Whenever Mother Nature intervenes in the Knoxville Nationals you can bet that it will shake things up and produce some interesting results. So it was no surprise that after a late afternoon downpour created a nearly three hour delay on Wednesday, most of the names that were making noise were ones that you likely did not expect to see running near the front. And, when the final checkered flag waved in the wee hours of Thursday morning it was the California phenom Kyle Larson taking the win on opening night of the 52nd Annual event sponsored by Goodyear.
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| Davey Heskin - Photo by Barry Johnson |
It was amazing that the show even went on at all following the torrential downpour that reportedly dumped three quarters of an inch of rain on a track that had already been watered and prepped for action. For most tracks it would have been "see ya tomorrow", but at Knoxville with the Dunkin family and a strategically paved infield, it takes an all night rain to wash things out during the Nationals. The track was fast as the top seventeen qualifiers eclipsed the fifteen second mark, but it was also narrow as only five of those seventeen were able to advance into the top four in the heat races to transfer into the 25-lap main event.
A driver locked into a tight battle for the track's weekly 410 points championship, Davey Heskin landed on the front row alongside former World of Outlaws traveler Randy Hannagan with Heskin vaulting to the early lead. Hannagan gave chase in second despite showing a wisp of smoke off the right bank and when the caution waved for a slowing Mike Reinke in turn four at the mid-race point, Hannagan's car caught fire as he pulled into the pits a victim of a broken fitting. On the restart both Jason Sides and Kyle Larson were able to power past Heskin and Sides began to pull away from the field. But his luck soon took a turn for the worse as his left rear tire blew with just six laps remaining sending the #7S into a quick flip.
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| Jason Sides - Photo by Barry Johnson |
With every point being so critical here Paul Sides and the crew did their best to send Jason back onto the track in time for the restart even with a damaged top wing as Larson now assumed the lead. Brian Paulus moved into the second spot before the caution waved two laps later as Sides came to a stop in turn four and the stage was now set for the final four lap sprint to the finish. Larson was the leader with Paulus and Heskin just behind with much of the resilient crowd expecting the fourth-running Donny Schatz to make a late move. As the green flag waved Larson put some distance on Paulus as Schatz drove by Heskin for third. Davey came right back though and returned the favor in the next set of turns. As Doug Clark displayed the white flag to Larson coming off of turn four the crowd groaned as Paulus suddenly slowed ending perhaps his best night at Knoxville ever.
A green-white-checkered restart was the last hurdle that Larson would have to clear to collect his first career win here at Knoxville and he did it with ease guiding the Abreu Vineyards #1K to the win. Heskin would hold off the five-time Nationals Champ Schatz to finish second. Craig Dollansky had to qualify out of the B-Main and then came from 22nd to fourth to post the highest point total for the night while Lucas Wolfe posted a fifth-place effort.
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| Craig Dollansky - Photo by Barry Johnson |
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| Joey Saldana - Photo by Barry Johnson |
Wednesday Notebook.....The track conditions were about as equal as we have seen here in regard to qualifying as Joey Saldana set the standard despite being the 28th car out on the track. Steve Kinser was the last of the 47 cars to time in and he was 15th fastest. The rest of the night would be one to forget for "The King" though as Kinser first came out for the wrong heat race (the fourth) before being sent back in. He then passed Kevin Swindell on the final lap to finish fifth, still one spot short of a transfer in the fifth heat before being a non-factor in a stout B-Main where he finished eighth. All this added up to a point total that ranked 26th after the first night, a position that would normally find him mired in the middle of the pack for Saturday's C-Main. However, with the new Friday night format, Kinser can come right back and put himself into the championship feature by finishing in the top four on Friday night.....As Saldana finished a distant sixth in the first heat race it became obvious that it was going to be difficult for the top qualifiers to get into the top four from an eight-car invert. Third quick qualifier Jonathan Allard was the most impressive running second in the third heat race and that was after he had to restart at the rear following a change of his nose wing. Allard had some damage in a scuffle on the start that saw Austin Johnson get upside down in just about the same place that he did on Saturday night..... NASCAR car star, and sprint car graduate, Jeff Gordon waved the flags for the third heat race.....Jac Haudenschild had a transfer to the A locked up before his driveline decided to abandon ship while he was running in third during the fourth heat. On the restart Brad Sweet and Lucas Wolfe waged a thrilling battle for the fourth position and after Sweet put the squeeze on Wolfe to thwart his challenge, Lucas came right back on the final lap and muscled his way underneath Sweet to edge him out at the line. It was perhaps the move of the night as otherwise Wolfe would have been starting eighth in that power-laden B-Main. Instead he starts seventh and finishes fifth in the feature placing him fifth in points so far and is a virtual lock for Saturday night's headliner.....How stacked was the B-Main? The top four were Saldana, Dollansky, Shane Stewart and Paul McMahan. Along with Dollansky's charge to fourth in the feature, Stewart is making it a habit coming from the back during the Nationals as he started 23rd and finished seventh.
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| Steve Kinser - Photo by Barry Johnson |
The weather has cooled off and the chances of rain have diminished so it will be interesting to see if things get a little more predictable here as the second half of the field goes to qualify on Thursday night. The premier event in Sprint Car racing is right here in Knoxville, so if you are in the area we hope to see you sometime during the next three nights!
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| Lucas Wolfe- Photo by Barry Johnson |
And finally, in a flashy fashion during the annual Press Luncheon on Thursday, the World of Outlaws officially announced that STP will be the title sponsor for the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars in 2013. This is fantastic news for the Outlaws and for the Sprint Car fans that love them as there is no other corporate name that says "motorsports" better than STP.
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| Shane Stewart - Photo by Barry Johnson |
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