By T.J. Buffenbarger
- Thursday’s events surrounding the FVP Knoxville Nationals were very much what we used to expect from the world’s largest sprint car events. Highlighted with great fan forums, a stellar press conference thanks to Shane Stewart’s candidness, and a major announcement from Jonathan Byrd’s racing with Bryan Clauson is the kind of hype that needs to be associated with the Nationals. Often years the press conference has been pedestrian and there have not been any significant announcements. The hype leading into racing made Thursday one the more exciting days at the Nationals in quite some time. It would be nice if more teams, tracks, and series had such announcements to make during the largest sprint car event on the planet. Hopefully it’s a sign of such news coming back to Nationals week.
- The racing also matched the excitement of all the pre-race activity on Thursday. The B-Main event featured the top four cars racing through heavy traffic. Saturday A-Main featured some racing from third on back that was breathtaking including charges from the back from Brian Brown (23rd to 5th) and James McFadden (13th to 7th) to join McCarl’s run to the victory from 9th to first.
- Last night we posted the story about Rico Abreu making the Knoxville Nationals A-Main for Saturday night, not being able to compete, and the team trying to figure out who would start the A-Main. Abreu crew chief Paul Silva revealed on social media this morning that Trevor Canales will start the and park the car in Saturday’s A-main along with a photo of Trevor in the car. In case you were wondering why someone would go to so much trouble to start the car in the feature, last place pays $9,500 and the car must take the green flag to be able to collect that bounty. Due to the driver change Canales will have to start at the tail of the field.
- While many pinned the Pennsylvania Posse’s hopes on Stevie Smith or Danny Dietrich, Lucas Wolfe ended up the highest in points for the Posse following Thursday’s preliminary event. Wolfe was sniffing around the podium most of the event, including a wild tussle with McCarl, Sammy Swindell, Joey Saldana, and Dale Blaney from third on back.
- Kevin Swindell was slated for surgery this morning at Des Moines Mercy Hospital. Beyond that we don’t have any other updates on Swindell’s condition following the accident during the first heat race on Thursday night. The Steve King Foundation has a racing tire at their booth they are hoping to fill with donations towards the Swindell family.
- Following Thursday’s preliminary feature Danny Lasoski did not make any excuses for losing to Terry McCarl.“I’d try to beat the 24. I slipped off two one time and that’s all it takes here. When you have these guys right here you can’t mess up one lap, you have to make every lap count. I had a driver error and it cost me,” said Lasoski. “Out front you never know where everyone might be every lap. You are sitting duck just like Jason said. I thought we were putting on a pretty good pace, but on a restart it’s a do or die. It’s one or the other. You are going to get slid in one or two or get slid three and four if you miss, and that’s what happened. We got beat, we ran second, but it wasn’t from a lack of effort from all of our team. Guy Forbrook put a great team together on this GoMuddy.com car, Brian Morrison horsepower has made my job a lot easier.”
Coming off of another Knoxville Raceway track championship driving for Tod Quiring, Lasoski not only appears rejuvenated but expressed as much in Thursday’s press conference.
“I’ve been telling people I feel like I’m 18 again and I’m ready to go for Saturday night.
- Shane Stewart was extremely candid during the press luncheon on Thursday and even revealed that during the past few years when he was racing for multiple teams there were points where he almost gave up sprint car racing.”Several times. I can tell you the last couple of years prior to the LMR deal I was done. I was jumping from car to car. I had really good car owners in different regions that I could race for, but I was struggling with that,” said Stewart. “ I would jump in a car and it was hard to get into a groove because I was always working with different crew people. I was fortunate to be in that situation because it kept my name out there, and let everybody know in this industry I was wanting to do this full time with one team. There was a couple of times where I was asking myself what I was doing because it wasn’t working out, but I felt if I could get into the right opportunity and had the backing I needed to be successful that I could do it. I was just to the point though where I didn’t know if that was going to happen again. Thank God I stuck it out and hopefully the Larson/Marks Racing Team can stay together for several year and we can build a dynasty like Donny has done with his group of guys.”
Stewart also revealed that once the Larson / Marks deal is done, Stewart’s racing career might end as well.
“ I kind of feel like once this team goes away I will as well to be honest.”
- Friend and cohort Jeremy Elliott found out this morning Greg Hodnett will be flying back to Williams Grove Speedway for tonight’s program before flying back to compete at Knoxville Raceway on Saturday night. Elliott also has a nice Q&A with the NSL’s Tod Quiring.
- UNOH All Star drivers Dale Blaney and Chad Kemenah also ran into bad luck on Thursday night. Blaney ended up in the wall after a frantic battle for third on back with a pack of cars. Blaney’s crew was able to make repairs in the work area and salvage a 15th place finish. Combined with his qualifying and heat race performance that was enough to lock Blaney into Saturday’s A-Main.
Kemenah was not as fortunate grenading an engine right in front of our vantage point while leading his heat race. The high RPM, amount of smoke, and fluid laid down by the failure was sizable, causing Kemenah to scratch from the C-Main.
As far as 2016 plans it appears Stewart should be back with Larson/Marks racing along with a couple of great off season opportunities in Australia and the Chili Bowl Nationals. The Australia deal could be contingent on Stewart’s recently expanded family.
“As far as going abroad I don’t know. I’ve been invited, but the problem I have was Nixon was born December 30th and it’s going to be her first birthday. So I have to make sure Mama is okay having a birthday party in Australia. So we’re going to see. But it’s going to probably be a great opportunity racing at Sydney Speedway full time and if I do go it will be a good time and I’m looking forward to that,” said Stewart. “Another cool thing I have going on I’m going to be in a Keith Kunz midget at the Chili Bowl. So that will be really cool. I haven’t been back to the Chili Bowl since 07. Being in my hometown, that’s going to be really special and to be in one of Keith’s midgets is going to be really cool.”
One of the more unusual sponsorships to pop up during the 2015 FVP Knoxville Nationals is the Donald Trump for president campaign on the Ryan Bunton entry. Bunton, who was one of the feel good stories from last year’s Nationals is sidelined due to injury, so Roger Crockett was enlisted to drive the car this week at the Nationals. Trump’s campaign also has a spot reserved in front of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum this weekend.
Through two nights of racing during the FVP Knoxville Nationals there seems to be a theme developing. The most common term heard in several interviews during Nationals involves the “sitting duck” factor while leading. Stewart referenced it following his win on Wednesday trying not to become one while Lasoski became one on Thursday. It will be interesting to see if the World Challenge, Friday main event, and Saturday’s finale follows the same trend.