Sammy Swindell and the Big Game Motorsports team in Victory Lane on Night #1 of the Knoxville Naitonals (Serena Dalhamer Photo)
KNOXVILLE RACEWAY, Knoxville, IA, August 10, 2011 – The "Experienced Veteran" vs. the "Young Gun" was on display on the opening night of the 51st Annual Goodyear Knoxville Nationals Wednesday. Sammy Swindell was running the Nationals before Davey Heskin was born, but the two put on a show that fans will remember for some time. In the end, it was Swindell in Victory Lane, grabbing win #47 at the famous half-mile. Swindell also emerged as the high-point getter with 490 points, and assured the Germantown, Tennessee driver of a starting spot close to the front for Saturday night's championship event.
Heskin, from St. Michael, Minnesota had the crowd roaring when he shot out to the early lead from his starting spot outside of row one. Pole-sitter Joey Moughan gave chase and by lap five quick-timer, Brad Sweet, was up to third with fellow fourth row starter, Donny Schatz trailing.
Sweet shot under Moughan for the second spot with Schatz in tow on lap eight, but disaster struck for Schatz when his motor grenaded on the front stretch. Heskin led the restart ahead of Sweet, Moughan, Swindell and Brady Bacon. Sweet dove under Heskin to lead into turn two, but the youngster came back to pass him on the low side exiting turn four to maintain his lead.
As Heskin jetted away from his competition, Swindell went to work and gained second on the fourteenth lap. Heskin was shooting through traffic and putting some distance between himself and the pack when eighth running, David Gravel, shredded a left rear tire and collected Bacon with seventeen laps down.
That set up an eight lap duel between Heskin and Swindell, who was on the leader's bumper. The two diced for four laps, before Swindell found some momentum on the high side exiting turn four to take the lead. On more slowdown came, when defending Nationals champion, Tim Shaffer, went up in smoke with two laps to go.
Heskin made a last bid for the lead, but would settle for second, as Swindell collected the win. Sweet trailed in third, ahead of Shane Stewart, who drove from 24th to fourth. Steve Kinser finished fifth, and Sam Hafertepe Jr., Austin McCarl, Fred Rahmer, Rager Phillips and Lynton Jeffrey rounded out the top ten.
"The top was a long ways, but (Heskin) wasn't going to be up there," said Swindell in Victory Lane. "We went that direction. It was a good clean race, and he had me worried if I was going to make it or not. I just had to keep trucking."
Heskin spoke to a round of cheers from the crowd, and sealed a spot in Saturday's championship race. "I kind of bobbled on the bottom that lap, and Sammy has been fast all year. Wow, that was pretty fun! We haven't really struggled, but we blew a couple of motors this year. That's what hurt us in points."
"We did well," said Sweet. "We're filling in for Joey (Saldana) and want to do him proud. I thought we had a shot at it, but the big picture is we're starting towards the front on Saturday night and we have a shot at it.
Ryan Anderson, Schatz, Ryan Bunton, Bryan Dobesh and Jeffrey picked up heat wins, while Hafertepe took the B main. Fifth quick qualifier, Chad Kemenah, looked to have a rear axle break in heat five, shooting him towards the wall and collecting Austen Wheatley in a hard crash. Neither driver was immediately transported, but Kemenah later went in complaining of dizziness.
The 51st Annual Goodyear Knoxville Nationals continue Thursday night, August 11, as qualifying night #2 will be upon us. Hot laps are scheduled for 6:45 and tickets are still available at the box office, online at www.KnoxvilleRaceway.com or by calling 641 842-5431!
410 Results
