Enough With Running Second, Kevin Swindell Conquers Knoxville's "Capitani Classic"

Friday night was the first time this season that Kevin Swindell had driven a winged sprint car on dirt. He finished second to Justin Henderson. On Saturday night Swindell fought off Kyle Larson to finish second in the 360 Knoxville Nationals and if not for that battle he may have been able to make a run at the champion Shane Stewart. Most drivers would be thrilled with two runner-up finishes in a major event at the Knoxville Raceway, especially in their first weekend out for the season while the others had been doing it all year. Not Kevin Swindell though as he is not known as “The Bulldog” for nothing.

On Sunday night, despite being the last of 81 entries to take to the track for qualifying, Swindell did what he needed to do to earn his way into the invert for the heat races. He survived a close call along with his father Sammy at the start of his heat race, and then outfoxed one of the craftiest drivers ever to race at Knoxville to take the lead and eventually the win in the second annual Capitani Classic.

That close call came at the start of heat race number four as Kevin lined up in the second row on the outside of Jason Johnson and with Sammy starting just behind his son in sixth. With the top four cars moving on to the A-Main in each of the heat races getting a good start is necessary especially for the two fastest qualifiers who start fifth and sixth as making the top four is the difference between starting in the first four rows of the A-Main, or having to transfer from the B and start the feature in row eleven or twelve. When the green flag waved, the field scrambled up front and Kevin wound up nearly sideways in front of Sammy who had to stomp the brakes and steer to avoid. The six cars starting behind them did the same and somehow everybody kept moving and the race stayed green. Kevin was able to recover and was scored fifth on the opening lap, while Sammy was now well back in seventh and pushing to make up ground. Kevin would get by both Dustin Selvage and Austin McCarl to finish in the third spot while Sammy would run out of laps and finish fifth having to go on and later win the second B-Main to make the show. After the checkers waved both Swindell’s stayed on the gas to catch up with Jason Johnson and they both expressed their displeasure with him on the cool down lap.

Kevin would lineup to the outside of Terry McCarl on the front row for the 25-lap main event and, with his years of experience, you will not find many drivers who are better at gaining the advantage when they are setting the pace here at Knoxville than McCarl. As the green flag waved it was “T-Mac” who would take the lead heading down the back straightaway, but before he could come around to put the opening lap on the scoreboard Ian Madsen would spin in turn two to bring out the caution.

The field was reset and after Wally Price brought the Pella Motors pace truck to the infield off of turn two McCarl slowed to a snail’s pace as he eased the anxious field of twenty-four down the back straightaway. It seemed like it took two or three minutes before the front row hit the chalk line in turn four and McCarl was the first on the trigger moving up in front of Swindell down the front stretch. “The Bulldog” did not lift and steered to the left to enter turn one on the low line where the Indy Race Parts #71 stuck like glue to take the lead down the back stretch. As McCarl had to deal with the challenges of Justin Henderson and Brian Brown, Swindell quickly opened up a big lead only to have it wiped away when Jon Agan spun in turn four on lap number six.

On the restart Swindell again opened a big lead as first Brown and then Henderson were able to get around McCarl and then it was Henderson who raised some eyebrows when he again powered past the driver that many figure will be the chief challenger to Donny Schatz later this week as he dropped Brown back to third. The caution waved again at the mid-race mark when Kyle Larson looped his #1K in turn four and the restart would now give Henderson the opportunity to see if he could keep pace with, and possibly challenge the leader.

He found that he could not though as once again Swindell pulled away and despite having to work lapped traffic through the closing laps there was no catching Kevin as he posted his fourth career win in the 410 division here at Knoxville and collected the $5,000 top prize. Henderson was impressive in running second ahead of Brown who is definitely still a driver to watch at this week’s 410 Nationals. Shane Stewart started eighth and finished fourth while Craig Dollansky was the only World of Outlaws regular to crack the top five after starting fifteenth.

