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One of my personal favorite things to watch during the greatest week of the year is the battle for the Rookie of the Nationals. It's great to see first-timers head to Nationals for the first time and watching them improve throughout the week. Here is the Knoxville Nationals Rookies Class of 2015!

I’ve ranked my top 5 in order of who I believe is the most likely to take home the award. And then compiled information of the remaining drivers!

1. 83 - Aaron Reutzel - The hotshoe for Dennis Roth this year sits atop the ASCS National Point Standings. The predominately 360 driver made himself a household name in sprint car racing during the Winter Heat, where he was consistently one of the fastest cars and picked up his 1st career 410 win. He backed that up with a strong WoO performance mid-season and then furthered that with a big King of the West win passing former World of Outlaws champion Jason Meyers on the cushion with a late race pass at Tulare. However, Reutzel has not had success at Knoxville in the past struggling through 360 Nationals in the past including an E main appearance. There's no doubt he has improved exponentially and that Roth will have a powerplant underneath him. Between his lack of success at Knoxville and average qualifying skills, it is not guaranteed Reutzel will have great results. It's not even close to a runaway, but I'll still take Reutzel to have a breakout year on the biggest stage of them all to take this award.
2. 29 - Willie Croft - Another King of the West driver. Croft is good, underrated out west and relatively unheard of across the rest of the country. That quickly changed when he ran top 5 in his NSL debut last weekend at I-80. He's doing this week right, getting track time during Capitani, 360 Nationals and local shows before Nationals. Struggled a little bit during his Knoxville start but still qualified well and made the A main. He will only improve and could be formidable come Nationals time. He’s shown speed thus far in his Midwest tour and is likely to keep improving as it continues.
3. 31B - Shane Golobic - A late entry in the Berryman 31B car is yet another California driver. This is the same car that Christopher Bell had no luck in last year. Shane is very talented and very versatile and extremely underrated because of talent pool in California. He has been a hired gun for a range of races in different divisions throughout his young career but this will be his first trip to Knoxville. Highlights include a win against the World of Outlaws a few years back at Antioch and charged from 18th to 8th this year against the WoO at Placerville. The only driver on this list to win a World of Outlaws feature.
4. 31c - Justyn Cox - A dark horse. The California driver has had success at Knoxville in the past when he qualified for the A main of the 2013 360 Nationals. A consistent top 10 car in KWS action out west and I think he qualified for each and every WoO race he ran during the western tour, which is extremely impressive. I think he could definitely surprise people and bring this award back to California for the 2nd consecutive year.
5. 95 Matt Covington – All the ASCS attention will be directed towards Reutzel but Covington sits a strong 5th in the point standings and will get some extra laps during 360 Nationals. Like most ASCS driver, time trials is the biggest challenge and with Nationals being so time trial heavy, it puts a lot of those guys behind. However, also like most ASCS drivers, Matt can drive. Running with a competitive group of racers and cars on a wide variety of tracks only makes you better. Historically, teams running for ASCS points may end up scratching for 410 Nationals if their 360 week doesn't go well, so hopefully we see Matt come Nationals time. 

The rest of the field…

2L - Logan Forler - Resident of Idaho, has extensive experience in 410 and 360 competition on the west coast and has been testing and tuning what seems like a couple of years around the Midwest. Ran portions of Ohio Speedweek this year and was respectable highlighted by a dash start at Sharon. He won't be out of place and if the chips fall the right away, a B main start isn't out of the question. Took a tough tumble last Saturday, so hopefully he is able to compete in the upcoming weeks.

21 - DJ Foos - A rare F.A.S.T entry out of Ohio, DJ has found a home with Coomer Motorsports and has speed this year specifically when I saw him at Atomic during Speedweek. Had track record like speed last week but bad luck riddled the rest of that night. DJ has proved that he can wheel with the stiff Ohio locals, but this weekend will be a learning curve for DJ. His experience on the big tracks, let alone the black gumbo of Knoxville, will the biggest obstacle for him. Look for noticeable improvement each night.  

