Bill W, Mike Campbell Photo
Shane Stewart won the opening night feature of the 50th Knoxville Nationals after taking the lead on lap 21 of 25. Chasing Stewart was Craig Dollansky, Chad Kemenah, Davey Heskin and Jason Sides. Full story to follow.
8/11/10
Knoxville Raceway
50th Anniversary Knoxville Nationals Night #1
50 cars
Tim Shaffer (5th car out to time) set quick time at 15.372 seconds. Dave Blaney (6th car out) was second quick, followed by Jason Johnson (25th), Cale Conley (36th), Jason Meyers (45th), Randy Hannagan (3rd), Kerry Madsen (24th), Joey Saldana (9th), Erin Crocker (17th) and Jonathan Allard (21st).
Heat one (started): 1. Mike Reinke 02 (3) 2. Lee Sowell 51s (2) 3. Trevor Green 4 (1) 4. David Gravel 89G (4) / 5. Shaffer 83 (8) 6. Hannagan 1x (7) 7. Fred Rahmer 51 (9) 8. Johnny Herrera 2w (5) / 9. Kraig Kinser 11K (6) 10. Colin Entwisle 2T (10)
K. Kinser and Herrera came together to start the heat, with K. Kinser suffering heavy damage to his steering and the top wing. Repairs to the steering were made in the work area, and he restarted at the tail with a detiorating wing. Sowell led early in the 8-lapper. Races formed for the lead between Sowell and Reinke, and for the fourth and final transfer spot between Gravel and Shaffer. Reinke took the win with a last lap pass, and Shaffer took the fourth spot on the last lap before Gravel reclaimed it in a good race. Quick qualifiers not making the A through the heats were a trend, as nine of the top ten did not make a transfer spot. As in all Nationals, the first four finishers went to the A, the next four to the B, and the last two to the C.
Heat two (started): 1. Max Dumesny 5V (2) 2. Lynton Jeffrey 12 (6) 3. Brandon Wimmer 7TW (4) 4. Craig Dollansky 7 (3) / 5. Madsen 3 (7) 6. Blaney 55x (8) 7. Lucas Wolfe 5w (5) 8. Kevin Ingle 2K (10) / 9. Chris Schmelzle 57c (9) 10. Bob Weuve 19 (1)
Weuve jumped out to an early lead, but with two laps completed, jumped the cushion in three, and flipped wildly. He was unhurt. Dumesny assumed the lead ahead of Jeffrey, Wimmer, Dollansky and Madsen. That would be the way they would finish, with Madsen not able to get a faster car past Dollansky, who was effective in his blocking tactics. He would change the motor afterwards.
Heat three (started): 1. Chad Kemenah 63 (4) 2. Austin McCarl 17A (3) 3. Shane Stewart 57 (6) 4. Gary Wright 9x (2) / 5. Johnson 41 (8) 6. Saldana 9 (7) 7. Zach Zimmerly 94 (5) 8. Ty Bartz 46 (10) / 9. Phillip Mock 1m (9) 10. Justin Henderson 35 (1)
Henderson didn’t take off at the outset and retired. Kemenah shot into the lead and led flag to flag. Johnson tried a desperate slide on Wright late, but didn’t have position on the spot.
Heat four (started): 1. Brad Sweet 49s (1) 2. Ed Lynch Jr. 2L (4) 3. Davey Heskin 56 (5) 4. Crocker 98 (7) / 5. Conley 3c (8) 6. Jordan Goldesberry 65 (9) 7. Domain Ramsay 20AU (2) 8. Bruce White 96AU (10) / 9. Don Droud Jr. 47 (6) 10. Jack Dover 53 (3)
Sweet led lap one before a turn one mishap. Ramsay slowed entering one, with Droud getting into the back of him and collecting Dover. The latter two cars flipped and were done for the night. Conley was also caught up, but changed a top wing and right rear to return and run fifth. Heskin was running fourth on the restart and passed Ramsay for third. Crocker followed for the final transfer.
Heat five (started): 1. Mark Dobmeier 13 (1) 2. Jason Sides 7s (6) 3. Bronson Maeschen 1 (4) 4. Tony Bruce Jr. 18 (2) / 5. Meyers 14 (8) 6. Allard 0 (7) 7. Jamie Veal 35AU (5) 8. Ben Gregg 2BG (3) / 9. Rob Kubli 19L (9) 10. Ron Krysl 20PK (10)
Sides was the mover in this one, as Meyers challenged a couple times, but fell short of Bruce.
C main (started): 1. K. Kinser (1) 2. Henderson (2) / 3. Schmelzle (3) 4. Kubli (5) 5. Mock (4) 6. Entwisle (6) 7. Krysl (7) DNS – Droud Jr., Dover, Weuve
Henderson led the first two laps before K. Kinser took over. The lead pair dominated the 8-lapper.
