Aussies Jamie Veal and Ian Madsen would bring the 25-lap World of Outlaw feature to the green with Veal charging out to an early advantage. Shane Stewart and Brian Brown would settle into third and fourth during the early laps while Donny Schatz was running where he started, in fifth. The caution flag waved on lap five when the left side wing panel peeled off of the Tasker Phillips car and the crowd groaned when the crew could not complete the wing change before the caution light blinked out for the double-file restart.
This turned out to be a blessing for Phillips.
Madsen flared out to the cushion as the front row approached the chalk line and after the green flag waved he then made a big change of lines from high to low down the front stretch catching Stewart by surprise and clipping Shane's right front tire just before the flagstand. The contact sent Stewart sideways immediately collecting Brown and the rest of the field then scrambled trying find an open space, or brake before getting caught up in the wad. Ten of the twenty-four cars were involved with reportedly six getting upside down and all but Stewart were tangled up in a pile against the guardrail at the entrance to turn one. Thankfully all drivers were able to climb out of their cars uninjured.
The three wreckers on hand worked hard to get the cars that could possibly be repaired back to the work area before clearing away those that could not and amazingly only four drivers were eliminated from the crash: Brian Brown, Craig Dollansky, Joey Saldana and Scott Bogucki.
Daryn Pittman was the last car to push off before the restart and he would draw a caution after lap six was scored so that his crew could repair the throttle linkage and we were then ready to get back to racing. Veal would again power away to the lead with Madsen and Schatz now racing hard for second and the crowd cheered heartily as Ian fought off a couple of sliders from the seven-time defending Outlaws champion. David Gravel joined that battle before the mid-race point and when he made a run at Schatz for third it seemed to ignite the champ who not only shrugged off Gravel but then passed Madsen for second.
Veal's lead was about a half a straightaway with seven laps to go, but traffic loomed ahead of him and with Schatz now on the prowl it would be a tough task for Jamie to score his first career World of Outlaws feature win. Schatz showed his nose to the leader with five to go only to have Veal hold him off and then protect the bottom going into turn one with four to go. The next time around though with a lapped car in the low line ahead of him, Veal chose the high line into turn one and Schatz seized the opportunity by driving under the leader and then around the lapper in turn two to complete the pass for the lead on lap twenty-two. Veal tried to come back at him in turns three and four, but he could not make the pass and that seemed to take the wind out of his sails as both Danny Lasoski and Ian Madsen went around him before the white flag waved.
Lasoski was flying, but he had too much distance to make up while Madsen's engine went up in smoke as the white flag waved and Schatz would go on to score yet another win at Knoxville. Lasoski finished in the second spot while Gravel dropped Veal to fourth on the final lap. Brad Sweet would finish fifth, followed by Kerry Madsen, Shane Stewart was seventh after restarting the race in 14th, Logan Schuchart was eighth, Jason Johnson ninth and Brooke Tatnell completed the top ten.
It was another of those Knoxville features where you were walking out of the grandstands talking with random strangers about all of the drama that transpired over the closing laps.
The 360's provided support for the evening with pole sitter Matt Moro setting the pace in the 18-lap main event. It was a talented bunch running in the top ten and despite the fact that the track was wide and multi-grooved they all appeared to be equal until the caution waved on lap eleven when Mike VanHaaften got into the turn one guardrail. Clint Garner had a big run on the single-file restart, but was shut down when Moro went to the bottom in turn one. On the following lap though Moro chose the cushion and Garner powered by on the bottom to take the lead and the eventual win as the front row starters finished first and second. Row two starters Ryan Giles and Nate VanHaaften were third and fourth respectively while Tony Shilling finished where he started in fifth. The rest of the top ten were Jamie Ball, Joe Beaver, Jon Agan, Calvin Landis and Sawyer Phillips.
Knoxville Notes.....36 410's and 22 360's signed in for action although two of the 410's, Knoxville regulars Bronson Maeschen and R.J. Johnson were early scratches.....The new Outlaws format with no heat race invert is much more friendly for the fastest qualifiers and still provided us with some good racing during the heats. The fourth heat had an odd start to it as Daryn Pittman failed to come up to speed with pole-sitter Donny Schatz and the eighth-fastest qualifier Pittman faded to fifth at the checkers. With the top two going to the Dash and everybody else running third, fourth and fifth starting the feature where they finished it dropped Pittman to 20th on the feature grid, a prime spot to be driving into the turn one log jam on lap five......It was a tough night for Ian Madsen as not only did his line change trigger the big wreck, but he also had to quickly change motors after he finished second to Scahtz in that fourth heat. And it was that second motor that let go just as he took the white flag......After climbing out of his beat up car Brian Brown tracked down Shane Stewart and had some words with him before Stewart shoved Brown away from him. A few moments later as Mike Roberts interviewed Brown in the work area Brian admitted that after seeing the replay it definitely was not Stewart's fault.....I know that most race fans like the double file restarts, but I do not and today there are several crew chiefs who would tend to agree.....I enjoyed watching local driver Alan Zoutte win the third and final heat for the 360's. The second generation driver is the definition of a budget racer and on this night he was able to hold his line and take a rare checkered flag in a race where eventual feature winner Clint Garner finished third.....The driver who finished second in that heat race was sixteen-year-old female competitor Alex Hill from Six Nations, Ontario. Making her first appearance at Knoxville this weekend Alex finished 15th on Friday night while tonight she was 17th with a bit of a scare as she did a 360 degree spin off of turn four coming to the checkers.
It was great to be back at the Knoxville Raceway for my first trip of the season and as always the first class hospitality was very much appreciated. Make sure that you check out the schedule and plan your visit soon to the Sprint Car Capital of the World!
No comments:
Post a Comment