Goldesberry Reflects on Trying Knoxville Nationals Week

Loren Kelly
12 minutes ago
2 min read

“We love this place, but apparently it doesn’t really love us.”

Jordan Goldesberry knows the Knoxville Nationals presents a unique challenge to teams that don’t run there regularly, but each year the Rockstar Energy Drink #65 team goes into the week with realistic expectations and simply hope to learn whatever they can and apply it to their regular race program.

This year however, mechanical issues and circumstances completely out of their control hampered their progress.

“We fought mechanical gremlins and bad luck all week.” Goldesberry admitted. “For the most part, they were all out of our control but they sure prevented us from learning much and improving throughout the week.”

Their preliminary night was a complete scratch due to mechanical issues, however Hard Knox provided some respite. After a qualifying performance that was hindered by a malfunctioning wing slider, Goldesberry finished 3rd in the C Feature and advanced from 20th to 17th in the night’s stacked B Main, qualifying straight into the D Feature on Championship Saturday.

Saturday however, never really got started. While under pacing before the D Main, another car suffered a part failure and made a hard left in front of Goldesberry and the #65 car made heavy contact. Unfortunately that was the end of the night for the Springfield, IL team bringing an abrupt end to an overall frustrating week.

“It’s unfortunate because we actually felt good about our speed and how we were performing despite the issues.” Goldesberry said. “Still, we had a good time representing all of our great sponsors with the meet and greet over at the HyVee Fast & Fresh in Knoxville on Thursday along with a great autograph session at the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame on Friday. The Nationals is an awesome event and we’re always proud to represent our partners every year here.”

The 2025 IRA Sprints season resumes this weekend with two “fair races.” Saturday, the series headlines the Kenosha County Fair at Wilmot Raceway while Sunday, the annual Corn Fest event at Angell Park Speedway takes center stage. Tickets for both events will be available at the facilities on race day and will be broadcast live on FloRacing.

NEXT RACE: August 16th, Wilmot Raceway w/IRA Sprints LIVE on FloRacing

2025 STATS

Races: 16

Features: 15

Dash/Redraw Appearances: 4

Top 10’s: 10

Top 5’s: 3

Feature Wins: 1

Jordan Goldesberry Motorsports would like to thank all of their 2025 Marketing Partners for their support this year!

Rockstar Energy Drink

Flamin’ Hot

HyVee Fast & Fresh