Donny Schatz Wins Hard Knox Night On Luck

Donny Schatz’s wing all dressed up in confetti after winning at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, IA (Photo: Trent Gower | World Racing Group)

KNOXVILLE, Iowa — With sixteen drivers locked in for the Knoxville Nationals championship on Saturday night, four more had the chance on Friday.

It looked like hard-hitter, Donny Schatz, was not going to make the Hard Knox race that would determine those four drivers, until Jack Dover did not go to the scales after his Heat Race, resulting in an automatic disqualification. This placed Schatz in his spot, which was the pole.

Logan Schuchart started next to Schatz for the 25-lap race. Schatz jumped out to an early lead with Schuchart and Austin McCarl following in hot pursuit. Schuchart ended up sailing away from McCarl and getting closer and closer to Schatz. Before long they were going into Turn 3 and Schuchart went up high, going wheel-to-wheel with Schatz coming down the frontstretch.

A lap later, the two of them kept swapping lanes throughout the corners and down the straightaways, until Schuchart took the high side and got by Schatz coming off of Turn 4, becoming the new leader on Lap 3.

To cut off Schatz, Schuchart went low going into Turn 1 and then drifted up. But this did not detour the ten-time champion one bit as he continued to surge after Schuchart. He reclaimed the lead in a slidejob coming off of the infamous Turn 4.

Due to Cale Thomas spinning in Turns 1 and 2, the caution was thrown. On the restart, Schatz and Schuchart shot out to their respective positions, but McCarl didn’t fare as well. Justin Henderson, who was running fourth, decided to capitalize on the restart and go down low. This proved to be a good move because as they hit Turn 3, Henderson had gotten by McCarl for third.

Austin McCarl competing at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, IA (Photo: Trent Gower | World Racing Group)

On Lap 10, smoke started coming out of McCarl’s car. As he battled it out with Emerson Axsom, the smoke kept coming with each touch of the brakes, but it did not seem to affect him any. Axsom on the top and McCarl on the bottom, they raced side-by-side for three more laps, resulting in Axsom taking over fourth.

One lap later, the smoke was coming out with each pump of the brakes and finally got to McCarl. He started slowing down a little bit on the corner, and then completely slowed on the back chute, drawing a caution. As he came to a stop, sparks started flying, indicating  he was completely done for the night.

Again, the top two drivers got their spots with no problem when everyone got racing again. But Henderson faced the same fate as McCarl. Axsom went to the top as they came out of Turn 2 and was able to overtake Henderson for third.

Try as he might, Henderson just could not find a way to maneuver around Axsom and he ended up fourth. Schatz and Schuchart were in their positions at the finish line as well.  All four drivers earned a spot in Saturday night’s major race for their efforts.

“Yeah, it’s not the prettiest, but it’s the Knoxville Nationals,” said Schatz about the race. “I guess sometimes you gotta be lucky, and when it happens to you it’s great and when it doesn’t happen to you it’s not great. You gotta take it in steps. First thing you gotta do is get in the show. This is my first Friday night performance [here at Knoxville] and hats off to my crew.”