KNOXVILLE, Iowa — Tasker Phillips held off a tough 46-car field to earn his first 410 winged sprint car feature at Knoxville Raceway Saturday night during the second leg of the Border Battle.
Phillips’ win aboard the BDS Motorsports No. 1 earned him $7,000.
Phillips started from the pole and took the early lead over Garet Williamson, Rico Abreu, Austin McCarl and Tyler Courtney.
Abreu threw a slider on Williamson in turn three to take second on lap two, and McCarl followed him into third on lap three.
Phillips was loyal to the cushion and approached lapped traffic on lap nine. McCarl used the high side of turn four to pass Abreu for the second spot and began reeling in the leader. Phillips was able to maneuver traffic and kept the lead. He appeared to be good to go, but a Zeb Wise spin with two laps to go brought the only caution of the event.
Abreu used the restart to get by McCarl, while Courtney shot into fourth.
By the time Abreu cleared McCarl, it was too late to make a move on Phillips, who got his first 360 win here earlier this year as well.
With his win, Phillips joins Clint Garner, Bronson Maeschen, Randy Smith, Tim St. Arnold, Chris Walraven, Ricky Logan and Carson McCarl as drivers who have won in all three sprint car classes at Knoxville Raceway.
Abreu, Austin McCarl, Courtney and Williamson completed the top five.
“I did a pretty good job with about one to go, smashing into the fence,” said Phillips. “Austin poked his nose (down low) once, and I screwed around and went down there once. There wasn’t nothing there for me, so I just kept beating down the wall. Luckily, we pulled it off! We haven’t had a (good) time all year, and finally we got a decent time. I’ve been telling everyone, if we get a good time and start from the front…I hate winning from the pole, but I’ll take it any way I can get it tonight. This thing is bad fast…but how treacherous that cushion was, I was (bleeping) razor blades!”
Emerson Axsom held off a 62-car 360 field to gain another first win, as he emerged victorious in that class aboard the Klaasmeyer/Petry Motorsports No. 27w entry.
“We struggled in the 410 feature, and I knew I needed to get up on the wheel,” said Axsom. “I didn’t feel like I did well in that race, so I’m super glad we brought this car out, and kind of had a restart on the night. This car is really good. This team is brand new, so to get a win at Knoxville in our first year is pretty impressive. There’s a couple more weeks of 410s left, so hopefully, we can pick off one of those too. Just because I haven’t always run against the top guys in wing racing, I’ve done it against the best in non-wing racing a lot, and I was just glad to hold them off.”
Aaron Reutzel finished second, followed by Tyler Groenendyk, Tyler Courtney and Chase Randall.
The finish:
Feature (20 laps): 1. Tasker Phillips (1); 2. Rico Abreu (4); 3. Austin McCarl (3); 4. Tyler Courtney (7); 5. Garet Williamson (2); 6. Brian Brown (9); 7. Chase Randall (8); 8. Aaron Reutzel (5); 9. Tanner Holmes (20); 10. Zeb Wise (11); 11. Carson McCarl (13); 12. Riley Goodno (16); 13. Lynton Jeffrey (10); 14. JJ Hickle (12); 15. Sawyer Phillips (15); 16. Kerry Madsen (23); 17. Jace Park (24); 18. Emerson Axsom (19); 19. Dusty Zomer (6); 20. Justin Henderson (21); 21. Matt Juhl (17); 22. John Carney II (14); 23. Tyler Drueke (22); 24. Jamie Ball (18).