BOONE, Iowa – Dylan Nelson and Carter Koop earned front row starting positions in Saturday’s hobby stock finale with victories in their respective qualifiers on the opening night of the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s Monday at Boone Speedway.

The top-eight drivers from each of the hobby stock qualifiers earned automatic berths in Saturday’s finale at the third-mile dirt oval, but it was Nelson and Koop who got to celebrate in victory lane Monday.

Nelson, the defending hobby stock champion at the Super Nationals, had a smooth night en route to earning the pole for Saturday’s finale. He won his heat race and backed it up by winning his qualifier, though he had to survive a late challenge from Jason Wilkinson in order to get it done.

Wilkinson, who started fifth, found something on the bottom of the track late in the race and went from fourth to second with five laps to go. He then began to close the gap on Nelson and caught him with two laps to go.

Entering turn one on the final lap Wilkinson went to the inside of Nelson, but Nelson emerged from turn two with the lead. Wilkinson tried one last time in turns three and four to steal the victory, but Nelson held on to collect the victory.

“I didn’t know where to go, it was kind of a crap shoot out here,” Nelson said. “It was fast up top, it was fast on the bottom. I just had to go where I thought they were to try to block. We got it done.”

Following Nelson and Wilkinson across the finish line to earn starting spots in Saturday’s A-Main were Cody Nielsen, Braden Richards, Eric Knutson, Parker Larson, Sal Hernandez and Zach Hemmingsen. They’ll start in the first eight positions on the inside line Saturday night.

In the second hobby stock qualifier rookie racer Koop led the entire distance, though it wasn’t without a serious challenge from Mark Smith at the halfway point in the feature.

During a restart following an incident with 13 laps left, Smith pulled a slide job coming out of turn two to snatch the lead away from Koop. Not to be deterred, Koop pulled a hard left going down the backstretch to turn under Smith entering turn three.

Koop was able to return the favor to Smith coming out of turn four to regain the lead. Koop and Smith slowly pulled away from the rest of the field over the final laps, but Smith was never able to get alongside Koop again.

“I knew he was there. He kind of showed me his nose under caution and I was like, ‘OK, he’s there,’” Koop said. “I saw him slide up underneath me. I kind of laid on the brakes a little bit and turned right back underneath of him and didn’t look back from there.”

Joining Koop in Saturday’s hobby stock feature from the second qualifier are Smith, Chuck Madden Jr., Kaden Reynolds, Malik Sampson, Josh Barnhart, Jacob Floyd and Jason Kohl.

The finishes:

Qualifier One: Dylan Nelson, Jason Wilkinson, Cody Nielsen, Braden Richards, Eric Knutson, Parker Larson, Sal Hernandez, Zach Hemmingsen, Jeff Ware, Danny Sassman Jr., Eric Stanton, Brett Vanous, Darin Johnson, Austin Pinney, Matt Brown, Jake Benischek, Curt Reed, Tyler Jackson, David Carter, Shaun Wirtz, Andrew Harris, Zach Bales, Miciah Hidlebaugh, Anthony Nelson, Brint Lemke, Zach Ankrum, Nathan Refior, Tom Killen Jr.

Qualifier Two: Carter Koop, Mike Smith, Chuck Madden Jr., Kaden Reynolds, Malik Sampson, Josh Barnhart, Jacob Floyd, Jason Kohl, Colby Kaspar, Michael Kimm, Nathan Ballard, Randy LaMar, Josh Vancannon, Dawson Deboer, Brandon Nielsen, Tristan Grape, Bryant Johnson, Bryce Sommerfeld, Patrick Pellman, Seth Butler, Adam Tiernan, Brandon Honrud, Matt Olson, Tim Gonska, Keeran Sampson, Rusty Bates, Tyson Overton, Nicholas Ronnebaum.

All six nights of the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s on Sept. 7-12 will be broadcast live via SPEED SPORT TV affiliate IMCA.TV.