24 Car Field (in no particular order)
R19 - Jac Haudenschild
1z- Stevie Smith
2B- Dale Blaney
2w- Johnny Herrera
6 - Danny Lasoski
7s - Jason Sides
9 - Joey Saldana
10s - Sammy Swindell
11 - Steve Kinser
14 - Jason Meyers
14AJ - Wayne Johnson
15 - Donny Schatz
15H - Sam Hafertepe, Jr.
17G - Dusty Zomer
19 - Craig Dollansky
21 - Brian Brown
22 - Billy Alley
22x - Greg Hodnett
24 - Terry McCarl
24T - Tyler Walker
30c - Lance Dewease
55 - Kerry Madsen
57 - Shane Stewart
83A - Tim Shaffer
Qualifying Night Winners:
Wednesday: Johnny Herrera
Thursday: Stevie Smith
Friday Non-Qualifer: Jason Johnson
Rookie of the Nationals:
3C - Cale Conley
2009 Knoxville Nationals Finale Top 10 Predicition:
1. Terry McCarl
2. Donny Schatz
3. Jason Meyers
4. Stevie Smith
5. Joey Saldana
6. Johnny Herrera
7. Danny Lasoski
8. Brian Brown
9. Craig Dollansky
10. Wayne Johnson
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Its Finally Here
The time has finally come: The 2009 Knoxville Nationals. The qualifying nights have been split up and it looks like they are evenly split up to me. Should be fun to see if anyone can finally drop a perfect night of 500 points for the first time in my memory of what will be my 12th year of attending them.
Time to catch up on some of the races I've been able to hit. We'll start with the All Star shows at Huset's a couple of weeks ago that saw the 23w dominate the first night for the $5K prize. He led all 35 laps on a very racy track as Gary Wright was all over his ass for most of the race. Wright even pulled even with him at one point mid-race but lap traffic negated any pass going down the backstretch. I truly was not expecting Scott to win as I was thinking worst possible outcome, so it made it that much sweeter to see him pull it off. And he wouldn't have started where he did had Jake Peters not scratched for the night. Everything came together to see him get the 'W' on a cool night that saw me blowing out my own breath on August 1st. Scott's site is a work in progress and should hopefully be updated in the upcoming weeks.
The next night saw more heavy hitters head up from Knoxville. A delay in the start time plus 2 laps in qualifying pushed the show back a good 45 minutes, and wouldn't you know it, rain was on the way in a hurry. The rain barely missed the track when it pushed off by about a mile to the south as only a few sprinkles fell. Instead of the scheduled 40 laps, they only went 30 to cut down the laps in order to hit halfway to make it official. T-Mac drew the front row after setting quick time and led all 30 laps to the victory on a heavier track from the night before. Tim Shaffer was after him the majority of the race in traffic, but never really was a threat. Sam Hafertepe, Jr. was coming in a hurry in the late stages and blew by Shaffer outta 4 coming to the checkers to snag the 2nd spot. Woulda been great to see another 10 laps on that track, especially with Sam coming, but atleast we got to see a full feature. This was only the beginning of a tear for T-Mac as he won the night before in Knoxville...
I left work Friday night and headed down to Knoxville in order to catch the feature for Friday's 360 prelim which had T-Mac in the field. Got down there just in time for intermission-bombs at the Dingus with a bunch of Terry's loyal sponsors, friends, and family and headed back up to the suite that saw him pass Brian Brown on the last corner to garner the victory and a front row starting spot in the 360 finale on the next night. Friday night I literally blacked out just outside the Dingus and thanks for everyone who helped me out, its greatly appreciated and I'll return the favor sometime, don't you worry.
The next night can simply be put with one phrase: "SWEPT 'EM." Terry won the regular 410 show after starting in the 2nd row. Again, he tracked down Brownie to get this win and he was never really challenged after that to collect his 4th straight win. Then he went out and won the 360 finale for a cool 10 grand, his 3rd 360 Nationals, and 5th win in a row as we head into the Nationals. He's taken in 29 grand in these 5 races in just over a week, which is amazing. Saturday was easier to remember for me, but it was still awesome to be up in Terry's suite to watch him win 3 races in 2 nights. I got to meet some pretty cool people over the course of these 2 nights and I can't wait to get back down on Wednesday to throw it down for the real Nationals.
My predictions will be posted here above this post for the 24 car field and whose gonna win the $150 grand.
Time to catch up on some of the races I've been able to hit. We'll start with the All Star shows at Huset's a couple of weeks ago that saw the 23w dominate the first night for the $5K prize. He led all 35 laps on a very racy track as Gary Wright was all over his ass for most of the race. Wright even pulled even with him at one point mid-race but lap traffic negated any pass going down the backstretch. I truly was not expecting Scott to win as I was thinking worst possible outcome, so it made it that much sweeter to see him pull it off. And he wouldn't have started where he did had Jake Peters not scratched for the night. Everything came together to see him get the 'W' on a cool night that saw me blowing out my own breath on August 1st. Scott's site is a work in progress and should hopefully be updated in the upcoming weeks.
The next night saw more heavy hitters head up from Knoxville. A delay in the start time plus 2 laps in qualifying pushed the show back a good 45 minutes, and wouldn't you know it, rain was on the way in a hurry. The rain barely missed the track when it pushed off by about a mile to the south as only a few sprinkles fell. Instead of the scheduled 40 laps, they only went 30 to cut down the laps in order to hit halfway to make it official. T-Mac drew the front row after setting quick time and led all 30 laps to the victory on a heavier track from the night before. Tim Shaffer was after him the majority of the race in traffic, but never really was a threat. Sam Hafertepe, Jr. was coming in a hurry in the late stages and blew by Shaffer outta 4 coming to the checkers to snag the 2nd spot. Woulda been great to see another 10 laps on that track, especially with Sam coming, but atleast we got to see a full feature. This was only the beginning of a tear for T-Mac as he won the night before in Knoxville...
I left work Friday night and headed down to Knoxville in order to catch the feature for Friday's 360 prelim which had T-Mac in the field. Got down there just in time for intermission-bombs at the Dingus with a bunch of Terry's loyal sponsors, friends, and family and headed back up to the suite that saw him pass Brian Brown on the last corner to garner the victory and a front row starting spot in the 360 finale on the next night. Friday night I literally blacked out just outside the Dingus and thanks for everyone who helped me out, its greatly appreciated and I'll return the favor sometime, don't you worry.
The next night can simply be put with one phrase: "SWEPT 'EM." Terry won the regular 410 show after starting in the 2nd row. Again, he tracked down Brownie to get this win and he was never really challenged after that to collect his 4th straight win. Then he went out and won the 360 finale for a cool 10 grand, his 3rd 360 Nationals, and 5th win in a row as we head into the Nationals. He's taken in 29 grand in these 5 races in just over a week, which is amazing. Saturday was easier to remember for me, but it was still awesome to be up in Terry's suite to watch him win 3 races in 2 nights. I got to meet some pretty cool people over the course of these 2 nights and I can't wait to get back down on Wednesday to throw it down for the real Nationals.
My predictions will be posted here above this post for the 24 car field and whose gonna win the $150 grand.
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