Cappy Classic Notes……Schatz, Steve Kinser and Kraig Kinser were the only Outlaw regulars who did not compete this evening…..Jason Sides was scheduled to start in the fourth row of the second heat, but did not come to staging for the event…..Logan Forler took a nasty ride down the frontstretch at the start of that second heat and after he climbed from his car unscathed some extra time was spent to repair some fencing just below Doug Clark’s flagstand….The fifth heat had three noteworthy items. Joey Saldana pushed off and then pulled back to the infield with steering issues. Local driver Jon Agan, who just recently started running the 410 division as well as his usual 360 ride, scored an impressive win going away from the field. And Terry McCarl made a late pass of Davey Heskin for the fourth and final transfer position, a pass that landed him on the pole position of the main event…..Johnny Herrera and Rico Abreu swapped the lead back and forth in the C-Main where the top four cars would transfer on to the back of the two B-Mains. Herrera would re-take the lead on the final lap to take the win……Lynton Jeffrey won the first B-Main and, just as he did the night before, Randy Hannagan made a big run to complete a pass on the final lap for the final transfer position to the feature. His victim tonight was Joey Saldana…..Sammy Swindell and Cody Darrah waged a back and forth battle for the lead in the second B-Main while Tim Kaeding and Tim Shaffer tried to keep pace. Swindell would take the win followed by Darrah with Kaeding closing, but too late in third……Abreu started 21^st in the second B-Main and charged all the way up to 8^th  in the 12-lap event.

After four straight nights I am going to take the next couple off from Sprint Car racing and hopefully take in either the World of Outlaw Late Models, Hawkeye Dirt Tour Modified doubleheader at Independence tonight (Monday), or the Open Late Model Shootout at the West Liberty Raceway on Tuesday night. Mother Nature may end up playing a part in that decision. Then on Wednesday night it is back up to Knoxville for the 53^rd Annual FVP Knoxville Nationals.

Four In a Row and One For The Thumb; Stewart Dominates 360 Nationals

Shane Stewart overcame two late restarts and the loss of his power steering in the final two laps to win his fourth straight, and fifth overall Arnold Motor Supply 360 Knoxville Nationals Saturday night at the Knoxville Raceway. And while the restarts made it close at the end, it was another dominating performance by the driver from Bixby, Oklahoma.

Wayne Johnson joined Stewart on the front row for the 25-lap headliner and it was Johnson who got the jump when the green flag waved. As the field entered turn three for the first time it appeared that Josh Higday slowed mid-pack and the chain reaction resulted in a spin by Dustin Selvage that also collected Randy Hannagan. With the caution out Lee Grosz stopped in turn two with a flat tire and before the car of Hannagan was towed off the track Scott Winters also pitted for a right rear tire that was going flat. Since the lap was not scored the field was realigned two-by-two and on the next wave of the green it was Stewart who won the sprint into turn one.

By lap four Stewart had Paul Silva's #57 a full straightaway ahead of Johnson as the field battled for position well behind him. Johnson was doing his best to hold back the challenges of Brad Sweet and Kevin Swindell and once lapped traffic came into play, both drivers were able to make the pass yet they were still far behind the leader. Deeper in the pack, as expected, Brian Brown was making steady progress after starting in the tenth row and by mid-race he had cracked the top ten and was looking for more.

It was at that mid-race point when the leader Stewart closed in on the #83 of Terry McCarl and as McCarl was also racing for position, Stewart was unable to put McCarl a lap down. Usually when a race leader gets hung up behind a soon-to-be-lapped car his competition closes in on him quickly, but that was not the case here as McCarl appeared to be running as fast as those challengers. With the laps winding down Swindell was starting to cut into the lead, but not fast enough and it looked as though this one was all over until the caution waved with just three laps remaining. Friday's winner Justin Henderson had stopped in turn two with a flat left rear tire and the large crowd buzzed with anticipation as Swindell, Sweet, Danny Lasoski and Kyle Larson would now line up right behind Stewart for the restart.

When the green waved Swindell looked like he had a nice run out of turn two only to slip a bit in turn allowing Stewart to again pull away, but as he raced under Justin Clark's white flag the ninth-place car of Robby Wolfgang went end-over-end exiting turn four bringing out the red flag and setting up a green-white-checkered scenario. Larson had now moved up to third and Brian Brown become a contender as he lined up sixth for the restart that was now, as we would later learn, much more of a challenge than usual for the leader.

In that last green flag segment Stewart had lost his power steering and he now had a handful, both in the cockpit as well as in the two young drivers lined up just behind him.On the restart Stewart went to the bottom into turn one, Swindell went to the cushion and Larson charged to the bottom as well and as the trio raced down the back straightaway Stewart got the break that he needed as he wrestled his ride into turn three. Swindell and Larson went wheel-to-wheel down the back stretch and when the two went for the same piece of real estate at the bottom of turn three Larson clipped the berm and Swindell had to scramble to avoid major contact allowing Stewart to get away again and complete that final lap unchallenged for the victory. It was the fourth straight and fifth overall triumph by Stewart in this event and despite his dominance there were nothing but cheers as he climbed the stage in victory lane.

