Knoxville Midget Nationals/ASCS Results and Stories

Friday, June 20, 2008
6/20/08

Knoxville Raceway

Midget National King Doodlebug Classic

ASCoT 360s

44 Midgets
53 360s

Midgets

Heat one (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Cole Whitt 71 (2*) 2. Darren Hagen 67 (8*) 3. Tracy Hines 21 (3*) 4. Jerry Coons Jr. 11 (9*) 5. AJ Fike 69 (1) 6. Zach Daum 5D (4) 7. Dustin Morgan 93 (6) 8. Chris Windom 17 (7) 9. Daniel Robinson 24D (5)

Eight lap heats transferred the top eighteen in passing points to the main event.

Heat two (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Levi Jones 20 (1*) 2. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 32 (7*) 3. Brad Kuhn 07 (2*) 4. Kody Swanson 19 (5*) 5. Brad Loyet o5 (6) 6. Tim Noble 71N (4) 7. Donnie Ray Crawford 55 (9) 8. Chad McDaniel 1c (8) 9. Will Pierce 10 (3)

Heat three (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Brad Sweet 49 (2*) 2. Chad Boat 30 (7*) 3. Bubba Altig 67x (4*) 4. Gary Taylor 5* (1) 5. Michael Pickens 2 (5) 6. Brett Anderson 11A (9) 7. Alfred Galedrige Jr. 26 (6) 8. Brent Beauchamp 112 (8) 9. Don O'Keefe Jr. 0K (3)

Heat four (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Don Droud Jr. 1H (1*) 2. Ryan Criswell 11c (2*) 3. David Gough 14 (3*) 4. Dave Darland 9 (8*) 5. Bobby East 4 (7) 6. Danny Stratton F5 (9) 7. Brad Galedrige 29 (4) 8. Matt Smith 14A (6) 9. Jason Holt 8J (5)

Heat five (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Brady Bacon 99 (7*) 2. Scott Hatton 15 (2*) 3. Russ Harper 09 (3*) 4. Mike Hess 4x (4) 5. Austin Brown 7B (8) 6. Aaron Fiscus 7x (5) 7. Robby Ross 4R (6) 8. Kevin Swindell 75 (1)

Swindell leads until going up in smoke on lap six.

B main one (started): 1. East (2) 2. Loyet (3) 3. Pickens (5) / 4. Stratton (4) 5. Noble (6) 6. M. Smith (11) 7. Fiscus (7) 8. McDaniel (10) 9. Robinson (12) 10. Brown (1) 11. Ross (9) 12. A. Galedrige (8) 13. O'Keefe (13)

East led until two to go in the 10-lapper when Stratton passed him.  A yellow before a lap could be completed negated the pass.  On the restart, the two made heavy contact, resulting in Stratton being knocked out of a transfer.

B main two (started): 1. Taylor (1) 2. Hess (2) 3. Anderson (3) / 4. Fike (4) 5. Windom (9) 6. Morgan (7) 7. Beauchamp (10) 8. B. Galedrige (8) 9. Pierce (12) 10. Holt (11) 11. Crawford (6) 12. Daum (5) DNS - Swindell

King Doodlebug Classic (started): 1. Sweet (1) 2. Whitt (2) 3. Stenhouse Jr. (4) 4. Coons Jr. (9) 5. East (19) 6. Pickens (23) 7. Harper (17) 8. Fiscus (26, pr.) 9. Hines (14) 10. Jones (7) 11. Hess (22) 12. Kuhn (15) 13. Anderson (24) 14. Altig (13) 15. Gough (16) 16. Taylor (20) 17. Loyet (21) 18. Hatton (12) 19. Noble (27, pr.) 20. Droud Jr. (8) 21. Boat (3) 22. Darland (11) 23. Bacon (6) 24. B. Galedrige (25, pr.) 25. Brown (28, pr.) 26. Criswell (10) 27. Swanson (18) 28. Hagen (5)

The initial try at green in the 20-lapper saw Bacon try a slider from row three that contacted Whitt, sending him into Sweet who got above a heavy cushion.  When Sweet corrected back across the track, he made contact with Hagen's right front, sending him upside down and out of the race.  Hatton, Hess and Pickens were among those collected in the melee, but all restarted.  Whitt led once the green fell again.  A caution on lap five saw Whitt leading Jones, Sweet, Stenhouse Jr. and Bacon back to green flag racing.  Jones was dicing it up in the top five before getting over the cushion.  The result was a flat on lap ten bringing out the yellow.  Whitt still had the lead ahead of Sweet, Stenhouse Jr., Bacon and Boat, who had recovered from his own trip in the loose stuff.  Bacon and Boat were racing for fourth, when Bacon slammed into Boat in turn one with an ill-fated slidejob.  The result saw an ill-handling car for Bacon that he flipped on a lap 17 restart, and a flat left rear for a fifth running Boat on lap 17.  That set up a three lap dash for the win with Whitt ahead of Sweet, Stenhouse Jr., Coons Jr. and Darland.  The restart saw Coons and Darland pull sliders for third.  Darland jumped the cushion and got into the wall, ending his night.  On the second try at green, Sweet made good on a slider and held on the final three laps for his first midget win.  Fiscus was the hard-charger, though Pickens and East made good cases.

