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Rico Parks It Hard on Hard Knox Friday

A year ago, on FVP Hard Knox Friday Night of the 55th Annual Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's General Stores, Bryan Clauson won the non-qualifier feature starting from third position and earned his 17th spot in the A Main the following night. Tonight, it was Rico Abreu who did the same — and he did it for Clauson.

“We just parked it for B.C.,” said Abreu from Victory Lane. “I’ve been waiting to get that one for Bryan. We’ve raced a few times since he passed, and I’ve been waiting to say those words — 'parked it' — which is definitely something he created and now is something that we’re all racing to do. It’s very special, and we’re all racing with heavy hearts.”

With this win, his first ever at Knoxville, Abreu will start seventeeth in the A Main tomorrow night. “This is my fourth season racing with Paul Silva," said Abreu. "He’s built phenomenal race cars. We switched to Eagle [Motorsports | Sprint Car] Chassis this year, and it’s taken a little bit for us to get going, but now I feel like we have a really big head of steam, and we’ve had a lot of accomplishments."

Coming off his Ironman win at Pevely last week, Abreu grabbed the lead in the 5-hour Energy Knoxville Nationals FVP/Speed Sport Night A Main in the first lap and held it all the way through to the end. Behind him, a battle ensued for the remaining three spots between Lucas Wolfe (who started on the pole), Greg Hodnett, Brian Brown, Danny Lasoski and Logan Schuchart.

Lasoski, who had tailed Abreu into second in Lap 1, held his position until Hodnett took it from him in Lap 10 after making his way back up from fifth. Meanwhile, Brown, pushed to fourth when Hodnett passed him in Lap 8, held his position until Lap 21. With Schuchart pushing on him, Brown climbed the wall to avoid Trey Spark’s 23S after a spin. Both Brown and Spark were towed off the field.

On the restart, Wolfe and Schuchart battled for fourth, with Wolfe finally taking it in Lap 23. Hodnett, Lasoski, and Wolfe will take positions 18, 19, and 20 in Saturday’s feature.

Hodnett wasn’t the only Pennsylvania driver to score a win tonight, however. Quicktime in both time trials (A&B) went to Pennsylvania, with Wolfe coming in at 15.096 and Jacob Allen coming in at 15.294. And fifth and sixth positions in the A Main went to Pennsylvania’s Tim Shaffer and Logan Schuchart respectively.

Another big win for the evening went to Kraig Kisner, who won the Speed Sport World Challenge, securing position 25 in Saturday’s championship, along with a check for $10,000.

"Making it to Knoxville Nationals is what every sprint car driver gears up for,” said Kisner. “It makes it tough, a tough deal like tonight. Our non-qualifiers race was brutal.” This is Kisner’s fifth Knoxville win.

The 56th 5-Hour Energy Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's General Stores concludes tomorrow night with a much coveted $150,000 win. To find out more information and to learn how to buy tickets, visit http://www.woosprint.com/knoxville-nationals.

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