Stewart wins second qualifying night of 20th Annual 360 Knoxville Nationals
Friday, August 6, 2010
By Stacy Ervin
On the opening night of the 20th Annual Arnold Motor Supply 360 Knoxville Nationals presented by Windstream, the winner led all but the first lap. On the second qualifying night, Shane Stewart led only one lap, but it was a dramatic one.
The Oklahoma driver won in the Lucas Oil ASCS sanctioned event at the Knoxville Raceway on Friday, August 6. The victory was worth $3,000.
Stewart started fifth and steadily made his way to the front until he used a last-lap pass to excite the large crowd and take the win. When the race went green, fourth starter Johnny Herrera got off to a great start and ran off with the lead. Third starter Randy Hannagan settled into second with Stewart in third and Clint Garner fourth in the first half of the race.
Garner, the point leader in the weekly 360 division here, saw his night turn disastrous on the eighth lap when he slowed to a stop with motor issues to bring out a yellow flag. At the time, the leaders had just started to come to traffic.
On the restart, Hannagan made an attempt to take the lead, but Herrera held strong. That allowed Stewart to close on Hannagan and the two nearly came together. Stewart got second spot on lap 13, but Hannagan stayed close.
As they came back to traffic, Stewart closed on Herrera and the two raced side by side and traded slide jobs for the last five laps. Stewart tried his final slide job in turn one just after the pair took the white flag, Herrera got over the cushion and lost momentum and Stewart raced away. It looked as though Herrera would make a final run for the win in turn three, but a lapped car held him up. Hannagan held on for third.
Sammy Swindell was the other show of the night, as he raced from 21st starting spot to finish fourth. He had failed to make the A-Main after a heat-race skirmish with Danny Wood. When Wood tried to pull a slide job in turn four, Swindell was nearly sent to the fence and had to stop. He eventually made the transfer via the B-Main.
Chad Meyer set the fastest time trial of the night’s 53 competitors with a 16.681 second lap. Only five cars turned laps in the 16-second bracket as the track slicked off early. Heat races were won by Jake Ossenfort, Josh Higday, Tim Crawley, Brooke Tatnell and Rager Phillips. The C-Main was won by Preston Peebles II. Sammy Swindell won the B-Main.
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