Lynton Jeffrey Finishes Fifth in Hard Knox Night A-Main With Missing Shock

KNOXVILLE, IA — Lynton Jeffrey‘s journey to Friday’s Hard Knox Night A-Main at Knoxville Raceway was relatively straightforward after finishing second in his heat race. But to finish fifth at night’s end required some good luck for the Australian racer.

Jeffrey’s right-rear shock fell off the No. 2X machine early in the night’s 25-lap feature and that made the rest of his night just a bit more difficult.

“I busted it on the third lap just before that restart and just broke it off, really,” Jeffrey said. “Just kind of tough to drive these things with four shocks on them, so when you’ve got three it’s really not that easy. So I don’t know.

“I think these guys had a tremendous car for me and I’m really proud of all my guys and what we did and you know what, we’re going to go home with fifth tonight. It’s a tough field and to run top five out of 75 cars, it’s a really big accomplishment in this kind of race.”

Jeffrey finished third on the road in his heat race but that became second after original second place finisher Jack Dover failed to go to the scales after the heat. That promoted Donny Schatz from fourth to third, advancing the 11-time Knoxville Nationals Champion into the A-Main.

Because of the invert format of the three drivers advancing from each heat race to the final race of the evening, that move put Schatz on pole position for an A-Main that the North Dakota native would eventually win over Logan Schuchart, Justin Henderson and Emerson Axsom.

All four drivers will occupy the final four starting positions in the 24-car field for Saturday night’s 50-lap A-Main that pays $190,000 to win. Fifth-place finisher Jeffrey will start 11th in the B-Main, behind the top 10 drivers locked into the B-Main based on preliminary night points.

If Jeffrey can make it into fourth place, it’ll rival what he did in 2016 when he got to the final transfer spot from 10th starting position before losing that spot near the end of the race to Schuchart.

“Logan got me with a couple of laps to go, so it was his first ever A-Main and we were excited and happy for him, but I missed out again, so hopefully I can get myself up in there tomorrow night and get in another A-Main, it’ll be my fourth one,” Jeffrey said.