By Bill Wright

KNOXVILLE — Donny Schatz charged from the fourth row to earn victory on BRANDT Professional Agriculture Qualifying Night #1 of the 62nd NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals Presented by Casey’s Wednesday night. The Fargo, North Dakota driver is an eleven-time winner of the Knoxville Nationals, but those victories were never preceded by a preliminary win. He’s hoping to change that on Saturday. His win Wednesday was worth $12,000 aboard the Tony Stewart Racing #15. Schatz also was the high point driver on a night that saw many of the fastest cars in qualifying fail to transfer through their heat. Hunter Schuerenberg, Kerry Madsen, Gio Scelzi and Corey Day rounded out the top five in points (full points below).

Blake Hahn shot from his pole position in the 25-lap feature to lead early over Dustin Selvage, Chase Randall, Madsen and Schuerenberg. Randall and Madsen both shot by Selvage on lap two for second and third, while Schuerenberg followed them into fourth on the next lap. Sheldon Haudenschild started outside row six, but was into the top five by lap four. Schatz had to repass Haudenschild on lap nine using the low side, and then claimed fourth from Schuerenberg on lap ten. Hahn entered lapped traffic at that point, while Haudenschild re-enterd the top five on lap 13.

Justin Peck was on a roll and had a run at Haudenschild on lap 17 when he made contact with his right rear and took a wicked ride down the frontstretch with eight laps to go. Peck climbed out of the car.

Hahn led Randall, Madsen, Schatz and Haudenschild back to green. Randall dogged the leader and slid in front of him in turn four to lead lap 18. Schatz followed him by Hahn to claim second on lap 19. Schatz reeled in Randall slowly, passing him once, only to have Randall shoot back by him.

On lap 22, Schatz executed a slider in turn three and claimed the point for good. Randall followed him to the checkers, followed by Haudenschild, who grabbed third with two to go, Madsen and Hahn. Sye Lynch, Schuerenberg, Selvage, Brandon Wimmer and Gio Scelzi completed the top ten. David Gravel set quick time on the 52-car field, but suffered a setback in his heat. That sent him to the C. He won that, but was mired deep in the B main, which was won by Scelzi. Brady Bacon, Haudenschild, Justin Henderson, Lynch and Carson McCarl won heat races.

“We used to be really good in the prelims, and not as good on Saturday,” said Schatz in Victory Lane of his first prelim win in 20 years. “We kind of took the emphasis off that. I think being in the fifth heat was really key to getting though there. The more you run, the more the track widens out, and it was good all night. You just kind of go where they’re not. That’s kind of what I did on the restart. When the tires cycle through the heat a little bit, a little better car shines a little bit. I could make the bottom work, make the middle work, it’s tricky. You’ve got to be patient. I knew I was in a good spot. We came out of here with a decent point night and we’ll see how it goes.”

“It was just frustrating,” said Randall of his near miss. “We’ve been working so hard to stand up here every week. I feel like we’re getting close. We’re on the biggest stage of the year this week, and it just stinks. Being a rookie, I just want to succeed so well. I feel like we had one of the best cars here. I felt good really early on, and we got to him right before that red came out. That kind of messed me up, but I’m really happy about how we did. I wasn’t trying to make it easy on (Schatz). I was just trying to race my butt off. I want to be where they are. It just takes time. We’ll get better, and be there on Saturday.”

“(Kyle) Ripper had the car really good for the feature,” said Haudenschild of his crew chief. “I got a good start, and the first couple, three laps, passed quite a few cars there. I knew once I got by Donny, I needed to keep him back there. I got hung up on the 39 car, and Donny was able to get by and gap us. All in all, it was a good night. That was a really fun feature. It was the best I’ve felt in my car here in a long time.”

Wednesday Points

1 15 Donny Schatz 479
2 39 Hunter Schuerenberg 462
3 55 Kerry Madsen 459
4 18 Gio Scelzi 458
5 14 Corey Day 458
6 2KS Chase Randall 449
7 13 Justin Peck 449
8 83 James McFadden 447
9 9 Kasey Kahne 446
10 7TAZ Tasker Phillips 437
11 7W Dustin Selvage 435
12 17 Sheldon Haudenschild 434
13 42 Sye Lynch 434
14 52 Blake Hahn 429
15 4W Jamie Ball 416
16 7TW Brandon Wimmer 415
17 10L Scott Bogucki 414
18 19 Brent Marks 412
19 21H Brady Bacon 408
20 21T Cole Macedo 403
21 2 David Gravel 403
22 1X Jake Bubak 401
23 22 Riley Goodno 399
24 1 Justin Henderson 394
25 39M Justin Sanders 392
26 7S Robbie Price 382
27 83T Tanner Carrick 382
28 26 Zeb Wise 381
29 1M Don Droud Jr. 380
30 27 Carson McCarl 380
31 50YR JJ Hickle 379
32 2K Lynton Jeffrey 377
33 9P Parker Price-Miller 373
34 16 Brooke Tatnell 370
35 49X Tim Shaffer 357
36 24T Christopher Thram 350
37 1C Brenham Crouch 344
38 55T McKenna Haase 340
39 1A Chase Dietz 340
40 8 Aaron Reutzel 333
41 91 Kyle Reinhardt 327
42 95 Matt Covington 315
43 70 Kraig Kinser 315
44 17X Terry McCarl 300
45 24H Kade Higday 294
46 13JT Mark Dobmeier 272
47 44 Chris Martin 270
48 2M Davey Heskin 269
49 2KK Kevin Ingle 267
50 15JR Cole Mincer 255
51 37 Ayden Gatewood 238
52 9H Landon Hansen 235