KNOXILLE, Iowa — Another night of the 61st annual NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals and it was another Shark Attack.
One night after Logan Schuchart won the opening night feature at legendary Knoxville Raceway, his teammate, Jacob Allen, took the checkered flag for his first victory at Knoxville Raceway.
The victory made it a sweep for Shark Racing, owned by 1990 Knoxville Nationals winner Bobby Allen.
“This is so crazy,” Allen said. “To give my dad’s No. 1a car that looks like my dad’s car when he won the Nationals is pretty bad-ass. Knoxville Raceway is just so bad-ass.”
It was Allen’s fourth World of Outlaws triumph of the season and topped two whacky nights of qualifying that saw Austin McCarl and Tyler Courtney, who both ran on Thursday night, end up with the highest point totals and earn the front row for Saturday’s $175,000-to-win main event.
While Schuchart won from the pole on Wednesday, Allen started outside the front row Thursday night and led the 25-lap, non-stop feature flag to flag despite a late-race challenge from Brad Sweet, who briefly nudged his Kasey Kahne Racing No. 49 into the lead.
“Brad passed me, so that means he was close,” said Allen, who recovered and drove away from Sweet during the final two laps of the half-mile track. “That is about as close as it gets. I had a really good pace going and I kept my momentum up. A couple times I had to go low to keep my momentum up and I felt good down low too. The only bad part was Brad passing me. Other than that, it was pretty awesome.”
Allen ended up 11th in points and locked up a spot in Saturday’s feature, while Sweet, the 2018 Nationals winner, finished second and was ninth in points.
“I’m not horribly mad. If my car would have worked better, I would have been able to make a pass and hold on to it,” Sweet said. “Jacob did a good job and he did a good job making it more difficult for me by changing his lines up. My car was good and it was an up and down night. It is a weird Nationals with the points the way they are, but we’re in the A main and we’ll keep working on our car.”
Carson Macedo started sixth and finished third in the Jason Johnson Racing No. 41. He wound up fifth in points and will start fifth Saturday.
“I feel like our 41 car is pretty good and Phillip will do what he does and just make our car better,” Macedo said. “We are pretty happy but need to improve.”
McCarl finished fourth, while defending Nationals winner Kyle Larson romped from 22nd on the grid after running the B main to finish fifth. The rally pushed Larson to sixth in combined points for the two nights.
The finish:
Jacob Allen, Brad Sweet, Carson Macedo, Austin McCarl, Kyle Larson, Zeb Wise, Tyler Courtney, Kasey Kahne, Lynton Jeffrey, J.J. Hickle, Tim Kaeding, Daryn Pittman, Chris Windom, Dylan Cisney, Brian Brown, Buddy Kofoid, Noah Gass, Tasker Phillips, Bill Balog, Cale Thomas, Zach Hampton, Logan Wagner, Sam Hafertepe Jr., Jack Dover.
Keyword: Knoxville Shark Attack Part II