 55 - Logan Wagner - The Pennsylvania Posse member picked up his 1st career Central Pennsylvania win just last week at Port Royal. Son of veteran Mike Wagner. Logan has indicated and is entered that he will be driving his father's 55 at Nationals rather than his own 7w if enough funding can be put together. The Wagner's have been a staple in the Pennsylvania pit area and Logan is visibly excited to run Knoxville this year. He's far from a top contender at home, but he’s shown that he is here to stay in the 410 division and is visibly improving each night. Knoxville is a whole different animal and Wagner will likely go through some growing pains, but will adapt by the end of the week. 

9P - Parker Price-Miller - A respectable first year on the All-Star tour has him still in the tow money positions in the standings even after falling off the tour a couple weeks back with 1 win on the year. Has added wins in surrounding local Ohio races and recently ran 3rd with the World of Outlaws in Canada in the 67H. PPM is constantly improving with the wing on and his resume in midgets has proven that he is a wheelman. A lack of big track experience will be a challenge, but it’s almost certain he improves every time out throughout the week. Don't forget this name (it's hard to, lol), as he'll be a force, not only in this division, for years to come. 

88N - DJ Netto - Yet another California driver headed to Knoxville and the 2^nd DJ to enter this year. Great to see this many California cars headed to Nationals. This DJ is also gasser and not afraid to go wheel-to-wheel with anyone. I believe DJ has 3 heat wins against the World of Outlaws (I know I've seen him win 2) but all of them were on the California bullrings, which is vastly different than Knoxville. I'm not sure what this week entails for him to be honest, but once again he's doing the trip right by gaining experience through 360 Nationals. He will definitely be a driver to watch. 

7 - JoJo Helberg - The accomplished pavement driver has taken his racing career to the dirt more this year. He's had some outstanding qualifying efforts in regional and WoO races. He's improving in the other facets of dirt racing, but I still think he'll put up a good lap come time trials. God forbid weather issues, but if the track is heavy on qualifying nights, JoJo could be up front in the race for Rookie of the Year because of a good time trial lap. 

9 - Kevin Thomas Jr. - The USAC star is entered for the 2nd consecutive year to compete in the Knoxville Nationals but did not compete last year and ended up as a late scratch. There is no doubt that KT can wheel, but limited experience with a wing on, let alone at Knoxville, will put him behind on his qualifying night. With the new format, if the progress he surely will make is enough he could be in contention on Friday to make some noise in this race for Rookie of the Year. 

25 - Dylan Peterson - The Huset's regular is solid at his home track and qualified for the World of Outlaws race there this year and comfortably sits in the top 10 in points at the famed South Dakota track. As with so many on this list, lack of big track experience will be an uphill battle. Peterson may be down on horsepower, as well, unless they have something up their sleeve. Glad to see Dylan and his team take their program to Nationals.

17M - Todd Mickelson – I don’t know much about Todd other than that he’s a North Dakota native with limited 410 experience on ½ mile tracks. He hasn’t run a WoO race to my knowledge but is looking forward to the experience of racing in the Nationals after years of spectating.

44D - Andy Snider – The Iowa native has seen limited action this year and hasn’t been overly successful when he has ran. He’ll look to improve every night and hope to be respectable come Friday night.

76 Davey Jones – The Western Pennsylvania driver is anything but a rookie but will be making his 1^st trip to Nationals this year. He’s a back-end Western Pennsylvania car and usually puts his equipment away when the World of Outlaws come through. Davey will be there for the experience. Although, it is not fully certain that he will be headed out there unless they can put something together.

Let me know your thoughts/opinions or if I got anything wrong with the above drivers. Obviously, it is likely that not all of these drivers will compete and not out of the question that we see more late entries. 

You forgot to add Glendon Forsythe from Pennsylvania.  And Logan will not be in the 55, but in Wayne Dadettos car.  At least that is what was said Saturday evening.

