Over 100 sprint car drivers from around the nation, and Australia, New Zealand, and Canada will try to put their name alongside the likes of Kinser, Swindell, Wolfgang, and Lasoski as Knoxville Nationals Champion. Tonight starts the 56th edition of the biggest sprint car show on the schedule as the 56th Annual Five Hour Energy Knoxville Nationals takes the green flag. Tonight and tomorrow night are preliminary qualifying nights which sets the top 16 starters for Saturday’s championship. Friday will be a re-qualifying show for those drivers that did not make the top 16 with the top four in the A-Main getting spots 17-20 in Saturday’s A, plus the World Challenge race. A driver who has eight top tens in his career at the Knoxville Nationals including a near win in 2011 when he finished second is Shane Stewart. Stewart, who won Sunday Capitani Classic for the second time in as many years, tells KNIA/KRLS Sports the Knoxville Raceway has been a good track for him…but you have to do your part by placing yourself in contention. Of course we are unable to mention the Knoxville Nationals without mentioning that Donny Schatz has been the driver to beat for over a decade winning nine Nationals in the last ten years including the five. With a win this year, he would become the first driver in Nationals history to win six years in a row, Steve Kinser pulled the five-peat between 1991-1995. Other drivers that could contend are David Gravel, Brad Sweet, and Knoxville weekly competitors Brian Brown and Danny Lasoski, Lasoski already has won the Nationals four times. You can hear live flag-to-flag coverage on AM 1320 and 95.3 KNIA and streamed live on kniakrls.com starting with Live Track Side at five and Race Night’s Live at seven.
Wednesday Qualifying Night
1 Sammy Swindell – Germantown, TN
1s Logan Schuchart – Hanover, PA
1X Chad Trout – Dover, PA (R)
02 Mike Reinke – Howards Grove, WI
2s Shane Stewart – Bixby, OK
2c Wayne Johnson – Oklahoma City, OK
2KS Craig Dollansky- Elk River, MN
2m Matt Moro – Polk City, IA
3G Brandon Wimmer – Fairmount, IN
4s Danny Smith – Chillicothe,OH
5H Cory Eliason – Selma, CA (R)
7 Paul McMahan – Nashville, TN
7s Jason Sides – Bartlett, TN
7w Tasker Phillips – Pleasantville, IA
8M TJ Michael – Plano, TX (R)
9 Daryn Pittman – Owasso, OK
09 Matt Juhl – Sioux Falls, SD (R)
10 Dakota Hendrickson – Omaha, NE
10H Chad Kemenah – Alvada, OH
11N Randy Hannagan – Pittsboro, IN
12 Lynton Jeffrey – Prairie City, IA
12H Daniel Harding – Canning Vale, WA, Aust. (R)
15 Donny Schatz – Fargo, ND
17 Josh Baughman – Odessa, TX
17A Austin McCarl -Altoona, IA
18 Ian Madsen – St. Mary’s, NSW, Aust.
18w Colby Copeland – Roseville, CA
19P Paige Polyak – Tiffin, OH
20 AJ Moeller – Rockwell City, IA
21 Brian Brown – Grain Valley, MO
21T Ray Allen Kulhanek – Conroe, TX
24 Rico Abreu – St. Helena, CA
26 Willie Croft – Roseville, CA
27 Greg Hodnett – Spring Grove, PA
28 Jonathan Cornell – Sedalia, MO
29 Danny Dietrich III – Gettysburg, PA
41x Dominic Scelzi – Fresno, CA (R)
45x Johnny Herrera – Albuquerque, NM
47 Jeff Swindell – Bartlett, TN
49J Josh Schneiderman -West Burlington, IA
55W Logan Wagner – Harrisonville, PA
56N Davey Heskin III – St. Michael, MN
68 Chase Johnson – Penngrove, CA (R)
70 Danny Holtgraver – Pittsburgh, PA
71 Jamie Veal – Warrnambool, VIC., Aust.
75 Glen Saville – Razorback, NSW, Aust.
82 Dusty Zomer – Sioux Falls, SD
84 Scott Bogucki – McLaren Vale, SA, Aust.
93 Sheldon Haudenschild – Wooster, OH
95 Matt Covington – Glenpool, OK
97 Dean Jacobs – Wooster, OH