By T.J. Buffenbarger
Knoxville, IA – (August 7, 2013) – David Gravel used restarts to his advantage to take the lead and drive away from the field to win the opening night of the 53rd FVP Knoxville Nationals on Wednesday night at Knxoville Raceway. Gravel took the lead from Greg Hodnett on lap two and used multiple restarts to build up a large lead that he would never relinquish.
“I felt really confident during the restarts felt confident about what I was doing,” said Gravel after the feature. “I could go to the bottom or top, and motor ran well down the straightaways.”
The win was not without adversity though as Gravel blew an engine coming to the finish of his heat race, losing one position but still managed to transfer to the feature event.
“I blew up (the engine) on the backstretch and thankfully we had a little gap between then and the feature. Our spare motor has a different block and does not fit the motor plate in this car, so we had get the third motor from the trailer and put that one in. If we were in the B-Main I don’t think we would have made it.”
Hodnett took the lead at the start with Josh Schneiderman looking under him, but David Gravel had other ideas and dove under Schneiderman for second spot. While working lap two Johnny Herrera came to a stop in turn one with a lot of smoke from his car to bring out the caution flag. Herrera went to the work area with several teams looking at the problem, but did was unable to make repairs.
After a restart that was called back and Shane Stewart moved back one position for jumping, Hodnett held the bottom and maintained the lead over Gravel, but it was short lived as Gravel dove to the bottom in three and four and took the lead down the front stretch. Behind them Ian Madsen and Schneiderman traded the fourth position back and forth.
Brad Sweet and Don Droud were racing hard for fifth when Droud got into the wall on lap seven and brought out the caution flag. Droud’s team was able to make repairs in the work area.
Gravel pulled away during the restart leaving a three wide race for fourth with Shane Stewart and Brad Sweet moving through the field around Ian Madsen. The caution flag appeared again when Ian Madsen’s nose wing came lose shortly after Stewart and Sweet got by him. Madsen’s crew made repairs and he rejoined the field.
The restart was another opportunity for Gravel to pull away while Schneiderman got a run under Hodnett for second, but could not make the pass. Further back in the field Brad Sweet started his march to the front passing Shane Stewart around the high side to take fourth spot on lap 10, Schneiderman for third on lap 11, and then passed Hodnett for the second spot.
While Sweet was on the charge Gravel still has a sizeable lead when the caution flag appeared when Schneiderman got into the fence in turn two and slowed to a stop. Schneiderman’s car was pushed pit side, unable to continue.
Even with Sweet on his back bumper Gravel still managed to pull away during the restart and open up a sizeable advantage. Tim Kaeding took advantage of the restart to move by Shane Stewart for fourth spot. Stewart and Kaeding traded the spot two more times before Kaeding secured the position. Behind them Daryn Pittman was continuing his charge from 24th starting position racing with Stewart for fifth. Just as Pittman secured fifth spot Kinser has his second engine issue of the night, going up in smoke and pulling into the infield.
With two laps to go Gravel started to slow a bit, with Sweet closing the lead to less than a second, but the advantage Gravel built up during the restart was enough to secure the victory over Sweet, Kaeding, Hodnett, and Pittman.
2013 FVP Knoxville Nationals
Knoxville Raceway – Knoxville, IA
Wednesday August 7, 2013
