News Director 
Story By: BRYAN HULBERT / ASCS – KNOXVILLE, IA – Narrowly holding off Sammy Swindell off the final turn at Knoxville Raceway, Canada’s Thomas Kennedy raced to his first career victory with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by Sawblade.com.
Grabbing the Thursday opener of the 28th annual Knoxville 360 Nationals presented by Great Southern Bank, Kennedy also has the distinction of being the first Canadian shoe to win a 360cid A-Feature at the Iowa half-mile.
“I was struggling to get through lapped traffic there. Sam [Hafertepe] and everyone else seemed to be the same pace I was, and I knew I was losing a lot of momentum and I looked at the board and I see the No. 3 car was there and he’s the veteran of the veterans at this track and when I seen him underneath me for the checkered I went no way you’re passing me,” said Kennedy of his run and final trip to the front straightaway.
Rolling to the green second on the lineup, the Buffalo Wild Wings No. 21k swapped lines for a side-by-side battle with California’s Mason Daniel on the opening lap. Caution on the second lap for Tasker Phillips, who made hard contact with the wall in the second turn, Kennedy was able to hold off any challenge as the race behind him heated up.
With Mason able to keep some pace with Kennedy, the pair rolled away from a ferocious battle from third to sixth with Scott Bogucki racing with Jamie Ball, while Brian Brown battled with Greg Hodnett.
Swapping positions several times to the mid-point of the A-Feature, a bobble off the bottom of the second turn by Bogucki on Lap 11 shot the Sawblade.com No. 28 across the track, opening the bottom line for Sammy Swindell to roar from seventh to fourth. Taking third from Jamie Ball one lap later, Swindell trailed the No. 33 of Mason Daniel by over a straightaway with Daniel 15 car lengths back from Thomas Kennedy who was approaching traffic.
Slowly through the backmarkers, Kennedy began losing his advantage over Mason Daniel.
Cutting Kennedy’s advantage to only a few car lengths, Mason was there with five laps to go, but so was Sammy Swindell. Making up a straightaway in a matter of laps, the trio came to the white flag with the Rossie Feed and Grain No. 3s taking away second.
Peddling off the bottom of the second turn, Swindell hit the low line of the final two turns as Kennedy diamond off the cushion to slam the door on Sammy with the two nearly making contact off the final turn as Kennedy held on to victory by 0.262 seconds.
Sammy Swindell in second was joined on the podium by Mason Daniel. Moving up from seventh, Brian Brown ended up fourth in the Casey’s General Store/FVP No. 21 with Ryan Giles rolling from 15th to make up the top-five.
Greg Hodnett settled for sixth in the Lelands.com No. 27, followed by Dominic Scelzi who advanced 15 positions after having to race his way in through the B-Feature. Jamie Ball was shuffled back to eighth with Shane Golobic ninth. Also having to race through the B-Feature, California’s Cory Eliason rolled ahead 13 spots to finish tenth.
Race Results:
Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour
Knoxville Raceway – Knoxville, Iowa
28th Knoxville 360 Nationals presented by Great Southern Bank
Thursday, August 2, 2018 – Night 1
Car Count: 43
Heat Races (Top 4 in each Heat Race advance to the A-Feature)
