Brown wins opening night qualifier for 20th Annual 360 Knoxville Nationals
Thursday, August 5, 2010
By Stacy Ervin
It was a good night for the Knoxville regulars who swept the podium on the opening night qualifying event for the 20th Annual Arnold Motor Supply 360 Knoxville Nationals, presented by Windstream.
Brian Brown, a former track champion in the 360 class who currently leads the weekly points in the 410 division, led 19 of the 20 laps in the Lucas Oil ASCS sanctioned event at the Knoxville Raceway on Thursday, August 5, and collected $3,000.
When the race went green, outside front-row starter Zach Chappell took the early lead over polesitter Jamie Veal. But Brown, who started third, put a slide job on in turn one on the second lap and made it stick.
As Brown started coming to traffic on the ninth lap, there was a three-car battle for second, with Knoxville 360 regular Dustin Selvage getting the spot. There was a near disaster on lap 11 when DJ Brink smacked the fence in turn three right in front of Brown, but Brink kept going.
The first caution came out at lap 13 when Chappell slowed to a stop with a broken rear end. He had been running fourth at the time. Fourth place proved to be unlucky for Tim Kaeding too, as he brought out a yellow flag at lap 15 when a tire exploded and damaged the car.
After those late-race cautions, it was smooth sailing for Brown to the checkered flag. But behind him, another Knoxville 360 regular, Chad Humston, was on the move. He made it up to third to take the final podium spot behind Selvage. ASCS regular Jason Johnson was fourth and Veal held on to the fifth spot.
Humston set the quickest time trial with a 15.875 second lap. Only two drivers of the night’s 49 competitors were in the 15-second bracket. Heat races were won by Eric Baldaccini, Brian Brown, Danny Jennings, Billy Alley and Dustin Selvage. The C-Main was won by Dave Hall. The B-Main was won by Tony Bruce Jr.
In her heat race, the night’s only female competitor, Erin Crocker, took a violent series of flips in turn one at the start after making contact with another car. She was finished racing for the night.
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