Shane Stewart overcame two late restarts and the loss of his power steering in the final two laps to win his fourth straight, and fifth overall Arnold Motor Supply 360 Knoxville Nationals Saturday night at the Knoxville Raceway. And while the restarts made it close at the end, it was another dominating performance by the driver from Bixby, Oklahoma.
Wayne Johnson joined Stewart on the front row for the 25-lap headliner and it was Johnson who got the jump when the green flag waved. As the field entered turn three for the first time it appeared that Josh Higday slowed mid-pack and the chain reaction resulted in a spin by Dustin Selvage that also collected Randy Hannagan. With the caution out Lee Grosz stopped in turn two with a flat tire and before the car of Hannagan was towed off the track Scott Winters also pitted for a right rear tire that was going flat. Since the lap was not scored the field was realigned two-by-two and on the next wave of the green it was Stewart who won the sprint into turn one.
By lap four Stewart had Paul Silva's #57 a full straightaway ahead of Johnson as the field battled for position well behind him. Johnson was doing his best to hold back the challenges of Brad Sweet and Kevin Swindell and once lapped traffic came into play, both drivers were able to make the pass yet they were still far behind the leader. Deeper in the pack, as expected, Brian Brown was making steady progress after starting in the tenth row and by mid-race he had cracked the top ten and was looking for more.
It was at that mid-race point when the leader Stewart closed in on the #83 of Terry McCarl and as McCarl was also racing for position, Stewart was unable to put McCarl a lap down. Usually when a race leader gets hung up behind a soon-to-be-lapped car his competition closes in on him quickly, but that was not the case here as McCarl appeared to be running as fast as those challengers. With the laps winding down Swindell was starting to cut into the lead, but not fast enough and it looked as though this one was all over until the caution waved with just three laps remaining. Friday's winner Justin Henderson had stopped in turn two with a flat left rear tire and the large crowd buzzed with anticipation as Swindell, Sweet, Danny Lasoski and Kyle Larson would now line up right behind Stewart for the restart.
When the green waved Swindell looked like he had a nice run out of turn two only to slip a bit in turn allowing Stewart to again pull away, but as he raced under Justin Clark's white flag the ninth-place car of Robby Wolfgang went end-over-end exiting turn four bringing out the red flag and setting up a green-white-checkered scenario. Larson had now moved up to third and Brian Brown become a contender as he lined up sixth for the restart that was now, as we would later learn, much more of a challenge than usual for the leader.
In that last green flag segment Stewart had lost his power steering and he now had a handful, both in the cockpit as well as in the two young drivers lined up just behind him.On the restart Stewart went to the bottom into turn one, Swindell went to the cushion and Larson charged to the bottom as well and as the trio raced down the back straightaway Stewart got the break that he needed as he wrestled his ride into turn three. Swindell and Larson went wheel-to-wheel down the back stretch and when the two went for the same piece of real estate at the bottom of turn three Larson clipped the berm and Swindell had to scramble to avoid major contact allowing Stewart to get away again and complete that final lap unchallenged for the victory. It was the fourth straight and fifth overall triumph by Stewart in this event and despite his dominance there were nothing but cheers as he climbed the stage in victory lane.
Larson showed his displeasure with Swindell on the cool down lap, but as he later said in the press conference by the time they had reached the scales all was good as Swindell would finish as the runner-up with Larson in third. Brown was the hard charger coming from 19th to fourth, perhaps sending a signal for next week, and Brad Sweet filled out the top five.
When asked about the two late restarts Stewart first talked about his loss of power steering and then quipped, "I knew that Kevin was going to be good on the bottom and you never know where this freak (Larson) over here is going to come from." The winner said that with his steering challenge he could not hold the car on the bottom and riding the cushion all the way around was not an option so he was very glad to see the checkered flag. It was an emotional win for Shane as well as he paid tribute to Bob Westphal who passed away in June, proud to have put his Wesmar power back in victory lane.