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 55-Mckenna Hasse, [1]; 2. 17WX-Shane Golobic, [3]; 3. 4J-Lee Grosz, [2]; 4. 7W-Tasker Phillips, [5]; 5. 22H-Randy Hannagan, [7]; 6. 23D-Devon Dobie, [4]; 7. 14-Tony Stewart, [6]; 8. 2X-Tucker Doughty, [8]; 9. (DNF) 2K-Kevin Ingle, [9]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 9-Ryan Giles, [2]; 2. 3S-Sammy Swindell, [3]; 3. 27-Greg Hodnett, [6]; 4. 4-Jon Agan, [1]; 5. 41S-Dominic Scelzi, [4]; 6. 83-Cory Eliason, [5]; 7. 3P-Sawyer Phillips, [8]; 8. 15-Christian Bowman, [7]; 9. 57B-Bobby Butler, [9]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 13V-Seth Brahmer, [1]; 2. 21K-Thomas Kennedy, [4]; 3. 21-Brian Brown, [6]; 4. 99-Skylar Gee, [3]; 5. 76-Brad Comegys, [2]; 6. 70-Calvin Landis, [5]; 7. 98-Chris Masters, [8]; (DNS) 17X-Josh Baughman, ; (DQ) 29-Willie Croft, [7] Croft disqualified for not reporting to the scales
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 28C-Jonathan Cornell, [2]; 2. 5J-Jamie Ball, [5]; 3. 33M-Mason Daniel, [4]; 4. 53-Joe Beaver, [6]; 5. 35L-Cody Ledger, [7]; 6. 22M-Shawn Murray, [8]; 7. (DNF) 7M-Chance Morton, [3]; 8. (DNF) 24N-Nathan Mills, [1]
Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, [2]; 2. 7C-John Carney II, [4]; 3. 28-Scott Bogucki, [5]; 4. 09-Matt Juhl, [3]; 5. 02-Don Droud Jr, [1]; 6. 18-Ryan Roberts, [6]; 7. 75-Tyler Blank, [7]; 8. 57-Billy Butler, [8]
BMRS B-Feature (Top 4 advance to the A-Feature)
B Feature (12 Laps): 1. 14-Tony Stewart, [1]; 2. 41S-Dominic Scelzi, [6]; 3. 83-Cory Eliason, [3]; 4. 22H-Randy Hannagan, [11]; 5. 3P-Sawyer Phillips, [16]; 6. 18-Ryan Roberts, [2]; 7. 23D-Devon Dobie, [5]; 8. 02-Don Droud Jr, [10]; 9. 75-Tyler Blank, [14]; 10. 76-Brad Comegys, [8]; 11. 35L-Cody Ledger, [13]; 12. 15-Christian Bowman, [12]; 13. 57-Billy Butler, [19]; 14. 98-Chris Masters, [17]; 15. 2X-Tucker Doughty, [15]; 16. 2K-Kevin Ingle, [21]; 17. 57B-Bobby Butler, [22]; 18. 22M-Shawn Murray, [18]; 19. (DNF) 70-Calvin Landis, [4]; 20. (DNF) 24N-Nathan Mills, [9]; 21. (DNF) 29-Willie Croft, [20]; (DNS) 7M-Chance Morton, ; (DNS) 17X-Josh Baughman,
Protect the Harvest A-Feature
A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 21K-Thomas Kennedy, [2]; 2. 3S-Sammy Swindell, [11]; 3. 33M-Mason Daniel, [1]; 4. 21-Brian Brown, [7]; 5. 9-Ryan Giles, [15]; 6. 27-Greg Hodnett, [8]; 7. 41S-Dominic Scelzi, [22]; 8. 5J-Jamie Ball, [4]; 9. 17WX-Shane Golobic, [10]; 10. 83-Cory Eliason, [23]; 11. 28-Scott Bogucki, [3]; 12. 09-Matt Juhl, [13]; 13. 7C-John Carney II, [9]; 14. 53-Joe Beaver, [6]; 15. 4J-Lee Grosz, [14]; 16. 99-Skylar Gee, [12]; 17. 55-Mckenna Hasse, [18]; 18. 22H-Randy Hannagan, [24]; 19. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, [17]; 20. 14-Tony Stewart, [21]; 21. 13V-Seth Brahmer, [20]; 22. 28C-Jonathan Cornell, [16]; 23. (DNF) 4-Jon Agan, [19]; 24. (DNF) 7W-Tasker Phillips, [5]
Lap Leader(s): Thomas Kennedy 1-20
CP-Carrillo Hard Charger: Dominic Scelzi +15
FSR High Point Driver: N/A
Provisional(s): N/A
Event Points as of Thursday, August 2, 2018
21-Brian Brown-484
27-Greg Hodnett-482
21K-Thomas Kennedy-473
5J-Jamie Ball-467
33M-Mason Daniel-464
3S-Sammy Swindell-463
53-Joe Beaver-459
28-Scott Bogucki-456
83-Cory Eliason-455
41S-Dominic Scelzi-454
17WX-Shane Golobic-451
9-Ryan Giles-450
7C-John Carney II-445
14-Tony Stewart-444
7W-Tasker Phillips-435
9-Matt Juhl-431
99-Skylar Gee-427
4J-Lee Grosz-426
55-McKenna Haase-418
18-Ryan Roberts-417
15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.-416
28C-Jonathan Cornell-412
13V-Seth Brahmer-406
23D-Devon Dobie-403
4-Jon Agan-395
22H-Randy Hannagan-394
70-Calvin Landis-385
76-Brad Comegys-376
2-Don Droud Jr.-366
7M-Chance Morton-354
3P-Sawyer Phillips-352
35L-Cody Ledger-352
75-Tyler Blank-348
15-Christian Bowman-345
24N-Nathan Mills-335
98-Chris Masters-332
2X-Tucker Doughty-331
57-Billy Butler-327
22M-Shawn Murray-325
29-Willie Croft-325
2K-Kevin Ingle-316
57B-Bobby Butler-312
17X-Josh Baughman-298
