After a clean week of racing, the fifty lap finale would see a jarring accident in turn one on the start when J.J. Hickle drove over the right rear wheel of Daryn Pittman sending Hickle for a ride that would also collect Parker Price-Miller. After climbing from his car PPM would collapse to the ground holding his mid-section and he would be transported to the local hospital for observation. Once back to green pole-sitter Austin McCarl would lead the opening lap before yielding to fellow front row starter Tyler Courtney who would quickly build a solid advantage.
The first caution of the event would wave on lap twelve when defending champion Kyle Larson would shred his right rear tire while riding in the fifth position. A quick change would see Larson restart the race from twenty-first, but the red flag would fly once again before another lap was scored when Giovanni Scelzi got upside down in turn three.
Back to green Courtney would again drive away from McCarl and the rest of the field as four more laps were scored before Justin Sanders coasted to a halt on the front stretch with mechanical issues. On this restart David Gravel would drive by McCarl for second, but even he could not keep up with Courtney who would bring the field to the mid-race caution looking very dominant. At the break it would be Gravel in second, McCarl third, Brent Marks in fourth and Carson Macedo in fifth. Donny Schatz, as noted earlier, was lurking in sixth while Larson had made his way back to thirteenth.
With the race back to green Gravel would immediately go to work on Courtney and on lap twenty-seven we had a new leader in the 2019 champion Gravel. Meanwhile Schatz was now on the move using the lower line of the race track driving past Macedo for fourth and then McCarl for third just a few laps before Austin would blow a right rear tire with thirteen laps remaining.
Two more laps would be scored before Macedo also popped a tire while running fourth and you had to wonder if the tires were going to last for the final eleven laps. Schatz would now lineup second for the restart that would see Gravel jump out to a nice advantage, but as the laps clicked away you could see that lead disappear as Schatz found his line around to bottom while Gravel continued to ride the cushion.
With five laps remaining Schatz was making his bid and the leaderboard would change on lap forty-six as Schatz slid up in front of Gravel to take the point. Gravel tried the bottom himself in an effort to get back to the front, but there would be no stopping Schatz from taking his eleventh Knoxville Nationals championship!
Gravel would be a gracious runner-up giving Schatz a big hug of congratulations in victory lane. Logan Schuchart made another big run coming from seventeenth to finish third after being the first ever qualifying night feature winner to have to run the B-Main on Saturday night just to make the show. For that story, click here. Courtney would slip to fourth at the checkers with Thursday's winner Jacob Allen completing the top five after starting eleventh.
Larson would be a car length back from Allen in sixth, Marks would wind up in seventh, Sheldon Haudenschild came from the twelfth row to finish eighth, Brad Sweet was ninth and Daryn Pittman filled out the top ten.
Once again the Saturday night finale of the four day run was sold out with the action unfolding in front of an enthusiastic crowd that had baked in ninety-five degree heat during the day only to have a north wind cool things down by twenty degrees just prior to race time. As always the Knoxville Nationals goes beyond the racing as it is an annual reunion with friends from far and wide. We wish them well and tomorrow we will start counting the days until we can do it all again!
 |
| Eleven-time Knoxville Nationals Champion Donny Schatz - Barry Johnson photo |
No comments:
Post a Comment