Back Stretch: With An Early Assist Donny Schatz Takes "Hard Knox" Friday Feature

Perhaps never has the outcome of a first heat race been so consequential to the outcome of the evening as what we witnessed at the Knoxville Raceway on Friday night. Eleven-time Knoxville Nationals champion Donny Schatz was still racing on Friday night to determine his starting spot for the finale for the first time since 1997 and with an early qualifying slot he was able to set fast time in the first flight of the huge seventy-nine car field. This would place him fourth in the starting lineup for the first of six heat races and if he could just finish in the top three, Schatz would then start the twenty-five lap feature event from the pole position. The Friday night feature where the top four finishers lock themselves in to the Championship feature in positions twenty-one through twenty-four.

"The Knoxfather" Donny Schatz - Barry Johnson photo

When the green flag waved on this important first heat race, Schatz quickly moved to third and even had a run at second as the field entered turn two for the first time, but behind him McKenna Haase had hopped the right rear of Terry McCarl launching her cage first into the outside guardrail where she then flew through the air for several yards before landing hard upside down without the cushion of the top wing that had been shredded upon impact.

After several tense moments McKenna walked gingerly to the ambulance and was later transferred to the hospital for evaluation.

On the restart Schatz did not get the start that he wanted and he would remain in fourth as the field thundered down the back stretch. Tanner Holmes, Jack Dover and Lynton Jeffrey had set sail ahead of him and with the track still in "first heat" condition, Schatz was not able to make up any ground. In the final laps he would get to within about five car lengths of Jeffrey, but he would cross the checkered flag in fourth and would instead be starting from the pole position of the B-Main where a victory would place him twenty-first in the feature lineup, a long way from the top four that would be needed to make it into Saturday's Championship event.

BUT WAIT!

Dover, behind the wheel of the Estenson Racing #14, a driver who is no stranger to the Knoxville Raceway, inexplicably did not go to the scales to check for the minimum weight rule that would have made his second place finish official. It is likely that the Race Director had even reminded the drivers over the Raceceiver that the top three needed to scale, but Dover would be the first this week to ignore/forget that direction and his resulting disqualification would move Donny Schatz up to the third and final transfer spot in the first heat and, more importantly, back to the pole position of the night's main event.

Has there ever been a more consequential lapse of memory at the world's most prestigious Sprint Car event?

Barry Johnson photo

Sorry, but the remaining story lines in the qualifying races don't even come close to being as noteworthy so let's move on to the twenty-five lap main event where, again, the top four finishers would lock into the Saturday's finale. Logan Schuchart would start alongside Schatz and they would put on a great show through the first three laps as Donny would lead the opening circuit, Logan would slip by him on lap two and then Donny would come charging back to the point on the third trip around the legendary half-mile.

The caution would wave on lap six for a Cale Thomas spin in turn four and, once back to green, Schatz would stretch it out with Schuchart, Austin McCarl and Justin Henderson in tow. Henderson would soon take third from McCarl and as Emerson Axsom closed in, sparks started to trail from McCarl's #88. Axsom would take that valuable fourth spot from an obviously slowing McCarl who would then coast to a halt a lap later with rear end damage.

The final eleven laps would be relatively uneventful as Schatz would cruise to the win over Schuchart. Justin Henderson would put the Forbrook #5 back in the show finishing third, the impressive young non-wing convert Axsom would make the big show in fourth while Lynton Jeffrey came up one position short in fifth. Cole Macedo came from fourteenth to finish sixth, Spencer Bayston advanced the same number of positions to place seventh, Kaleb Johnson went from thirteenth to eighth, Buddy Kofoid started seventeenth and landed in ninth while Tanner Holmes closed out the top ten.

That brings us to Championship night for the 63rd NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's where the defending champion, who is currently on an impressive four race win streak, Kyle Larson will start from the pole alongside the recently unretired Daryn Pittman. And yes, eleven-time champion Donny Schatz will start from the inside of the eleventh row, where if he is able to make a run to the front, the capacity crowd will go absolutely nuts!

My prediction? Larson will win for the third time in the last four years.