Larson showed his displeasure with Swindell on the cool down lap, but as he later said in the press conference by the time they had reached the scales all was good as Swindell would finish as the runner-up with Larson in third. Brown was the hard charger coming from 19th to fourth, perhaps sending a signal for next week, and Brad Sweet filled out the top five.

When asked about the two late restarts Stewart first talked about his loss of power steering and then quipped, "I knew that Kevin was going to be good on the bottom and you never know where this freak (Larson) over here is going to come from." The winner said that with his steering challenge he could not hold the car on the bottom and riding the cushion all the way around was not an option so he was very glad to see the checkered flag. It was an emotional win for Shane as well as he paid tribute to Bob Westphal who passed away in June, proud to have put his Wesmar power back in victory lane.

360 Nats Notes.....This was Swindell's first weekend of Sprint Car racing in 2013 and it definitely did not show.....Both Larson and Sweet ran the 250-lap NASCAR Nationwide Series race that took the green flag just after seven o'clock just up the road in Newton. Understandably Knoxville ran off the night's events in a manner that would allow both drivers to get back in time for the hot lap session for A-Main qualifiers, so it was approaching midnight when the checkers waved here. Larson finished fifth and Sweet was 15th at Iowa Speedway.....When interviewed in the pits before the main event Sweet mentioned the "taxi cabs" that he was racing earlier in the evening.....Lasoski was one of the fastest during the hot lap session, but his motor let go on the final lap. The Burch Motorsports crew immediately pushed the #1M outside the track to make a motor change at the hauler and the veteran driver was very competitive finishing in sixth.....An Indiana driver who usually runs without a wing, Parker Price-Miller ran away with the win in the E-Main, but then came up one spot short of moving from the D to the C......Seth Bergman and Brady Bacon ran one-two in the D-Main, a ten lap race that saw a couple of incidents. In the first, New Jersey driver Robbie Stillwagon tangled with Danny Jennings in turn two and while neither car got upside down, Stillwagon's climbed the guardrail and was pointed skyward before both cars settled to a stop. Robbie quickly climbed out of his car and then began to run down the back stretch. Before he made it into turn three he paused to talk with someone and then turned and ran back toward turn two. A scuffle then apparently broke out, but our view was blocked so we could not see who was involved, although it is a good bet that Stillwagon was now at a disadvantage after running nearly a quarter-mile....The second incident came on a late restart when the fifth-place car of Derrik Lusk faltered just after racing past the cone and the field then scrambled to missed him with Ricky Montgomery getting upside down in turn one.....A bank of lights entering turn one went dark just before the start of the C-Main. They would later power back on, but while they were out the track was still illuminated better than most facilities.....Jamie Ball was in control of the C-Main throughout, but a caution with four laps remaining when Brady Bacon exploded a tire made for an entertaining finish. Dusty Zomer rode the cushion around one and two on the restart and literally flew past Tim Shaffer, Sam Hafertepe Jr. and Dustin Morgan to move from seventh to the fourth and final transfer position and he was not done yet. Zomer then disposed of Mike Houseman Jr. and Jamie Veal over the final laps to finish second to Ball. Veal would transfer in third while Shaffer slipped past Houseman on the final lap to take fourth.....Dave Hall went into turn one too high at the start of the B-Main, slammed the guardrail and then rolled a couple of times. When asked by announcer Mike Roberts about the ride Hall responded, "I don't know, everything was good and then everything was bad." Scott Winters, Don Droud Jr. and Jon Agan would run off with the first three transfer positions while Randy Hannagan passed Mark Dobmeier with two laps to go for the final starting spot in the Championship event.

