Johnny Herrera wins his third 410 sprint car feature of the year at Knoxville Raceway - Dennis Krieger ImageryKnoxville, Iowa - Friday and Saturday night I headed back to "The Sprint Car Capitol of the World" Knoxville Raceway. It wasn't sprint cars that brought me back however. The USAC National Midget Series was in town for the Knoxville Midget Nationals.
On the Knoxville website, they had a list of all of the pre-entered drivers schedule to appear; Their were 40 to 50 drivers listed.
So when I arrived Friday I was surprised to see only 20 cars in the infield. Immediately my suspicions arose. As I was walking the row, I noticed that the top stars of USAC were present but didn't see much in the way of POWRi drivers. Over hearing a conversation, I heard that USAC, in their infinite wisdom, now requires drivers to buy a $250 license to race in USAC events. Only if you're going to race in a couple of sanctioned events, which most of the POWRi guys would, you have to buy a license. That sure explained things...
USAC seems set on shooting themselves in the foot in any possible way they can. Well done Mr. Miller, you've done it again.
Like I mentioned, the top stars of USAC were there so where the field was short on quantity, the quality more than made up for it. When you have guys like Levi Jones, Tracy Hines, Brad Sweet, Cole Whitt, Brady Bacon, Kevin Swindell, Jerry Coons Jr. and others, you're pretty much assured you're going to get a great show.
That of course, assuming that they have a raceable track in which to put a show on. They didn't...
Knoxville failed to properly prep the track and what the drivers and the sparse few fans in attendance had, was a black slick oval with one groove racing. All of the drivers hugged the bottom virtually assuring that passing wasn't going to happen unless someone screwed up big time. The brave few that did try to take the middle or the top found themselves spinning their wheels (for a lack of better terms) and going nowhere.
During an intermission, the track crew came out with the grader and other implements of destruction, tore up the track on the topside, watered it down and ran the push trucks over it. It accomplished absolutely nothing. I'm sure it looked great from up in the stands but from my viewpoint, not so much.
The first six laps of the main event were what you expect from the USAC midgets. Tracy Hines started on the pole but relinquished the lead to Brad Kuhn at the drop of the green. Kevin Swindell also moved past Hines to take the runner-up spot. That pecking order lasted until lap five when Hines scooted past Swindell and made short work of Kuhn to grab the point. The next 14 laps was back to the bottom, waiting for someone to slip up. It didn't happen and Hines pulled away winning easily.
Unfortunately, a wreck with two laps left claimed a driver's life. Chad McDaniels of Concordia, Kan., struck another car driven by Davey Ray of Davenport, Iowa on the 18th lap of the 20-lap feature race. McDaniel died of head and neck injuries a few hours later. McDaniel is survived by his wife, Trisha, and children, Trevor and Taylor. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.
It was a sour note to end the evening.
Saturday night I returned and even though track conditions hadn't improved, the racing did. The heats weren't anything to write home about but both of the features held my attention.
In the midget feature, Jerry Coons Jr. passed defending champion Brad Sweet on lap three and jumped out to a big lead and seemed to be on his way to a $3,000 payday. Kevin Swindell wasn't going to let Coons off that easy. Swindell got past Sweet for second and gradually closed the distance up between the two. When he caught up to Coons, he didn't go in for the kill right away, instead deciding to sandbag it for a lap. On the white flag lap, Swindell made a bold move inside Coons to grab the lead and the win. Swindell simply had to much motor tonight and that made the difference.
On the Knoxville website, they had a list of all of the pre-entered drivers schedule to appear; Their were 40 to 50 drivers listed.
So when I arrived Friday I was surprised to see only 20 cars in the infield. Immediately my suspicions arose. As I was walking the row, I noticed that the top stars of USAC were present but didn't see much in the way of POWRi drivers. Over hearing a conversation, I heard that USAC, in their infinite wisdom, now requires drivers to buy a $250 license to race in USAC events. Only if you're going to race in a couple of sanctioned events, which most of the POWRi guys would, you have to buy a license. That sure explained things...
