Brad Sweet brought a sellout crowd to its feet holding off Donny Schatz in a two lap shootout to win the 58th Annual 5 Hour Energy Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's General Stores Saturday night at the Knoxville Raceway. The green, white, checker restart following a Kerry Madsen crash on lap forty-eight gave Schatz one last opportunity to win Sprint Car racing's biggest event for the eleventh time in the last thirteen years, but he came up just a car length short as Sweet added his name to the elite list of champions.
Twenty-five drivers would lineup for the fifty lap finale, but this one was a three-car race for the win throughout as Sweet raced away from his pole position. Fellow front row starter Chad Kemenah would try to keep pace only to be passed by Kyle Larson and Schatz with those two drivers giving the fans some thrills as they swapped the runner-up position a couple of times in the first fifteen laps. The red flag would wave on lap nineteen when Rico Abreu caught the cushion wrong in turns three and four sending him for a tumble and on the restart as Sweet again pulled away it would be Larson passing Schatz to take second before the mid-race break for crews to add fuel and make changes as necessary.
Once back to green Sweet would continue to work the bottom as Larson went to the top and when the leader caught a hole on lap twenty-eight it pitched him sideways for a split second allowing Larson to go sailing by on the outside. The dominant car all week, Sweet would drive his Napa Auto Parts #49 right back to the lead two laps later and would again open up a gap between himself and the two viable challengers. Schatz would take second from Larson with nine laps remaining and it was as if the teaser music from the movie Jaws was playing as he steadily closed the gap on Sweet.
The gap was down to about ten car lengths with three laps to go and Sweet was able to maintain that same distance as he scored lap forty eight. This one now seemed to be in the bag when all of a sudden the red lights came on as Kerry Madsen had just flipped in between turns three and four.
The tension was thick in the crowd as Madsen's car was hooked up and hauled to the infield so you can only imagine how it was for Sweet as he waited for the two most important laps of his life and when the green flag waved he once again attacked the bottom entering turn one. Schatz went top side and had a great run off the cushion keeping Larson from being able to make a move and as the white flag waved it was Sweet with the slight advantage. The lead duo ran the same lines on the final lap and again Schatz had the momentum coming off turn four. Sweet hit his marks though and found the traction that he needed on the bottom to win the drag race to the line by a mere car length and become the first driver from the state of California to win the Nationals..
Larson would finish in the third spot, with Aaron Reutzel in fourth. Tim Kaeding picked up a couple of positions in the final two laps to finish fifth ahead of Carson Macedo and Chad Kemenah. Logan Schuchart was again strong coming from seventeenth to eighth, Shane Stewart was ninth and one of the four B-Main transfers, David Gravel completed the top ten.
In preliminary action the 1997 Nationals Champion Dave Blaney went flag to flag to win the D-Main. Sam Hafertepe Jr. did the same in the C-Main that saw weekly 360 competitor Clint Garner miss out on a transfer position when he slowed suddenly in turn four coming to the checkers. The B-Main would determine the final four starters for the big show with pole-sitter Parker Price-Miller scoring the win. Daryn Pittman would finish second with Gravel coming from seventh to third and Brock Zearfoss would take the final transfer with a late charge by current track point leader Austin McCarl coming up just short.
Another Knoxville Nationals is in the books and for the first time since 1990 this edition of the "Back Stretch" is actually coming to you from our Saturday night seats on the back stretch where I had the pleasure of sitting next to the mother of A-Main starter Matt Juhl and his happy cheering section. Matt earned his way into the field last night with a fourth place finish in the feature and he drove a steady race tonight to finish 20th in his first Nationals A-Main.
A big thank you goes out to my Positively Racing partner Barry Johnson, his wife Stephanie and daughter Aidan for allowing me to spend several nights at their home in Pella over the last two weeks and to our good friends Keith and Jeff Nachbor and their family for the hospitality and the fantastic pre-race meals. Stephanie and Aidan served up a great lunch as well on championship afternoon! This event is extra special now that my son Morgan is in Des Moines and can join me each night for "the best two weeks of the year" and that fun is enhanced when his fiance Em joins us on Saturday for some live music from the Lance Beebe Band at Dingus prior to race time.
Can't wait to do it all over again in 2019 and hopefully Donny Schatz will get a few more cheers than jeers as he tries to make it sixteen straight years of either winning, or finishing second in the sport's marquee event. Now that is amazing!
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