Gravel Wins and A Race For Fourth In A Heat Race Thrills at Knoxville Nationals Opener

For David Gravel the opening night of the 53^rd Annual FVP Knoxville Nationals will be long remembered as the night that he dominated the 25-lap main event and coasted across the finish line having just used his last drops of fuel. But for most, if not all of the fans in attendance, Gravel’s win will likely be the second story that they tell, that is if they can even remember the name of the up and coming speedster from Connecticut.

It was the sprint to the finish for the fourth and final qualifying position in the third heat race that drew the biggest roar of the night. Yes, that’s right, a race for fourth in a heat race stole the show on the opening night of Sprint Car racing’s biggest event.

It is no secret that Donny Schatz has reached that pinnacle in a sports career where many will cheer against him based upon his past success. I’ll admit that I am one of those as while I have absolutely nothing against the six-time Nationals champion, I would like it to be at least another year or two before he makes that title “seven-time Nationals champion.” After qualifying eighth, Schatz started the third heat race from the fourth row needing to crack the top four to advance on to the night’s main event where he would then start somewhere in the first couple of rows. Failing to make the top four would send him to the B-Main where he would again need a top four run to then start no better than twenty-first in the feature race so, as with every position for every driver in every qualifying night event here at Knoxville, a lot was riding on the outcome.

Schatz got hung up behind Danny Dietrich on the start and then when Jonathan Allard shut the door on him a few laps in, he lost his momentum and appeared to be well out of contention in sixth-place and with the laps clicking away. But this is Donny Schatz at the Knoxville Nationals where we have all learned over the past seven years that you can never count him out. As the white flag waved Schatz, now running fifth was closing in on the fourth-place car of Ian Madsen and for most drivers the gap would still be too much to close in just one half of a mile. But close it he did and when Madsen stayed up on the cushion entering turn three for the final time the champ went to the bottom and the two drivers came out of turn four side-by-side. The crowd came to their feet for the drag race to the stripe and when they crossed in nearly a dead heat all eyes immediately went to the scoreboard to see how the transponders had recorded the finish.

I swear that there was a hush for a split-second before the crowd erupted in cheers as Madsen’s #18 stayed on the board in front of the #15 of Schatz. The official margin of…..well not victory, but fourth-placedom I guess was 0.024 seconds, likely too close to call with the naked eye. And that is how a race for fourth outshines a young driver’s first career win at Knoxville.

After snatching the lead from Greg Hodnett on lap three, Gravel was unstoppable, especially showing strength on restarts in a race that unfortunately had many of them. Johnny Herrera stopped on lap one, Don Droud Jr. was running strong and moving into the top five before he slowed on the speedway having picked up a big chunk of mud in his right front wheel. Earlier, Droud had the line of the night following his victory in the first heat race when pitside announcer Natalie Sather asked about his run and after a short answer he told her that her hair looked especially pretty tonight.

On the restart Shane Stewart clipped the cone and was penalized one position for the next try and on a later restart Stewart passed a bunch of cars on the back stretch waving his arm as he was having issues with his seatbelts. Since the stop was to resolve a safety issue, Stewart was allowed to restart in his running position.

Josh Schneiderman was impressive all night running third just ahead of that Madsen/Schatz finish in the third heat and he was solidly in the top five in the feature until something popped in the rear end taking him out of contention. On that final restart Gravel left them in his wake having several car lengths on the field before they even entered turn one and that lead would grow as the race neared its finish. A blown engine on Kraig Kinser’s car with three to go almost resulted in one more caution but the former Nationals champion drove his car to the infield under green, exactly what Gravel needed as he ran out of gas coming down the straightaway to take the checkers. California natives Brad Sweet and Brent Kaeding would finish second and third, Greg Hodnett was fourth and Daryn Pittman came from last (24^th) to complete the top five.

Oh yes, and Donny Schatz ran a nice race to finish inches behind Jason Sides in tenth, a performance that puts him tenth in the point standings after night number one. That means that after tonight Schatz will either be locked in to one of the first five rows of Saturday night’s B-Main, or that he will come back to run the Friday program where a feature win would start him seventeenth in the Championship A-Main. Either way, if Donny Schatz wins the 2013 Knoxville Nationals after starting that far back, I hope that I am not the only one who will be standing and cheering his accomplishment.