Opening night of the 50th Goodyear Knoxville Nationals may have been one of the most topsy-turvy qualifying nights in the history of Sprint Car racing’s premier event. Tim Shaffer has been on a hot streak over the past two weeks here in the Midwest and he continued that tonight when he set quick time out of the fifty contenders on Wednesday night. Shaffer failed to transfer out of the first heat race though when young David Gravel threw a nasty block on him into turn three on the final lap to hold on to the fourth and final transfer spot. Shaffer would later come back to win the B-Main and he then moved from 21st to tenth in the feature, good enough to sit at the top of the points list after night number one with 470 markers. Even though he was the best on this night, Shaffer could still end up third or fourth after Thursday qualifiers are locked in if that show goes a little more “normal” than tonight.
The drama started as the green flag flew on the first heat race when Kraig Kinser drove up over the left rear of Johnny Herrerra down the front stretch. Kinser somehow kept the car on all fours, but his crew could not make complete repairs prior to the end of the pace car’s courtesy laps and Kraig would end up falling to the C-Main finishing ninth. Kinser had to battle Justin Henderson for the win in the “C” and he could only move up to 14th in the B-Main to complete a disappointing night ranked 32nd in points.
While only one driver who started in the quick qualifier row, row four, was able to get into the top four to transfer out of the A-Main from the five heats (we’ll talk more about her later), Mike Reinke sure proved that you could pass tonight driving by Trevor Green and Lee Sowell to take the win in heat number one.
Bob Weuve was running away with the second heat race before something broke on his #19 and he slammed hard into the turn three guardrail. After rolling a few times down the track, to add insult to injury Weuve was clipped by the right rear tire of Lucas Wolfe. Weuve crawled out of the wreckage and then rode back to his pit with infield announcer Mike Roberts. Roberts later reported that he had asked Weuve if he was okay and Bob’s response was a classic. “Was I okay before I got into the car?” Once back to green Aussies Max Dumesney and Lynton Jeffrey did battle for the win with Dumesney prevailing although most of the crowd was probably watching Outlaw regulars Craig Dollansky and Kerry Madsen race for fourth. Dollansky did a nice job of taking Madsen’s line away over the final laps to get the final transfer.
Pole-sitter Justin Henderson failed to come up to speed as the field took the green for heat race number three, but everybody kept their cool and the race stayed green. Chad Kemenah dominated for the win while the veteran Gary Wright held off Jason Johnson for the last transfer.
Heat four was halted for a three-car pileup that brought out the red when Don Droud Jr. ran into the back of a slower Domain Ramsey heading into turn one. Droud slid up the track and collected both Jack Dover and Cale Conley with Dover getting upside down. That would be the end of the night for Jack, while Conley made repairs and nearly caught Erin Crocker for the final transfer. By finishing fourth “The First Lady” became the only driver who qualified in the top ten to transfer directly out of a heat race and, by virtue of being the high point driver, Crocker would later start eighth in the A-Main. She finished 16th in that race and ended the night in tenth on the point sheet waiting to see how things shake out on Thursday night as in essence Erin is “on the bubble” right now as far as qualifying for Saturday’s Championship feature. By the way, it was Brad Sweet from the pole who won that fourth heat race.
Heat five saw Knoxville weekly star Mark Dobmeier run away with the win from the pole after posting a disappointing qualifying effort in 40th. Mark would later finish 15th in the A-Main, but with the low ranking on the qualifying chart his point total is only 26th on the list which could force him to race in Friday’s Non-Qualifiers show. Tony Bruce Jr. held off Jason Meyers to qualify in fourth.
The B-Main saw Joey Saldana come to life as he raced from sixth up to finish third behind Shaffer and Jason Johnson. Keep in mind that ten of the top eleven in qualifying were in this race and only four cars would advance on to the feature race, and let me tell you that race for fourth had everybody on the edge of their seats. Outlaw regulars Jason Meyers and Kerry Madsen were going at it over the final five laps and on the last trip down the back straightaway Madsen used the low groove to pull even with Meyers. With the last transfer position, and much needed additional points from the feature race on the line, Meyers pinched Madsen down the track forcing “The Madman” to make a decision. Kerry stomped the brakes and backed out of the tight situation saving both racecars, but lost the right to run the A-Main as well and he made sure that Meyers knew of his displeasure during the cool down lap. Meyers did a little gesturing of his own, then drove into the infield on the backstretch and went straight to his pits. One problem though is that you must report directly to the scales if you finish in a transfer position so Meyers was disqualified and was officially scored as the 20th-place finisher. Madsen would then move on to the feature where he raced his way up from 24th to seventh to end the night fourth on the points list with 464. It was a bitter pill to swallow for Meyers who, after coming close the past couple of years, had to be considered one of the pre-event favorites as he now sits 27th in the point standings and will likely be racing the Friday night show.
The A-Main was a good one with just one caution interrupting twenty-five laps of racing. Brandon Winner was out front early before Chad Kemenah stormed by on lap five. Shane Stewart who won here both Friday and Saturday during the 360 Nationals was on the move up from sixth and he caught Kemenah in lapped traffic with four laps remaining. Stewart made the pass and pulled away over the final two miles to take the $12,000 win. Craig Dollansky who qualified poorly in 27th and then had to hold on for dear life just to transfer out of his heat drove a solid race getting by Kemenah late for second. Weekly competitor Davey Heskin was impressive in fourth and Jason Sides took home fifth completing a very entertaining opening night at Knoxville.
Some new things at the 50th Nationals…..Porkchop, Legend Cars, Toby and The Clydesdales…..Porkchop is a clown who provided some entertainment during the breaks including the launching of a couple of stealth water balloons into the stands. After shooting a t-shirt just before it, fans tried to make the catch and the splash of water probably felt pretty good on this hot, sultry night……Several Legend Cars hot lapped during intermission and while everything seems to be hush, hush right now, I am thinking that we are going to see some celebrities and Cup drivers wheeling these cars in an exhibition race on Thursday night……Toby Kruse joined the booth announcing duo of Tony Bokhoven and Blake Anderson on the mic tonight. With T-Bok likely working the TV taping doing infield interviews on Saturday night for Speed, Toby and Blake will probably provide the call to the fans…..The Budweiser Clydesdales made a trip around the half-mile during intermission and the Knoxville Raceway Fire and Safety Crew was quick to “extinguish” a steamer on the front stretch.
Top Ten from Wednesday:
1. Tim Shaffer 470
2. Shane Stewart 470
3. Jason Johnson 468
4. Kerry Madsen 464
5. Lynton Jeffrey 461
6. Jason Sides 461
7. Davey Heskin 452
8. Chad Kemenah 452
9. Joey Saldana 447
10. Erin Crocker 445
No comments:
Post a Comment