By T.J. Buffenbarger
Knoxville, IA — (August 12, 2015) — Shane Stewart started his FVP Knoxville Nationals in victory lane following his feature victory during the RacingJunk.com Qualifying Night at Knoxville Raceway. Stewart held off a late race charge by Donny Schatz following a caution with 10 laps to go for the win. The victory came with Stewart’s car owners Kyle Larson and Justin Marks present along with Jeff Gordon, who is sponsoring Stewart’s car for the Nationals through the Kick-It for Childhood Cancer charity.
“I’m happy for everyone with Kick-It and really cool to have Jeff in the house and witness us winning it,” said Stewart. “Kick-It has been a big supporter of mine for a while, so I’m really happy to win for Eneos and Kick-It. It was a good run for us.”
Stewart and Daryn Pittman started on the front row for the 25-lap main event. Stewart took the lead at the start with Pittman and Wayne Johnson. Johnson immediately dove under Pittman for second, but could not make the pass. Behind them Sheldon Haudenschild and Paul McMahan were racing for fourth with Schatz closing in on them on lap two. Haudenschild worked the bottom of the track while McMahan ran the cushion. Schatz quickly disposed of McMahan to enter the top five. From there Schatz swept by Madsen in turns three and four and moved into fourth on lap seven.
On lap eight Stewart began to overtake slower cars while Gravel and Madsen raced for fifth. With Pittman, Johnson, and Schatz closing in on Stewart, Johnson used a daring move off turn four to pass several lapped cars and Pittman for the second spot. With 15 laps in Madsen slowed on the front stretch with rear end damage to bring out the caution. Madsen was forced to retire from the event.
Stewart pulled away during the restart while Johnson fell back through the field following passed by Schatz to move into second and Gravel into third. Schatz then started to run down Stewart in slower traffic, but Stewart was able to dive between two slower car coming to the white flag to open up enough distance to hold on for the victory. Schatz held on for second with Gravel, McMahan, and Justin Henderson rounding out the top five.
Schatz might have come up short of a feature win, but came out on top of the points for the Knoxville Nationals after the first preliminary night based on his strong performances in qualifying and his heat race.
“It’s a solid night. The guys had an awesome race car in qualifying and drew a decent pill,” said Schatz. “Making it through the heat race is ultimately important and we were able to get that. Feature was a probably a bit of my doing. I decided tonight was the night we needed to try something to see if we could make something better. We don’t get a lot of track time here at Knoxville. One race here prior, and we got fogged out halfway through. We need to try things to get better, and we decided to try something. Half of it was good, half of it was not so good. We were able to hang with (Stewart)< but he could get through traffic better than I was. I feel good about it. I look at thigns different probably than everyone else. I look at tonight as we missed eight points, but we came out in a good spot. Its going to make us pretty solid for Saturday and that’s the most important part.”
For Gravel, who has struggled at times this season since joining Destiny Motorsports, Knoxville was once again the track he was able to produce a solid finish at to build some momentum for his team. The solid finish and locking himself into Saturday’s feature was a moral booster.
“It s a huge relief,” said Gravel about being locked in for Saturday’s feature. “We have been struggling really bad lately. To get a really good balance and Knoxville has treated me really well. To top that off with a good qualifying effort and make I through the heat is a huge relief. Excited for the future, hope to have a good car, and see what we have this year.”
