KNOXVILLE, Iowa — First came rain, next came fire and then came Brian Brown.
That was the story of the second preliminary night for the 60th Knoxville Nationals, which began on Thursday night and ended after 1 a.m. on Friday morning.
A late afternoon rain shower delayed the start of the program by two hours, a fiery multi-car crash gave way to a rejuvenated Brian Brown holding off hard-charging Kyle Larson for the $12,000 victory.
It was Brown’s third preliminary night victory during the Nationals and his 55th at the legendary half-mile race track, and it was an emotional one at that.
Brown started fourth in a 25-lap feature that just couldn’t get going. Extremely slow starts led by polesitter Sam Hafertepe Jr. saw the field become seriously bunched and led to a pair of violent accidents during the early going.
After a yellow flag when Shane Stewart slowed on the track, a slow restart led to Parker Price-Miller running over the tire and wheel of T.J. Stutts and launching head-on into the first turn fence. Price-Miller, who has had numerous concussions during his career, climbed from his car.
Brown charged to second behind Hafertepe on the restart and as the field headed into turn three to complete lap two, Carson Macedo made an ill-advised move under Paul McMahan that sent both into the wall, turning McMahan’s car upside down.
The fuel cell was knocked from Macedo’s car and it burst into fire as Kerry Madsen, Max Dumesny and Sammy Swindell were collected in the accident.
“The hole closed up faster than I thought it would,” Macedo said. “One hundred percent my fault. I take full responsibility.”
After a lengthy red flag for cleanup, Brown wasted no time on the restart, blasting to the bottom of the track and grabbing the lead from Hafertepe.
“I had a good opportunity to think about the situation on that red,” Brown explained. “I knew I would be good no matter what he did on that restart, I was doing the opposite. I went to the bottom and got under him and after that I just kind of set sail.”
But while Brown was setting sail, one Kyle Larson was bursting onto the scene. Larson won the B main and started 21stin the feature. He restarted 10th following the multi-car crash and steadily worked his way forward with the help of several yellow flags.
Larson took second from Brent Marks on lap 15 and began chasing Brown with both drivers pinned to the top of the track. Brown maneuvered lapped traffic nicely down the stretch and held off Larson to announce himself as a contender to win the Knoxville Nationals for the first time.
Brown finished second in the Nationals to Donny Schatz on three occasions, but has struggled in the event since. In July, Brown called on his uncle, four-time Knoxville Nationals winner Danny Lasoski, to take over as his crew chief and his performance has improved.
“For me and my team, it is just a sense of relief. In ’12, ’13 and ’14 I ran second to Donny (Schatz) and you start thinking that’s the way it’s going to be,” Brown said candidly. “I’ll beat him next year.
“Well, in ’15, ’16, ’17 and ’18, I’ve had some bad luck, a tire vibrating or just me driving like an idiot and I have never been back in the show,” he added. “I am proud of my whole team and proud to be able to relax and breathe these next two days. I feel like with the team we have, we are building confidence and we have a chance to win on Saturday night and I am very excited about that.”
Larson brought Paul Silva’s No. 57 home second.
“I was trying way too hard there. It was a solid race. I got extremely lucky missing that big wreck that wiped out a lot of good cars in front of me,” said Larson, who was the second-high point man on the night with 480 points, locking him into third starting spot for Saturday. “I really only had to come from 10th there, so it couldn’t have worked out much better for me. I was nervous starting 21st. It was tough for Logan to get to seventh last night starting seventh and I thought it would be tougher tonight, but things worked out to wind up second and we’re pretty happy with it.”
Marks came home third in a race that was slowed by two red flags, four yellows and lasted one hour and four minutes.
“I generally struggle here,” Marks said. “I seem to race OK, but we always seem to start deep in the field. We put a whole night together, and the car was really good. We came here with something totally different than what I usually do and made a lot of changes after the Cappy on Sunday. I’m proud of what we were able to accomplish.”
Marks was third in points on Thursday and will start fourth on Saturday night.
Two-time World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series champion Brad Sweet finished fourth and earned the most points on the night to earn the second starting spot, alongside Gio Scelzi on Saturday night.
