KNOXVILLE, Iowa — Austin McCarl won another incredible feature Saturday at Knoxville Raceway.
After passing his brother Carson, he outdueled Kerry Madsen to the checkers to win his eighth career 410 feature here and $6,000 as well as a half beef aboard the Country Builders Construction No. 88.
Garet Williamson took off from the pole in the 20-lap 988 Lifeline 410 sprint main event, followed by Carson McCarl, Austin McCarl, Brian Brown and Madsen.
Austin battled by Carson for second, while Madsen claimed fourth from Brown in the early stages. Carson battled back by his brother for the second spot in a good battle.
Up front, Williamson was pulling away and heading for traffic four laps in when something broke on the car and sent him into a spin. He was done for the night.
Carson assumed the lead, ahead of his brother, Madsen, Brown and Jake Bubak. Brown was the next to see misfortune eight laps in when he spun, and collected last week’s winner, Scott Bogucki.
That put Carson leading Austin, Madsen, Aaron Reutzel and Bubak back to green.
Austin sized Carson up and passed him on the high side of four at the halfway point. Two laps later, Chase Randall, who was running eighth, also had a malfunction and spun on the front stretch. Fortunately, the field took evasive action.
After that restart with eight to go, Madsen gained second from Carson McCarl on the 14th lap and reeled in the leader. On lap 19, he pulled in front of Austin in one and two and led until the front stretch. He repeated his maneuver in great racing in turns one and two on the final lap. He exited turn four low, while Austin ducked under and it was a drag race to the finish.
Austin edged Madsen by .183 of a second at the checkers. Reutzel passed Carson for third on the last lap, and Emerson Axsom finished fifth.
“I was having a little deja vue with (Carson) and I going at it like we were a few weeks ago,” said Austin. “I feel like we deserved this. We’ve been so close all year. I feel like we’ve had a really good car every week. This week I threw something at it. I tried it the second night of the Outlaw show, and maybe it wasn’t the track for it. I felt like this was. It paid off there. Obviously, moving down or whatever Kerry was doing (in turns one and two) was better. It’s hard to do that leading. The car felt so good, that I felt like if anybody could beat me, they were going to be very good, and Kerry was very good. That worked out how I planned it when we took the white. I just knew the race would be determined about how I got off of (turn) two there. I thought I came off really straight and hard on the cushion.”
Aaron Reutzel was dominant in the 360 main event, leading all 18 laps and scoring his fifth win of the season, and the 14th in his career in that class, as well as a half a hog. Ryan Navratil became the 10th first-time feature winner at the Knoxville Raceway in 2024, when he made a late race pass in the Pro Sprint main to earn $800 and a quarter-hog.
The event was run during the Marion County Fair.
The finish:
Feature (20 Laps): 1. Austin McCarl (4); 2. Kerry Madsen (5); 3. Aaron Reutzel (8); 4. Carson McCarl (2); 5. Emerson Axsom (10); 6. Jake Bubak (3); 7. Justin Henderson (13); 8. Tanner Holmes (14); 9. Sawyer Phillips (16); 10. Tasker Phillips (15); 11. Matt Juhl (19); 12. Sam Hafertepe Jr. (17); 13. JJ Hickle (20); 14. Jace Park (21); 15. Jamie Ball (7); 16. Clint Garner (24); 17. Dusty Zomer (18); 18. Roger Crockett (22); 19. Lynton Jeffrey (12); 20. Zach Hampton (23); 21. Chase Randall (11); 22. Brian Brown (6); 23. Scott Bogucki (9); 24. Garet Williamson (1).