55th Annual FVP Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s General Store – RacingJunk.com Qualifying Night
Knoxville Raceway – Knoxville, IA
Wednesday August 12, 2015
Time Trials, 1. 15, Donny Schatz, Fargo, ND (14), 14.953; 2. 7, David Gravel, Watertown, CT (10), 15.099; 3. 31C, Justyn Cox, Clarksburg, CA (1), 15.216; 4. 89, Cody Darrah, Red Lion, PA (16), 15.255; 5. 93H, Sheldon Haudenschild, Wooster, OH (2), 15.263; 6. 7TAZ, Tasker Phillips, Pleasantville, IA (17), 15.279; 7. 95, Matt Covington, Glenpool, OK (4), 15.316; 8. 51, Paul McMahan, Nashville, TN (46), 15.317; 9. 19, Bob Weuve, Newton, IA (5), 15.352; 10. 24R, Rico Abreu, St. Helena, CA (41), 15.359; 11. 18, Ian Madsen, St. Marys, NSW, Aust (35), 15.378; 12. O, Bud Kaeding, Campbell, CA (8), 15.39; 13. 7S, Jason Sides, Bartlett, TN (25), 15.393; 14. 12X, Wayne Johnson, Knoxville, IA (13), 15.41; 15. 9, Daryn Pittman, Owasso, OK (54), 15.413; 16. 17W, Bryan Clauson, Noblesville, IN (40), 15.423; 17. 69, Mike Moore, Des Moines, IA (3), 15.439; 18. 16, Shane Stewart, Bixby, OK (51), 15.442; 19. 83, Aaron Reutzel, Clute, TX (39), 15.454; 20. 12, Lynton Jeffrey, Prairie City, IA (27), 15.455; 21. 19P, Paige Polyak, Tiffin, OH (44), 15.502; 22. 27, Greg Hodnett, Spring Grove, PA (31), 15.531; 23. 1D, Justin Henderson, Sioux Falls, SD (37), 15.542; 24. 56, Davey Heskin, St. Michael, MN (26), 15.586; 25. 4R, Jon Agan, Knoxville, IA (9), 15.6; 26. 49J, Josh Schneiderman, West Burlington, IA (43), 15.612; 27. 17, Josh Baughman, Odessa, TX (45), 15.636; 28. 7D, Dustin Selvage, Indianola, IA (21), 15.657; 29. 17A, Austin McCarl, Altoona, IA (22), 15.657; 30. 1A, Jacob Allen, Hanover, PA (29), 15.673; 31. 35AU, Jamie Veal, Warrnambool, VIC, Au (53), 15.677; 32. 29C, Willie Croft, Roseville, CA (24), 15.692; 33. 71X, Tyler Courtney, Indianapolis, IN (49), 15.697; 34. 22, Tony Shilling, Knoxville, IA (18), 15.698; 35. 81X, Lee Jacobs, Dalton, OH (19), 15.715; 36. 84, Scott Bogucki, McLaren Vale, SA, Au (6), 15.718; 37. 11K, Kraig Kinser, Bloomington, IN (34), 15.731; 38. 5V, Colby Copeland, Roseville, CA (7), 15.739; 39. 21AU, Jordyn Brazier, Sydney, NSW, Aust. (15), 15.742; 40. 4, Dakota Hendrickson, Omaha, NE (47), 15.758; 41. 13X, Jac Haudenschild, Wooster, OH (36), 15.767; 42. 75, Glen Saville, Razorback, NSW, Aust (20), 15.795; 43. 99, Brady Bacon, Broken Arrow, OK (50), 15.8; 44. 20, AJ Moeller, Rockwell City, IA (23), 15.82; 45. 2KS, Craig Dollansky, Elk River, MN (52), 15.835; 46. 55W, Logan Wagner, Harrisonville, PA (12), 15.849; 47. 81, Austin Johnson, Pleasant Hill, IA (32), 15.857; 48. 2L, Logan Forler, Boise, ID (28), 15.899; 49. 23, Jimmy Light, West Springfield, PA (11), 16; 50. 7X, Kaley Gharst, Decatur, IL (33), 16; 51. 4S, Danny Smith, Chillicothe, OH (38), 16.093; 52. O5, Brad Loyet, Sunset Hills, MO (55), 16.424; 53. 96, Bronson Maeschen, Pleasantville, IA (48), 16.999; 54. 96AU, Bruce White, Merrylands West, NSW, Aust. (30), 17.363; 55. 17M, Todd Mickelson, Minot, ND (42), 18.095;
