Driving a car with a paint scheme similar to the one used when Jeff Gordon started his Sprint Car racing career at the age of thirteen, Shane Stewart thrilled the crowd by holding off perennial champion Donny Schatz to win Wednesday night's opener of the 55th Annual FVP Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's General Stores. However, while it was Stewart standing atop the podium in victory lane, it is Schatz who is firmly in the lead in the all important points heading into the second night of qualifying on Thursday.
With the time trials being equally as important as a feature win on the two qualifying nights there is usually quite a buzz as the cars go out one-by-one and their times flash up on the big scoreboard a split second after the transponder passes over the scoring loop. On this night though that drama never seemed to materialize. It is always a HUGE advantage to draw an early qualifying spot and none of Wednesday's marquee drivers were among the first ten to take to the track. First qualifier Justyn Cox took advantage of his luck and posted the third fastest time, but with that came the honor of starting eighth in the third heat race where he actually slid to ninth at the finish and then had to run the C-Main. The second car out to time, Sheldon Haudenschild had his best lap hold up for fifth quick and he fared much better than did Cox when it came to racing as Sheldon made it to fourth in his heat to then start the feature from sixth and after showing some strength early he dropped back to tenth at the checkers. Good enough for fourth in points amongst Wednesday's qualifiers with 465 and that should be enough to lock the "Wild Child's Child" into the Championship A-Main on Saturday night.
David Gravel was the first World of Outlaw regular to take to the track in qualifying as he was the tenth car out and the Destiny Motorsports Team has to be absolutely thrilled with the results. Qualifying second quick Gravel then prevailed in a tight battle with Josh Baughman for the fourth and final transfer from the second heat race and in the feature the driver from Connecticut proved that he was no qualifying order fluke as he raced his way up to third behind Stewart and Schatz. In fact his 485 point total is only second to Schatz after night one and will definitely land him in either row two or three for the Championship starting grid on Saturday.
Schatz was the fourteenth car out to time and it was no surprise when he jumped to the top of the scoreboard with a lap of 14.953. With the rest of the night's top contenders still well down the list, the track slowed down and when drivers such as Paul McMahan (8th quick), Rico Abreu (10th), Daryn Pittman (15th) and Shane Stewart (18th) made their qualifying attempts it was obvious that they had no chance to beat the lap run earlier by Schatz.
Perhaps the biggest surprise in qualifying was local veteran Bob Weuve of Newton. Currently ranked 22nd in the track's 410 point standings, Weuve took full advantage of being the fifth car out for qualifying and posted the ninth fastest lap of the night. After finishing eighth in his heat, Weuve then posted a solid 13th place run in the B-Main to rank him 25th in the Wednesday points, but with only the top 26 across both nights "locked in" for Saturday he will have to give it another run on Friday night.
Heat race action was solid, but did not have some of the drama that we are used to seeing on the qualifying nights as with all five races going green to checkers it was tough for the top qualifiers to work their way into the top four. Of course Schatz made the most progress coming from eighth to third including a wild pass of Paige Polyak for fourth. The young lady was not about to yield to Schatz as he crowded her to the bottom entering turn three and when she finally had to lift to keep from crashing them both Polyak faded to seventh at the checkers.
Paul McMahan made a nice run up from seventh to fourth, right behind Shane Stewart, in the third heat. "Paul's To The Wall" then came back to run fourth in the main event giving him the third highest point total of the night.
Current Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders point leader Tony Shilling ran off with the win in the fourth heat that also saw Wayne Johnson put the Beaver Tool & Die #12x into the show by running fourth. In the feature Johnson was on the move taking over second from Daryn Pittman on lap eleven and looking to track down the leader Stewart. When the only caution of the night waved for a slowing Ian Madsen with ten laps remaining, Johnson lined up second but then faded back to sixth at the checkers. Still it was an impressive run for "Ironman" and if his 455 points don't land him 15th or 16th for Saturday's A-Main, at least he will have the option to keep his points and start near the front of Saturday's B-Main.
Rico Abreu did not get a good start in the fifth heat, but still battled back to finish fifth. In the B-Main Rico finished third behind a thrilling battle between Tasker Phillips and Cody Darrah. And then in the feature Abreu made a big run up from 23rd to eighth at the checkers. The result was the seventh best point total for the evening and, like Johnson, will be on the edge of locking into the A-Main for Saturday.
And that brings me to the opening night feature winner, Shane Stewart. Little did I know the talent that I was watching back when I saw Jeff Gordon qualify his sprint car for the C-Main at East Bay Raceway in Gibsonton, Florida, at the age of 13 and seeing Shane's car painted similar to Gordon's car of the past definitely brought back memories. There was a little less yellow and a bit more raw sheet metal on Jeff's car way back when, but this was definitely close enough!
The 51st car to qualify, Shane clocked in 18th and only moved from fifth to third in his heat race. As luck would have it though his point total after the heats would be the eighth best landing him on the pole position for the main event. Yes, he did hold off Schatz over the closing laps once again using that wide open entry into turn three late that he used to go from third to first on Sunday night, but it was not a dominating performance by any means and his point total of 460 only ranks him fifth in the Wednesday standings. This means that he will likely start tenth or eleventh on Saturday and will have his work cut out for him in the Championship feature.
All in all it was a good opening night of action for the 55th Annual Knoxville Nationals, but it wouldn't surprise me one bit if Thursday night's show turns up the wick just a little bit. Hope to see you there!
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