Jack Dover put together his best Knoxville Nationals outing since 2021 last week at Knoxville Raceway.

“It definitely had its ups and downs,” he said. “We had Brian Kemenah helping us and I put too much pressure on myself because I didn’t want to let him down. But overall he made our car 20 times better so I’m excited for the future. I’m also grateful for his help and knowledge.”

The Tim Estenson Motorsports driver opened the 64th annual NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s on Thursday by timing in 36th quickest. He then placed second in a heat race to lock into the main event.

“I led the first half of the heat race, but I missed the bottom in turns one and two and then missed it the same lap in turns three and four,” he said. “I made one terrible lap and second place was able to get around us so that cost us the heat race win. We were trying some stuff in the feature so it was more about learning.”

Dover’s 18th-place result in the A Main was his best Knoxville Nationals preliminary night finish since 2017.

The team returned to the track on Friday for Hard Knox Night. Dover was 28th quickest in his group during qualifying before a 10th-place result in a heat race relegated him to the C Main. He won that race before advancing from 19th to 12th in the B Main.

“I was disappointed with time trials because we were the quickest in our group in hot laps,” he said. “That was frustrating, but we had to keep pushing. We got by a couple of cars in the heat race before someone hit our front tire, which flattened it. We got it fixed under a caution and had to restart at the back. That sent us to the C Main, which we were able to win. Considering all we got to do was put fuel in and switch helmets, moving up the amount we did in the B Main was pretty good. I felt really good around the bottom.”

The event concluded on Saturday. Dover finished fifth in the D Main to transfer into the back of the C Main. Unfortunately, a broken part on the front end closed the night early with a 23rd-place finish – his best ending to the event in four years.

Dover plans to race this Friday at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., with the POWRi 410 Outlaw Sprint League and Sunday at Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, S.D. He enters the event on Sunday ranked third in the track’s championship standings – only 71 points out of the lead.

“I’m pretty excited to race at Lakeside, Huset’s, anywhere we’re going,” he said. “We’ve been good at both tracks so hopefully we can have some good results this weekend and the rest of the season.”

QUICK RESULTS –

Aug. 7 – Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa – Qualifying: 36; Heat race: 2 (1); Feature: 18 (16).

Aug. 8 – Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa – Qualifying: 28; Heat race: 10 (10); C Main: 1 (1); B Main: 12 (19).

Aug. 9 – Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa – D Main: 5 (5); C Main: 23 (23).

SEASON STATS –

33 races, 1 win, 12 top fives, 16 top 10s, 20 top 15s, 23 top 20s

UP NEXT –

Friday at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., with the POWRi 410 Outlaw Sprint League and Sunday at Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, S.D.

ILP PR