Heat 1, 10 Laps, No Time: 1. Jamie Veal (2); 2. Ian Madsen (6); 3. Donny Schatz (8); 4. Scott Bogucki (1); 5. Josh Schneiderman (3); 6. Bryan Clauson (5); 7. Paige Polyak (4); 8. Tasker Phillips (7); 9. Jac Haudenschild (9); 10. Logan Wagner (10);
Heat 2, 10 Laps, No Time: 1. Willie Croft (2); 2. Greg Hodnett (4); 3. Kraig Kinser (1); 4. David Gravel (8); 5. Josh Baughman (3); 6. Bud Kaeding (6); 7. Matt Covington (7); 8. Mike Moore (5); 9. Austin Johnson (10); 10. Glen Saville (9);
Heat 3, 10 Laps, No Time: 1. Tyler Courtney (2); 2. Justin Henderson (4); 3. Shane Stewart (5); 4. Paul McMahan (7); 5. Dustin Selvage (3); 6. Jason Sides (6); 7. Colby Copeland (1); 8. Logan Forler (10); 9. Justyn Cox (8); 10. Brady Bacon (9);
Heat 4, 10 Laps, No Time: 1. Tony Shilling (2); 2. Davey Heskin (4); 3. Jordyn Brazier (1); 4. Wayne Johnson (6); 5. Aaron Reutzel (5); 6. Austin McCarl (3); 7. Cody Darrah (8); 8. Bob Weuve (7); 9. Jimmy Light (10); 10. AJ Moeller (9);
Heat 5, 10 Laps, No Time: 1. Dakota Hendrickson (1); 2. Daryn Pittman (6); 3. Lee Jacobs (2); 4. Sheldon Haudenschild (8); 5. Rico Abreu (7); 6. Lynton Jeffrey (5); 7. Jon Agan (4); 8. Jacob Allen (3); 9. Craig Dollansky (9); 10. Kaley Gharst (10);
C main, 10 Laps, No Time: 1. Jac Haudenschild (2); 2. Justyn Cox (1); 3. Logan Wagner (7); 4. Craig Dollansky (6); 5. Brady Bacon (4); 6. Jimmy Light (9); 7. Austin Johnson (8); 8. Danny Smith (11); 9. Glen Saville (3); 10. Bruce White (14); 11. Todd Mickelson (15); 12. Kaley Gharst (10); 13. AJ Moeller (5); 14. Brad Loyet (12); 15. Bronson Maeschen (13);
Heat non-qualifiers, 0 Laps, No Time: 1. Danny Smith (1); 2. Brad Loyet (2); 3. Bronson Maeschen (3); 4. Bruce White (4); 5. Todd Mickelson (5);
B main, 12 Laps, No Time: 1. Tasker Phillips (2); 2. Cody Darrah (1); 3. Rico Abreu (5); 4. Bryan Clauson (8); 5. Jason Sides (7); 6. Matt Covington (3); 7. Lynton Jeffrey (11); 8. Austin McCarl (17); 9. Jac Haudenschild (21); 10. Aaron Reutzel (10); 11. Bud Kaeding (6); 12. Paige Polyak (12); 13. Bob Weuve (4); 14. Josh Schneiderman (14); 15. Mike Moore (9); 16. Josh Baughman (15); 17. Logan Wagner (23); 18. Craig Dollansky (24); 19. Dustin Selvage (16); 20. Justyn Cox (22); 21. Jacob Allen (18); 22. Logan Forler (20); 23. Jon Agan (13); 24. Colby Copeland (19);
A main, 25 Laps, No Time: 1. Shane Stewart (1); 2. Donny Schatz (8); 3. David Gravel (7); 4. Paul McMahan (5); 5. Justin Henderson (10); 6. Wayne Johnson (3); 7. Daryn Pittman (2); 8. Rico Abreu (23); 9. Greg Hodnett (9); 10. Sheldon Haudenschild (6); 11. Bryan Clauson (24); 12. Davey Heskin (11); 13. Tasker Phillips (21); 14. Cody Darrah (22); 15. Kraig Kinser (18); 16. Tony Shilling (15); 17. Jamie Veal (12); 18. Tyler Courtney (14); 19. Lee Jacobs (16); 20. Dakota Hendrickson (20); 21. Willie Croft (13); 22. Jordyn Brazier (19); 23. Scott Bogucki (17); 24. Ian Madsen (4);