KNOXVILLE, IA - It had been quite some time since Saybrook's Blake Feese had turned competitive laps in a sprint car before Saturday night. The 22 year-old racer has been spending the past year working on his NASCAR career and continues to do so, but will take advantage of a unique opportunity and return to his roots in sprint car racing. Feese returned to action at Knoxville Raceway on Saturday night in the Beaver Drill & Tool #12x.

"We've been really focused on the NASCAR deal, but things just sort of worked out for us here, " said Feese, who will attempt to qualify for his second NASCAR Busch Series at IRP later this week. "We accomplished what we wanted to tonight and that was getting me back in the seat of a sprint car and working with Billy Vielhauer again. We learned some things and hopefully, they'll help us in a couple of weeks."

Feese qualified eighth in the field and a problem at the start of his heat race forced him into the "B". Feese won the "B" Main and hoped to progress in the "A" Feature, but a shock problem ended his run to the front and he finished 20th.

"Billy and the guys did a heck of job just getting the car here tonight," continued Feese, who scored a victory at Knoxville in 2002 driving the #12x. "They had to pick everything up in Memphis on Friday, then return home to re-build the car and then get here. I wish we could have been a little better, but we'll just try to be a little better next time."

Feese will spend the week preparing for the Kroger 200 as he will try to qualifying for his second Busch Series race at Indianapolis Raceway Park. Feese will drive the #87 Chevy of Hendrick Motorsports.

The plan for the week following includes a returning to action on Monday night in the McTwo Promotions "Front Row Challenge" at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, IA. Following that event, Feese will head to the 42nd Ford Dealers of Iowa Knoxville Nationals, sprint car racing's biggest event paying $125,000-to-win.

Photo courtesy of Doug Johnson.