360s

Heat one (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Garry Lee Maier 11x (1*) 2. Joe Beaver 53B (4*) 3. Mike Houseman Jr. Y2 (6) 4. Eric Baldaccini B4 (8) 5. Rod Richards 12 (7) 6. Alan Zoutte 33 (9) 7. Ryan Roberts 18 (3) 8. Dave Hall 51 (5) DNS - Jeff Mitrisin 10 (2)

Eight lap heats took the top 16 in passing points to the A.  Roberts and D. Hall bowed out of third and fourth on lap seven.

Heat two (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Jason Johnson 41 (1*) 2. John Hall 7H (3*) 3. Tom Lenz 8L (6*) 4. Natalie Sather 94s (7) 5. Nate Van Haaften 3 (4) 6. Danny Heskin 6 (5) 7. Nate Mosher 22N (9) 8. Larry Pinegar II 44 (2) DNS - RJ Johnson 71 (8)

Heat three (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Zach Chappell 50z (2*) 2. Wayne Johnson 94 (6*) 3. Brett Mather 54 (4) 4. Jon Agan 4 (8*) 5. Gary Taylor 5* (3) 6. Kenneth Walker 2 (7) 7. Kathryne Minter 13 (1) 8. Cody Petersen 16P (9) DNS - Russ Hall 29 (5)

Petersen turned over on lap six.  He was uninjured.

Heat four (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Chuck Swenson X (1*) 2. Billy Alley 22 (2*) 3. Jake Peters 57x (6*) 4. Gregg Bakker 11 (3) 5. Clint Garner 40 (5) 6. Ricky Montgomery 9m (4) 7. Nick Smith 15s (8) 8. Tyler Thompson 48 (7) 9. Rager Phillips 9P (9)

Heat five (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Jesse Giannetto D1 (2*) 2. Brian Brown 21 (4*) 3. Gary Wright 9 (3) 4. Dustin Selvage 7 (7) 5. Josh Higday 24 (5) 6. Mike Boston 51x (8) 7. Trey Robb 1s (6) 8. Forrest Sutherland 85s (9) DQ (illegal tire) - Jack Dover 53 (1, crossed 1st)

Heat six (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Ryan Anderson 71R (2*) 2. Rick Ideus 5 (5*) 3. Matt Moro 2m (3) 4. Dan Thornburg 57T (8*) 5. Bobby Becker Jr. 8B (4) 6. Aaron Berryhill 97 (1) 7. Matt Covington 95 (6) 8. Chad Meyer 7m (7)

Contact between Ry. Anderson and Berryhill resulted in Berryhill getting sideways.  Moro clipped him on the way by, sending Berryhill up and over.  Meyer was collected and ruined a frame in the process.  Both drivers were done for the night.

B main one (started): 1. Selvage (2) 2. Moro (3) / 3. N. Smith (6) 4. Dover (10) 5. Garner (5) 6. Robb (7) 7. D. Hall (8) 8. Thompson (9) 9. Heskin (4) 10. Houseman Jr. (1) DNS - Zoutte, Berryhill, R. Hall

Moro took advantage of a lap six restart in the ten lapper to grab the second and final transfer from N. Smith.

B main two (started): 1. Higday (5) 2. Sather (1) / 3. Baldaccini (2) 4. Walker (6) 5. Covington (8) 6. Van Haaften (4) 7. Becker Jr. (7) 8. Richards (3) DNS - Roberts, Pinegar II, Meyer, Mitrisin

Richards got upside down before a lap could be completed.  He landed on all fours and was pushed back to the pits.  Higday assumed a spot in row two and stormed by the front row on lap one, leading the distance.

B main three (started): 1. Wright (2) 2. Bakker (3) / 3. Montgomery (6) 4. Mosher (7) 5. Taylor (4) 6. Minter (8) 7. Sutherland (9) 8. Boston (5) 9. Phillips (10) 10. Mather (1)

Mather slowed at the start.  Bakker was behind him and dropped to fifth before recovering well for a transfer.  Taylor was second on lap eight when he slowed.

A main (started): 1. J. Johnson (2) 2. Brown (9) 3. Giannetto (1) 4. Maier (8) 5. Peters (12) 6. Higday (18) 7. Chappell (7) 8. Bakker (22) 9. Wright (19) 10. Selvage (17) 11. Agan (14) 12. Moro (20) 13. Sather (21) 14. Lenz (11) 15. Swenson (6) 16. Ideus (5) 17. Ry. Anderson (3) 18. W. Johnson (4) 19. Beaver (13) 20. Baldaccini (23, pr.) 21. Thornburg (16) 22. J. Hall (10) 23. Alley (15) 24. N. Smith (24, pr.)

J. Johnson shot out to an early lead in the 25 lapper with W. Johnson in pursuit.  The two established themselves as the class of the field by separating themselves.  W. Johnson worked the low side to close in on a couple of occasions but really made hay on the high side when they entered lapped traffic.  On lap 10, J. Johnson was on the bottom, when W. Johnson rode the cushion around him in turn four.  The leader started putting lapped cars between himself and the runner-up.  On lap 17, disaster struck for W. Johnson as he went up in smoke bringing a yellow and ending his bid for five straight wins.  The lead was handed to J. Johnson who had four lapped cars between himself and Giannetto on the restart.  Brown was third, ahead of Maier and a charging Higday.  Brown passed Giannetto late for second, while J. Johnson rode out of sight.  Bakker was the hard-charger, moving up 14 spots.