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Stewart wins opening night of 50th Annual Knoxville Nationals

By Stacy Ervin

Shane Stewart used track time to his advantage and won the opening night qualifying race for the 50th Annual Goodyear Knoxville Nationals presented by Lucas Oil at the Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa. The Wednesday, August 11, race night was presented by Racingjunk.com. The win was worth $12,000.

The Oklahoma driver, who won the previous weekend’s 360 Knoxville Nationals, showed he can also pilot a 410 sprint car to victory. He started sixth in the 25-lap main event and drove a steady race before making a late-race pass.

When the race went green, outside front-row starter Brandon Wimmer jumped out to the lead over polesitter Chad Kemenah. But the yellow flag came out after the first lap, when David Gravel spun in turn one. Ed Lynch Jr. also spun and Bronson Maeschen got into him.

Once the race went back to green, it stayed that way for the duration and that allowed lapped traffic to play a huge role in the outcome. Wimmer led early until Kemenah made the pass down the backstretch coming to lap five.

Stewart worked his way to second on the eighth lap and Kemenah came to traffic the next time around. From there, Kemenah tried to negotiate the slower cars but was reluctant to leave his line around the bottom of the speedway.

At the 20th lap, Stewart really closed in while in heavy traffic. As he and Kemenah came around turn four, Stewart went to the high line and dove down right in front of Kemenah with the lead. He was able to race away and Kemenah lost momentum, allowing Craig Dollansky to pass him for second at the end of the race.

Knoxville regular Davey Heskin had a great run for the locals with a fourth-place finish. Jason Sides was fifth and Wimmer sixth. Kerry Madsen charged to a seventh-place finish after starting in the 24th and final spot.

Tim Shaffer set the night’s quickest time trial of the 50 competitors with a 15.372 second lap. Heat races were won by Mike Reinke, Max Dumesny, Chad Kemenah, Brad Sweet and Mark Dobmeier. The C-Main was won by Kraig Kinser. Shaffer won the B-Main, but the drama was in the fourth and final transfer spot. Jason Meyers crossed the line in fourth but went to his pits rather than reporting to the scales afterward and was penalized. That gave Kerry Madsen the final transfer.

The night’s heat races contained a few scary incidents. Kraig Kinser, the 2005 Knoxville Nationals champion, got his week off to a bad start when he rode over Johnny Herrera’s wheel at the start of the first heat. Bob Weuve was leading the second heat when he got over the cushion in turn three, took a hard flip and was hit by Lucas Wolfe. In the fourth heat, Don Droud Jr. ran over Domain Ramsey’s wheel, sending Droud flipping. Jack Dover was collected and also flipped and Cale Conley was also involved.

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