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https://www.knoxvilleraceway.com/Article/2249/trey-starks-wins-his-first-at-knoxville-on-night-1-of-nos-energy-drink-knoxville-nationals-presented-by-caseys-general-stores

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Good run for the 44 team - they needed a bounce of fortune and couldn't have found a better way to do it. 

Also, in before the annual format discussion. It's fine. It consistently rewards the fastest drivers and that's why you pnly have a handful of surprise winners in the past 30 years. 

" It consistently rewards the fastest drivers"....? how do you figure that? 

Starks timed 15th fastest & finished 4th in his heat, but somehow got to start 4th in the A

I don't get it

 I know, we debate this every year...

I ask this question every year. cause they don't explain it the the "Format" section of webpage...

How do they line up the Feature?

Dobmeir timed 23 fastest & finished 3rd in his heat, but started on the pole for feature

How does this "reward the fastest drivers"?????

Because the goal isn't necessarily to get the best cars to the front on the prelim night, it's to get the best cars to the front on Saturday night.

Oops, missed this on the webpage: "The invert for the A Main is eight"

So Schatz will probably be in the B Saturday & Larson will be in the C, or maybe even lower?

20 cars qualify through heats, top 8 are inverted by time.

Maybe better wording is that it rewards the consistently fastest drivers. 

I'm just glad that non qualifiers get to start from scratch Friday

Now THAT is a brilliant idea

That's assuming they were fastest, which was not the case tonight. 

Larson qualified ninth and passed a total of one car in his heat and the B. 

Schatz qualified tenth, passed one car in his heat, changed the bullet and was better in the B and A, but not fast enough to recover from his earlier struggles. 

Compare with Tim Kaeding - 3rd quick, 8th to fifth in his heat, won the B, and 10th to 21st in the A, and finished second in points. 

Aaron Reutzel figured out a way to make it work. So did Paul McMahan. Just because the 15 and 57 are favorites coming doesn't mean they don't have to earn their way in.

Format is fine.

Inverts are fine.

The draw for 50 cars timing is what can mess with things. Draw late and put down a solid lap might be 25th fast, draw early and put down a solid lap that lap might hold top 10. 

Point format rewards quick time and high feature finishes. It was tough luck for those drivers that started outside the top 3/4 rows in the B.

Format didn’t bother Reutzel, Kaeding and McMahon

Yes. Where's the problem? They weren't fast enough tonight to place any better. If they were as fast as you say they were, they wouldn't be in the position they are in.

A lot of truth in this post. I've seen the track get better before with qualifying as well, but it can vary a lot with this many cars. The invert should fix that in theory, given if you draw the wrong side of the pill and lay down a relatively solid lap on a slower track, you should start higher up in your heat. 

Point format rewards being fast every time you're on the track. No way to sandbag this format. 

Rewards the slightly above average to the low end of fast consistently. How anyone can say it rewards anything fast but qualifying time is idiotic.

I think there is some other issues with the format. That being said, it does tend to make for a good show and the format isn’t fubar’ed to the point of completely screwing drivers. I just wish they would stop touting the format as rewarding fast. They do it for entertainment value which is perfectly fine.

The format is shit, old, and rewards shit qualifiers. An invert of 4 is enough. This is the year 2019. To get through you need more luck than skill. 

Assuming the heat winners take spots 1 to 5 in the A and 2nd place fill 6 to 10, perhaps they should invert 10. All they are doing is getting 2nds in front of 1sts. With the 8 car invert 2 second place finishers dont get that advantage..

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care what most of you think!

So I’ll throw it out there, my dark horse pick is Reutzel and if anyone has read my posts or comments over the years knows more times than not he's apart of them. Im biased to the guy, I live in his home town.

With that said.

I was stoked to see him finish second quick in that field. I'm not a fan of the ASCoC inverting the top four and I'm not a fan of the Nat's inversion of the top 8. But it is what it is. Reutzel and McMahan were the only two out of the top 8 that made it to the main from the heats. Not sure how much of that was luck other than the pill they drew for time trials.

So yes, there is some luck involved, but ultimately the driver and crew have to have their shit together. As SprintFan16 said "The goal is to get their car to the front of the field Saturday".

A lot of good racing last night !! The B main line up was more like a A main !! It was great to see Trey Starks not only win the opening night, but make it to the big show !! Can't wait for tonight !!!

I would say barring some really bad luck the best 8 or 10 teams find a way in with the foremat as it is. Say for example 100 cars, the best ten usually get in. The bottom thirty or so are just that with a few excetions for bad luck. the 60 between them need as much luck with falling in the right place with foremat as skill. When eight of the top ten qualifiers don't make it through the heats something is wrong. This not the 70's or 80's when there was a lot of difference in the cars. Every one always asks who is coming from where. This why other coming for a year or so just to say they were there many who people think should go don't. The idea that there many chances to make money will not change that because I bet there won't be ten teams that pay for their trip out of their winnings.

They will just have to see where they end up in points after tonight. Only the top 16 in combined points from last night and tonight will make the A main Saturday. So if they start too far back in the B or end up in the C, they will say fuck it and run the last chance show on Friday ....

Last night's race was really frustrating.  With a track the way it was last night the format didn't fit.  On a track like Knoxville normally is the format works better but I still think an invert of 8 is too much.