Qualifications: 1. 51 – Paul McMahan, 15.210; 2. 12 – Lynton Jeffery, 15.218; 3. 1D – Justin Henderson, 15.227; 4. 57 – Shane Stewart, 15.253; 5. 56 – Davey Heskin, 15.274; 6. 7S – Jason Sides, 15.289; 7. 49K – Brad Sweet, 15.296; 8. 15 – Donny Schatz, 15.312; 9. 9 – Daryn Pittman , 15.335; 10. 1KL – Kyle Larson, 15.388; 11. 6 – David Gravel, 15.420; 12. 2B – Dale Blaney, 15.432; 13. 18 – Ian Madsen, 15.444; 14. 49 – Josh Schneiderman, 15.462; 15. 39 – Greg Hodnett, 15.477; 16. 7K – Dustin Selvage, 15.477; 17. 1 – Sammy Swindell, 15.528; 18. 48 – Danny Dietrich, 15.529; 19. 63 – Chad Kemenah, 15.530; 20. 54 – Cap Henry, 15.533; 21. 47 – Don Droud, Jr. , 15.538; 22. 94 – Jeff Swindell, 15.539; 23. 11N – Randy Hanngan, 15.547; 24. 83JR – Tim Kaeding, 15.560; 25. 41 – Jason Johnson, 15.569; 26. 7TAZ – Tasker Phillips, 15.585; 27. 2L – Ed Lynch, 15.605; 28. 0 – Jonathan Allard, 15.617; 29. 17a – Austin McCarl, 15.632; 30. 11K – Kraig Kinser, 15.649; 31. 19M – Brent Marks, 15.668; 32. 9W – Brandon Wimmer, 15.724; 33. 1A – Jacob Allen, 15.731; 34. 35 – Skylar Prochaska, 15.759; 35. 45x – Johnny Herrera, 15.761; 36. 55xm – James McFadden, 15.766; 37. 19 – Bob Weuve, 15.770; 38. 99 – Brady Bacon, 15.806; 39. 10V – Glenn Saville, 15.882; 40. 2S – Lee Sowell, 15.931; 41. 93 – Dustin Morgan, 15.966; 42. 17W – Cole Wood, 16.031; 43. 2M – Matt Moro, 16.053; 44. 40 – Caleb Helms, 16.106; 45. 2K – Kevin Ingle, 16.187; 46. 16 – Dustin Clark, 16.218; 47. 20PK – Ron Krysl, 17.133; 48. 12P – T.J. Peterson, 17.149; 49. 45M – Mark Johnson, 99.000;
Heat Race #1 (10 Laps): 1. Don Droud, 2. James McFadden, 3. David Gravel, 4. Paul McMahan, 5. Dustin Selvage, 6. Brent Marks, 7. Jason Sides, 8. Tasker Phillips, 9. Dustin Morgan, 10. Dustin Clark (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #2 (10 Laps): 1. Brandon Wimmer, 2. Jeff Swindell, 3. Brad Sweet, 4. Bob Weuve, 5. Ed Lynch, Jr, 6. Lynton Jeffery, 7. Sammy Swindell, 8. Dale Blaney, 9. Cole Wood, 10. Ron Krysl. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #3 (10 Laps): 1. Randy Hannagan, 2. Justin Henderson, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Ian Madsen, 5. Donny Schatz, 6. Jacob Allen, 7. Jonathan Allard, 8. Danny Dietrich, 9. Matt Moro, 10. T.J. Peterson. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #4 (10 Laps): 1. Tim Kaeding, 2. Shane Stewart, 3. Skylar Prochaska, 4. Josh Schneiderman, 5. Daryn Pittman, 6. Austin McCarl, 7. Glenn Saville, 8. Caleb Helms, 9. Chad Kemenah, 10. Mark Johnson. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #5 (10 Laps): 1. Johnny Herrera, 2. Kraiig Kinser, 3. Jason Johnson, 4. Greg Hodnett, 5. Kyle Larson, 6. Davey Heskin, 7. Cap Henry, 8. Lee Sowell, 9. Kevin Ingle. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
C-Main (10 Laps): 1. Chad Kemenah, 2. Matt Moro, 3. Cole Wood, 4. Ron Krysl, 5. T.J. Peterson, 6. Dustin Morgan. DNS: Kevin Ingle, Dustin Clark, Mark Johnson. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
B-Main (12 Laps): 1. Jason Sides, 2. Lynton Jeffery, 3. Donny Schatz, 4. Daryn Pittman, 5. Davey Heskin, 6. Kyle Larson, 7. Sammy Swindell, 8. Dustin Selvage, 9. Jonathan Allard, 10. Tasker Phillips, 11. Austin McCarl, 12. CapHenry, 13. Danny Dietrich, 14. Jacob Allen, 15. Cole Wood, 16. Caleb Helms, 17. Glenn Saville, 18. Brent Marks, 19. Matt Moro, 20. Ed Lynch, Jr., 21. Ron Krysl, 22. Dale Blaney, 23. Lee Sowell, 24. Chad Kemenah
A-Main (25 Laps): 1. David Gravel, 2. Brad Sweet, 3. Tim Kaeding, 4. Greg Hodnett, 5. Daryn Pittman, 6. Shane Stewart, 7. Justin Henderson, 8. Paul McMahan, 9.Jason Sides, 10. Donny Schatz, 11. Jason Johnson, 12. Brandon Wimmer, 13. Brady Bacon, 14. Lynton Jeffery, 15. Randy Hannagan, 16. Don Droud, 17. James McFadden, 18. Ian Madsen, 19 Jeff Swindell, 20. Skylar Prochaska, 21. Bob Weuve, 22. Kraig Kinser, 23. Josh Schneiderman, 24. Johnny Herrera.