Stewart is Top Dog in Friday Night WoO Knoxville Sprints
Friday, June 6, 2008
By Bob Wilson
KNOXVILLE, Iowa (June 6) Shane Stewart came on late in the 25-lap main event to capture the World of Outlaws feature race at Knoxville Raceway Friday night. The win paid the Oklahoma native $10,000 for his efforts.
The race immediately went red as soon as it was flagged green when Brian Paulus flipped in turn two while driving in heavy traffic. He was not injured.
When the race began again, pole sitter Brooke Tatnell shot into the lead using the low line around Knoxville’s big half mile with Tony Bruce in second. Terry McCarl shot to the top of the track to take third. For McCarl the night would be short as on the next go around he slowed in turn three and came to a stop in the fourth turn, the victim of his car popping out of gear. He was unable to restart.
With two laps in the book, another yellow was displayed for Dusty Zomer who had slowed and stopped. Zomer was able to make it back on the track.
On the restart, Tatnell again took the point but this time third-running Donny Schatz roared around Bruce to grab the runner-up spot as they dove into turn three. Stewart was fourth. By lap five, Stewart also made a pass of Bruce to register third.
Tatnell was making quick work of Knoxville’s half mile oval by running the cushion in turns one and two and running the bottom in three and four. The only time Schatz seemed able to make a bid on him was in the first and second turns when the defending Nationals champ drove the bottom line. By lap 10, Schatz continued to hound Tatnell with Stewart a good 10 car-lengths behind.
As the race edged past the mid-way point, Schatz began to challenge Tatnell. Both drivers continued to use their same lines as lap traffic loomed ahead of them. Meanwhile Stewart changed his line and was running the cushion in all four turns. Heavy rains during the past 48 hours had made for a very fast but narrow track forcing the cushion to be only half-way up the wide sweeping turns.
Now, with seventeen laps down, the race had turned into a 3-car battle with Tatnell leading Schatz and Stewart. As those three cars roared out of turn two and down the back chute, Schatz pulled to the inside of Tatnell. Suddenly Tatnell slowed allowing both Schatz and Stewart to pass him. As his car further slowed, it was evident that mechanical ills were plaguing the Australian driver based out of Minnesota.
The caution flag finally came out for Tatnell after he came to a stop on the track. He did not restart.
With eight laps to go, Schatz found his hands full with Stewart when the race went green again. Both cars were immediately nose to tail and Schatz found himself blocking the faster car behind him as the race proceeded. Another yellow on lap 21 slowed the race but when it went green again it was all Schatz could do to keep Stewart at bay.
It was lap 23 that saw Stewart take the lead as he and Schatz rushed down the backstretch side by side. When they hit the third turn, Stewart shot like a bullet into the lead in his Roth/JEI. Once he had the top spot there was no one to challenge him the rest of the way. The win marked Stewart’s third feature event victory on Knoxville soil.
Schatz collected the runner-up spot, Jason Meyers came from the seventh starting nod to grab third, Bruce stayed for fourth and Jac Haudenschild took fifth. Rounding out the top ten on this first night of a two-day show were Joey Saldana, Danny Lasoski, Sam Hafertepe (from 16th), Tim Shaffer and Craig Dollansky.
A companion program of dirt trucks saw Tony Moro take the 12-lap feature event. He was followed by Carl Moyer, Matt Moro, Lou Sipolt and Ed Nelson.
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