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Stewart wins opening night of 50th Annual Knoxville Nationals
By Stacy Ervin
KNOXVILLE, IOWA, (August 11) - Shane Stewart used track time to his
advantage and won the opening night qualifying race for the 50th Annual
Goodyear Knoxville Nationals presented by Lucas Oil at the Knoxville Raceway
in Knoxville, Iowa. The Wednesday, August 11, race night was presented by
Racingjunk.com. The win was worth $12,000.
The Oklahoma driver, who won the previous weekend’s 360 Knoxville Nationals,
showed he can also pilot a 410 sprint car to victory. He started sixth in
the 25-lap main event and drove a steady race before making a late-race
pass.
When the race went green, outside front-row starter Brandon Wimmer jumped
out to the lead over polesitter Chad Kemenah. But the yellow flag came out
after the first lap, when David Gravel spun in turn one. Ed Lynch Jr. also
spun and Bronson Maeschen got into him.
Once the race went back to green, it stayed that way for the duration and
that allowed lapped traffic to play a huge role in the outcome. Wimmer led
early until Kemenah made the pass down the backstretch coming to lap five.
Stewart worked his way to second on the eighth lap and Kemenah came to
traffic the next time around. From there, Kemenah tried to negotiate the
slower cars but was reluctant to leave his line around the bottom of the
speedway.
At the 20th lap, Stewart really closed in while in heavy traffic. As he and
Kemenah came around turn four, Stewart went to the high line and dove down
right in front of Kemenah with the lead. He was able to race away and
Kemenah lost momentum, allowing Craig Dollansky to pass him for second at
the end of the race.
Knoxville regular Davey Heskin had a great run for the locals with a
fourth-place finish. Jason Sides was fifth and Wimmer sixth. Kerry Madsen
charged to a seventh-place finish after starting in the 24th and final spot.
Tim Shaffer set the night’s quickest time trial of the 50 competitors with a
15.372 second lap. Heat races were won by Mike Reinke, Max Dumesny, Chad
Kemenah, Brad Sweet and Mark Dobmeier. The C-Main was won by Kraig Kinser.
Shaffer won the B-Main, but the drama was in the fourth and final transfer
spot. Jason Meyers crossed the line in fourth but went to his pits rather
than reporting to the scales afterward and was penalized. That gave Kerry
Madsen the final transfer.
The night’s heat races contained a few scary incidents. Kraig Kinser, the
2005 Knoxville Nationals champion, got his week off to a bad start when he
rode over Johnny Herrera’s wheel at the start of the first heat. Bob Weuve
was leading the second heat when he got over the cushion in turn three, took
a hard flip and was hit by Lucas Wolfe. In the fourth heat, Don Droud Jr.
ran over Domain Ramsey’s wheel, sending Droud flipping. Jack Dover was
collected and also flipped and Cale Conley was also involved.
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