Time Trials (Qualifying Order), 2 laps: 1. 9, Brad Sweet, Grass Valley, CA (4) 14.842; 2. 15, Donny Schatz, Fargo, ND (3) 14.868; 3. 1, Sammy Swindell, Germantown, TN (10) 14.941; 4. 51, Fred Rahmer, Salfordville, PA (7) 15.001; 5. 63, Chad Kemenah, Findlay, OH (5) 15.022; 6. 83x, Tim Shaffer, Aliquippa, PA (13) 15.077; 7. 15H, Sam Hafertepe Jr., Sunnyvale, TX (32) 15.141; 8. 47, Don Droud Jr., Lincoln, NE (1) 15.174; 9. 11, Steve Kinser, Bloomington, IN (31) 15.181; 10. 99, Brady Bacon, Broken Arrow, OK (14) 15.214; 11. 1J, Bronson Maeschen, Pleasantville, IA (28) 15.229; 12. 17A, Austin McCarl, Altoona, IA (38) 15.348; 13. 1w, Chad Meyer, Sioux Falls, SD (16) 15.380; 14. 29, Bud Kaeding, Campbell, CA (15) 15.383; 15. 56, Davey Heskin, St. Michael, MN (34) 15.390; 16. 5w, Lucas Wolfe, Mechanicsburg, PA (23) 15.400; 17. 57, Shane Stewart, Bixby, OK (36) 15.424; 18. 19K, Todd King, Sheboygan Falls, WI (6) 15.493; 19. 0, Jonathan Allard, Chico, CA (35) 15.497; 20. 69, Mike Moore, Des Moines, IA (8) 15.499; 21. 4x, Toni Lutar, White Rock, BC, Can. (9) 15.513; 22. 14x, Joey Moughan, Springfield, IL (2) 15.517; 23. 7s, Jason Sides, Bartlett, TN (20) 15.517; 24. 02, Mike Reinke, Howards Grove, WI (12) 15.537; 25. 89G, David Gravel, Watertown, CT (27) 15.559; 26. 7x, Dustin Selvage, Indianola, IA (33) 15.559; 27. 17, Tyler Walker, Los Angeles, CA (43) 15.561; 28. 10, Rager Phillips, Pleasantville, IA (17) 15.613; 29. 45x, Johnny Herrera, Albuquerque, NM (42) 15.642; 30. 12, Lynton Jeffrey, Prairie City, IA (25) 15.688; 31. 18, Tony Bruce Jr., Liberal, KS (44) 15.778; 32. 4, Danny Smith, Danville, IN (22) 15.797; 33. 6RX, Ryan Bunton, Morton, IL (29) 15.806; 34. 2D, Bryan Dobesh, Sioux Falls, SD (37) 15.860; 35. 44w, Austen Wheatley, Lake Stevens, WA (18) 15.880; 36. 71R, Ryan Anderson, Deloit, IA (41) 15.882; 37. 9N, Wade Nygaard, Grand Forks, ND (30) 15.947; 38. 68, Mike Houseman Jr., Des Moines, IA (24) 15.991; 39. 20E, Brian Ellenberger, Butler, PA (45) 16.082; 40. 6R, Bill Rose, Plainfield, IN (40) 16.100; 41. 2K, Kevin Ingle, Huron, SD (39) 16.297; 42. 96AU, Bruce White, Merrylands West, NSW, Aust. (19) 16.514; 43. 20PK, Ron Krysl, Atkinson, NE (26) 17.542; 44. 2x, Josh Higday, Des Moines, IA (11) NT; 45. 20, AJ Moeller, Rockwell City, IA (21) NT.
Heat one (started), 10 laps, NT: 1. Ryan Anderson (1) 2. Tony Bruce Jr. (2) 3. Dustin Selvage (3) 4. Brad Sweet (8) / 5. Tim Shaffer (7) 6. Toni Lutar (4) 7. Bronson Maeschen (6) 8. Kevin Ingle (9) 9. Lucas Wolfe (5)
Heat two (started), 10 laps, 2:43.4: 1. Donny Schatz (8) 2. Joey Moughan (4) 3. Danny Smith (2) 4. Austin McCarl (6) / 5. Tyler Walker (3) 6. Shane Stewart (5) 7. Sam Hafertepe Jr. (7) 8. Wade Nygaard (1) 9. Bruce White (9)
Heat three (started), 10 laps, 2:42.6: 1. Ryan Bunton (2) 2. Rager Phillips (3) 3. Sammy Swindell (8) 4. Mike Houseman Jr. (1) / 5. Don Droud Jr. (7) 6. Jason Sides (4) 7. Chad Meyer (6) 8. Todd King (5) 9. Ron Krysl (9)
Heat four (started), 10 laps, 2:41.9: 1. Bryan Dobesh (2) 2. Johnny Herrera (3) 3. Steve Kinser (7) 4. Brian Ellenberger (1) / 5. Mike Reinke (4) 6. Fred Rahmer (8) 7. Jonathan Allard (5) 8. Bud Kaeding (6) DNS – Josh Higday
Heat five (started), 10 laps, NT: 1. Lynton Jeffrey (3) 2. David Gravel (4) 3. Davey Heskin (6) 4. Brady Bacon (7) / 5. Bill Rose (1) 6. Mike Moore (5) 7. Chad Kemenah (8) 8. Austen Wheatley (2) DNS - AJ Moeller
B main (started), 12 laps, 3:21.0: 1. Sam Hafertepe Jr. (2) 2. Fred Rahmer (1) 3. Tim Shaffer (3) 4. Shane Stewart (9) / 5. Bronson Maeschen (4) 6. Bud Kaeding (6) 7. Don Droud Jr. (5) 8. Jonathan Allard (11) 9. Chad Meyer (7) 10. Tyler Walker (14) 11. Jason Sides (12) 12. Mike Moore (10) 13. Mike Reinke (15) 14. Toni Lutar (13) 15. Kevin Ingle (18) 16. Todd King (8) 17. Wade Nygaard (16) 18. Bill Rose (17) 19. Ron Krysl (19) 20. Bruce White (20) DNS - Chad Kemenah, Austen Wheatley, Lucas Wolfe, Josh Higday, AJ Moeller
A main (started), 25 laps, NT: 1. Sammy Swindell (6) 2. Davey Heskin (2) 3. Brad Sweet (8) 4. Shane Stewart (24) 5. Steve Kinser (5) 6. Sam Hafertepe Jr. (21) 7. Austin McCarl (3) 8. Fred Rahmer (22) 9. Rager Phillips (11) 10. Lynton Jeffrey (13) 11. Danny Smith (15) 12. Dustin Selvage (10) 13. Johnny Herrera (12) 14. Brian Ellenberger (20) 15. Ryan Anderson (18) 16. Joey Moughan (1) 17. Tony Bruce Jr. (14) 18. Ryan Bunton (16) 19. Mike Houseman Jr. (19) 20. Tim Shaffer (23) 21. Bryan Dobesh (17) 22. David Gravel (9) 23. Brady Bacon (4) 24. Donny Schatz (7). Lap Leaders: Heskin 1-20, S. Swindell 21-25.