Stevie Smith Tops Qualifying Points
Stevie Smith Thursday night at Knoxville Raceway. (Mark Funderburk photo)
Thursday, August 9, 2012
KNOXVILLE, Iowa — With a new format in place for this year’s program which required everyone not in the top 26 in points after the two qualifying nights, the 52nd Knoxville Nationals Saturday night A main took shape Thursday night after points were tallied and the top 16 were locked into the main event.
Point totals were low for both nights with Stevie Smith, who finished fourth on Thursday, topping the chart with 479 markers and earning the pole for Saturday night. Craig Dollansky came home third Wednesday and amassed 477 points to take the outside of the front row spot.
California’s Jonathan Allard and Brian Brown were the next two in the point order.
The remainder of the drivers securing spots in the top 16 were Donny Schatz, Joey Saldana, Jason Meyers, Tim Kaeding, Kraig Kinser, Lucas Wolfe, Ian Madsen, Kyle Larson, Shane Stewart, Daryn Pittman, Lance Dewease and Paul McMahan.
The drivers ranking 17th through 26th will need to decide whether to keep their spots in the top 10 places in Saturday’s B main, or choose to race again on Friday for one of the four automatic transfer spots (positions 17-20) into Saturday’s finale. The final four starting spots in Saturday’s race will be the top four finishers from Saturday’s B main.
Davey Heskin was 17th in the standings with Mark Dobmeier, Greg Hodnett, Brian Paulus, Jason Johnson, Sammy Swindell, Tim Shaffer, Brooke Tatnell, Dustin Selvage and Danny Lasoski filling positions 18 through 26 in the standings.
We’ll report on the decisions of these drivers some time on Friday.
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