Gravel would start the fifty lap finale to the outside of pole-sitter Aaron Reutzel and would drop to third on the opening lap as Reutzel wheelied off the berm in turn four to lead it. That bobble allowed Joey Saldana to take the point on lap two only to have Reutzel come digging back on the bottom to pace the third circuit just before the caution waved. The last place car of Dominic Scelzi had tagged the guardrail in turn one and then slowed to a stop on the inside of turn two.
Once back to green three more laps would be scored before the capacity crowd roared as ten-time Nationals Champion Donny Schatz, who had started seventeenth after qualifying through the B-Main, slowed at the exit of turn four. A trip to the work area under caution resolved a throttle linkage issue and Schatz would restart from the back of the twenty-four car lineup.
Gravel would now go to work moving past Saldana for second and on lap fourteen he would sail around the outside of Reutzel to take the lead. Reutzel would stay close as Gravel paced himself to the mid-race break, a lesson learned from a couple of years ago when he popped a motor while leading just before halftime.
As the crews went to work during the allotted three minutes a check of the running order revealed that Daryn Pittman had driven from tenth to third, Sheldon Haudenschild had moved from fifteenth to eighth and one of Friday night's transfers Logan Schuchart had raced from twenty-second up to ninth.
Once back to green Gravel proved his dominance and other than Ian Madsen bouncing off the front stretch guardrail in front of him late in the race, not even lapped traffic posed a challenge to the leader. Pittman moved to second and the Shark Racing fans were praying for a caution as their man Schuchart continued his march to the front taking over third with ten laps still remaining. That race resetting caution would never come though and as Gravel took the checkers for his first Knoxville Nationals title, Schuchart was completing his pass of Pittman for second and racing into turn three for the final time to be the runner-up by improving his lot by twenty positions. Pittman would complete the podium as Tim Kaeding closed out a strong week by placing the Jason Sides Racing #7s in fourth.
 |
| Barry Johnson photo |
Reutzel would not give up on the bottom dropping to fifth at the checkers with the defending champion Brad Sweet finishing where he started in sixth. Haudenschild would complete a nice run in seventh followed by James McFadden who came from nineteenth to eighth. Schatz was still impressive coming from the back after the lap six restart to finish in ninth while the B-Main winner Gio Scelzi would fill out the top ten.
In preliminary action the B-Main got off to rough start, first for a turn three caution on the opening lap when a Tasker Phillips spin collected Cale Thomas and put Terry McCarl into a minor wing bender. Then on lap three Spencer Bayston punted Josh Baughman off the cushion in turn one and two sending both drivers for a hard tumble. After that the top four starters, Gio Scelzi, Schatz, McFadden and Rico Abreu became the final four transfers leaving Carson Macedo the first man out.
Non-wing ace Tyler Courtney won the C-Main with crowd favorite Brian Brown finishing third. Brown would then end his night with a run up to twelfth in the B ending a disappointing week that was plagued with bad luck. Davey Heskin won the D-Main and Jason Sides took the E-Main.
 |
| Barry Johnson photo |
No comments:
Post a Comment