Nineteen 305 c.i. Winged Sprints signed in to run a full program in support, but two cars lost motors during hot laps leaving seventeen cars to run two heats and a 12-lap main event. Keoni Texiera from Hawaii, who drives a car that is based out of Alaska, went for a tumble during his heat race shrinking the field even further before feature time. Matt Stephenson and J Kinder would race for the lead side-by-side for a couple of laps early before the red flag interrupted their battle when Chris Horton went for a tumble in turn four. On the restart Larry Ball Jr. passed Kinder for second and then blew past Stephenson on the high side of turn four to take the lead mid-race. Ball then cruised to his eight career win here in this division. Kinder would move up to finish in the second spot ahead of Stacy Alexander, Stephenson would hold on for fourth while New Mexico driver Lorne Wofford would take fifth. Ball mentioned in victory lane that he would race one more time in this car before turning it over to one of his crew members and that he would be putting together a ride in the 410 division for 2014.

Southern Iowa Sprint Speedweek action continues tonight (Sunday) as the 410's roll into Knoxville for the second running of the Capitani Classic. Hope to see you there!

Henderson Walks Away With Friday's 360 Nationals Qualifier

Night number two of the Arnold Motor Supply 360 Knoxville Nationals produced another flag-to-flag winner, although this one was a little more traditional than last night's nail biter. Justin Henderson started on the inside of row two and blew past the front row of Justyn Cox and Josh Higday in turns one and two to take the lead down the back stretch. From there he began to pull away lap by lap to a score a dominating victory in the Brent Vonk Hard Core Speed Shop #21V.

With Henderson on cruise control there was plenty of action to watch behind the leader as drivers did their best to rack up points for their starting spots in Saturday night's headliner. Kevin Swindell quickly moved from sixth to second and tried to keep Henderson in his sights while three-time defending champion of this event, Shane Stewart was also on the move after starting seventh. Knoxville's current weekly 360 Sprint point leader Clint Garner as well as Mark Dobmeier, making a rare 360 appearance, were also in contention as the battle for positon raged on. Dobmeier's night came to a premature ending though when he slowed suddenly with six laps remaining and pulled to the infield giving up the fourth position.

Stewart cleared Garner with a nifty move for third late and then tracked down Swindell to make the pass for second in the final two laps, the move that earned him just enough points to sit on the pole for Saturday's A-Main, a perfect starting spot for the driver seeking his fourth straight and fifth overall Knoxville 360 Nationals title. Swindell's third-place finish will put him in the second row on Saturday while Henderson's win will put him in the fifth starting position for the championship feature.

Clint Garner finished in the fourth spot tonight while Justyn Cox drove a nice race to hold on to fifth.

Terry McCarl in the Call/Holbrook #83 established the fastest qualifying time for the evening, but his evening went south early in the first heat race when he was tagged from behind by Dylan Peterson. The contact sent Peterson for a hard tumble on the front stretch while the damage forced McCarl to the work area where the crew made repairs, but he came up one spot short of a transfer position. T-Mac came back to win the B-Main, but could only advance four spots up to seventeenth in the main event.

Perhaps the surprise of the night was delivered by Robby Wolfgang who got back around Brian Brown in the final laps to finish in the sixth position, a performance that has him in Saturday's A-Main strarting fourteenth.

So after two soild nights of qualifying the field is set for Saturday's finale that will be supported by a full program of the 305 Sprint Cars in their unofficial Knoxville Nationals. One thing that you can expect is that the grand finale will not take the green until at least thirty minutes after the checkers wave the Nationwide Series race just up the road at the Iowa Speedway. That should give both Brad Sweet and Kyle Larson enough time to make the quick helicopter ride down to Knoxville, that is of course if neither one of them is delayed by victory lane ceremonies.

For Friday's results and Saturday's lineups courtesy of Bill Wright visit the Knoxville Raceway website.

Experience Prevails; Lasoski Holds Off Larson At Knoxville

It was old versus new, the veteran against the phenom, the winningest driver in Knoxville Raceway history versus the kid that is projected to be a superstar, the “Dude” versus “Yung Money”. No matter how you label it this was a classic battle, well beyond announcer Tony Bokhoven’s proclamation of a “Jim Dandy”, and a fantastic way to kick off the 2013 running of the Arnold Motor Supply 360 Nationals at the Knoxville Raceway.

It was Danny Lasoski and Kyle Larson putting on a show over the final eight laps that had everybody in attendance on the edge of, or up out of their seat in a race that no matter who you were cheering for you could not be unhappy with the outcome. And that was confirmed when the winner, perhaps not the one that most were cheering for, was graciously applauded while in victory lane. As this one lined up with Larson starting on the outside of the front row next to Danny Dietrich, and with Lasoski starting right behind Larson in fourth, one had to assume that it would evolve into a race where Larson could possibly run away and maybe have Lasoski track him down in traffic. That assumption was wrong.

