the feature by finishing in the top-four of the penultimate race of the night.
It’s looking outside of the 16 already locked into the feature and the 10 already locked into the B main that you see some really powerful Sprint Car names and now they’re all looking to make the show the hard way … er … the Hard Knox Way.
Friday night received this name because these are the drivers who received ‘hard knocks’ during their qualifying nights.
Again, the roster for Hard Knox Friday is tremendously deep this year and only the four top finishers in the 25-lap main event will advance to the Saturday main to earn starting spots 21 through 24.
The night is headlined by Schatz, who was 47th in points after his dreadful Wednesday prelim, but is also joined by three other former winners of the race in Tim Shaffer, Kraig Kinser and Sammy Swindell.
Buddy Kofoid and Logan Schuchart, fifth in sixth in the World of Outlaws standings, are in the field. High Limit series regulars Zeb Wise, Kasey Kahne, Spencer Bayston and Parker Price-Miller will also look to avoid have to race their way into the race on Saturday night.
Knoxville Raceway regular and former All Stars Circuit of Champions titlist Aaron Reutzel was 27th in points and missed locking in by one spot and will also be joined by fellow weekly races Kerry Madsen, Austin McCarl and Mark Dobmeier. Traveling true outlaws like Danny Dietrich, Ryan Timms, Cole Macedo and Emerson Axsom are going to try to make the A the Hard Knox Way too.
The program begins with split group qualifying and includes six heat races, a C main, two B-mains and the 25-lap feature, which transfers four to Saturday’s main event.
The remaining cars and drivers from Friday’s Hard Knox program will complete the B main and fill the C, D and E mains on Saturday night.
The first 16 starting positions have already been filled based on Wednesday and Thursday qualifying groups and the final four spots into the race will be decided based on who advances from the alphabet soup of races on Saturday prior to the 50 lap main event.
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