Dakota Hendrickson's 5-Hour Energy Knoxville Nationals was filled with both success and disappointment. After qualifying 20th out of 47 cars on Wednesday night, Dakota finished second in Heat #5 behind Greg Hodnett, transferring to that night's A-Main event. In the A-Main Dakota started 10th and moved up to 8th, running in the top 10 until a lap 12 caution. On the restart a torsion bar stop broke and the car became a handful to drive. Dakota hung in the top 15 until lap 23 of the 25 lap event and then dropped back to 19th at the checkers.
On Friday night Dakota was 7th quick in the second split session qualifying. Hendrickson went on to win Heat #4 over Danny Lasoski, Matt Moro, Rager Phillips, Daniel Harding, Hunter Schurenberg, Don Droud, Jr., Chris Martin, Billy Alley, Byron Reed, Danny Holtgraver, and Jacob Allen. In the A-Main Dakota started 10th and ran in the top 10 early. However, a slow leak in the left rear tire caused him to slowly lose the pace and he finished 20th for the night.
In Saturday night's main events Dakota started 5th in the 15 lap C-Main event. Dakota held 5th until a lap 10 restart. On the restart Dakota blasted by Dave Blaney and Matt Juhl to grab the 3rd spot, which he held until the checkers fell on lap 15.
This put Hendrickson into the rear of the B-Main. Dakota bounced between 21st and 22nd throughout the 22 lap B-Main event and ended up 22nd at the checkers. "I was pleased we were able to make the B-Main with our finish in the C-Main, but I really wished we could have finished better on Wednesday and Friday nights. Jay and John gave me an awesome car and just a couple of weird things kept us from locking into the B or maybe even the A earlier in the week."