Knoxville, Iowa--the home of some of the greatest sprint car racing in the world.

 We are on site at the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum at Knoxville ready to bring you night by night coverage from the 47th annual SuperClean Knoxville  Nationals.

 The first night of the Nationals kicked off last night with tonight serving as the second qualifying night followed by Friday’s Non Qualifiers night along with the Factory Value Parts World Challenge.

 All of this leads up to the Knoxville Nationals finale on Saturday night.

 The race pays $150,000 to win and will be shown Live on the SPEED Channel beginning at 9pm Central Time.

 Eleven teams from Central Pennsylvania are on hand looking to make it into the biggest sprint car race of the season Saturday night. Eight of the 11 teams were scheduled to compete last night including Greg Hodnett, Lance Dewease, Bob Bennett, Fred Rahmer, Mark Smith, Sean Michael, TJ Stutts and Lucas Wolfe.

 Jeff Shepard, Stevie Smith and Kenny Jacobs are schedule to qualify tonight.

 Knoxville Raceway regular Kaley Gharst leads the Cox Design Southern Iowa Mr. SprintWeek standings following Monday night’s Front Row Challenge at Oskaloosa.

 Gharst won three races during the week at Knoxville which put him well ahead in the Mr. SprintWeek standings.

 Gharst won the Sunday night Brodix Tournament of Champions after taking the lead on the 18th lap and driving away from the field for the $5,000 win. Jeff Mitrisin, Chuck Swenson, Wayne Johnson and Gary Lee Maier were the top five finishers.

 Shane Stewart won Saturday night’s Knoxville 360 Sprint Nationals and the $10,000 payday that went along with it.

 Monday night’s Front Row Challenge at Oskaloosa turned in to be a long night for those in attendance.

 A 20 minute storm in the late afternoon turned into a four hour rain delay but hard work by track crews in getting the track and pit area ready for racing ended the night on a good note.

 Rigs had to be pulled from the pit area into another area at the track for the night while those infield party goers were stuck in inches of mud all night long. It was definitely a time to remember with mud up to people’s knees and then a trip to the local car wash to wash off! Nothing like sharing the car wash with the race cars!

 The car count was down considerably at the FRC most in part due to the weather and Kasey Kahne never turned a competitive lap during the night.

 Rob Chaney piloted the Randy and Lisa Hammer owned No. 24H JEI Chassis to victory in the $5,000 to win event. He took the lead on a lap 15 restart and never looked back.

 Donny Schatz, aboard a brand new JEI Chassis, took the Front Row Challenge, started 25th in the field and was up to seventh on lap 15 when he stopped on the track with mechanical problems.

 We will attempt to bring nightly coverage from the Nationals depending on deadline issues.


WHATS HAPPENING
 Williams Grove returns Friday night with 410 and 358 Sprints while the 358 Sprints are the Friday night headline at Trail-Way Speedway joined by the stock cars.

 Saturday night, the 410 Sprints are back at Lincoln Speedway with the sprints receiving 100 show up points only for the event. The 358 sprints and thundercars are also on the card.

 Port Royal returns to normal Saturday with a regular night of racing featuring the 410 Sprints while the 358 Sprints are back at Selinsgrove.
 The Saturday night Series returns to the Grove for the second straight week with the Sportsman headlining the car while the 358 late models head another Saturday night show at Susquehanna Speedway Park.


PIT STOPS
 Enola driver Bob Howard made a trip to Clinton County Speedway pay off with a Friday night 410 Sprint car victory. The track will be racing 410 Sprints several times a month and Howard plans to be a regular at those shows…

 Coleby Frye debuted his 358 sprint car Friday night at Trail-Way Speedway and then came back to win the late model feature Saturday at Selinsgrove Speedway. Look for Frye to do some more sprint car racing next season in his No. F1...

 Selinsgrove Speedway canceled its Sunday night 410 Sprint and late model program and has rescheduled it for Sunday night, August 26. Only 12 sprints were on hand for the show due to the fact that there were so many races last week and some teams heading for Knoxville. The August 26 show should produce bigger numbers…

 Brian Leppo and the Swope No. 71 sprint car team have picked up KGS Insurance, an Erie Insurance carrier for a sponsor the car for the remainder of the season.  Leppo is currently third in points at Lincoln and ninth at the Grove in his first season with the East Berlin based team….

 There will be no Friday and Saturday reports from Central PA this weekend but all weekend results will appear in Monday’s Racing Roundup column…