Donny Schatz won his sixth Knoxville Nationals Championship in 7 years by one of the closest finsihes in Nationals history Saturday night by edging out Brian Brown by .117 of a second at the line. Schatz led the final 36 laps of the 50 lap race. After a fuel stop on lap 26, Brown started closing the gap until he found Schatz held up by a lapped car on the white flag lap. Schatz had just enough to keep Brown behind him. Third went to Craig Dollansky, while Kraig Kinser was fourth and Jason Meyers was fifth.

History was made Saturday night in the A-Main as Steve Kinser failed to make the A-Main. That ended a string of 34 straight years the Kinser has raced in the final race of the Nationals. Sammy Swindell also missed the feature. That meant for the first time since 1975, the Nationals A-Main took the green flag without Steve Kinser or Sammy Swindell in the line up.