Well......it was a pretty decent race for second.
As expected, and likely dreaded by most of the large crowd on hand, Donny Schatz went fifty laps flag-to-flag, and for the most part unchallenged to win his ninth Sprint Car Nationals championship as the 55th Annual FVP Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's General Stores came to a close at the Knoxville Raceway Saturday night.
Th evening started out in an odd fashion when the Pella Motors two seater car came roaring out of turn four and had the right rear wheel break off of the car. The driver kept it off the guardrail and on all fours (or three) and when the rider, Joe Hill of Columbus, Ohio, climbed out of the car Aussie announcer Wade Aunger had some fun with him. Hill admitted that he might need a change of pants after the near disaster and when Aunger asked him if he would do it again, Hill quickly replied "Yes!" Aunger then asked him if he was married and after he replied yes once again Aunger quipped, "I could tell that you were a thrill seeker Mate."
For the second night in a row I had chills as Katie Davis sang her perfect rendition of the National Anthem.
The E-Main went red on lap two when Paige Polyak spun and then tipped over on to her side in turn two. A caution with four laps remaining saw the third-place car of Willie Croft pull to to the pits and on the restart Josh Schneiderman made a big run on the cushion to go from seventh to fourth. Jimmy Light would become the first driver ever to win the E-Main twice at the Knoxville Nationals as he achieved the same feat in 2014. Hunter Schuerenberg and Bob Weuve finished ahead of Schneiderman while Dylan Peterson passed Bobby Mincer on the final lap for the fifth and final transfer.
Josh Baughman would lead all twelve laps to win the D-Main ahead of Brady Bacon while a couple of local 360 regulars Jon Agan and Tony Shilling also transferred in third and fourth. Jeff Swindell started the Sonner #47 from ninth and he picked off Bud Kaeding for fifth mid-race, but he could not track down Shilling before the checkers waved.
As Davey Heskin set a blistering pace in the C-Main the battle for the top four transfer positions was intense featuring the father and son duo of Steve and Kraig Kinser. Steve passed Aaron Reutzel with six to go to takeover fourth only to have Reutzel come storming back with two to go bringing Sam Hafertepe Jr. along with him and shuffling "The King" back to sixth. As this exchange of position was going on in turns one and two, most of the crowd missed the fact that the leader Heskin had slowed on the Back Stretch and pulled to the apron handing the lead, and the win over to Billy Balog. Kraig Kinser would take second followed by Reutzel and Hafertepe leaving Steve Kinser one spot shy of moving on to the next race. And shortly after the race it was reported by Mike Roberts that Heskin had run out of fuel a lap and a half shy of the checkers.
The 22-lap B-Main is often one of the most intriguing races during the Nationals with the top four finishers earning their shot at the Championship, but this one got off to an inauspicious start. With the field formed up and heading down the Back Stretch ready to take the green the fireworks went off down the front stretch and with the accompanying smoke starter Doug Clark waved both the green and the yellow flag in what was to be an aborted start. It was not a good one for Dusty Zomer though as he bicycled the cushion in turn one and then hammered the fence to put an early end to his evening. When the race did go green, on lap two the fifth-place car of Clint Garner got high coming off turn turn, clipped the fence and then came down the track collecting James McFadden. Contact between the two flattened Garner's left rear and he pulled a caution.
On the restart McFadden, who had an A-Main starting spot all but wrapped up last night in the Speed Sport World Challenge before his motor expired with a lap remaining, made a run at Justin Henderson for fourth. But once again smoke billowed from McFadden's car and he pulled to the infield in frustration. Wayne Johnson would lead the distance in the Beaver Tool & Die retro looking car to take the win with Sammy Swindell, obviously racing with a lot on his mind, running second. Cody Darrah would transfer in the third spot while Greg Hodnett came from ninth to earn the fourth and final transfer just ahead of former Nationals champ, and the last driver to beat Schatz here, Tim Shaffer.