Fast-qualifier Kasey Kahne finished fifth and will start seventh on Saturday.
NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series, Knoxville Raceway, Knoxville, Iowa, Aug. 12
Qualifications: 1. Kasey Kahne, 83, 15.142; 2. Tyler Courtney, 7bc, 15.144; 3. Brad Sweet, 49, 15.166; 4. Kyle Larson, 57, 15.167; 5. Ian Madsen, 49x, 15.186; 6. Kerry Madsen, 14, 15.187; 7. Carson Macedo, 41, 15.193 8. Brent Marks, 19, 15.194; 9. Bill Balog, 17b, 15.242; 10. Jacob Allen, 1a, 15.247; 11. Brian Brown, 21, 15.264; 12. Cale Thomas, 101, 15.285; 13. Lynton Jeffrey, 83j, 15.303; 14. Brock Zearfoss, 3z, 15.308; 15. Paul McMahan, 5, 15.335; 16. Daryn Pittman, 39, 15.354; 17. Matt Juhl, 09, 15.360; 18. Jac Haudenschild, 22, 15.362; 19. Logan Wagner, 1z, 15.367; 20. Shane Golobic, 17, 15.377; 21. Sye Lynch, 42, 15.404; 22. Scotty Thiel, 73a, 15.409; 23. Sam Hafertepe Jr., 15h, 15.427; 24. Kraig Kinser, 11k, 15.448; 25. T.J. Stutts, 11, 15.481; 26. Shane Stewart, 71, 15.494; 27. Parker Price-Miller, 5m, 15.496; 28. Noah Gass, 20g, 15.506; 29. Rico Abreu, 24r, 15.527; 30. Chris Martin, 44, 15.561; 31. Sammy Swindell, 70, 15.575; 32. Sawyer Phillips, 3p, 15.626; 33. Greg Wilson, 97, 15.633; 34. Skylar Prochaska, 35p, 15.667; 35. Austin McCarl, 17a, 15.679; 36. Colby Copeland, 5x, 15.683; 37. Jeff Swindell, 10, 15.695; 38. Dylan Cisney, 2dc, 15.709; 39. Mike Wagner, 55w, 15.717; 40. Marcus Dumesny, n47, 15.755; 41. Harli White, 11n, 15.863; 42. Bobby Mincer, 15m, 15.962; 43. Dustin Selvage, 7w, 15.969; 44. Tyler Esh, 13s, 15.974; 45. Jessie Attard, 53, 16.022; 46. Jack Dover, 53d, 16.037; 47. Tim Kaeding, 11tk, 27.854; 48. Kevin Ingle, 2k, no time.
First Heat (10 laps): S. Swindell, Stewart, Lynch, Brown, Pittman, Kahne, Madsen, White, Dover, Copeland.
Second Heat (10 laps): Phillips, Price-Miller, Courtney, Macedo, Juhl, Thiel, Mincer, J. Swindell, Thomas, Kaeding.
Third Heat (10 laps): Wilson, Marks, Hafertepe, Sweet, Cisney, Haudenschild, Gass, Jeffrey, Selvage, Ingle.
Fourth Heat (10 laps): Prochaska, M. Wagner, Kinser, Abreu, Larson, Balog, Zearfoss, L. Wagner, Esh.
Fifth Heat (10 laps): Dumesny, McCarl, McMahan, Stutts, Allen, Madsen, Golobic, Martin, Attard.
C Main (8 laps): Dover, Copeland, Selvage, Attard, Ingle, Esh.
B Main (12 laps): Larson, K. Madsen, Kahne, I. Madsen, Zearfoss, Balog, Jeffrey, Golobic, Pittman, Martin, Selvage, Gass, White, Copeland, Wagner, Haudenschild, Attard, Allen, J. Swindell, Juhl, Dover, Cisney, Thiel.
Feature (25 laps): Brown, Larson, Marks, Sweet, Kahne, McCarl, Ian Madsen, Kinser, Lynch, Phillips, Hafertepe, Prochaska, Wilson, Stutts, M. Wagner, Courtney, Swindell, McMahan, Macedo, K. Madsen, Price-Miller, Stewart.