Brandon Spithaler Strong To Nail Down FASTonDIRT 410 Sprint Win At Knox Raceway

Story By: JIM BALENTINE / KNOX RACEWAY – KNOX, PA – On a sunny but cool Memorial Day weekend Sunday night Knox Raceway returned to auto racing for the first time in 2025 with a big crowd on hand to watch Brandon Spithaler win the 20 car FASTonDIRT sprint car feature; Gale Ruth Jr. the RUSH sprint feature and William Kephart the $2000 to win 49 car SCDRA mini stock feature.

Defending FASTonDIRT 410 sprint car champion and the last sprint speedweek winner at Knox Raceway Brandon Spithaler came from the sixth starting position to take the win. It was not easy however as Rocky Peterson Jr. and the “Steel city outlaw” Tim Shaffer would lead the field to the green, both cars would begin to set a furious pace in the 20 car field. Peterson will lead the first four laps until the veteran Shaffer would take over on lap five. Shaffer, who has been running at Knox since the late 80s would think to have been racing to take the win however on lap eight Spithaler would get around Shaffer and take command of the race. Peterson would begin to fade as Tyler Gunn would move into third and with set his eyes on the top two. Spithaler would set a blistering pace, lapping cars until a caution came out with two laps to go which would bunch up the field… on the restart he would take off and not to be denied the win, taking the checker by .745 over Shaffer. Gunn, Peterson jr and Matt Farnham from 9th would finish 5th. The 30 lap per was completed in 14 minutes.

A jubilant Spithaler would say,”I was smart enough to push the wing for a little bit so I didn’t miss the bottom and wanted to try to protect it and see if I could get straight off the corner and it worked out!! I knew we were good in clean air and in traffic and felt really good under that long green flag run…late race cautions can really cause some problems so I can’t thank everybody enough that that helps on his car. I’m glad we were able to park in victory Lane so hopefully we can pack the place and get a lot more people and it’ll be great. everybody that helps on this thing it’s a group effort and I’m just glad that it came out right.”

Gale Ruth Jr dominated the 25 lap RUSH sprint feature by leading the entire way green to checkered in the 10 minute affair. Blaze Myers would come from fifth to eventually finish second. Zach Wilson would run a solid third, Zach Morrow fourth, and Arnie Kent would be fifth. Ruth would say in victory Lane, “The traffic was pretty crazy, but Rich had the car right on point I couldn’t have been any better..the Lord blessed me in so many ways!! All the glory be possible. It takes a very great family and a great crew as well as sponsors.. Knox has been my favorite for a lot of years and my favorite place to come and was sad when they closed down and I was really glad to have it come back.”

The 49 car SCDRA mini stocks was whittled down to 24 cars for the start of the $2000 to win 15 lap feature. William Kephart would come from his third starting position to take the lead on lap five and go onto to win the caution marred event. Adam Bales would finish a solid second, Joe Huber third, Jordan Wheeler fourth, and Justin Forsyth from 10th to 5th.

The next event at Knox Raceway will be on Sunday, July 13 with the 410 sprint cars, the RUSH crate sprint cars, and the SCDRA mini stocks.

FAST 410 Sprints Feature:
1) #22 Brandon Spithaler
2) #17GP Tim Shaffer
3) #68G Tyler Gunn
4) #98 Ricky Peterson
5) #7NY Matt Farnham
6) #46 Michael Bauer
7) #2 A.J. Flick
8) #3J Jacob Begenwald
9) #31C Chase Metheney
10) #25R Jordan Ryan
11) #6 Bob Felmlee
12) #13 Brandon Matus
13) #9 Lance Heinberger
14) #86 Michael Lutz
15) #23JR Jack Sodeman
16) #33 Brent Matus
17) #00K Anthony Gaskins
18) #19M Bodey McClintock
19) #5 Jeremy Weaver
20) #76 Davey Jones
Heat winners: AJ Flick; Jacob Begenwald; Tyler Gunn
Fast qualifier: Ricky Peterson Jr 14.044

RUSH Sprint Feature:
1) #24 Gale Ruth
2) #41 Blaze Myers
3) #1 Zack Wilson
4) #68 Zach Morrow
5) #9 Arnie Kent
6) #63L Wyatt Long
7) #5B Joe Buccola
8) #1T Ricky Tucker III
9) #57C Cooper Fritz
10) #23 Charlie Utsinger
11) #213 Lucas Roessner
12) #54 Devon Deeter
13) #501 Matt Urey
14) #56 Tyler Clark
15) #21N Samantha Priest
16) #7 Cooper Macormac
17) #4J John Mollick
18) #20A Jessie Armstrong
19) #55 Luke Mulichak
heat winners: Cooper Fritz; John Mollick

SCDRA Mini Stock Feature:
1) #626B Adam Bales
1) #007 William Kephart
2) #626 Adam Bales
3) #8H Joseph Huber
4) #48 Jordan Wheeler
5) #F6 Justin Forsyth
6) #44 Jacob Wheeler
7) #0 Carl Ealy
8) #13 Greg Kiehl
9) #317 Josh Norton
10) #4T1 Allen Robison III
11) #6 Mike Kelley
12) #69 Mike Phillipson
13) #33M Curtis Mohney
14) #25 Cody Hetrick
15) #158 Camden Frantz
16) #8JR Cole Huber
17) #3H Shawn Hadden
18) #11 Matthew Duvall
19) #114 Josh Frantz
20) #45 Andrew Thompson
21) #5 Andy Thompson
22) #42H Jeff Huber
23) #54 Tim Callahan
24) #36F Zack Frantz
Heat winners: Shawn Hadden; Josh Frantz; William Kephart; Tim Callahan.
Consi winners: Allen Robison; Curtis Mahoney.