KNOXVILLE, Iowa (August 4, 2022) – Sam Hafertepe Jr. roared to victory for the second year in a row on Night #1 of the 360 Knoxville Nationals presented by Great Southern Bank! The Sunnyvale, Texas native earned $3,000 for his drive aboard the Hills Racing #15H. Another Texas native, Aaron Reutzel secured the highest point total of the night, heading towards Saturday’s finale.
Thomas Kennedy shot out to an early lead from the pole position in the 20-lap main event, ahead of Garet Williamson, Hafertepe, defending 360 Knoxville Nationals champion, Gio Scelzi, and Ayrton Gennetten. By lap five, Hafertepe was cooking on the low line, passing Williamson for second on lap five.
Hafertepe reeled in Kennedy and shot to the point with a slide job in turn two on lap seven. At that point, Alex Vande Voort contacted the front stretch wall, spun and came to a stop inside turn one, bringing the only caution of the event.
Hafertepe led Kennedy, Williamson, Scelzi and Gennetten back to green. Williamson shot into second, while Reutzel moved into the top five by lap nine. While Hafertepe cruised up front, Scelzi reeled in Williamson and blew by him on the backstretch to claim second. Reutzel notched fourth on the same lap.
Hafertepe was into traffic with three laps to go, but was never seriously challenged the rest of the way in his third career win here. Scelzi held onto second, followed by Reutzel, Williamson and Kennedy. Gennetten, Chase Randall, Matt Juhl, Cory Eliason and Parker Price-Miller rounded out the top ten. Shane Golobic set quick time over the 51-car field, while Scelzi, Randall, Price-Miller, Corey Day and Devin Kline won heats. Ryan Leavitt won the C main, and Austin McCarl claimed the B.
Golobic’s night came to an end in his heat race after destroying his car in turn four. He was uninjured. Scott Bogucki and Nathan Mills came together on the backstretch in the B main, sending the latter upside down. No one was hurt.
“Tonight, we had a really good racecar,” said Hafertepe in Victory Lane. “The guys just kept working all night long. We weren’t good in time trials, weren’t good in the heat race…then we turned the wick up in the feature and really got it going good.”
“Sam is the Dale Earnhardt of the 360’s,” said Scelzi, complimenting the winner. “The car felt good, it just took me too long to get going. I started running the bottom of three and four a little harder and moved to the top of one and two. It was just a phenomenal racetrack. I love coming here and the fans are awesome. This is definitely a home racetrack for me and I want to win this one bad.”
“You almost don’t want to win these prelim nights, because it means you may not have qualified well,” said Reutzel. “We qualified good, got to second in our heat, and started seventh and ran third. That’s a really good points night. That’s what it’s all about for Saturday. We tried a couple things in the A and we weren’t very good early. All in all, our car is running around well. I’m pumped we got through this and we’re looking forward to Saturday.”
The 32nd Annual Knoxville 360 Nationals presented by Great Southern Bank continues Thursday night, August 5 with Mid-Am Building Supply Qualifying Night #2! For more information, visit or check Knoxville Raceway’s website at www.KnoxvilleRaceway.com or on Facebook and Twitter.
(Points Below Results)
32nd Annual 360 Knoxville Nationals Presented by Great Southern Bank Night #1 Results
