Saturday night went literally the way Kerry Madseon could have hoped. A quick time and A-main win at Knoxville showed how strong the No. 14 Tony Stewart Racing team is right now.
Last week when the World of Outlaws came to Knoxville, Kerry Madsen took home two podium finishes and led a lot of laps. This past Friday night he traveled with the Outlaws to Dubuque and was able to grab another podium finish. He had been so close to getting that win but just never able.
He left absolutely no doubt who was going to win on Saturday in Knoxville. Madsen took little time to get to the front and when he passed Brian Brown for the lead on lap two of the 20 lap feature, Madsen was checked out. Leaving Brown behind, Madsen sliced his way through lap traffic and picked up a definite no-doubter. Even late in the going when Brown made a run, Madsen found another gear to stay out front.
With the SRX series in town the format was a little messed up for the 410s on Saturday night. The evening started with the sprint cars getting to run hot laps and then they did their time trials. Madsen laid down a huge lap that no one else could touch. It was then when everyone knew to be on alert for the Madman.
Before we get started with SRX tonight we caught up with Spring Car Quick Time winner Kerry Madsen. pic.twitter.com/kTgViotQoj
— Always Race Day (@AlwaysRaceDay) June 20, 2021
After the qualifying session is when the SRX show took to the track. Ironically enough, Madsen’s car owner was in town racing with the SRX series and Tony Stewart came away with his first win at Knoxville and first win in the SRX cars on dirt.
With the SRX show, the 410s were put on hold until afterwards. Track crews reworked the track between the SRX feature and the heat races for the 410 sprint cars. Once prep was complete, there was a short hot laps session to get heat in the motors for the sprint cars.
Austin McCarl, Tasker Phillips and Sawyer Phillips were the heat race winners. All three started from the pole in their respective heat races and drove away from the field. The track looked to be in good shape but no one was taking any big chances at the track and during the heats.
Don Droud Jr. started on the pole of the A-Main alongside Brown. Droud led the field in to turn one and that was all he would lead for the night. Brian Brown and Kerry Madsen blasted past Droud by the exit of turn two. Brown would lead the first lap but by the time the duo made it to turn one, Madsen was out front.
From there is was smooth sailing for Madsen. A 20 lap feature and no cautions. It did see some lap traffic almost play havoc in the finishing order. Madsen had eased his way through the traffic throughout the race but then a large pack of cars sat in front of Madsen with only seven laps to go. Brown was able to close the straightaway gap to half a straight and then even more.
In the end it was Madsen grabbing the win over Brian Brown and Don Droud, Jr. ran third in the A-Main. Aryton Gennetten had another solid night as he brought home his No. 3 car fourth and it was Lynton Jeffery rounding out the top five at Knoxville.
