Though Gravel had momentarily taken the lead from Dobmeier off Turn 2, the yellow reset the field back to the last competed lap, putting Dobmeier back to the point and setting the stage for a potentially torrid battle out front.
However, the restart saw Dobmeier dart out to a near one-second lead again, with a sluggish start for the CJB Motorsports No. 5 seeming to dash his chances for victory as the track cleared for Dobmeier.
Traffic with nine to go began to play into the hands of Gravel, and one rotation later Gravel was right back on the bumper of the No. 13JT for the top spot.
Once Gravel seized the point on the backstretch with seven to go, he never looked back, showcasing his dominance as he drove away over the final laps to a dominant 3.413-second victory over Brian Brown.
Brown’s quest to avenge his three runner-up finishes in the Nationals finale may have seen him finish as the bridesmaid to Gravel on Thursday, but the Missouri native said he feels confident about his chances to change that statistic come Saturday night.
“I’m just proud to be standing here (on the podium),” said a relieved Brown. “I could name five or six times throughout this night that I should have been on the hook.”
“From the C-Main last year to now, here we are with another opportunity to win another Knoxville Nationals. We’ve put ourselves in position … now it’s time to see what Saturday brings. Just awesome to be standing on the podium with these guys and we’ll see what happens.”
Dobmeier faded to third in the closing stages after leading the first 18 laps, followed by Ian Madsen and Daryn Pittman.
Wayne Johnson, Terry McCarl, Danny Dietrich, Spencer Bayston and Rico Abreu completed the top 10.
Gravel was the night’s fast qualifier with a lap of 15.072 seconds, and also charged from eighth to win the first heat race. Chris Martin, Thomas Kennedy, Dale Blaney and Josh Baughman also won heat races.
Lee Jacobs led all 10 laps of the C-Main to take the win, while Max McGhee slowed from the fourth and final transfer spot with four laps complete, allowing Wade Nygaard to capitalize and tag the tail of the B.
Rico Abreu took the lead on a lap two restart from Justin Henderson and went on to win the 12-lap B-Main, leading Justin Henderson, Trey Starks and Jason Sides into the main event.
The 5-hour Energy Knoxville Nationals continues Friday with the ‘Hard Knox’ non-qualifiers program, locking in positions 17 through 20 for Saturday’s championship feature, as well as the SPEED SPORT World Challenge.
Full race results can be viewed on the next page…
