Stewart wins 20th Annual 360 Knoxville Nationals
Saturday, August 7, 2010
By Stacy Ervin
Shane Stewart only led one lap to win on his qualifying night. But he proved he was hungry for a more dramatic victory.
The Oklahoma driver won the 20th Annual Arnold Motor Supply 360 Knoxville Nationals presented by Windstream. The win came in the Lucas Oil ASCS sanctioned event at the Knoxville Raceway on Saturday, August 7, and was worth $10,000.
When the 25-lap race went green, polesitter Chad Humston, a Knoxville 360 division regular, took off with the lead and ran a steady line of the high groove from turn one to turn three and taking the low groove from turn three to turn one. He let others battle it out behind him.
On the seventh lap, Brian Brown’s car went up in a ball of smoke and flame as he was running in third down the backstretch. As he sputtered around the track, third starter Stewart pulled alongside Humston to challenge for the lead. Brown finally came to a stop in turn four and Humston narrowly missed hitting him in the back before the yellow was thrown.
On the pace laps following the caution, it became apparent Humston had lost a brake caliper and had a brake line hanging down from the car. When signaled by officials, Humston indicated he knew he had no brakes.
The race went green with Humston still holding the lead, but coming out of turn four, Humston’s front end broke, he skimmed the fence and then shot down the race track. Johnny Herrera had nowhere to go as Humston’s car came down the track and Herrera went for a big flip in front of the grandstands, nearly going over the fence into victory lane.
It was at this caution that Brooke Tatnell was summoned by his crew to the work area for a look at his rear-end gears. He did not restart.
Stewart inherited the lead at lap 10 and survived a few more cautions and some stout challenges. The caution returned on lap 13 when Davey Heskin stopped with mechanical problems. Another caution came a lap later when Brady Bacon hit the fence in turns one and two.
There was a stretch of green-flag laps after that as Stewart put his foot to the floor to stay ahead of a surging Sammy Swindell and Jason Johnson. The final caution of the race came just as the white flag was being displayed when Randy Hannagan slowed with a broken rear end while running fifth. A green, white, checkered restart saw Stewart stay ahead of Swindell and Johnson. Knoxville regular Dustin Selvage, who started outside the front row, held on for a fourth-place finish.
Tim Kaeding made the pass for the lead on the fourth lap of the B-Main and set a new 15-lap track record with the win. Danny Heskin led all 12 laps of the C-Main to win that event. Ricky Logan survived a multi-car melee on the start of the D-Main to win that 10-lap event. Dave Hall led all eight laps to win the E-Main.
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