Donny Schatz took his sixth Knoxville Nationals Championship is seven years by just edging out Brian Brown by .117 at the line. Schatz would claim the lead on the 14th lap and hold it all the way to the end of the 50-lap race. However after the fuel stop on lap 26, Brian Brown steadily moved up the leaderboard until he and Schatz began trading slide jobs the final five laps. Brown got a run coming down to the checkered flag but ran out of time. For the second straight year Schatz said he was fortunate that the race was 50 laps and not 51. Brown, meanwhile was looking for a spot on the track to catch Schatz or that he would somehow make a mistake. Craig Dollansky claimed third place with Kraig Kinser and Jason Meyers completing the top five. Speaking of the Kinser family, a streak of 34 consecutive A-Main appearances was snapped when Steve Kinser failed to make it out of the B-Main. Sammy Swindell also missed the feature. That meant for the first time since 1975 the Knoxville Nationals A-Main went off without Steve Kinser or Sammy Swindell. Kyle Larson, who won his preliminary on Wednesday night and made the A-Main won Rookie of the Nationals and the Jesse Hockett Mr. Sprint Car Award during Southern Iowa Speedweek.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,