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https://www.knoxvilleraceway.com/Article/2250/david-gravel-prevails-on-night-2-of-nos-energy-drink-knoxville-nationals-presented-by-caseys-general-stores

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....but the format

I'd say the format did its job again.

The 41 was super fast. Sweet was really, really good when he could hold the razor thin bottom. Tough luck for Brownie, he looked to have a rocketship before the flat RR.

Pretty stout lineup for Friday. Brown, Stewart, T-Mac, Schuhart, Sammy plus many other very good cars. Also, we'll have to see what the 57 ends up doing.

Looks like a good shot of seeing Schatz starting 17th thru 20th on Saturday. That could be very entertaining.

Kudos to some that have locked it in already - guys like Starks and Juhl who you wouldn't expect. Also very cool to see the 69K put it in the show. Lastly, hard not to be happy for a guy like Brent Marks. I mean, I'm happy for all of them, but Brent really deserves a good run the way he runs the tour with limited help. 

Looking forward to two more great nights.

The format  worked fine.When the track is a liitle too good  everyone is same speed in heats.Tires and an electrical program or engine failure can happen to the best.When tonights program is done the A main will have those that deserve to be there and regardless if Donny can win from 16/20th with Sweet and Gravel getting a head start there shouldnt be one bobird in the stands Knoxville will always be the Sprint Car Capitol of the World and one reason is they have resisted the WOO sanction in favor of a better purse and racing format.Wednesday was the result of hoping to have a great surface all week. 

Is frickin' awesome.   Hopefully the WoO never gets control of the format...

Every year we hear some Boo Birds crabbing about the format of the Knoxville Nationals.   I'm a firm believer that their negative thoughts on the format are in direct correlation to the fact their driver had a shitty qualifying night. 

Format is the best one of the year....leave it alone  

The format is fine but I would like to see them split qualifying into a couple groups.  The lap times went down steadily until fast drivers near the end of qualifying struggled to break the top ten.  Not a big flaw as racing was good which  was apparent even to those of us who listened to audio.  When Johnny gets wound up you know the racing is good.  Planning on the Saturday PPV, this should be a good one.

Stan Meissner

I don't like the format at all. The only way this format could halfway be ok for me is to give the fast qualifiers alot more laps to work with. By inverting 8 these heat races with being the way a track his during heat races need to be al least twice as many laps as the are. Features need to be 5- 10 longer as well. There just isn't enough time to work thier way up.

The heats are already longer than normal. Extending them isn't going to do a damn thing. 

I cannot fathom this. What did the format miss? You can change the it all you want, it's not going to help Larson not being fast in his heat or the B, nor Schatz having a weak bullet.

I don't think the format is perfect, but I don't know if I would have a solution to make it perfect. Maybe only invert to 6?

Problem: The % of cars that make the A main after qualifying from 31-40 is higher than the % of cars that qualify from 1-10. Asking the fastest car on the track to pass 4 cars in a 10 lap heat "feels" unfair. It was very evident on night 1 and stood out for several guys on night 2 as well. Both Pittman and Shaffer had to start 8th and only made it to 5th in their heats. They were both consistently fast in every aspect. They were penalized for qualifying too well and had to come thorugh the B main. Pittman started 22 and passed 12 in the A main. Shaffer started 21 and passed 14 cars. You can't honestly say that they weren't consistently fast. They were.

All this said, the point system helps to correct the perceived problem to a degree. Shaffer ended up 4th in points and Pittman 10th. In terms of the point system it worked fine. I don't see anyone with more points that didn't earn it, and that's what we all want to see is guys earning their position in the Saturday feature. 

I can see why fans don't necessarily like that the structure of who gets to be up front on the Wednesday and Thursday feature, but again the points system does appear to correct that perceived issue. 

Lots of surprises not making at least the B main, but I guess that's to be expected. Wondering how many from this list will run tonight...

Stewart, Brown, Larson, Deitrich, Schuchart

And that's what separates the men from the boys.   Aaron Reutzel didn't have a problem passing cars and getting to the front in his heat on Wednesday.    

We're not "boo birds", just making suggestions.

Knoxville Nationals are great

Even the all knowing "powers that be" have made alterations to the format over the years

Anyone not in the top 26 Will run again tonight if they have a car ready to go.  The slate is wiped clean for all but the a main top 16 and the first 10 of the b main.  Tonight may be the best show of the year.  Around 80 cars going for 4 spots to lock in to back of a for tomorrow. 

I agree on the split qualifying. I think thats the one change I would like to see. It wouldnt alter the inverts or anything else but it would take into account the FACT that often the track is shitty early or late and thereby you're night can be decided by a pill draw. Otherwise I love the format.

Cheers!

I wonder if, after Saturday nights A is over and Schatz will come from the B and win the A, people will be complaining about the format?  

Probably not... until this time next year!

I saw Schatz win from the B a few years back & it was great

Nothing wrong with voicing opinions & making suggestions tho...

10 car invert > 8

8 car invert > 6

and so on... 

If they went to a six car invert or less I’d stop attending the prelim nights as religiously as I do now. The format makes it so you have to pass cars. This format is for the fans, not the drivers, and the good ones STILL lock in every year. Heck we could do the boring WoO format and practically scrap the heats. Don’t get me wrong I love the WoO but their heats now are nearly worthless with great A mains. We could seriously be like nascar and just qualify for starting spots in the main and get the same results. 

I’ll add I wouldn’t mind the B main being 15 laps instead of 12. Heat races being 10 laps is plenty.

I guess if you like seeing half of the A field on the prelim nights being deserving drivers and the other half being guys that got inverted to the front of their heats and were able to hang on, then the format is fine. If you want to see the best 24 in the prelim A mains then the format needs tweeking. The problem is the track is usually too locked down and hard to pass in the heats and that problem has progressively got worse with most of the cars being equal nowadays. WOO heats you earn your spot and have to finish top 2 to make the dash. That makes them at least a little bit entertaining and definitely meaningful.

I get that a lot of fans like the large heat race invert. It's unique and in theory makes the heat racing better provided the track has widened out enough for passing. So why not just take more cars out of the B and start 26 or 28 cars for the A main since so many of the top drivers aren't able to make through the heats anymore? Knoxville's a big enough track and that would be a couple more fast cars to keep an eye on coming through the field in the A.

A