8/6/08
Knoxville Raceway
Knoxville Nationals Night #1
54 cars
Donny Schatz (14th car out to time) set quick time on the field with a lap of 14.897 seconds. Danny Lasoski (6th car out) was second quick, followed by Bronson Maeschen (43rd), Randy Hannagan (26th), Paul McMahan (35th), Shane Stewart (10th), Justin Henderson (31st), Brandon Wimmer (20th), Tony Bruce Jr. (9th) and Lee Sowell (2nd). The track went away, but backstretch pitters Henderson, McMahan and Maeschen all turned laps in the top ten. Matt Wasmund failed to get a lap in with motor troubles.
Heat one (started): 1. Daryn Pittman 21T (5) 2. Skip Jackson 2 (1) 3. Ed Lynch Jr. 2L (4) 4. Jac Haudenschild R19 (8) / 5. Brian Paulus 28 (6) 6. Schatz 15 (10) 7. Stewart 83 (9) 8. John VanDenBerg 1 (2) / 9. Don Droud Jr. 47 (7) 10. John Lambertz 12L (3)
Heats were ten laps and took the top four to the A, next four to the B, and last two to the C. Jackson led using the low side which was the preferred line early on. Schatz was to sixth by lap two, but had to go back two spots after a caution negated a couple of passes when Lambertz spun. The restart saw Jackson ahead of VanDenBerg, Pittman, Lynch and Haudenschild. Lynch and Haud made quick work of VanDenBerg for transfer spots, while Pittman grabbed the point on lap four. Schatz and Stewart spent much of the race passing each other, and couldn't gain the ground needed for transfer spots.
Heat two (started): 1. Wayne Johnson 14AJ (6) 2. Steve Kinser 11 (8) 3. Henderson D1 (9) 4. Lasoski 33 (10) / 5. Ben Gregg 22B (1) 6. Mark Dobmeier 13 (4) 7. Fred Rahmer 51x (7) 8. Chad Hillier 5c (5) / 9. Cody Darrah 89 (3) 10. Bruce White 96au (2)
Gregg jumped out early with W. Johnson in tow. White spun on lap four. Gregg led W. Johnson, S. Kinser, Darrah and Dobmeier back to green flag racing. While W. Johnson took the lead on the restart, it also rejuvenated Henderson, who quickly moved into the top three, getting by Dobmeier and Darrah. Lasoski followed him, but didn't grab the last transfer until the last lap.
Heat three (started): 1. Travis Rilat 29 (4) 2. Danny Smith 18s (2) 3. Greg Hodnett 22x (6) 4. Blake Feese 14m (3) / 5. Dion Hindi 11D (5) 6. Chad Kemenah 8K (7) 7. Jason Johnson 19E (8) 8. Maeschen 96 (10) / 9. Wimmer 7TW (9) 10. Tony Shilling 47T (1)
D. Smith was in command until a lap four slowdown for a stopped Shilling on lap four. D. Smith led Rilat, Hodnett, Hindi and Feese back to the green. Rilat pounced into the lead, with Feese getting by Hindi and Hodnett for third. Hodnett would come back on the final corner to snag the spot back in exciting fashion.
Heat four (started): 1. Jason Solwold 39c (7) 2. Natalie Sather 94s (2) 3. Bruce Jr. 18 (9) 4. Doug Esh 30 (3) / 5. Troy Little 20AU (4) 6. Hannagan 1x (10) 7. Carl Wilson 11NZ (1) 8. Kerry Madsen 55 (5) / 9. Chad Layton 25 (6) 10. Tim Shaffer 83A (8)
In his first ever laps at Knoxville, Wilson got sideways and a lot of equipment was destroyed in the process. Madsen's car was twisted beyond recognition. Layton's was trash and so was Shaffer's. Esh was able to replace a front end and two wings to continue. Hannagan was caught up in the mess as well, and couldn't finish after restarting. Sather led early, but Solwold would take over and pull away from the field. After running sixth, Esh benefited from Hannagan's departure, and grabbed the final transfer by slingshotting Little in the last corner.