Time Trials (Qualifying Order), 2 laps: 1. 17W, Shane Golobic, Fremont, CA (6), 16.299; 2. 3P, Sawyer Phillips, Pleasantville, IA (2), 16.332; 3. 83H, Justin Henderson, Tea, SD (11), 16.349; 4. 8, Aaron Reutzel, Clute, TX (20), 16.491; 5. 3, Ayrton Gennetten, Gravois Mills, MO (14), 16.577; 6. 75AU, Tyler Blank, California, MO (1), 16.657; 7. 95, Matt Covington, Glenpool, OK (3), 16.658; 8. 71, Cory Eliason, Visalia, CA (39), 16.700; 9. 15H, Sam Hafertepe Jr., Sunnyvale, TX (12), 16.733; 10. 22X, Riley Goodno, Knoxville, IA (7), 16.757; 11. 18, Gio Scelzi, Fresno, CA (24), 16.767; 12. 24W, Garet Williamson, Kingdom City, MO (42), 16.774; 13. 21K, Thomas Kennedy, Winnipeg, MB, Can. (23), 16.778; 14. 88, Austin McCarl, Altoona, IA (28), 16.786; 15. 36, Jason Martin, Liberal, KS (16), 16.791; 16. 09, Matt Juhl, Tea, SD (17), 16.799; 17. 9, Chase Randall, Waco, TX (47), 16.847; 18. 53D, Jack Dover, Springfield, NE (5), 16.893; 19. 14, Corey Day, Clovis, CA (26), 16.958; 20. 20, Anthony Macri, Dillsburg, PA (8), 16.997; 21. 55T, McKenna Haase, Des Moines, IA (32), 16.998; 22. 26, Zeb Wise, Angola, IN (41), 17.010; 23. 11M, Parker Price-Miller, Kokomo, IN (50), 17.078; 24. 5A, Alex Vande Voort, Knoxville, IA (22), 17.079; 25. 45X, Kyler Johnson, Quinter, KS (4), 17.093; 26. 44, Chris Martin, Ankeny, IA (19), 17.100; 27. 91, Kyle Reinhardt, Neptune City, NJ (27), 17.102; 28. 23, Devon Dobie, Wapakoneta, OH (10), 17.130; 29. 10P, Dylan Postier, Stillwater, OK (13), 17.147; 30. 7C, Devin Kline, Knoxville, IA (25), 17.165; 31. 7M, Chance Morton, Coweta, OK (36), 17.191; 32. 70, Calvin Landis, Knoxville, IA (37), 17.203; 33. 17, Matt Allen, Adel, IA (18), 17.243; 34. 26H, Scott Bogucki, McLaren Vale, SA, Aust. (48), 17.259; 35. 13V, Seth Brahmer, Wisner, NE (21), 17.274; 36. 9G, Ryan Giles, Grimes, IA (49), 17.291; 37. 53, Joe Beaver, Knoxville, IA (38), 17.342; 38. 35, Skylar Prochaska, Lakefield, MN (51), 17.361; 39. 24N, Nathan Mills, Bondurant, IA (43), 17.423; 40. 45, Rusty Hickman, Bendigo, VIC, Aust. (29), 17.494; 41. 22W, Aaron Werner, Colman, SD (15), 17.525; 42. 2, Alex Pettas, Tempe, AZ (9), 17.537; 43. 55B, Brandon Anderson, Glenpool, OK (44), 17.570; 44. 22, Ryan Leavitt, Knoxville, IA (46), 17.842; 45. 4H, Cody Hansen, Nunda, SD (40), 17.862; 46. 19, Wes Wofford, Alamogordo, NM (30), 17.871; 47. 6C, Logan Calderwood, Goodyear, AZ (33), 17.984; 48. 9M, Ricky Montgomery, Denver, CO (31), 18.071; 49. 10, Landon Britt, Memphis, TN (35), 18.159; 50. 42, Sye Lynch, Apollo, PA (45), NT / 51. 2P, Chase Porter, St. Joseph, MO (34), NT.
Heat one (started), 8 Laps, 2:18.8: 1. Gio Scelzi (4); 2. Chris Martin (1); 3. Matt Juhl (3); 4. McKenna Haase (2) / 5. Ryan Giles (8); 6. Tyler Blank (5); 7. Chance Morton (7); 8. Wes Wofford (10) / 9. Aaron Werner (9); 10. Shane Golobic (6)
Heat two (started), 8 Laps, NT: 1. Chase Randall (3); 2. Zeb Wise (2); 3. Kyle Reinhardt (1); 4. Garet Williamson (4) / 5. Matt Covington (5); 6. Joe Beaver (8); 7. Calvin Landis (7); 8. Logan Calderwood (10) / 9. Alex Pettas (9); 10. Sawyer Phillips (6)
Heat three (started), 8 Laps, 2:20.1: 1. Parker Price-Miller (2); 2. Thomas Kennedy (4); 3. Cory Eliason (5); 4. Justin Henderson (6) / 5. Skylar Prochaska (8); 6. Jack Dover (3); 7. Devon Dobie (1); 8. Brandon Anderson (7) / 9. Ricky Montgomery (9) DNS – 10. Matt Allen
Heat four (started), 8 Laps, 2:20.2: 1. Corey Day (3); 2. Aaron Reutzel (6); 3. Sam Hafertepe Jr. (5); 4. Alex Vande Voort (2) / 5. Austin McCarl (4); 6. Dylan Postier (1); 7. Scott Bogucki (7); 8. Nathan Mills (8) / 9. Ryan Leavitt (9); 10. Landon Britt (10)
