Shaffer survives the storm to win opening night of 49th Annual Knoxville Nationals
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
By Stacy Ervin
A racing surface plagued with rain shook things up at the opening qualifying night of the 49th Annual Super Clean Knoxville Nationals presented by Lucas Oil at the Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa. Pennsylvania’s Tim Shaffer was the winner on the race night courtesy of Nos Energy Drink. His win was worth $12,000.
The race was scheduled for Wednesday, August 12, but was actually completed at 2:30 a.m. on Thursday. Just before hot laps were set to begin, a heavy rain shower popped up over the speedway and produced about 45 minutes worth of rain. That set off a four-hour delay while track crews worked on the wet, muddy surface. Time trials for the night’s 50 competitors began at 11:22 p.m.
Shaffer started fourth in the night’s 25-lap A-Main and followed polesitter Jason Johnson for the majority of the race. The first attempt at a start had contact being made in turn one and a yellow flag for a slowing Daron Clayton. Shane Stewart also came to the work area at that time.
When the race went green again, Johnson got out to the lead, while Donny Schatz, who started 21st, got a huge run down the high side of the frontstretch and came up to 14th place.
Johnson entered lapped traffic at lap six, allowing Lucas Wolfe, Shaffer and Craig Dollansky to close. On the 11th lap, Shaffer got second and closed on Johnson in heavy traffic. The top pair nearly touched in turn four coming to the 14th lap.
On lap 18, Shaffer pulled beside Johnson at the flagstand. He made the pass stick after that and took the lead. However, the race changed dramatically on the 20th lap, when John Lambertz and Greg Hall got together in turn four right in front of the leaders. When Johnson checked up, third-place runner Dollansky took drastic measures to avoid him but ended up hitting Hall and flipping.
Another yellow was displayed on the restart when Austin McCarl slowed down the backstretch with no brakes. That was a huge break for Dollansky, whose crew and many others had worked feverishly to return him to the race. As they had tried to push him off following his red flag, the left front wheel collapsed and he was stuck in the work area for the restart. With McCarl bringing out another caution before a lap was completed, Dollansky was able to make it back out.
The race stayed green from there, with Shaffer leading the last five laps and gaining the win for his happy car owner, Janet Holbrook. Johnson held on for second over Sam Hafertepe Jr., Chad Kemenah, Wolfe and Danny Smith. Schatz charged up to seventh.
Cody Darrah set the night’s fastest time trial at 14.547. Exactly half of the field turned laps in the 14-second bracket. The first heat race pushed off at 12:15 a.m. New this year the heat races featured an eight invert rather than a complete 10. Heat-race winners were Garry Brazier, Calvin Landis, Daron Clayton, Justin Henderson and Jack Dover. Erin Crocker won the C-Main, setting a new track record for six laps, the first record held by a female driver here. Donny Schatz won the B-Main.
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