By T.J. Buffenbarger
KNOXVILLE, IA (August 9, 2024) — The theme of the Knoxville Nationals in 2024 could end up being, “I’d rather be lucky AND good”.
It’s been a theme throughout the week at Knoxville that has come up in fan forums and other places. In some ways everyone has experienced certain aspects of it during this year’s Nationals. From everyone enjoying the cooler than normal temperatures, Kyle Larson drawing the one pill for qualifying, and now Friday when Donny Schatz gaining the last transfer position in his heat race after Jack Dover did not go over the scales after the finish of the event are just a few of the unusual circumstances we have seen throughout the week at Knoxville.
The mistake by Dover not only put Schatz into the feature, but by virtue of his quick time put him on the pole position for the 25-lap main event, that he capitalized on by winning to earn the 21st starting position in Saturday night’s A-Main.
After the race Schatz was bluntly honest about his predicament.
“If you want me to address the elephant in the room. Yeah, we missed it through the heat. We were just sitting there spinning the tires, I got out of the car, and I told the guys that it looked like our Nationals was over,” said Schatz in the post-race press conference. “The next thing you know, I heard someone didn’t go to scales. I have a saying about it. Kissed on the ding dong by a fairy is basically what it is, and that’s what happened.”
“I did everything I could. I didn’t get through the heat race. Someone else made a mistake. I capitalized on their misfortune, something I had zero control of.”
On Wednesday and Thursday night during the preliminary events cars were not required to go to the scales. Friday night that changed, which could have caused some of the confusion for Dover.
“They weighed cars tonight. They didn’t weigh them earlier in the week,” said Schatz. “This is the biggest race of the year. Why we don’t do it all week is beyond me, but I don’t make the rules. I don’t enforce them, just try to abide by them.”
While Schatz took care of business during the feature event, leading all but one lap in route to the victory he was very frank about how he got into that position with Dover missing the scales.
“Without that, I wouldn’t be sitting here,” said Schatz. “There’s no question. Can’t hide behind that. But you know, sometimes in this sport we race enough that sometimes you have to be luckier than good. Today was one of those days. Maybe there was some help from above or something, who the hell knows, but, yeah, very fortunate today.”
Oher Notes
• Emerson Axsom’s travels throughout the summer paid off this week by earning his first career start in the Saturday finale of the Knoxville Nationals. While Emerson has traveled extensively this year, much of his effort has centered around racing at Knoxville to prepare for this week.
“I feel like we’ve been racing here at Knoxville for more than anyone anywhere else this year,” said Axsom. “It feels good to have all the work pay off. I wish we’re a little bit better. We found some issues from last night. I’m glad we found them now then not find them at all. It feels really good to be locked in, but I still wish we were a little bit better, but we just locked in the Knoxville Nationals, so it definitely feels good.”
• While Justin Henderson locked into the A-Main at Knoxville for the sixth time in his carer and the first time since 2021, Henderson was looking to deflect more of the praise to his National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum inductee car owner and mechanic Guy Forbrook.
“It feels really good to get Forbrook’s car rolling here like I know it should,” said Henderson of the pairing with Forbrook. “It’s been a lot of work. It’s never easy in these things and I don’t have a lot of laps around here and a lot of things have changed I’ve been fast here.”
“Between what I needed to learn and what we needed to learn together, I feel like we’ve kind of come together at the right time, on the most stressful night of the Nationals. So very happy for everything to come together and for the opportunity.”
• Logan Schuchart actually got around Donny Schatz to lead one lap on Friday, but gave the lead back to Schatz before maintaining the second position. After a less than stellar preliminary night, Schuchart and his Shark Racing team decided to make minimal changes going into Friday’s Program.
“I really don’t think we changed a lot,” Schuchart said when asked adjustments that may have been made before Friday. “I think circumstances yesterday going out late, and I thought we did really good for going out as late as we did, starting on the inside the heat races, I don’t think helped us yesterday.”
“We probably weren’t as good as where we needed to be. There are some small changes I think could have made us better but getting held up by cars in front of us and just seemed like making moves at certain times I’d get blocked by a car, and it just took too long to get going in our in our heat race.”
Friday went much smoother for Schuchart who finds himself locked into the Knoxville Nationals A-Main for the eighth time in his career, hoping to make a charge from the back of the field.
“I know it’s happened before,” said Schuchart. “We’ve come from 22nd this (Schatz) come from 21st. I look forward to trying to put on a show for the fans and my team and I believe it can be done.”