Heat five (started): 1. Kaley Gharst 81 (3) 2. Jonathan Allard 0 (6) 3. Rager Phillips 9 (4) 4. McMahan 6 (10) / 5. Davey Heskin 56 (8) 6. Sowell 51s (9) 7. Seth Brahmer 13v (7) 8. JJ Hickle 7A (2) / 9. Spud Gustin 80 (5) 10. Corey Haigh 45NZ (1)
Hickle led lap one before Gharst took over on the 2nd lap for the rest of the way. Heskin and Phillips battled for fourth for several laps before they both got by Hickle. McMahan came from the tail to enter the fray in the late going, and made yet another last corner pass for the final transfer, capping an always exciting night of heats.
C main (started): 1. Wimmer (1) 2. Droud Jr. (3) 3. Darrah (7) 4. White (4) / 5. Gustin (5) 6. Ty Bartz 46 (8) 7. Haigh (6) 8. Robert Bell 71 (10) 9. Steve Dyer 9A (9) 10. Lambertz (2) DNS - Shaffer, Layton, Shilling, Matt Wasmund 4w
Wimmer led the 8-lap distance. Darrah challenged Droud early, but settled for third.Lambertz retired on lap two while smoking and running second.
B main (started): 1. Schatz (1) 2. Stewart (4) 3. Maeschen (2) 4. Kemenah (9) / 5. Hannagan (3) 6. J. Johnson (6) 7. Dobmeier (15) 8. Rahmer (8) 9. Droud Jr. (20) 10. Heskin (7) 11. Paulus (11) 12. Hillier (12) 13. Brahmer (10) 14. Wimmer (21) 15. Sowell (5) 16. VanDenBerg (17) 17. White (23) 18. Hindi (13) 19. Little (14) 20. Gregg (19) 21. Hickle (16) 22. Darrah (22) 23. Wilson (20) DNS - 24. Madsen
At the outset, Wilson spun into the infield tires in turn four, while Darrah got upside down after jumping the cushion in turn one. On lap two, Hickle slammed the turn one wall and came to a stop bringing the final slowdown in the 12-lapper. The top three remained unchanged with Schatz leading Stewart and Maeschen. The battle for the fourth and final transfer was furious, with Hannagan and J. Johnson exchanging the spot several times. Like pulling a rabbit out of a hat, Kemenah appeared out of nowhere on the final lap to snatch it from both.
A main (started): 1. W. Johnson (1) 2. Lasoski (8) 3. S. Kinser (3) 4. Haudenschild (4) 5. Pittman (11) 6. Henderson (6) 7. Stewart (22) 8. Schatz (21) 9. McMahan (7) 10. Solwold (2) 11. Hodnett (9) 12. Kemenah (24) 13. Bruce Jr. (5) 14. Maeschen (23) 15. Allard (10) 16. D. Smith (18) 17. Jackson (20) 18. Lynch Jr. (12) 19. Esh (16) 20. Sather (19) 21. Rilat (13) 22. Gharst (17) 23. Phillips (14) 24. Feese (15)
W. Johnson ran the low side of one and two and the high side of three and four to pull away the first half of the race. He was entering heavy lapped traffic on the 11th go-around when Lynch Jr. stopped. Lasoski had run by S. Kinser on the bottom. Wayne ducked low in one and two on the restart, but when he went high in three and four, Lasoski got a run to pull beside him coming down the frontstretch. Wayne went back to the bottom, cutting off Lasoski in turn one. On lap 14, Phillips stopped and retired, Gharst was towed off with rear-end problems and Rilat came in to replace a flat left rear. W. Johnson would stay on the bottom on the 1/2 mile and pull away to the win. The top five stayed the same the last half of the race, but Stewart, who was the hard-charger, and Schatz completed good runs to salvage their point nights.