Another great night of racing action is in the books with the completion of the Bobcat of Knoxville Race Night! We began our weekly rotation of lower-division qualifying on Saturday with the Mod-Mini getting a qualifying session. Jason Cardwell started the night off by laying down a lap of 14.332 for the Fast Time Qualifier award. Chuck McMahan stormed to the pole in Mod-Mini with a lap of 16.961. Rocky McNabb took the win in Mod-Mini, while Adam Engel got another win in Classic. Keith Gregory returned to victory lane for his 2nd in a row. Dale Watson took the checkers in Street Stock, while Comer went 10-in-a-row in Super Truck. Jason Cardwell beat the monkey on his back to the checkers, barely, and took the win. Shawn Henry won in Mini-Stock and Cody Courtney won in Mini-Late Model.
Coming up next week is the PEPSI FIRECRACKER 300! More details may be released this week, so keep checking back, and make SURE that you make it out to “Tennessee’s Action Track” as Pepsi brings the Firecracker 300 to 411 Motor Speedway for the 2nd year!
Mod-Mini
The first feature of the night was the Mod-Mini division, which saw the field set by qualifying earlier in the evening. Rocky McNabb would quickly take the lead from Fast Time Qualifier Chuck McMahan (16.961) from the start. Nick Keeley would bring out the first caution on lap 3. McMahan would then run the remainder of the feature trying to work around McNabb. On the last lap, Brad Pressley would lose an engine — who just returned after having his engine rebuilt — on the frontstretch, but the field stayed green. McNabb picks up the win, McMahan takes 2nd, while Keeley would get credited with 3rd and Pressley 4th. Rounding out the feature was Dalton King, who pulled off on lap 2.
Classic
Where are all the Classics??! Adam Engel and Marvin Ray were the only 2 that made the call for the feature. Bart Baxter signed in but didn’t make it past hotlaps. Engel walks away with the check, and Ray comes home 2nd.
Topless Modified
The front row for this one was Jerry Hux inside and Keith Gregory outside. Hux is still looking for his first Topless win, while Gregory is looking for his 4th. Hux would lead the first 3 laps until he surrendered the race lead to Gregory. Ronnie King would bring out the caution on lap 5, exiting to the pits after the restart and on lap 8. Mike Lewis would snatch 2nd away from Hux on lap 11. Marvin Romines would bring out the caution on lap 17. On the restart, the field would come around to get the white flag. Hux and Mike Lewis would make contact, resulting in a flat tire for M. Lewis in turn 2 on the last lap. No caution was thrown and the field worked back around to get the checkers on lap 19. Gregory picks up #4, Hux comes home 2nd, 3rd goes to Dave Lewis.
Street Stock
Front row was Todd Merriman and Tim Glass, who put on a dandy show in the heat race. Merriman would lead the first lap with Glass in tow. Brad Mills was in the 3rd spot with Jason Ogle in 4th. Glass would take over the lead on lap 2, when Mills and Ogle would get tangled up racing for real estate in 3, bringing out the Ujunkdit caution. Mills’ night would be done, but Ogle would continue on after pit-side repairs. This made Glass and Dale Watson your new top 2 with Merriman in 3rd. Watson quickly jumped into the lead and never looked back. Ogle would work his way up from the rear to finish up in the 3rd spot. Glass and Ogle would round out your top 3, but Glass was thrown out over soft tires. This placed Merriman in the 3rd spot, but, he, too was found to have soft tires and was thrown out, handing Robert Murphy the 3rd place spot.
Super Truck
In Super Truck action, Rocky Ogle and Tom Huston was your front row. Ogle would lead the field from the getgo, with Freddy Hillard in the #2 truck in 2nd, but Robbie Comer quickly blazed into the 2nd spot. Ogle led the field until lap 6, when a broken driveshaft ended his hope of snapping Comer’s 9-race win streak. Comer takes the win, and 10 in a row, with Hillard in 2nd and 3rd going to Huston.
Late Model – A-Main
The ultra-competitive Late Models were next on the track. Your front row was Jason Cardwell and Rusty Ballenger. Cardwell quickly took over the race lead with Beeler hanging onto the 3rd spot. By lap 13, the leaders began working heavy lapped traffic, where Ballenger would close the lead. He’d look inside for the race lead until lapped traffic got in the way. By lap 20, Ballenger had a mirror full of Brad Hall as both cars began reeling in the leader. After the dust finally settled, and the field finally slowed down for the first time since the green flag flew, Cardwell claimed the victory. Hall muscled his way around Ballenger on the last lap as they worked through lap traffic. The checkers flew in just enough time, as Cardwell was pushed off the speedway, leaving behind a trail of water as the team had an issue and didn’t even get to hotlap after the heat races were completed for Late Models.
Mini-Stock
Shawn Henry and Brandon Johnson made up your front row. Henry wasted little time snatching the lead with Johnson in tow. Chris Brady took over 2nd on lap 1. Points leader Tommy Metler started in the 6th spot, not making it out for the heat race. Metler would move into the 5th spot on lap 1. By lap 10 he was already up to 3rd. Henry takes the win, Brady gets 2nd, and Metler takes home 3rd.
Mini-Late Model
In Mini-Late Model action, we saw Cody Courtney quickly take the race lead on the start, but the battle was on for 2nd. Gabe Miller and Bud Hoomes would duke it out. Hoomes couldn’t complete the pass on Miller, so Courtney takes the win, Miller claims 2nd, and 3rd went to Hoomes.