KNOXVILLE, Iowa — Rico Abreu knows a thing or two about Hard Knox.
Abreu picked up his third career victory in the Friday night preliminary night event held annually during the NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals at Knoxville Raceway.
With the victory, Abreu earned the 21st starting position in Saturday night’s $175,000-to-win main event at the historic half-mile dirt track.
In addition to Abreu, Kerry Madsen, Sheldon Haudenschild and Brian Brown finished second through fourth and earned starting positions 22 through 24 for Saturday night.
Seventy-two cars participated in the Hard Knox program with hopes of earning a spot in Saturday’s finale.
Abreu led all 25 laps of the main event for his fifth feature victory at Knoxville Raceway.
“Solid performance by my team,” said Abreu of his Ricky Warner-led crew. “I let them down last night with just some bad decisions.
“These Friday nights have come unique to me because of my qualifying efforts,” Abreu added. “It’s frustrating for me to be on Friday nights, but it is another opportunity to work on our cars.”
For all of the drivers it was an opportunity for redemption after a poor performance during qualifying nights earlier in the week.
Madsen had problems early on Thursday, but was fast throughout Friday’s program.
“I had one chance to send it there and I didn’t do it, but the top four is more important than doing that,” Madsen said. “This race was pressure personified. Tomorrow night it’s just send it and go.”
Haudenschild said his Stenhouse-Marshall Racing team changed engines Friday morning.
“We’ve been struggling with some things,” he said. “We changed engines this morning and we put this one in that has seven of our eight wins this year.”
Finally, Brown bounced back from a frustrating Thursday night qualifying effort.
“It’s been a really long week for our team and I am thankful for them not giving up,” Brown said. “This time last night, I was ready to head back to Missouri. I’m proud of our team for not giving up and here we are with an opportunity to chase a Knoxville Nationals championship.”
Anthony Macri charged from 14th and finished fifth, one spot out of a transfer position. He’ll start 11th in Saturday’s B main.
The finish:
Rico Abreu, Kerry Madsen, Sheldon Haudenschild, Brian Brown, Anthony Macri, Spencer Bayston, Corey Day, Justin Henderson, Brady Bacon, Dylan Cisney, Brooke Tatnell, Sawyer Phillips, Terry McCarl, Brock Zearfoss, Kyle Reinhardt, McKenna Haase, Sye Lynch, Logan Wagner, Cale Thomas, Cory Eliason, Marcus Dumesny, Brandon Wimmer, Hunter Schuerenberg, Ayrton Gennetten.
