Knoxville Nationals Night #2 Results and Stories

Thursday, August 10, 2006
8/10/06

Knoxville Raceway

Knoxville Nationals Night #2

66 cars

Don Droud Jr. (5th car out to time) set quick time over the field with a lap of 14.927 seconds.  Joey Saldana (43rd car out) was second quick, followed by Dusty Zomer (31st), Randy Hannagan (16th), Todd Shaffer (4th), Wayne Johnson (33rd), Ricky Logan (21st), Rager Phillips (18th), Tony Bruce Jr. (26th) and Brian Brown (63rd).  For the second night in a row, the track held up through qualifications, though it would widen for the heats despite being fast.  Troy Little found the wall and failed to get a time in. Jesse Giannetto broke a driveline, ending his night.  Robert Bell and Mallory Armfield also failed to get times in.

Last Chance Heat (started): 1. Brian Carlson 18x (2) 2. Kim Mock 1m (3) 3. Greg Jones 3J (1) 4. Kyle Hirst 99 (4) 5. Jamie McDonald NZ3 (10) 6. Seth Brahmer 13x (5) 7. Dave Enderson 51e (9) 8. Shawn Sander 48 (8) 9. Cameron McGahan 33 (7) 10. Jesse Baker 22B (11) / 11. Michael Strader 7m (12) 12. Jerrel Slinkard 15s (6) DNS - Robert Bell 71, Troy Little 54, Mallory Armfield 5MA, Jesse Giannetto D1

Carlson led the 8 lapper flag to flag.  The best race was for second with Mock prevailing on the low side over a rim riding Jones.  Slinkard exited on lap four.

Heat one (started): 1. Jason Johnson 41 (7) 2. Jason Meyers 14 (8) 3. Jesse Hockett 75x (2) 4. W. Johnson 14AJ (9) / 5. Chad Meyer 1w (4) 6. Droud 44 (10) 7. Kraig Kinser 1K (6) 8. Jeff Mitrisin 10J (3) / 9. Jessica Zemken 1JZ (1) 10. Tyler Walker 5 (5)

Mitrisin was sent to the tail after being late to staging.  Hockett led early in the completely inverted 10 lapper.  On lap two, Walker tried to squeeze between Zemken and the wall, and got into her left rear.  The contact sent the Forbrook machine spinning up into the wall.  The damage was enough to sideline Walker for the night.  The restart saw Hockett leading Zemken, J. Johnson, Meyer and Meyers.  One lap after the restart, J. Johnson took the lead and simply left the rest behind.  Meyers worked his way by Meye, Zemken and Hockett to take runner-up honors, while W. Johnson was on the move as well, moving into the final transfer late.

Heat two (started): 1. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 40R (3) 2. Kerry Madsen 11H (2) 3. Dennis Moore Jr. 35m (4) 4. Kaley Gharst 44G (8) / 5. Saldana 9 (10) 6. Josh Higday 24 (7) 7. Kelly Kinser 4K (6) 8. Larry Pinegar II 7N (1) / 9. Kevin Swindell 1T (5) 10. Logan 55 (9)

The initial green saw Saldana try to squeeze between Gharst and the wall.  Saldana was the loser, getting into Gharst's right rear and breaking some components in the front end.  Despite the breakages, Saldana was able to make repairs in the work area and restart at the rear without a nose wing.  Madsen led once the green fell again until a lap five slowdown for Logan, who drifted high to avoid a loose Higday.  Logan suffered a broken front axle in the contact, sending him to the C.  The restart saw Madsen leading Stenhouse, Moore Jr., Pinegar and Gharst.  On lap six, Stenhouse slid under Madsen to lead for good.  The restart was new life for Gharst who grabbed the final transfer shortly thereafter.  Saldana grabbed the spot with two to go, but after taking the white flag, Gharst shot between the 9 car and the inside berm, sliding in front of Saldana in the move of the night to nail down the final A main transfer.

Heat three (started): 1. Travis Whitney 9T (1) 2. Jeff Shepard 4J (5) 3. Paul McMahan 20 (7) 4. Brian Ellenberger 20E (3) / 5. Danny Smith 4 (2) 6. Greg Wilson w20 (8) 7. Zomer 1z (10) 8. Phillips 10 (9) / 9. Neil Shepherd 4N (6) 10. Nick Smith 15NS (4)

Whitney led flag to flag despite late pressure from Shepard.  McMahan moved up nicely, using the low side to perfection.

Heat four (started): 1. Terry McCarl 24x (4) 2. Brooke Tatnell 8 (3) 3. Tim Kaeding 11K (7) 4. Bruce 18 (9) / 5. Brent Antill 1 (2) 6. Tim Hunter 2H (1) 7. Hannagan 1x (10) 8. Jac Haudenschild 35 (8) / 9. Brock Mayes 11B (5) 10. Dion Hindi 11D (6)

Antill took the point early, but Tatnell was on the move and took the lead on lap four.  McCarl planted the 24 to the bottom of turns three and four to make the winning pass on lap nine.  Bruce drove masterfully and grabbed the final transfer from Antill on the last go-around.