As the green flag waved for the twenty-lapper Larson slipped high in turns one and two and found himself in fourth as he raced down the back stretch while it was “The Dude” who would go from fourth to first on that opening lap. Larson recovered quickly though driving past both Dietrich and Lee Grosz going into turn three and he slid up behind Lasoski coming off of four in the second spot for lap one. With Lasoski riding the cushion and Larson trying to keep pace on the bottom, the lead pair steadily pulled away from the field and when the back of the field started to come into play just past the mid-race mark that is when this one started to get fun!

The all-time winningest driver at the Knoxville Raceway, Lasoski has been to this dance before and he had no problem disposing of the lapped cars, but neither did the kid behind him and on lap fourteen Larson powered by Lasoski on the low side of turn two to take the lead down the back straightaway. Lasoski came right back though and drove the Mark Burch Motorsports #1M back by Larson in turn four to regain the lead at the stripe and the veteran then closed the door on his challenger by driving to the low line in turn one. I can’t even imagine how many times Lasoski has done this over the years, heck I am not even a regular here and I can remember several of them and usually it breaks the momentum and the spirit of his challenger to the point where he then pulls away and posts a convincing victory. With Larson though, it was almost like waving the red cape in front of the bull. (An ironic reference given one of Lasoski’s t-shirt slogans of the past!)

Larson regained his momentum, maintained his spirit and made up the ground that he lost over the next three laps and as the white flag waved the crowd knew that they were in for one whale of a final lap. The kid built his momentum around the top side of one and two, pulled even with Lasoski midway down the backstretch and then drove hard into turn three to once again take the lead much to the delight of that Thursday night throng. Lasoski proved why he is the best here though as he kicked off the cushion in turn three, aimed for the bottom to exit turn four where he would regain the lead, and he then held off the high line charge of Larson to win by no more than a half car length. Amazing! And you want to talk about the mis-leading stat of the night? When you look at the lap leaders in the official results it will show “Lasoski 1-20”.

Were there other cars in the race? Yes, twenty-two of them to be exact and it may sound bad but after lap ten I couldn’t tell you anything about the rest of them since the lapped cars did not cause any issues and the drivers running for positions third, fourth, fifth, etc. were just too far out of the spectacular picture that played out up front. Looking at the results today I can tell you that fast qualifier Wayne Johnson made a nice run up from eighth to third and his performance throughout the evening gave him the most points after night number one with 490. King’s Royal champion Brad Sweet finished fourth and he ranks second in the points so far while Lee Grosz had a solid run in the fifth position. Jason Johnson started seventh and finished eighth, yet he still ranks ahead of both Larson and Lasoski, third, in the all important point standings after opening night.

With the threat of rain to the north and west the Knoxville Raceway crew headed up by John McCoy ran off the night’s events in fine fashion with the final checkered flag waving at ten minutes before ten o’clock and while I would have loved to have gone to the post-race press conference it was good to be home before midnight for a normal night of sleep before on last day of work for the week. Tonight it is back up to Knoxville where another fifty or so drivers will be in action looking to score points and maybe provide the same type of action that they themselves witnessed on Thursday. Those drivers know that they have a tough act to follow.

See you at Knoxville!

A Look Back At The 2003 Knoxville Nationals

As we get set to head up to Knoxville tonight for the opener of the 2013 Arnold Motor Supply 360 Nationals I thought it might be fun to pull up my story from ten years ago and the 2003 version of the Knoxville Nationals....

The 43^rd Annual Ford Dealers of Iowa Knoxville Nationals is complete with Danny Lasoski staking claim to his third Nationals title. The racing was, as usual, fantastic and there was a very interesting side story with the announcement of the sale of the World of Outlaws.
 
Following are random thoughts and notes from this year’s greatest show on dirt. Donny Schatz continued his recent string of strong qualifying nights when he held off Danny Lasoski by a couple of car-lengths for the Wednesday night feature win. Along with the third quick time and a second-pace finish in his heat race, Schatz collected one more point than Lasoski. Young Erin Crocker thrilled the crowd by qualifying fifth quick and then drove a steady race to move from ninth to third in her heat race. Crocker faded to a fifteenth place finish in the feature, but her point total was good enough to make her the first-ever female to qualify for the Saturday night A-Main at the Knoxville Nationals. The first lap of the first heat race saw both Johnny Herrera, in the Guy Forbrook #5, and Jeff Johnson get upside down in turn one adding to an already miserable season for Forbrook. Only forty-nine cars made the call for Wednesday’s qualifying while there were sixty-four on hand for Thursday.

