It was a quick night of racing at Knoxville on Saturday, although it was one that featured as much action as possible.
Altoona native Austin McCarl gave chase and made a race-winning pass on Australia’s Kerry Madsen to earn his first Knoxville Championship Cup Series victory of the 2022 season.
Madsen took a commanding lead around the race track for the first 15 of 20 green-flag laps. That’s when McCarl started to run him down, taking the lead with three laps to go and holding on for his first win of the season at the famed half-mile in Iowa.
“I didn’t want to make mistakes, and put my car where I needed to,” McCarl said in his victory lane interview. “I want to give a shout out to Aaron Reutzel for not junking me in three and four there early in the race. It got a little hairy there. I wasn’t going to lift, and I knew he wasn’t going to either.”
The win gave McCarl the lead in the Knoxville Championship Cup Series points standings, sitting 25 points ahead of Justin Henderson – who finished fifth – in the battle for the championship.
Madsen and Reutzel rounded out the podium.
That was actually pretty fun with him,” McCarl said. “Kerry Madsen and Aaron Reutzel are two of the top ten sprint car drivers in the world, and I have a lot of respect for those guys. I just wanted to win so bad. (The track) was three lanes there. Just a big shout out to the Dunkin’s.”
Reutzel’s third-place finish helped him end the night with a pair of podiums after he won the 360 class A-Main under his Toyota Racing Development engine.
Ayrton Gennetten brought home a fourth-place finish, completing his best night of the year at Knoxville as well.
The series returns to the track next week, Sat. June 4, for Hall of Fame night and a Saturday date that will feature two A-Main’s for the 410 class, the extra race being a makeup for the track’s April postponement.
Fans that can’t make it to the race can catch all of the action live on DirtVision.
Knoxville May 28 results
1. Austin McCarl (2); 2. Kerry Madsen (1); 3. Aaron Reutzel (4); 4. Ayrton Gennetten (3); 5. Justin Henderson (6); 6. Lynton Jeffrey (5); 7. Carson McCarl (8); 8. JJ Hickle (7); 9. Sawyer Phillips (13); 10. Matt Juhl (10); 11. Davey Heskin (14); 12. Riley Goodno (15); 13. Josh Schneiderman (11); 14. Thomas Kennedy (17); 15. Tasker Phillips (16); 16. Ryan Giles (9); 17. AJ Moeller (12); 18. Chris Martin (18); 19. Tim Estenson (20); 20. Dustin Selvage (24); 21. Nathan Mills (22); 22. Presley Truedson (19); 23. Tyler Drueke (21); 24. Ben Brown (25); 25. Bobby Mincer (23) DNS – Joe Simbro, Landon Hansen.
Knoxville Raceway 410 point standings
1. Austin McCarl 1651
2. Justin Henderson -25
3. Aaron Reutzel -200
4. Brian Brown -204
5. Davey Heskin -289
6. Matt Juhl -327
7. Carson McCarl -351
8. Ayrton Gennetten -414
9. Sawyer Phillips -456
10. Lynton Jeffrey -469
Knoxville May 28 360 class results
1. Aaron Reutzel (2); 2. Clint Garner (3); 3. Terry McCarl (4); 4. Kaleb Johnson (5); 5. Chase Randall (13); 6. Joe Beaver (9); 7. Calvin Landis (7); 8. Riley Goodno (11); 9. Ryan Leavitt (6); 10. Nathan Mills (10); 11. Tony Rost (8); 12. Jamie Ball (1); 13. Cam Martin (14); 14. Devin Kline (15); 15. Alex Vande Voort (12); 16. Jacob Dykstra (19); 17. Austin Miller (22); 18. Alan Zoutte (18); 19. John Anderson (20); 20. Jason Billups (21); 21. Collin Moyle (16); 22. Ricky Montgomery (17); 23. Josh Schneiderman (23) DNS – Ben Woods. Lap Leader: Reutzel 1-18. Hard-charger: Randall.
Knoxville May 28 PACE Pro Sprint results
1. Mike Mayberry (4); 2. Tyler Groenendyk (1); 3. Matthew Stelzer (5); 4. Scotty Johnson (2); 5. Mike Johnston (8); 6. Brandon Worthington (3); 7. Eric Bridger (7); 8. Matt Allen (10); 9. Kade Higday (9); 10. Jeff Wilke (6); 11. Josh Jones (12); 12. JJ Beaver (11) DNS – Ryan Navritil. Lap Leaders: Groenendyk 1-3, Mayberry 4-15. Hard-charger: Mayberry.