The field was now set and introductions were made starting with Trevor Canales who would take a lap in Rico Abreu's #24 since Rico had a prior commitment to compete in a K&N East Series race tonight at the Motordrome Speedway in Smithton, Pennsylvania. Earlier in the day Rico had tweeted that his share of the winnings for the car would be donated to Kevin Swindell and, checking the results from Motordrome, we see that Rico finished second to Dillon Bassett. It was also good to see Sammy Swindell get such a nice round of applause as he made the tough decision to go ahead and compete tonight after spending much of the last two days at the hospital with Kevin.
Donny Schatz of course was roundly booed as he was introduced, but he just smiled and waved knowing that his eight previous victories in this event had created this reaction. With Schatz racing to the lead Kerry Madsen tried to keep pace and just before the leader was about to encounter traffic for the first time the caution waved for Jason Johnson who had a flat left rear tire. On the restart the chase of Schatz continued, but on lap 23 Danny Lasoski found some speed in the middle groove and drove by Madsen for second. Lasoski closed in on Schatz as well, but the caution waved two laps later for the mandatory pit stop in the 50-lap main event.
Despite his dominating performance thus far, Schatz chose to change gears while most of the rest of the field stuck with what they had. Three laps after the restart Brad Sweet shuffled Madsen back to fourth as Lasoski teased the crowd by closing in on Schatz in the turns. When the caution waved for a Billy Alley spin in turn two on lap thirty, there was an anticipation that "The Dude" just might be able to make a run at the lead on the coming restart. That thought faded quickly though as Schatz pulled away from Lasoski while Madsen stormed back around Sweet to regain the third spot.
Both Madsen and Sweet drove by Lasoski two laps later and they were now a half straightaway behind the leader. Just before traffic was to come into play on lap 35, Paul McMahan jumped the cushion and went for a tumble in turn four to bring out the red flag. It was a closed red though, so no adjustments were made, except by McMahan's crew who made enough of the repairs needed while the car was still dangling from the wrecker in order to allow their driver to return to the race just prior to the green flag waving once again.
Shane Stewart made the big move on this restart coming from seventh to fifth and once again the caution waved before Schatz would have to deal with traffic when Lynton Jeffrey slowed with ten laps remaining. On this restart Stewart would put the slider on Sweet to take over third in turn four, but it was short-lived as Sweet stormed back down the front straightaway to regain the spot. With Sweet occupied, Madsen could now concentrate on pounding the cushion in an effort to reel in Schatz and when the leader finally had to deal with traffic with just four laps remaining it came in a three-car bundle of McMahan, Alley and Jason Johnson.
McMahan drifted to the cushion in turn three to give Schatz pause for a moment, but when Donny split the middle entering turn one and passed all three lappers in one fell swoop this race was now all but over. Madsen made a similarly nice move to pass all three in turn three, but he now had no chance of catching Schatz who would score his ninth Knoxville Nationals title in just a ten year span. Madsen would settle for second ahead of Sweet while Shane Stewart and Joey Saldana completed the top five. Finishing sixth through tenth were Brian Brown, Daryn Pittman, Lasoski, Lucas Wolfe and Greg Hodnett.
When you consider that Stewart started twelfth, Brown came from fourteenth, Pittman started fifteenth and Hodnett was the last transfer out of the B-Main it is obvious that there was some great racing going on. But for most, it will be remembered as just another dominating performance by Donny Schatz whom afterwards was asked what it meant to him to have now won this event nine times. "You don't really think about it as going out to win for the ninth time", said Schatz. "It is all about just winning it this time." He then smiled and said, "I guess tomorrow it'll sound pretty cool when I get home and tell my dogs what happened though."
His dogs will be proud.
That puts a wrap on the 55th running of the Knoxville Nationals and while I will take the next five nights off, it will be back to another full weekend of Sprint Car racing next week as the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders run Friday night at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, Saturday night at 34 Raceway in Burlington and Sunday night at the Quincy Racways in Quincy, Illinois. Hope to see you there!
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