Morning Rain Leads To Format Change For Hard Knox Night

A wet Knoxville Raceway Friday morning. (Bill Vanselow photo)

By Jacob Seelman, SWN News Editor

KNOXVILLE, Iowa (Aug. 15, 2026) – Morning rainfall has created the latest wild storyline during the 65th NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s.

Due to the extended inclement weather, a format adjustment has been made to both the FVP Hard Knox Night program and to the lineups for championship day at The Grandaddy of Them All.

The top 20 in qualifying points, up from the originally planned top 16, have now been locked into Saturday night’s $200,000-to-win, 50-lap finale A-Main. In addition, positions 21 through 40 in points are locked into the Saturday B-Main and points slots 41 to 50 are locked into the Saturday C-Main.

Drivers from 51st through 96th in points will compete in a slimmed-down Hard Knox program, where qualifying-night points will be used to set the heat-race lineups and the feature winner will start 11th in the Saturday C-Main.

Hot laps for the adjusted Hard Knox program have been pushed back to noon Central time, with grandstand gates planned to open one hour prior to cars getting on the half-mile black dirt oval at the Marion County Fairgrounds.

The format changes lock Austin McCarl, Brent Marks, Tanner Thorson, and Jace Park into the championship finale for the 65th Knoxville Nationals.

They also put Pennsylvania’s Sye Lynch on the pole of the Saturday night B-Main, which will go 22 laps and lock the top four into positions 21 through 24 of the Nationals finale.

One storyline driver majorly hampered by the changes is defending Knoxville Nationals champion and recent 360 Knoxville Nationals winner Ryan Timms, who goes from having a direct path into the Saturday feature through Hard Knox Night to now having to race through both the C-Main and B-Main if he wants to defend his 2025 crown.

Timms ended up 41st in points due to a myriad of issues on his preliminary night, highlighted by fuel bladder issues that nearly kept him from starting the Wednesday feature at all and forced him to pull in after just two of 25 laps. He’ll start from the pole of the 15-lap C-Main in the championship program.

Other big names of note now buried include Donny Schatz, who is aiming for his 28th straight Knoxville Nationals Saturday A-Main start; and Gio Scelzi, who has never missed the championship feature in seven prior Knoxville Nationals appearances.

Schatz was 58th in points after his preliminary night and Scelzi 60th in the points rundown. Both will compete in the shortened Hard Knox program and look to line up – at best – in row six of the C-Main for the Saturday-night festivities.

Below is a reminder of the preliminary-night points rundown and how it breaks into lineups under the adjusted format:

A-Main Lock-Ins

1. 57-Kyle Larson, 485
2. 18-Sheldon Haudenschild, 481
3. 21T-James McFadden, 478
4. 4-Kasey Kahne, 477
5. 83-Michael Kofoid, 469
6. 11-Justin Henderson, 463
7. 71-Parker Price Miller, 461
8. 69K-Daryn Pittman, 461
9. 23D-Chase Dietz, 460
10. 2-David Gravel, 460
11. 14TSR-Rico Abreu, 460
12. 1S-Logan Schuchart, 459
13. 23-Garet Williamson, 458
14. 2C-Cole Macedo, 457
15. 14-Corey Day, 457
16. 21-Brian Brown, 457
17. 88W-Austin McCarl, 456
18. 19-Brent Marks, 452
19. 88T-Tanner Thorson, 451
20. 28-Jace Park, 443

B-Main

21. 42-Sye Lynch, 443
22. 27A-Emerson Axsom, 440
23. 17B-Bill Balog, 431
24. 7BC-Tyler Courtney, 428
25. 87-Aaron Reutzel, 427
26. 41-Carson Macedo, 426
27. 1TZ-Tasker Phillips, 426
28. 17-Spencer Bayston, 422
29. 25-Jy Corbet, 421
30. 3P-Sawyer Phillips, 416
31. 13-Tanner Holmes, 416
32. 1X-Scott Bogucki, 415
33. 74-Xavier Doney, 414
34. 6T-Zach Hampton, 413
35. 48-Danny Dietrich, 412
36. 16C-Skylar Gee, 411
37. 44-Chris Martin, 410
38. 15K-Creed Kemenah, 407
39. 19HM-Kaleb Johnson, 407
40. 24D-Danny Sams III, 406

C-Main

41. 10-Ryan Timms, 406
42. 55-Kerry Madsen, 404
43. 26-Justin Peck, 403
44. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, 402
45. 9R-Chase Randall, 402
46. 9P-Daison Pursley, 401
47. 22-Riley Goodno, 400
48. 21H-Brady Bacon, 400
49. 53-Jack Dover, 395
50. 49-Josh Schneiderman, 390

Hard Knox Drivers (points rundown sets heat-race lineups)

51. 27-Carson McCarl, 389
52. 24T-Christopher Thram, 388
53. 51-Steven Snyder Jr, 388
54. 17GP-Brock Zearfoss, 386
55. 45X-Rees Moran, 385
56. 3-Ayrton Gennetten, 384
57. 11N-Darin Naida, 384
58. 15-Donny Schatz, 381
59. 6-Kasey Jedrzejek, 379
60. 77-Giovanni Scelzi, 378
61. 9-Matt Juhl, 372
62. 5-Brenham Crouch, 370
63. 40-Clint Garner, 370
64. 12X-Landon Crawley, 370
65. 31-Cale Thomas, 367
66. 7S-Chris Windom, 361
67. 45D-Derek Hagar, 358
68. 2KS-Hank Davis, 356
69. 85J-Logan Julien, 354
70. 17A-Jack Anderson, 349
71. 0-Lynton Jeffrey, 348
72. 33W-Cap Henry, 344
73. 26R-Levi Hillier, 344
74. 87X-Ashton Torgerson, 344
75. 28M-Conner Morrell, 341
76. 4W-Jamie Ball, 333
77. 121-R.J. Johnson, 330
78. 95-Matt Covington, 327
79. 1-Sammy Swindell, 323
80. 4C-Cameron Martin, 318
81. 1K-Kelby Watt, 317
82. 15JR-Cole Mincer, 317
83. 6DC-Will Armitage, 315
84. 23L-Jimmy Light, 310
85. 15J-Kade Higday, 309
86. 8-John Carney II, 307
87. 2M-J.J. Hickle, 302
88. 19H-Joel Myers Jr, 301
89. 7B-Ben Brown, 300
90. 11R-Rodney Huband, 294
91. 27B-Garrett Benson, 285
92. 16G-Austyn Gossel, 280
93. 44X-Scotty Johnson, 274
94. G5-Gage Pulkrabek, 269
95. 14T-Brooke Tatnell, 267
96. 56-Joe Simbro, 263