Chris Abelson holds off all challengers for Hawkeye Dirt Tour win at Knoxville

KNOXVILLE — The IMCA Hawkeye Dirt Tour for Modifieds has made three stops at Knoxville Raceway after Thursday night's races at the historic half-mile.

In the three races, Chris Abelson has finished no worse than second.

The 2015 IMCA Modified national champion won the first IMCA Dirt Duel in 2014. After a rainout in 2015, he ran second to Justin Kay last season. On Thursday night, he started from the pole and was only seriously challenged with five laps to go.

Even then, he was never really all that worried — and ended up taking home the $1,500 prize that comes with the victory.

'I thought I had a pretty good line, so I knew it was going to take me screwing up for someone to get by me,' Abelson said. 'I knew it'd be too hard to turn off that cushion and come underneath me. I was just trying to keep doing what I was doing and not make a mistake myself.'

Abelson won ahead of Todd Shute, Richie Gustin, Jeff Aikey and Kay, who had to transfer into the main event from a B-main.

The Sioux City driver just recently got back to the racetrack after more than a month away from racing thanks to a nasty wreck at I-80 Speedway earlier this summer. Sitting on the sidelines is tough for any racer — for any reason. To sit on the sideline and then come back and be as competitive as Abelson has been so far says a lot about what he's capable of — even if he wouldn't give himself a ton of credit.

'We're trying to regroup and get back at it,' Abelson said. 'It's hard because you're racing guys who race three or four times a week. You need to be in the car that many times to have that edge and stay on top.

'It's a huge confidence booster, definitely. You try to carry that into the next race.'

Abelson held off Shute and Gustin in final five-lap shootout after the guys who had been racing for second ended up out of the running.

Brookfield, Mo. driver Hunter Marriott started outside pole next to Abelson, and was just behind Abelson for the first 20 laps of the race. After a brief red flag thanks to an incident on the back stretch, then-third place racer Ricky Thornton Jr. made a move past Marriott in Turns 1 and 2, but then pair made contact that spun Thornton and ultimately put Marriott to the tail.

What resulted was Shute and Gustin moving up and raising to the occasion of their good fortune.

Shute, who won the HDT race at Marshalltown Speedway, showed his nose multiple times in those closing laps, but got out of his car after the race with a few choice words for himself. After taking the white flag, Shute said he was primed to make a last-lap pass, but over-drove Turn 1, jumped the cushion and had no shot from there.

'I messed up in (Turns) 1 and 2,' Shute said. 'I think we could've beat him, I really do. We had to change our line on the restart. Dang it. I got in and jumped the cushion and it was over.'

Abelson's win made it six different HDT winners in six races so far this year, and came at a track where he's had a lot of success.

He watched a lot of racing over the years at Knoxville, and that's a reason he gave for why racing there agrees with him so much. Now that he's back behind the wheel after that hiatus, the confidence boost of backing up success at Knoxville could last a while.

'I've watched a lot of Late Model races here and kind of learned how to race the place,' Abelson said. 'It's been good to me ever since.'

IMCA HAWKEYE DIRT TOUR

KNOXVILLE RACEWAY

Modified A Feature, 25 Laps: 1. Chris Abelson (1); 2. Todd Shute (11); 3. Richie Gustin (4); 4. Jeff Aikey (12); 5. Justin Kay (15); 6. Cayden Carter (14); 7. Troy Cordes (8); 8. Joel Rust (16); 9. Kelly Shryock (7); 10. Hunter Marriott (2); 11. Eric Elliott (17); 12. Kyle Brown (20); 13. Randy Havlik (10); 14. Cory Sauerman (24); 15. Ricky Thornton Jr. (3); 16. Justin Gregg (6); 17. Brandon Banks (22); 18. Jacob Murray (5); 19. Kurt Kile (13); 20. Tim Ward (9); 21. Cody Bauman (21); 22. Chris Zogg (19); 23. Jason Murray (18); 24. Shane DeMay (23).

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