Heat five (started): 1. Chris Walraven 56 (2) 2. Stevie Smith 19 (4) 3. Brian Paulus 28 (7) 4. Robert Ballou 12x (1) / 5. Brown 21 (9) 6. Jason Martin 36 (8) 7. Shaffer 77 (10) 8. Dean Jacobs 6 (6) / 9. Rich Bubak 9x (5) 10. Dale Howard 47D (3)

Walraven led the distance.  Brown stopped before a lap could be completed, and restarted at the rear.  A better start on the second try allowed him to move within one spot of a transfer in the non-stop event.  Paulus moved up nicely from row four.  Again tonight, only two of the top ten qualifiers transferred to the main event out of the heats.

C main (started): 1. Logan (1) 2. Hindi (3) / 3. Mayes (4) 4. K. Swindell (5) 5. N. Smith (6) 6. Mock (10) 7. Shepherd (2) 8. Hirst (12) 9. Jones (11) 10. D. Howard (9) 11. Bubak (7) 12. Brahmer (16) 13. Enders (15) 14. Zemken (8) 15. McDonald (13) 16. Sander (16) 17. Carlson (19) 18. Baker (18) 19. McGahan (17) DNS - Walker

Carlson started at the tail.  Logan jumped out and led all 10 laps.  Mayes quickly moved to his nerf bar.  Hindi remained within shouting distance of the second and final transfer.  When he and Mayes were caught behind Zemken, they split the difference with Hindi on the high side and Mayes on the bottom.  A drag race for the checkers saw Hindi gain the spot by .006 of a second.  The difference was impossible to judge from the naked eye.

B main (started): 1. Droud (1) 2. Saldana (2) 3. Zomer (3) 4. Brown (7) / 5. Hannagan (4) 6. Wilson (8) 7. Logan (21) 8. Mitrisin (16) 9. Haudenschild (9) 10. Kr. Kinser (12) 11. Phillips (6) 12. Shaffer (5) 13. Ke. Kinser (13) 14. Hunter (20) 15. D. Smith (17) 16. Hindi (22) 17. Antill (18) 18. Meyer (15) 19. Pinegar (19) 20. D. Jacobs (14) 21. J. Martin (10) 22. Higday (11)

Higday got upside down before a lap could be completed.  He was uninjured.  Droud grabbed a lead, but a lap two incident involving J. Martin. D. Smith and D. Jacobs slowed things again.  J. Martin got the worst end of the deal, making heavy contact with the turn four wall and suffering severe damage to his machine.  D. Smith somehow got tipped over and balanced on his left rear with his front wheels aiming skyward.  Amazingly, the car was tipped back on all fours and continued at the rear along with D. Jacobs.  The restart saw Droud leading Saldana, Zomer, Hannagan and Wilson.  Brown worked his way from 7th at the restart to the fourth position after a fierce battle with Hannagan in the 12 lapper.  The two exchanged the spot at least three times.  Logan put on a charge from row eleven to salvage what he could in points.  D. Jacobs retired on lap four and Pinegar did the same on lap ten.

A main (started): 1. J. Johnson (4) 2. Kaeding (2) 3. Meyers (6) 4. Gharst (5) 5. Paulus (1) 6. W. Johnson (8) 7. Saldana (22) 8. Madsen (17) 9. McMahan (3) 10. McCarl (11) 11. Shepard (9) 12. S. Smith (12) 13. Tatnell (15) 14. Stenhouse (13) 15. Droud (21) 16. Brown (24) 17. Bruce (7) 18. Zomer (23) 19. Whitney (19) 20. Moore Jr. (10) 21. Hockett (16) 22. Ellenberger (14) 23. Walraven (18) 24. Ballou (20)

Getting this 25 lapper started was like pulling teeth.  After a lengthy motor change, Ballou got upside down after the drop of the green.  Zomer had failing brakes, but had plenty of time to make repairs when Madsen spun on the restart.  Ellenberger retired with no brakes, and Walraven went pitside with ignition problems.  Once underway, Paulus took the early advantage, with J. Johnson quickly in tow.  On lap six J. Johnson briefly took the advantage, but Paulus rocketed by on the low side of turn four to keep the advantage.  On lap eight, Paulus missed his line in turn one, and J. Johnson shot around the high side to take the point.  He used a high line in one and two and a low line in three and four to stretch his advantage in traffic before a lap 16 stoppage by Hockett.  J. Johnson led the NST quartet of Kaeding, Paulus, McMahan and Meyers back to green flag racing on the restart.  Action was fast and furious, but J. Johnson used the open track in the final nine laps to earn his second career 410 win here under Don Ott power.  The win was Ott's second in a row in as many nights.  Meyers came on late, shooting by McMahan and Paulus to nail down third.  Young Gharst was on a mission as well and rocketed around the same pair as he came home fourth.  Saldana used hard-charger honors to come out of the night as the high point man.