Heat five (started), 8 Laps, 2:23.5: 1. Devin Kline (1); 2. Ayrton Gennetten (6); 3. Jason Martin (4); 4. Anthony Macri (3) / 5. Kyler Johnson (2); 6. Riley Goodno (5); 7. Rusty Hickman (8); 8. Sye Lynch (10) / 9. Seth Brahmer (7); 10. Cody Hansen (9)
C main (started), 8 Laps, 2:25.3: 1. Ryan Leavitt (3); 2. Seth Brahmer (2); 3. Aaron Werner (1); 4. Alex Pettas (4) / 5. Cody Hansen (6); 6. Ricky Montgomery (5) DNS – 7. Shane Golobic; 8. Sawyer Phillips; 9. Matt Allen 10. Landon Britt 11. Chase Porter
B main (started), 12 Laps, 3:40.9: 1. Austin McCarl (4); 2. Matt Covington (2); 3. Jack Dover (5); 4. Riley Goodno (3) / 5. Skylar Prochaska (14); 6. Tyler Blank (1); 7. Chance Morton (9); 8. Devon Dobie (7); 9. Rusty Hickman (16); 10. Kyler Johnson (6); 11. Ryan Leavitt (21); 12. Dylan Postier (8); 13. Brandon Anderson (17); 14. Sye Lynch (20); 15. Seth Brahmer (22); 16. Logan Calderwood (19); 17. Aaron Werner (23); 18. Wes Wofford (18); 19. Scott Bogucki (11); 20. Alex Pettas (24); 21. Nathan Mills (15); 22. Ryan Giles (12); 23. Calvin Landis (10); 24. Joe Beaver (13)
A main, 20 Laps, NT: 1. Sam Hafertepe Jr. (4); 2. Gio Scelzi (3); 3. Aaron Reutzel (7); 4. Garet Williamson (2); 5. Thomas Kennedy (1); 6. Ayrton Gennetten (6); 7. Chase Randall (11); 8. Matt Juhl (10); 9. Cory Eliason (5); 10. Parker Price-Miller (16); 11. Anthony Macri (13); 12. Austin McCarl (21); 13. Justin Henderson (8); 14. Zeb Wise (15); 15. Corey Day (12); 16. Jason Martin (9); 17. Riley Goodno (24); 18. Chris Martin (18); 19. Matt Covington (22); 20. Kyle Reinhardt (19); 21. Devin Kline (20); 22. McKenna Haase (14); 23. Jack Dover (23); 24. Alex Vande Voort (17). Lap Leaders: Kennedy 1-6, Hafertepe Jr. 7-20. Hard-charger: A. McCarl.
Thursday Points
| 1 | 8 | Aaron Reutzel | 487 |
| 2 | 3 | Ayrton Gennetten | 479 |
| 3 | 15H | Sam Hafertepe Jr. | 478 |
| 4 | 18 | Gio Scelzi | 478 |
| 5 | 21K | Thomas Kennedy | 465 |
| 6 | 71 | Cory Eliason | 464 |
| 7 | 24W | Garet Williamson | 463 |
| 8 | 83H | Justin Henderson | 463 |
| 9 | 9 | Chase Randall | 456 |
| 10 | 09 | Matt Juhl | 450 |
| 11 | 88 | Austin McCarl | 440 |
| 12 | 95 | Matt Covington | 440 |
| 13 | 11M | Parker Price-Miller | 438 |
| 14 | 14 | Corey Day | 436 |
| 15 | 36 | Jason Martin | 436 |
| 16 | 22X | Riley Goodno | 435 |
| 17 | 20 | Anthony Macri | 433 |
| 18 | 26 | Zeb Wise | 429 |
| 19 | 75AU | Tyler Blank | 415 |
| 20 | 44 | Chris Martin | 413 |
| 21 | 55T | McKenna Haase | 409 |
| 22 | 53D | Jack Dover | 407 |
| 23 | 91 | Kyle Reinhardt | 404 |
| 24 | 7C | Devin Kline | 402 |
| 25 | 5A | Alex Vande Voort | 399 |
| 26 | 45X | Kyler Johnson | 372 |
| 27 | 23 | Devon Dobie | 364 |
| 28 | 17W | Shane Golobic | 361 |
| 29 | 7M | Chance Morton | 360 |
| 30 | 10P | Dylan Postier | 357 |
| 31 | 3P | Sawyer Phillips | 357 |
| 32 | 35 | Skylar Prochaska | 356 |
| 33 | 45 | Rusty Hickman | 338 |
| 34 | 13V | Seth Brahmer | 330 |
| 35 | 26H | Scott Bogucki | 330 |
| 36 | 9G | Ryan Giles | 326 |
| 37 | 70 | Calvin Landis | 326 |
| 38 | 55B | Brandon Anderson | 321 |
| 39 | 22 | Ryan Leavitt | 320 |
| 40 | 53 | Joe Beaver | 317 |
| 41 | 22W | Aaron Werner | 314 |
| 42 | 24N | Nathan Mills | 313 |
| 43 | 6C | Logan Calderwood | 307 |
| 44 | 2 | Alex Pettas | 306 |
| 45 | 42 | Sye Lynch | 305 |
| 46 | 19 | Wes Wofford | 305 |
| 47 | 17 | Matt Allen | 293 |
| 48 | 4H | Cody Hansen | 277 |
| 49 | 9M | Ricky Montgomery | 272 |
| 50 | 10 | Landon Britt | 259 |
| 51 | 2P | Chase Porter | 230 |