Sheldon Haudenschild needed every last inch of Knoxville Raceway’s frontstretch Wednesday night to steal the opening preliminary feature of the 65th Knoxville Nationals.

Haudenschild swept underneath James McFadden and Jace Park through the final corner, then beat McFadden to the checkered flag by a razor-thin 0.006 seconds in a frantic three-wide finish to Wednesday’s BRANDT Qualifying Night.

The dramatic victory earned the KCP Racing No. 18 driver $12,000 and capped a night in which Haudenschild also emerged as the high-point driver.

“I never count myself out, that’s for sure,” Haudenschild said. “(Park) and (McFadden), they got to playing a couple games on the white flag. I saw (McFadden) cut down really hard and I knew he probably lost some momentum.”

Haudenschild saw his opportunity develop as McFadden and Park worked through traffic entering the final set of corners.

“Then he slid across the track, and I was thinking, ‘Man, if I can get my right rear where I’ve been putting it, we’ll have a shot as long as they don’t close that gap too soon,’” Haudenschild said. “I feel like I’ve won a lot of races on the bottom. This place is just a different beast on the bottom.”

Park controlled much of the 25-lap feature from the pole before McFadden worked forward from fifth. McFadden moved into second as Park encountered traffic near halfway, then used the bottom following the race’s lone caution on Lap 14 to take the lead.

Park stayed with McFadden and reclaimed the top spot on Lap 21, while Haudenschild climbed into third with five laps remaining.

McFadden surged back ahead coming to the white flag, but traffic gave Haudenschild one final opportunity. With McFadden and Park drifting high through Turns 3 and 4 behind a slower car, Haudenschild committed to the bottom and won the drag race to the checkered flag.

“The lapped car hit the bottom every lap and then he missed it,” McFadden said. “I chose the wrong lane, and that just allowed Sheldon to get there. I’m disappointed in myself. I should have just run the bottom and followed the lapped car, I guess.”

Despite losing the victory in the final few hundred feet, McFadden left Wednesday with the bigger objective accomplished.

“It was a great night for us. It was good for points,” McFadden said. “Congratulations to Sheldon and the team. If I was going to get beaten, I’d like to get beaten by Sheldon. We’re locked into the A and that’s the end goal. It was a fun race. We just ended up on the wrong end. I’m still happy.”

Park finished third after leading much of the feature.

“It was a lot of fun,” Park said. “I knew starting up front would be good. Our car is really good in clean air. I knew if I stuck with it and hit my marks, even if I got passed I’d stay with it and stay hungry. Man, we had a fast race car. I can’t thank Brian Brown enough for the opportunity. We stuck with it and ran a good race. It was good being able to race for the lead and be competitive.”

Cole Macedo finished fourth and Chase Dietz completed the top five. Justin Henderson, Sye Lynch, Kasey Kahne, Sawyer Phillips and Jy Corbet rounded out the top 10.

Kahne set quick time over the 47-car field. McFadden, Riley Goodno, Danny Sams III, Brock Zearfoss and defending Knoxville Nationals champion Ryan Timms won the heats, while Rico Abreu captured the B-main.

A mechanical issue made Timms late to staging for the feature. He started at the rear and exited early. Sammy Swindell flipped several times during his heat race but climbed from the car under his own power.

2026 Knoxville Nationals Wednesday Qualifying Night Results