Matt Covington made his 2nd trip to the Knoxville 360 Nationals a interesting and memorable one. Matt choose the Thursday night draw for his preliminary qualifying night. Matt was able to get a good qualifying spot and bring the Covington Motorsports Wesmar powered Maxim home 4th in qualifying session.This would start Matt 6th, outside row three for the heat. Matt was able to pass a car before settling in to run 5th in the heat. This however would put Matt in the B-Main as he would miss the invert for the feature by one spot. Matt was able to jump out front and lead the B-Main till the last lap were he would get passed and come home 2nd to secure a starting position in the nights A-Main. All Matt would need is a solid top-15 run to secure a spot in Saturday nights A-main. In the end it would not be possible as Matt would jump a left-rear tire of a slowing race car entering turn 1 and begin a serious of flips that would destroy the primary race car for the weekend. Matt and the team would have to settle for 23rd and the 10th highest point total for the night, and see were that landed them for the total run down after Friday's preliminary feature.
After bring down the spare car Matt would learn that his point total would start him outside row two for Saturday night's B-Main. The Knoxville track crew did an amazing job preparing the track for all the racing action on Saturday night. Before the C-Main the Covington Motorsports team would have a chance to hot-lap and prepare for the nights B-Main. Matt would have to fight a tight race car in hot-laps due to track still being a little on the heavy side. As the 360's C-Main and 410's B-Main worked the track over, the track would start to come in and work into the Covington Motorsports team's favor. As the green flag fell in the B-Main Matt would roll the top and shoot from row 2 to take the lead coming off of turn 4 and never look back as Matt would win the B-Main. This would be a big sigh of relief for Matt and the team after a long emotional up and down last few days. The B-Main win would put Matt in this years Knoxville 360 National A-Feature event.
With a quick turn around Matt and the team would push out for what hope to be a promising A-Main. Matt would sit back and ride the first few laps hoping to let the field sort out before he would jump on the top and begin his pursuit to the front. After a few laps into the race Matt would jump back to the top and start picking off cars one by one on the high side. This promising run would be cut short as fellow racer Dustin Daggett would get caught up in the turn 1 fence and loose his left rear tire spinning his car out. Matt would try hard to get on the brakes and avoid contact. This would be difficult and not possible as Matt would be wide open and on the gas and running the top. Matt would slide into Daggett, the damage and end result would be a end to a disappointing night that started out with great promise and hope. This would be extremely tough on Matt has he sit out watching the rest of feature event knowing he had a top-ten car to work through the field with.
All in all it was an up and down weekend that ended on a positive note. Matt was able to gain much needed experience and make the A-Main at the biggest race and feature event of the year. This would also come against the toughest field of the year with over 110+ entries. Up next is the ASCS Sooner regional races at Oklahoma City and Lawton. The Covington Motorsports Team is shooting for a strong showing to gain ground on the Sooner Region championship. Matt will continue with the ASCS Sooner region and filling in other races when time permits. Matt is still sitting 2nd in ASCS Sooner points and hopes to close that gap in the last few races this year. Stay in tune with Matt through the team website, www.mattcovington95.com and a very special thanks goes out to T&L Foundry, C.G. Martin Company, Motorsports Trailers, Pro Shocks, Keizer Wheels, Butler Built Race Seats, Maxim Racing Chassis, Simpson Race Products and Schoenfeld Headers
- administrator on Aug 12, 2009
- Article Date: 8/12/2009