KNOXVILLE, Iowa — Rico Abreu missed locking into Saturday night’s 60th Knoxville Nationals program by a single point on his qualifying night. It didn’t matter.
Abreu dominated Friday night’s FVP Hard Knox Night at Knoxville Raceway, driving to his first sprint car victory of the season and the third of his career at the historic half-mile dirt track.
The Rico Abreu Racing machines shared the front row for the 25-lap event with Jac Haudenschild, who is making his final run at the Knoxville Nationals before he retires on the pole in the No. 22 with Abreu alongside.
Haudenschild led the first five laps, but Abreu kept hounding the 63-year-old driver and charged under him entering turn one to start lap six.
From there, Abreu was long gone.
“It is great momentum,” said Abreu after winning the Hard Knox program for the second time in his career and qualifying for his sixth Nationals feature. “We have been right there. I’ve been to Knoxville four times this year and we haven’t run outside the top five.”
While Abreu was far ahead throughout, the battle for second waged among Haudenschild, Anthony Macri, Shane Stewart and Brock Zearfoss.
Macri held off a hard-charging Stewart to finish second and make his first Knoxville Nationals feature.
“I am ecstatic. I am speechless,” the Pennsylvania driver said. “Before the feature I could have puked or something. This is a dream come true. We had to wait until Friday to put it in the show, but we put it in the show.”
Stewart finished third and qualified for his 20th Nationals start after having retired at the end of last season and only returning to the seat in early August, driving Bernie Steubgen’s No. 71.
“I’m not young anymore and honestly coming into this race, I knew coming in here it was going to be tough here,” Stewart explained. “Bernie races part time besides helping Gio. We’ve been struggling to find a bit of speed and we’ve been making changes and Bernie has gotten me comfortable. Sprint car racing has changed so much with the speed. Kyle Larson has made me such a fan of sprint car racing with the way he drives these cars.”
Zearfoss finished fourth and made his second Nationals main event.
“It’s everything for our team, confidence wise. It has been a difficult season with me missing races with a concussion and fixing a lot of cars,” Zearfoss said. “It is rewarding for my team to have speed here all week.”
Scott Bogucki finished fifth and Haudenschild was sixth.
To see full results, turn to the next page.