Donny Schatz has reached a dubious point in his racing career, one that I have only really witnessed first-hand twice in my over forty years of attending races. As Schatz pulled into victory lane on Saturday night at the Knoxville Raceway, following one of the most entertaining feature races that I have seen in sometime, the large crowd greeted him with a resounding chorus of boos. Not because of the manner in which he won, as he had worked his way cleanly to the front after starting on the inside of row four, but because of the simple fact that he had won once again at the Knoxville Raceway. For me that puts him in the same company as two of the legends of the sport, Dale Earnhardt and Steve Kinser, drivers who became so dominant for a time that the fans just wanted to see someone else take a win and every time that they didn't see someone else in victory lane, they would let the driver know it. As the three time defending champion of the Knoxville Nationals, Donny Schatz is now in that elite category.
It was a family reunion on the front row for the twenty-five-lap main event as Brian Brown and his uncle Danny Lasoski earned the top spots by finishing one-two in the Dash. Brown grabbed the early lead with Terry McCarl taking up the chase in second and, in just three laps, Schatz moved from seventh to third. An early yellow for a slowing Tony Bruce Jr. bunched the field for a restart and the crowd came to life as both Brown and McCarl were able to fight off a challenge from Schatz. With leaders working lapped traffic on lap fifteen Brown jumped the cushion in turn four just enough to allow McCarl to slip by for the lead with ten remaining. And as Brown tried to regain his momentum Schatz flew by him into second just a few car-lengths behind the new leader.
The surface of the half-mile oval tonight was wide and fast and drivers could run anywhere from top to bottom, but as the laps wound down the fastest groove appeared to be right in the middle and that was exactly where Dusty Zomer was running as the lead trio closed in on him. As McCarl tried to pick his way around Zomer without making too drastic of a move, Schatz made a couple of runs on McCarl as well with Brown right there behind them waiting for a mistake. When McCarl shook off the first slider from Schatz, the crowd moved to the edge of their seats, and when he held him off once again with six laps to go they rose to their feet in anticipation that the local driver-turned-Outlaw, who by the way has heard his share of boos after winning a bunch of features here not so long ago, just might be able to hold off Schatz. It was not going to happen though as on the next lap, with McCarl still following Zomer through the middle, Schatz went to the cushion and hit it perfectly allowing him to rocket into the lead off of turn four with just four laps remaining.
Schatz quickly built a full straightaway advantage and was coming off turn four to take the win when instead of the checkers he saw the caution flag fly as Tony Bruce Jr. had once again stopped on the track. World of Outlaws rules state that the race must end under two consecutive laps of green flag racing so the partisan crowd, if you could call a crowd pulling for "anybody but Schatz" partisan, was abuzz as McCarl, Brown and Steve Kinser lined up directly behind the leader for a two-lap shootout. McCarl was set to try a slide job in turn one on the restart only to have Schatz pinch him off by running a lower groove as well and that was the race as the now man to beat at Knoxville earned the victory. McCarl was the runner-up with Kinser slipping by Brown for third on the restart. Jac Haudenschild drove a steady race starting fourth and finishing fifth. And, as pitside announcer Mike Roberts welcomed him back to the podium at Knoxville, the chorus of boos had to be music to the ears of Donny Schatz, a tune that he would love to hear once again here in mid-August.
The story in the 360 c.i. division was completely different as many in the crowd were probably wondering who that driver was that absolutely dominated the stout 57-car field by running away with both his heat race and the feature. Matt Covington out of Glenpool, Oklahoma, plans to run the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour in 2009, but with an open night on that schedule he pulled into Knoxville with the goal of getting more experience on the fabled oval. Covington started on the pole of his heat race and went unchallenged to the win landing him on the outside of row two for the fifteen-lap main event. As the field came off turn four for the start Covington moved up on the speedway to get a run and then darted down low going into turn one to fly by the front row of Matt Sutton and Gregg Bakker. That start was wiped out buy a first lap caution, but on the second try he did the exact same move with the same result.
By lap ten Covington had nearly a half lap advantage as Clint Garner, who had started tenth, emerged from the pack in second. With the help of a couple of lapped cars Garner closed the gap quickly and as Covington took the white flag Garner was still about ten car lengths back, but within striking distance. With a clear track ahead of him Covington did not flinch as he picked up his first career sprint car feature win at, of all places Knoxville. Garner showed that he could be a top contender for the 360 track title with his impressive second place run, Bakker held on for third followed by Ryan Roberts and Jon Agan.
Knoxville Notes.....There were forty-seven 410's on hand to make it a very full pit area with a total of 104 racecars. While the 410 roster didn't have any surprises the 360's seemed to come from just about everywhere with drivers from Washington to Colorado to Texas up to Ohio and of course Florida where track regular R.J. Johnson still lists as a home state......Craig Dollansky was a big mover in the Outlaw A-Main. After winning the B feature Dollansky started in row eleven and by lap nine he was already up to tenth. His progress pretty much stopped from there though as he picked up one more spot in the final laps to finish in the ninth position.....In that Outlaw B-Main Kerry Madsen broke while leading, but came back to run the feature using a World of Outlaw provisional and Sammy Swindell's night came to an early end when his motor went up in smoke as he was closing in on the final transfer spot.....Lucas Wolfe missed qualifying as he was busying changing engines. He started twelfth in his heat and just missed a transfer spot when he couldn't get past Sam Hafertepe Jr. landing Wolfe at the back of the C-Main. In that race Wolfe missed the transfer to the B by just one spot and it looked like his night was over. With Swindell's blown motor though, Wolfe was now in line to use a provisional and he salvaged a 20th-place finish on the night......North Dakota driver Lee Grosz was the hard charger in the 360 Main event and he almost didn't have the opportunity. On the final lap of the 360 B-Main Jesse Gianetto had a run on Grosz off turn two and the two cars made contact midway down the back stretch racing for the fourth and final transfer spot. Both drivers stayed in the gas and they raced side-by-side into the final turns with Grosz up high and Gianetto down low. To Jesse's misfortune though there was a slower car working that bottom groove and when he had to climb the inside berm off turn four to get around that car it allowed Grosz to earn the 24th and final position on the grid for the A-Main. Grosz made the most of it as he charged through the field to finish ninth in the feature.....Another hard charger was the B-Main winner Brady Bacon who started 20th and finished 11th in the A.....There was only one incident in the 360 A-Main and that came on lap two when Ohio driver Darren Long got too high coming off of turn four and as he recovered he made contact with Jon Corbin sending Long for quite a tumble down the frontstretch. Others including Dan Thornburg, Johnny Anderson, Eric Baldaccini and Seth Brahmer had a wing bender during the evening and all of them, including Long, were uninjured.....There were two youngsters with very recognizable names in the sport making their Knoxville debut tonight. In the 410's Austin McCarl started his rookie campaign here with a fifth-place run in the C-Main against the stacked field of Outlaws. And in the 360's Robby Wolfgang drew the worst number possible coming through the gate fighting an uphill battle all night ending it with an eighth-place finish in the C-Main.....While Outlaws announcer Johnny Gibson and veteran Knoxville announcer Tony Bokhoven did their usual fantastic job of informing and entertaining, young Blake Anderson sounded very smooth as well in his first night behind the mic at Knoxville. Just what us old announcers love to see, new young talent coming along to take all of our gigs! And yes Tony, I still consider you to be a "young" announcer.
Knoxville's race schedule really does not include many if any "regular" race nights as this coming Saturday the IRA Sprint Cars come to town to take on the local heroes.
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