USAC seems set on shooting themselves in the foot in any possible way they can. Well done Mr. Miller, you've done it again.
Like I mentioned, the top stars of USAC were there so where the field was short on quantity, the quality more than made up for it. When you have guys like Levi Jones, Tracy Hines, Brad Sweet, Cole Whitt, Brady Bacon, Kevin Swindell, Jerry Coons Jr. and others, you're pretty much assured you're going to get a great show.
That of course, assuming that they have a raceable track in which to put a show on. They didn't...
Knoxville failed to properly prep the track and what the drivers and the sparse few fans in attendance had, was a black slick oval with one groove racing. All of the drivers hugged the bottom virtually assuring that passing wasn't going to happen unless someone screwed up big time. The brave few that did try to take the middle or the top found themselves spinning their wheels (for a lack of better terms) and going nowhere.
During an intermission, the track crew came out with the grader and other implements of destruction, tore up the track on the topside, watered it down and ran the push trucks over it. It accomplished absolutely nothing. I'm sure it looked great from up in the stands but from my viewpoint, not so much.
The first six laps of the main event were what you expect from the USAC midgets. Tracy Hines started on the pole but relinquished the lead to Brad Kuhn at the drop of the green. Kevin Swindell also moved past Hines to take the runner-up spot. That pecking order lasted until lap five when Hines scooted past Swindell and made short work of Kuhn to grab the point. The next 14 laps was back to the bottom, waiting for someone to slip up. It didn't happen and Hines pulled away winning easily.
Unfortunately, a wreck with two laps left claimed a driver's life. Chad McDaniels of Concordia, Kan., struck another car driven by Davey Ray of Davenport, Iowa on the 18th lap of the 20-lap feature race. McDaniel died of head and neck injuries a few hours later. McDaniel is survived by his wife, Trisha, and children, Trevor and Taylor. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.
It was a sour note to end the evening.
Saturday night I returned and even though track conditions hadn't improved, the racing did. The heats weren't anything to write home about but both of the features held my attention.
In the midget feature, Jerry Coons Jr. passed defending champion Brad Sweet on lap three and jumped out to a big lead and seemed to be on his way to a $3,000 payday. Kevin Swindell wasn't going to let Coons off that easy. Swindell got past Sweet for second and gradually closed the distance up between the two. When he caught up to Coons, he didn't go in for the kill right away, instead deciding to sandbag it for a lap. On the white flag lap, Swindell made a bold move inside Coons to grab the lead and the win. Swindell simply had to much motor tonight and that made the difference.
Kevin Swindell celebrates after winning the Saturday night A-Main at the Knoxville Midget Nationals - Dennis Krieger ImageryThe 410 sprint car feature also had it's share of excitement. Johnny Herrera grabbed the lead at the onset and was off to the races. It was the race behind him that had the crowd cheering. Sammy Swindell had raced in the Master's Classic on Friday, winning fairly easily (his first 360 win ever at Knoxville). Tonight he got behind the wheel of a 410 and put on a show. Swindell and Terry McCarl went side-by-side for numerous laps that had the crowd on their feet. Swindell finally got past McCarl and all eyes were on seeing if Sammy could make it a Swindell sweep for the night.
With Herrera hitting lap traffic, Swindell got on Herrera's back bumper several times in the waning laps but Johnny was able to hold on for the win. With a new engine under the hood, Herrera has been on roll as of late winning two in a row at Knoxville and three overall. Throw in a IRA sprint car win a few weeks back at 34 Raceway in Burlington and Herrera's month of May has been outstanding.
Before the start of the evening's races, drivers went out and collected money for the McDaniel's family. I know some of the drivers donated any winnings towards the fund as well. Once again, the racing community came together for a fallen brother.
Chad McDaniel will be in our thoughts as the season progresses. Despite the tragedy that happened and the loss of life that came with it, the show must go on...Chad McDaniel would want it that way.
Thanks for reading. See you at the races...
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