I believe Forsythe has made an attempt at the Nationals before.  There are 2 other rookies

20n Hunter Schuerenberg who should be interesting to watch as he has really taken to the wing racing this year

56 Ryan Bernal 

Logan will be in the Dadetto 36D on Saturday at Port Royal and then Mike's 55 at Knoxville. 

Correct, GF has ran before.

Dang, knew I missed some, lol. So many rookies this year...

20N - Hunter Schuerenberg - The accomplished wingless driver has shown vast improvement this year in his first extensive year in 410 winged competition. "HunterPercent" runs a Mark Smith Mach 1 chassis and has some strong runs with MOWA in the Midwest. He can adapt quickly and come Friday night, Hunter could be a factor in this race if the progress he makes is substantial. If he continues to go down the winged path, he'll be a force for years to come. 

56 - Ryan Bernal - I know very little about Ryan's 410 experience. I do know he's from Hollister (where my Grandparents live lol). Whenever I go visit them, I've seen him run some Civil War and Ocean Sprint races in 360 competition (so I assume he's planning on running 360 Nationals as well) but I've never had the oppourtunity to see him in a 410. I'm sure someone from the West Coast could give a little more background on him as well as brush up some of the info of the plethora of California drivers listed above. 

Tough to keep track of all these Cali young kids when you live in Pennsylvania  

Ive heard there might be a couple more rookies coming.  One of them is Lance Moss out of NC.

You also forgot about Josh Baughman  #17

Per Knoxvilleraceway.com Josh Baughman isn't a rookie. But I don't recall ever seeing him there. 

Guess i figured anyone that hadnt ran the knoxville nationals in a 410 was a rookie.  Think last year was only his 1st or 2nd time running the 360 nationals.  I know for sure he hasnt ran the 410s tho.

Agree with most of this -- nice write-up (per usual from you on here!).  

I'm not sold on Reutzel, simply because all 3 of his 360 Nationals appearances have started in the E-Main on Sat.  He's run up into the C a couple times, but has been bad enough on his qual night to start his Sat in the E.  He has a few more laps now though at Knoxville... and likely better equipment... but the results haven't been there in the 360 class, let alone 410... which is a different deal altogether.  He should have as good or better equipment of any of the other rookies though, which might be the difference.

Forler, Covington, and Cox (drove Brian Brown's team car in 360 class for a bit one year) have the next most laps... and I would think have the most legitimate shot behind Reutzel to get Rookie of the Nationals.  

FYI - think Baughman is a 410 rookie as well -- EA needs to add him to his list.  He ran the Cappy Classic in 2013, but struggled, and didn't run 410 Nationals.  His best finish in 360 Nationals is the C Main last year.  

Thank you! We are on the same page with Reutzel and I think equipment could be the deciding factor. He has shown significant improvement in his entire racing resume just this year for me to give him the nod for this award. Even so, last year Christopher Bell was the odds on favorite to win the rookie of the year but didn't even end of finishing the week. 

When I saw Baughman during Ohio Speedweek it was mentioned that prior to that week he had little 410 experience (I want to say like 3 races). He looked solid throughout the week which was highlighted for him by quick time over 50 cars at Atomic and then being the hard charger later that night to storm into a top 10 position. He looked just fine around Knoxville last week in the 360 as well. I'd put him in my top 5. 

Sorry guys, all the rookie should be listed on the site now...I'm slacking today I guess...

Add Scott Bogucki...

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Nice report, lots of homework and effort, grade this as an A- if I was at James Madison, lol.....

Was particularly interested if you got where they are from right, lol, great work little A!!!

Thanks for correcting me.  I was working in the pits and just thought they said about Dadettos car for knoxville.  And was not aware Forsythe ran Knoxville before.  Seems stupid to me, that if you can't run against 38 other cars at Williams Grove what makes you think you can stand a chance at Knoxville