Tyler Erb scored his second win in a row at Knoxville
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series rolled into the Knoxville Raceway for the second night of a three-race weekend that will culminate on Saturday evening with the $50,000-to-win Knoxville Late Model Nationals. After a non points paying night of racing, it was Tyler Erb who celebrated on Friday night in victory lane. The Rocket Chassis driver from New Waverly, Texas earned $7,000 for his efforts in a race aired live by MavTV Plus.
A total of 47 cars were signed in for competition.
Jonathan Davenport led Group A qualifying with a lap of 17.486 seconds around the half-mile clay oval besting Mike Marlar, Hudson O’Neal, Chase Junghans and Jeremiah Hurst.
The fastest driver in Group B time-trials was Tad Pospisil with a time of 17.791 seconds to better the efforts of Logan Martin, Tim McCreadie, Ricky Thornton Jr. and Shannon Babb.
Jonathan Davenport outran Thursday night feature winner Tyler Erb and Rich Bell for the win in the first heat race of the evening while Brandon Sheppard topped Mike Marlar and Josh Richards in the second preliminary.
Jimmy Owens beat out Jason Feger and Tony Jackson Jr. in the third heat race.
Frank Heckenast Jr. beat Ricky Thornton Jr. and Kyle Bronson in the fourth heat race just before Shane Clanton defeated Kyle Strickler and Shannon Babb in the fifth heat.
Tim McCreadie outperformed Chad Simpson and Tyler Bruening in the sixth and final heat race of the night.
Hudson O’Neal, Chase Junghans and Jeremiah Hurst moved on to the feature out of the first B-main just then Logan Martin, Earl Pearson Jr. and Chris Simpson transferred to the main event from the second B-main.
At the start of the 25-lap feature it was Sheppard who shot to the lead with Bruening, Erb, Babb and Marlar trailing. Bruening moved around Sheppard to briefly take the lead of the race on lap 3. Just behind, Erb moved around Sheppard for second then immediately also passed by Bruening for the lead.
By lap 8, Erb was pulling away from the pack but further back in the field, Babb, Marlar, Strickler, Thornton and McCreadie engaged in a furious fight for positions 4-8. Strickler and McCreadie moved around Babb to assume the fifth and sixth positions respectively.
The first caution flag of the night flew on lap 17 when Logan Martin slowed. On that restart, Erb maintained the lead while Sheppard came up to second and Mccreadie blasted to fourth.
Another yellow flag was displayed on lap 19 for a crash involving Strickler. On that restart, Sheppard rolled up beside Erb to briefly challenge for the lead but Erb would eventually pull away from that fight until another caution for Babb came out on lap 23.
It would be Erb who would win the race to the checkered flag as he went back-to-back on the preliminary nights at Knoxville.
Feature Finish: 1. Tyler Erb, 2. Brandon Sheppard, 3. Tyler Bruening, 4. Tim McCreadie, 5. Mike Marlar, 6. Ricky Thornton Jr., 7. Jimmy Owens, 8. Hudson O’Neal, 9. Kyle Bronson, 10. Frank Heckenast Jr., 11. Chase Junghans, 12. Earl Pearson Jr., 13. Shane Clanton, 14. Jonathan Davenport, 15. Chris Simpson, 16. Josh Richards, 17. Jason Feger, 18. Rich Bell, 19. Jeremiah Hurst, 20. Tony Jackson Jr., 21. Shannon Babb, 22. Kyle Strickler, 23. Chad Simpson, 24. Logan Martin
