News and Notes from Knoxville's Annual Press Luncheon

One of my favorite events year after year at the Knoxville Nationals is the Friday press luncheon, and not just because they feed us press moochers for free! You just never know what you are going to learn, or what questions may be asked and there are often other entities or organizations who use the event to introduce something new to the industry.

Coming in today we knew that the hot topic would be the anticipated “fuel stop” that will happen during Saturday night’s A-Main that has been extended this year to forty laps from the traditional thirty. Race Director Ralph Capitani addressed the issue immediately following his opening comments explaining that the decision had been made based upon a full year of checking fuel usage here at the Knoxville Raceway. He noted that this track is a half-mile around the inside and that trying to make comparisons to what has happened at other facilities does not make sense. “You can fit Eldora’s track completely inside our track, so you just can’t compare the two when it comes to fuel.” Cappy then introduced his technical director John McCoy who gave even more details about the fuel stop, as well as some other rule changes that are being considered for 2010 at Knoxville. When asked why a couple of the drivers at Thursday’s post-race press conference commented that they felt that they could run forty laps here without a fuel stop, Cappy noted that a lot of the drivers that would have been in this room would have no idea how much fuel they were using because they don’t work on their cars. While this made a few people bristle a bit in the room, in truth he is probably right. Basically you can look for the fuel stop to happen somewhere between laps fifteen and thirty. If there is a caution or a red flag for an on-track incident during that range, then that is when the crews will be allowed to add fuel, otherwise Cappy and McCoy already have in mind what lap they will throw a caution of their own to add fuel.

I got a kick out of the reaction of McCoy when Cappy started to make a point on the rules by saying “back in the 1960’s and 70’s when John used to race.” Of course McCoy was probably racing a tricycle or a big wheel in those decades before becoming one of those “grass roots” racers that Cappy loves in the 1980’s. At one point during the rules discussion it was noted by Cappy that he thought that there would be representatives from both the ASCS and the Outlaws in attendance, but apparently they had other places to be.

Capitani also did a nice job of explaining the decision on Wednesday night to switch from a full invert of ten cars in the heat races to an invert of eight noting a couple of incidents in the past couple of years where cars were torn up in opening lap incidents. With only fifty cars on hand for a qualifying night there were drivers who had qualified a second and a half slower that were starting on the pole of a heat. The wet track on Wednesday night did not give us a good read on the change, but I must admit that Thursday night’s racing action paired with the complete lack of incidents in the heats made the move to an invert of eight cars look pretty good. Look for it to stay going forward.

Marketing Director Brian Stickel gave us some details on what we can look for in 2010 when the Knoxville Raceway will reach a unique milestone with the running of the 50th Knoxville Nationals. The Saturday night A-Main will be 50-laps, obviously including a fuel stop, so no worry about this becoming an event where drivers will pace themselves to save fuel, and the total purse will surpass the one million dollar threshold at $1,000,255. Cappy explained that he tried to balance things out at an even million but just couldn’t make the numbers work out in a fair manner. The winner’s purse will remain the same, but the 24th-place finisher will earn a handsome $9,500. When asked if the race will remain at fifty-laps the year beyond, Capitani chuckled and said “if I’m still alive I want the next year to be 51-laps and so on each year after that.”

The luncheon concluded with a brief introduction of the International Motorsports Industry Show to be held in Indianapolis on December 2nd & 3rd by Chris Paulsen. You can check out more on this show by visiting www.imis-indy.com.

Once again Barry and I enjoyed sitting with track historian Bob Wilson and Flat Out magazine scribe Rob McCuen as we can always count on some great stories and lively conversation from these two. Following lunch we caught up with the always entertaining and informative Bill McCroskey who told us some great stories and shared his thoughts on the state of sprint car racing and life in general. I will definitely look forward to talking more with Bill again in the future.

Now we’re set for a fun Friday night of action from Knoxville. Remember, if you can’t be here tonight you can catch the live internet broadcast by “Hot Rod” Pattison and Bill “W” Wright on Hoseheads Radio at http://www.hoseheadsradio.com