B main (started): 1. Shaffer (1) 2. Johnson (3) 3. Saldana (8) 4. Madsen (7) / 5. Wolfe (11) 6. Blaney (2) 7. Herrera (10) 8. Hannagan (6) 9. Rahmer (16) 10. Allard (9) 11. Conley (4) 12. Henderson (22) 13. Zimmerly (12) 14. K. Kinser (21) 15. Gregg (14) 16. Veal (13) 17. Goldesberry (17) 18. Bartz (19) 19. Ingle (18) DQ – Meyers (5) (Crossed 4th, Scales) 21. Ramsay (15) 22. White (20)
With nine of the top ten qualifiers going for four spots, it was a wild 12 laps. A lead trio of Shaffer, Johnson, Meyers, Blaney and Saldana led the first half before Ramsay tipped it over in turn four. Saldana restarted well, passing Blaney and Meyers. Madsen also got by Blaney and set his sights on Meyers. The two dueled for the last transfer. When Madsen pulled beside on the low side with two to go, entering three, Meyers took the low line, cutting in front of Madsen and killing his momentum. The move gave him fourth. Madsen took exception to the move afterwards, and apparently affected, Meyers exited the track on the turn one pit entrance and nosed into his pit without going to the scale. He was disqualified, but given 20th place points (lead lap) instead of 22nd?
A main (started): 1. Stewart (6) 2. Dollansky (12) 3. Kemenah (1) 4. Heskin (4) 5. Sides (5) 6. Wimmer (2) 7. Madsen (24) 8. Jeffrey (7) 9. Johnson (22) 10. Shaffer (21) 11. McCarl (13) 12. Sweet (19) 13. Saldana (23) 14. Wright (16) 15. Dobmeier (20) 16. Crocker (8) 17. Green (18) 18. Reinke (11) 19. Bruce Jr. (17) 20. Gravel (3) 21. Sowell (14) 22. Dumesny (15) 23. Lynch Jr. (9) 24. Maeschen (10)
Wimmer nipped Kemenah at the line to lead lap one before a turn one incident slowed things in the 25-lapper. Gravel and Lynch, who were running sixth and seventh, contacted, causing severe damage to both. Maeschen was also collected in the mess. Only Gravel would return. Wimmer led Kemenah, Stewart, Heskin and Jeffrey back to green flag racing. Four laps later, Kemenah would use the low side to move by Wimmer to the point. Kemenah built a sizable advantage until entering traffic. Stewart had put Wimmer away and made up ground. On lap 21, Stewart roared by on the high side in heavy lapped traffic and went on to win his fourth career 410 feature at Knoxville. Dollansky took second from Kemenah on the white flag lap in a run from 12th. Madsen was the hard-charger, advancing 17 spots.
Wednesday Point Totals!
1. 83 Tim Shaffer 470
2. 57 Shane Stewart 470
3. 41 Jason Johnson 468
4. 3 Kerry Madsen 464
5. 12 Lynton Jeffrey 461
6. 7s Jason Sides 461
7. 56 Davey Heskin 452
8. 63 Chad Kemenah 452
9. 9 Joey Saldana 447
10. 98 Erin Crocker 445
11. 7TW Brandon Wimmer 442
12. 7 Craig Dollansky 437
13. 55x Dave Blaney 423
14. 17A Austin McCarl 423
15. 02 Mike Reinke 416
16. 89G David Gravel 413
17. 3c Cale Conley 412
18. 1x Randy Hannagan 411
19. 2L Ed Lynch Jr. 407
20. 49s Brad Sweet 402
21. 9x Gary Wright 401
22. 1 Bronson Maeschen 400
23. 0 Jonathan Allard 399
24. 51s Lee Sowell 397
25. 5V Max Dumesny 396
26. 13 Mark Dobmeier 394
27. 14 Jason Meyers 392
28. 5w Lucas Wolfe 392
29. 4 Trevor Green 392
30. 2w Johnny Herrera 387
31. 18 Tony Bruce Jr. 387
32. 11K Kraig Kinser 380
33. 94 Zach Zimmerly 374
34. 35AU Jamie Veal 364
35. 2BG Ben Gregg 343
36. 47 Don Droud Jr. 336
37. 51 Fred Rahmer 336
38. 35 Justin Henderson 327
39. 20AU Domain Ramsay 326
40. 65 Jordan Goldesberry 317
41. 53 Jack Dover 301
42. 2K Kevin Ingle 301
43. 46 Ty Bartz 301
44. 96AU Bruce White 291
45. 57c Chris Schmelzle 290
46. 1m Phillip Mock 284
47. 19 Bob Weuve 283
48. 19L Rob Kubli 282
49. 2T Colin Entwisle 273
50. 20PK Ron Krysl 263