Shane Stewart Claims 17th 360 Knoxville Nationals
Saturday, August 4, 2007
by Bob Wilson - Shane Stewart, calling Indianapolis, Indiana his temporary home, won the 17th annual ASCS (American Sprint Car Series) 360 Knoxville Nationals at Knoxville Raceway Saturday night. Stewart received $10,000 for his win.
The start of the 25-lap championship race was red flagged when New Yorker Bryan Howland struck the third turn fence on the first lap. He was unable to restart. Johnny Anderson also went pitside during this stoppage.
When the race went green again, front-row starter Shane Stewart took the point. Pole sitter Josh Higday ran second and Gary Wright was third. On the next go around Wright slid Higday in turns one and two and began to chase the leader, Stewart.
By lap four Wright had given up running the top where Stewart was. Instead he circled the half-mile oval on the bottom and began closing in on the Oklahoma native. Lap six saw them running nose to tail as they flew past the start-finish line. The same scenario played out on the following laps until the yellow flew on lap 10 for Justin Barger who had stopped just off the turn one apron. At this point the two front running cars were followed by Higday, Matt Moro, Wayne Johnson, Jason Johnson and Brian Brown.
One more lap was run only to have the caution shown for debris on the track.
The restart saw Wright grab the lead away as Stewart chose the bottom and faltered in turn two. Wright flew by him on the high side to take the top spot. With the lead, Wright chose to run the high cushion as Stewart went to the bottom. That's the way it stayed until lap 15 when Stewart roared out of turn four on the bottom having inched ahead of the Wright machine at that point.
Having regained the lead, Stewart stayed on the bottom. On the 17th circuit he entered into lap traffic and found that not to hinder his progress as he seemed to be able to take the Mike Doyle Maxim just about anywhere on the track surface. With twenty laps down, Wright, of Hooks, Texas was still within striking distance and when they flew by the flag stand he was only five car lengths to the rear.
When the end looked to be in sight as the white flag flew, a final yellow was displayed for Brian Brown who had come to a smoking stop in turn four. At that time he was scored to be in seventh place after having started eighteenth.
Knoxville rules show a green-white-checker finish to be called for in a situation like this which meant that the race would actually go 26 laps. That would pose no problem for Stewart as he stayed on the bottom on those final laps and came across as the victor of this 17th annual event.
On the final circuit, Wright was passed by Wayne Johnson (Oklahoma City) as those two finished second and third. Johnson had started ninth. Jason Johnson (no relation) took fourth and Kaley Gharst was fifth. Rounding out the top ten were Higday, Travis Rilat, Scott Winters (started 20th), Moro and Jonathan Allard (started 24th).
The E Main went to Jonathan Cornell, the D Main to Eric Baldaccini and the C Main to J.D. Johnson. Justin Barger was the winner of the B Main. The crowd was estimated to be at 6,000.
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