KNOXVILLE, Iowa — Jacob Allen skipped last year’s Knoxville Nationals while taking a hiatus from racing. In his return on Wednesday night, he didn’t miss a beat.
Allen’s last appearance during the 2022 Nationals at Knoxville Raceway produced a preliminary night victory and a fifth-place finish on Saturday night.
Allen started on the pole and finished second to place eighth in points after the first night of preliminary racing, likely securing a spot in Saturday’s A-main.
“Honestly, I think I ran a pretty good race,” said Allen. “It was a race I was pretty proud of running. I felt like my racecar was really good. Obviously, Gio had a really good car as well. There’s honestly nothing to hang our heads about. Last year, I didn’t even run this race and took some time to come back. To lead my prelim night and run second is a huge accomplishment.”
Allen’s success came despite an engine change following qualifying.
• Passing during the heat races at the Knoxville Nationals has always been difficult, and that certainly was the case again on Wednesday night. Only five of the top 20 qualifiers, which were inverted to the third and fourth rows of the heats, transferred directly to the main event.
Feature winner Giovanni Scelzi was one of those five, moving from sixth to fourth in his heat race.
“If you don’t make it through your heat race, your night’s pretty much over. I’ve done that twice and not made it through the heat on the prelim. I’ve had to truck forward, and you really run out of laps, because you are better than the cars in front of you, but it gets really hard to pass. You get overwhelmed, and you start pushing too hard, making mistakes, being too aggressive with moves. Then you set yourself back even more.”
• It’s not the first time Giovanni Scelzi, who has now made the Nationals feature in all six of his attempts has been in contention for the victory. He started on the pole and finished fourth in 2022.
“Honestly, it was pretty overwhelming the first time,” Scelzi said Wednesday night. “All the thoughts go up to your mind, you could be the youngest Knoxville Nationals winner ever. We were extremely fast back in 2021. It wasn’t typical for them to have track work before the feature, but they’ve kind of made that a normal thing now and we really didn’t prepare right.
“We had such a good package on Wednesday we didn’t really want a stray from that on Saturday. The track will be different tomorrow, will be different Friday and Saturday so you must stay on top of it. I feel like now I’m a little bit older and have been in position to win those races.”
• After sitting out the Knoxville Nationals last season, 1983 event winner Sammy Swindell returned Wednesday to participate in his 48th
Driving Shawn Wood’s No. 1, which featured some radical coil-over designs similar to the Harold Annett cars Swindell ran in the late 80s and early 90s, Swindell struggled through mechanical gremlins. He plans to return and take on the Hard Knox program on Friday night.
• Knoxville Raceway officials have instituted changes to the work zone for this year’s Knoxville Nationals. In the past, the work area was always located in the push-off area in the frontsretch pits, forcing crews to bring their gear to that part of the pits.
This year, all teams will be allowed to use the area directly in front of their pit stall to work on their cars during yellow flags. However, if the car pulls into the pits “nose first,” it will be ruled out of the event currently on the race track.
• Four-time Knoxville Nationals winner Danny Lasoski was helping North Carolina sprint car racer Lance Moss on Wednesday. Moss qualified 40th and started on the pole of the fifth heat, blowing an engine early in that race.
• California racer Kalib Henry, who has won four sprint car features in Ohio this season, qualified 14th but went for a wild ride early in the fourth heat, ending his night.
• Knoxville Raceway regular Matt Juhl was the fast qualifier for the 52-car with a lap of 15.431 seconds on the half-mile track. He made the feature through the B main and finished 20th. He ended the night 10th in points, which likely will lock him into Saturday night’s B main.
• Special paint schemes are always a topic of conversation during the Knoxville Nationals and that was a case again on opening day.
Some of those making waves with the fans and racers were run by race winner Giovanni Scelzi, Parker Price-Miller, Justin Peck, Tanner Holmes, Sheldon Haudenschild and Garet Williamson.
Look for snappy designs from Sye Lynch, Brad Sweet and Tyler Courtney among others on Thursday night.
• Kyle Larson’s victory pole for winning last year’s Knoxville Nationals was unveiled Wednesday afternoon under the main grandstand.