Sheldon By A NOS As 65th Knoxville Nationals Opens With A Thriller

There was drama before Wednesday night's feature even took the parade lap and, at the end, race fans saw one of the most thrilling finishes ever in the sixty-five years of the NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's.

The initial drama came when defending Nationals champion Ryan Timms, who was scheduled to start ninth in the twenty-five lap main event, was not able to make the call when his crew was unable to get the fuel plate back on the car. As the rest of the field slowly made their way around the track for several laps, the team was finally able to get the plate back in place and as they pushed the car back to be picked up by one of the Knoxville Raceway four-wheelers to be brought around to staging, they were still trying to get as much fuel into the car as possible. In fact, one crew member remained on the car as it was being pushed to finish the fueling and when he completed the task let's just say that his dismount was less than perfect, landing face first on the paved pit area.

There is always a possibility of seeing a "first time" occurrence when you are at a race track, and this was definitely one of those, but I have to believe that after this incident there will be a new rule stating that no crew members can remain on the car as it is being pushed to staging.

It had already been announced that Timms would have to start at the rear for being late to staging, but he quickly drove up to the fifth row just as the field went into their four-wide salute to the fans. And during those laps it was noted that a magnetic flashlight was still attached to the back of the roll cage, with the light still on, so he would have to return to the work area to have it removed. At that time he was again told that he would be starting from the back and after picking up a few positions early in the race, Timms would be the first car to drop out of the event and was credited with a 24th-place finish.

Barry Johnson photo

In the meantime young Jace Park had taken the lead from the pole position and as he pulled away from the field many in the large opening night crowd had to be wondering who this was in the plain white, unsponsored car #28. Racing here weekly in 2026 from his hometown in Overland Park, Kansas, and with guidance from fellow Kansas City area veteran Brian Brown, Park is currently fifth in the point standings at Knoxville and he was on a rail tonight running the top on both ends. 

Behind him James McFadden, who started sixth, had now worked his way up to second and was starting to reel in your leader through traffic before the lone caution of the race waved when the powerplant in Emerson Axsom's #27 went up in smoke and then a single burst of flames on lap fourteen.

Following the restart Park would lead one more lap before McFadden powered by on the inside to take the point. Rather than fade away though, Park made a believer out of us by coming right back after McFadden and when James sensed him coming back on the outside, he moved up the track to block only to have Jace then go low and regain the lead with five laps remaining.

James McFadden - Barry Johnson photo

If you could pull your eyes away from this battle for a split second you would have seen that about a straightaway behind them Sheldon Haudenschild had just prevailed in his battle with Cole Macedo for third and he would now try to reel in the lead duo in just a handful of laps.

McFadden would come charging back at Park again on the bottom to take the lead under the white flag as Park again nailed the cushion in one and two to get a big run down the back straightaway and with a slower car just ahead of them they drove deep into turns three and four looking for the win. The crowd roared though as Haudenschild closed quickly and as McFadden slid up exiting turn four to close the door on Park, Sheldon came off the bottom like a rocket and in the drag race to the line it would be Haudenschild taking the thrilling victory by just six one thousandths of a second over McFadden. Park would be just a smidge over a tenth of a second back in third in what will go down as one of the best finishes in Knoxville Nationals history. 

Sheldon Haudenschild - Barry Johnson photo

Cole Macedo finished fourth, Chase Dietz had his best Knoxville outing ever in fifth, Justin Henderson finished in sixth, Sye Lynch started second and finished seventh while the quick qualifier on the night, Kasey Kahne finished where he started in eighth. Sawyer Phillips had a good outing in ninth and Jy Corbett established himself as the top Rookie of the Nationals by taking tenth. 

Wednesday Notes.......The first car out for qualifying, Kasey Kahne set quick time and the rest of the the top five Rico Abreu, Emerson Axsom, David Gravel and Corey Day were 15th, 22nd, 6th and 2nd in the order respectively......As they have been for many years now the top eight were inverted in each heat with only the top four transferring to the A with only two of the top ten accomplishing that feat.....The first was Kahne who was aided by a couple of incidents at the start of heat one. Lynton Jeffrey was lined up on the outside of row one, but when he swung out wide toward the cushion before getting to the start line, the start was waved off and Jeffrey was docked a row due to a new rule calling for the drivers to stay side-by-side instead of fanning out. On the second try at a start seventy-year-old Sammy Swindell who is making his 50th and final run here at the Nationals, made contact with Jeffrey at the exit of turn two sending both cars sideways with Sammy going for a series of nasty barrel rolls down the back stretch. Thankfully one of my all-time favorites was able to climb from the beat up car uninjured and word is that he will be back to try it again on Friday. On this third start Kahne would now start sixth and he would get to fourth early and then hold off Tanner Holmes to move on to the feature. Also on that third start, James McFadden would quickly go from third to first and then drive away for an easy victory..... The second heat saw the top four starters finish in the top four with Rico Abreu coming up one spot short in fifth.....One of the reasons that I do these notes is to make myself look back and see how if just one little thing had happened differently earlier in the night, how much it would have changed the outcome in the end. This was the case in heat race number three as Jace Park fought off both Emerson Axsom and Donny Schatz mid-race to hang on to the fourth and final transfer spot eventually landing him on the pole of the main event. Axsom would later transfer out of the B-Main and he would drive from 22nd to 13th before his engine let go in the feature.....Sheldon Haudenschild would be the only other driver beside Kahne to come from a fourth row start and transfer from his heat race, but that fourth heat started off with a caution when Sheldon bounced off the berm entering turn one and made contact with the fifth starting Logan Julien. With Julien then spinning and being dinged for the caution, Haudenschild moved to the outside of row three for the restart where he then thrilled the crowd with a big run up to second at the checkers.....The crowd on the back stretch had a thrill on the opening lap of the fifth heat race as drivers were three wide for the lead and three wide for fourth. Ryan Timms, who had started fourth, would then take the lead and drive away for a nearly a half lap victory.......The stacked B-Main turned out to be a bit of a snoozer as the top four drivers finished exactly where they started with Rico Abreu, Axsom, David Gravel and Corey Day making the transfer while several of the sport's biggest stars would be relegated to a spectator role for the remainder of the night.......During the post race press conference Haudenschild was asked what he thought about the drama at the start of the race and he summed it up by saying that if it had been him who had been struggling to get to the track that the race would have likely started without him.

Action continues on Thursday night where hopefully Mother Nature will be a race fan and, if she is, the fifty-two drivers scheduled to race will have a high bar to get over to create quite the buzz that this one did on Wednesday. Hope to see you here at Knoxville!