While many thought that Wednesday’s field was stacked with heavy hitters, it became obvious that the Thursday field was strong from top to bottom making it much tougher for drivers to accumulate those valuable points to lock themselves in to Saturday’s A-Main. In fact, Kenny Jacobs, the top point man from Thursday’s field with 481 markers, only ranked sixth after the first two nights of qualifying. Jacobs was the fourth fastest qualifier, ran second to Clint Garner in the fourth heat and then finished sixth in the A-Main. It was an impressive night for a fan-favorite that has had little or no success here the past five years, however the 481 points may just be the “lowest” high-point total for a night since this method of qualifying was enacted. While Herrera was the hard-luck story of night one, it had to be Tyler Walker on Thursday night. Third quick in qualifying, Walker was coming through the field quickly in his heat race before his right rear tire began to go down. Walker fought the car through one and two and then sped down the backstretch before stuffing it in the wall in turn three. The resulting damage did not allow for just a tire change and a return to action, and by finishing tenth in the heat Walker was now mired in the evening’s C-Main. He won that easily, but could only move from twenty-first to eleventh in the twelve-lap B-Main to end his night. His qualifying point total was only good enough to slate him for the twentieth spot in Saturday’s B-Main. Fast qualifier Kerry Madsen could not advance from his heat and started twenty-first after winning the B. He made an impressive run up to seventh, but it went largely unnoticed due to the action at the front of the field. Wayne Johnson in the Beaver Tool & Drill #12x was on the point and appeared to have the field covered, but yellow after yellow kept slowing the pace. With three laps to go Johnson had Steve Kinser on his push bar with Tim Shaffer in third on a restart and the young Oklahoman hit it just right and pulled away from the “King” for an apparent win. But Josh Higday coasted to a stop in turn four one lap later to bring out one last caution and, on this restart Kinser timed it perfectly and had a run on the leader. Kinser slid up in front of the leader in turn two and pulled away for the victory while Shaffer also slipped by for third. A chorus of boos greeted Kinser when he pulled into victory lane as the crowd seemed frustrated with the circumstances that had just played out. Steve was very gracious in his victory lane interview stating that Johnson was the faster car during the green-flag segments, but that he was just given too many chances with all of the cautions. Despite the heartbreaking ending, Johnson’s excitement showed in the pressroom as it was obvious that he was very proud to be sitting at the front table with Mr. Kinser and Mr. Shaffer. I definitely became a Wayne Johnson fan on Thursday night!

Friday night’s action got off to a scary start in heat race number three. Announcer Justin Zoch had just done a fine job detailing how this year’s Nationals queen was the daughter of driver Kim Mock when, at the drop of the green, Mock climbed the frontstretch guardrail and took a very nasty ride all the way to the entrance of turn one. After some very tense moments it was announced that Mock was talking with the safety crew as they prepared him for transport to the hospital. The extent of the injuries to the current IRA point leader were not known at the time of this writing. The A-Main saw Johnny Herrera come from row eight to take the win while Kelly Kinser raced his way from the tenth row up to fourth. Mid-race leader Roger Crockett of Eugene, Oregon, finished the race in the third spot but was disqualified when he came up too light at the scales. Crockett did not return for Saturday night’s action. Tim Kaeding came from row three to win the “C” Scramble while Lance DeWease and Shane Stewart won the “B” and the “A” Scrambles respectively from front row starting spots. After trading a couple of slidejobs Steve Kinser and Kerry Madsen made contact that tore the left front wheel off of the Quaker State #11. Travis Rilat outran Ricky Logan for a $10,000 win of the Kele World Challenge with Kurt Winker making an impressive run for third.

