Tyler Erb got the night1 win at Knoxville
For the first time since September 4th, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series went into action on Thursday night at one of the country’s most famous dirt tracks. The Knoxville Nationals is a three-day affair culminating with a $50,000-to-win 100-lapper on Saturday night. But leading up to that race will be a pair of preliminaries held on the two night preceding the main event. The winner on night 1 at the Iowa track was Tyler Erb after a fast paced night of racing action. The Rocket Chassis driver from New Waverly, TX earned $7,000 for his efforts in an event shown live by MavTV Plus.
Points accumulated during qualifying, heat races and features on Thursday and Friday will be added together to set the heat race lineups for Saturday’s big show.
A total of 48 cars were entered for competition.
Kyle Strickler was fastest in Group A qualifying as he toured the half-mile clay oval in 17.878 seconds to beat out Tim McCreadie, Ricky Thornton Jr., Tad Pospisil and Tyler Bruening.
It was NASCAR star Kyle Larson who would lead Group B time-trials with a mark of 18.041 seconds to top Earl Pearson Jr., Kyle Hammer, Chris Simpson and Logan Martin.
Chase Junghans won the first heat race of the night besting Garrett Alberson and Kyle Strickler then Tim McCreadie won the second preliminary over Tyler Bruening and Mike Marlar.
Ricky Weiss defeated Chad Simpson and Brandon Sheppard in the third preliminary.
Tyler Erb outran Kyle Larson and Tony Jackson Jr. in the fourth heat race while Hudson O’Neal topped Earl Pearson Jr. and Spencer Hughes in the fifth heat.
Josh Richards took the sixth and final heat race of the night over Frank Heckenast Jr. and Jonathan Davenport.
Ricky Thornton Jr., Kyle Bronson and Tad Pospisil transferred to the feature out of the first B-main of the night just before Shane Clanton, Logan Martin and Chris Simpson made their way into the main event from the second B-main.
When the green flag waved over the 25-lap feature it was Weiss who took the early lead with Erb, Davenport, Bruening and McCreadie in his tire tracks. Erb moved by Weiss for the race lead on lap 3 and immediately began to slip away from the rest of the field.
McCreadie moved forward on lap 8 when he passed by Bruening as Erb continued to pull away from the competition. Larson began to make some noise as he entered the top-5 on lap 13 by passing Bruening. Meanwhile, Davenport moved in to challenge Weiss for second. That challenge paid off on lap 15 when the World 100 winner passed by Weiss for the runner-up position.
A lap 16 caution for the slowing car of Chris Simpson slowed the action briefly. On the restart, Larson jumped around McCreadie for 4th as Erb continued to show the way.
Another yellow flag would be shown to the field on lap 19 when Marlar tagged the outside wall.
Davenport used a slide job in turns one and two to pass Erb on lap 20 but Erb would cross over to retake the top spot on the backstretch. Further back, Larson passed Weiss to claim third just before a lap 23 caution for a crash that caused heavy damage to the cars of Hudson O’Neal and Logan Martin slowed the action.
Both of those drivers walked away from the incident.
On the final restart Davenport made a bid to take the lead on the inside but Erb was up to the challenge as he held the lead then drove on to the checkered flag to score the win.
Please consider also reading “Kyle Larson enjoys lone night in a Late Model at Knoxville“
Feature Finish: 1. Tyler Erb, 2. Jonathan Davenport, 3. Kyle Larson, 4. Ricky Weiss, 5. Kyle Strickler, 6. Tim McCreadie, 7. Earl Pearson Jr., 8. Tyler Bruening, 9. Chad Simpson, 10. Brandon Sheppard, 11. Frank Heckenast Jr., 12. Kyle Bronson, 13. Josh Richards, 14. Chase Junghans, 15. Shane Clanton, 16. Spencer Hughes, 17. Ricky Thornton Jr., 18. Tony Jackson Jr., 19. Tad Pospisil, 20. Garrett Alberson, 21. Hudson O’Neal, 22. Logan Martin, 23. Mike Marlar, 24. Chris Simpson