360 Nats Notes.....This was Swindell's first weekend of Sprint Car racing in 2013 and it definitely did not show.....Both Larson and Sweet ran the 250-lap NASCAR Nationwide Series race that took the green flag just after seven o'clock just up the road in Newton. Understandably Knoxville ran off the night's events in a manner that would allow both drivers to get back in time for the hot lap session for A-Main qualifiers, so it was approaching midnight when the checkers waved here. Larson finished fifth and Sweet was 15th at Iowa Speedway.....When interviewed in the pits before the main event Sweet mentioned the "taxi cabs" that he was racing earlier in the evening.....Lasoski was one of the fastest during the hot lap session, but his motor let go on the final lap. The Burch Motorsports crew immediately pushed the #1M outside the track to make a motor change at the hauler and the veteran driver was very competitive finishing in sixth.....An Indiana driver who usually runs without a wing, Parker Price-Miller ran away with the win in the E-Main, but then came up one spot short of moving from the D to the C......Seth Bergman and Brady Bacon ran one-two in the D-Main, a ten lap race that saw a couple of incidents. In the first, New Jersey driver Robbie Stillwagon tangled with Danny Jennings in turn two and while neither car got upside down, Stillwagon's climbed the guardrail and was pointed skyward before both cars settled to a stop. Robbie quickly climbed out of his car and then began to run down the back stretch. Before he made it into turn three he paused to talk with someone and then turned and ran back toward turn two. A scuffle then apparently broke out, but our view was blocked so we could not see who was involved, although it is a good bet that Stillwagon was now at a disadvantage after running nearly a quarter-mile....The second incident came on a late restart when the fifth-place car of Derrik Lusk faltered just after racing past the cone and the field then scrambled to missed him with Ricky Montgomery getting upside down in turn one.....A bank of lights entering turn one went dark just before the start of the C-Main. They would later power back on, but while they were out the track was still illuminated better than most facilities.....Jamie Ball was in control of the C-Main throughout, but a caution with four laps remaining when Brady Bacon exploded a tire made for an entertaining finish. Dusty Zomer rode the cushion around one and two on the restart and literally flew past Tim Shaffer, Sam Hafertepe Jr. and Dustin Morgan to move from seventh to the fourth and final transfer position and he was not done yet. Zomer then disposed of Mike Houseman Jr. and Jamie Veal over the final laps to finish second to Ball. Veal would transfer in third while Shaffer slipped past Houseman on the final lap to take fourth.....Dave Hall went into turn one too high at the start of the B-Main, slammed the guardrail and then rolled a couple of times. When asked by announcer Mike Roberts about the ride Hall responded, "I don't know, everything was good and then everything was bad." Scott Winters, Don Droud Jr. and Jon Agan would run off with the first three transfer positions while Randy Hannagan passed Mark Dobmeier with two laps to go for the final starting spot in the Championship event.
Nineteen 305 c.i. Winged Sprints signed in to run a full program in support, but two cars lost motors during hot laps leaving seventeen cars to run two heats and a 12-lap main event. Keoni Texiera from Hawaii, who drives a car that is based out of Alaska, went for a tumble during his heat race shrinking the field even further before feature time. Matt Stephenson and J Kinder would race for the lead side-by-side for a couple of laps early before the red flag interrupted their battle when Chris Horton went for a tumble in turn four. On the restart Larry Ball Jr. passed Kinder for second and then blew past Stephenson on the high side of turn four to take the lead mid-race. Ball then cruised to his eight career win here in this division. Kinder would move up to finish in the second spot ahead of Stacy Alexander, Stephenson would hold on for fourth while New Mexico driver Lorne Wofford would take fifth. Ball mentioned in victory lane that he would race one more time in this car before turning it over to one of his crew members and that he would be putting together a ride in the 410 division for 2014.
Southern Iowa Sprint Speedweek action continues tonight (Sunday) as the 410's roll into Knoxville for the second running of the Capitani Classic. Hope to see you there!
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