On Saturday night one of the announcers made the comment that they couldn’t remember the last time that there were so many incidents on the final night of the Nationals. Seems to me that it was the first year that TNN showed the Nationals live on television. The Speed Channel cameras were rolling live and captured plenty of wild sprint car action Saturday night including flips by Mark Toews, Ty Bartz, Mike Moore, Jeff Johnson, Mike Kertscher, Josh Higday, Skip Jackson, Eric Vanderploeg and Lynton Jeffrey. Toews got the ball rolling in grand fashion flipping out of the ballpark in turn three during the E-Main. It was the second year in a row for Bartz to tumble on Saturday night while it was the second end-over for Johnson on the week. Kertscher’s tumble topped off a crummy Nationals for the Osborn team as his teammate Kim Mock reportedly watched from a hospital bed. Higday may have set a new height record in his front straightaway vault and Jeffrey was a victim of Travis Cram’s left hand turn into the pits before the coast was clear. That final red flag in the B-Main involving Cram and Jeffrey sure ruined Jeremy Campbell’s week. The young Michigan driver had just made a solid pass of Jeff Shepard for the fourth and final transfer to the national championship feature, but the red flag erased the effort and he came up just short in the final two laps after the restart.

Pole-sitter Donny Schatz jumped to the early lead in the finale only to have Danny Lasoski track him down on lap seven. With Lasoski pulling away Schatz was trying every groove available on the half-mile trying to keep pace with the leader. Meanwhile the race to watch was the multi-car battle for third through eighth featuring Greg Hodnett, Paul McMahan, Sammy Swindell, Steve Kinser and more. But it was Kenny Jacobs who emerged from that pack to take over third with about ten laps remaining. Lasoski looked like he had it wrapped up until the caution flag flew for a stalled Daryn Pittman with just two laps remaining. During the caution period it became evident that Lasoski was having a problem as his left rear wheel was bouncing considerably as he circled the track. It turned out to be a broken shock absorber, but the veteran driver nailed the restart and was able to muscle the car through the final two laps to hold off Schatz by about six car-lengths for the $125,000 top prize. Jacobs was a crowd-pleaser in third followed by Swindell, Hodnett and Kinser. Jason Meyers, in Craig Dollansky’s #7, was the hard-charger coming from seventeenth to finish ninth while Erin Crocker’s twenty-first place run was more than enough to garner the Rookie-of-the-Nationals title for the young lady. As predicted here last week by both Kyle and Morgan, it was Danny Lasoski in victory lane continuing a run where it has been either a Kinser or the Dude every year except once since 1991. That was in 1997 when Dave Blaney won it on a sun-baked Sunday afternoon.

Friday’s press luncheon drew the largest throng of media-folk that I have ever seen and it wasn’t just for the “free lunch” as we all anticipated the announcement of the sale of the World of Outlaws. For such a major event in the world of motorsports it was almost surreal how brief and vague the press conference portion of the luncheon was. It took me longer to eat my salad than it did for Ted Johnson to announce that the Outlaws had been sold and for the spokesman of the new ownership group (I didn’t catch his name) to make a brief statement, introduce five major players in the corporation and to answer a few questions. The new owner is called Boundless Motor Sports Racing Inc. and is based in Richardson, Texas. They have also acquired DIRT from Glenn Donnelly and appear poised to do some additional shopping as well. During the statement the spokesman for Boundless said that they plan to take the Outlaws to the infamous “next level” and in response to one of the questions it was stated that Boundless would be responsible for the Outlaws from this point forward, including the 2003 point fund. The third of four questions asked revealed that Ted Johnson would remain in an advisory role so that he, the spokesman, could learn everything there was to know about the day-today operations as it had been several years since he had been involved in racing. What??? Before any of us could ask questions such as “what do you consider to be the next level for the World of Outlaws” or “what are your backgrounds in motorsports” the press conference was brought to an abrupt end leaving most of us to wonder what the heck had just happened. A couple of other scribes later told us that they were able to detain the spokesman long enough to ask the “experience” question and the response was that he drove a Hobby Stock several years ago. They could have just been pulling my leg, but hey, it’s the only information that was offered! I guess we’ll have to see how this one plays out.

We would like to thank Barry, Stephanie and Aidan Johnson for opening their home to us again this year, as well as “Brother” Bill Vantiger for the use of his camper as a gathering spot. A special thanks to Melvin and Marcella and their entire family for including all of us in their celebration of Marcella’s birthday on Saturday. The food was fantastic and they have been added to the characters from Section “I” as friends that we will look forward to spending the week with once again when Knoxville plays host to the 44^th Annual National Sprint Car Championships in August of 2004.