McCreadie wins 5th Annual Late Model Knoxville Nationals
Sunday, September 28, 2008
McCreadie wins 5th Annual Late Model Knoxville Nationals
By Stacy Ervin
Tim McCreadie of Watertown, New York, won the 5th Annual Lucas Oil Late Model Knoxville Nationals presented by Super Clean on Saturday, September 27, at the Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa.
The victory was worth $40,000 and he earned every penny with one of the most exciting races ever seen at this speedway in front of a huge and enthusiastic record crowd for this event. The 100-lapper saw drama throughout.
The excitement started before the green flag fell when polesitter and preliminary favorite Darrell Lanigan pulled back to the work area on the pace laps with no power steering. He did rejoin the field and start on the pole, but when the green flag fell, Jimmy Owens took off with the lead from outside the front row.
The first slowdown came at lap four when Steve Francis apparently ran over some debris and his right-rear tire exploded. That sent him up and over in turn four and Terry Casey came along and clipped him. Several cars used the early caution to come to the work area and adjust.
After the green, Owens took off again and was spared from losing the lead when second-place runner Lanigan showed big smoke off his machine and then pulled off the track. Owens came to lapped traffic at lap 15 and that allowed new second-place runner Josh Richards to close.
Just as Richards made his pass in turn one at lap 22, the yellow flag came out negating the move when Chris Simpson slowed. After the restart, McCreadie, who started sixth, closed fast on Owens. The two actually touched in turn one on the 24th lap and that allowed Darren Miller to close on them.
Owens kept the lead while all the action went on behind him as McCreadie, Miller and Richards fought it out. But McCreadie found his groove by the 32nd lap when he raced Owens side by side. He wrestled the lead in turn one the next time and found himself in lapped traffic. Richards also moved by Owens, who then slipped back several spots.
McCreadie had built a pretty good lead as the race progressed towards the halfway mark, but Tony Stewart did not want to be denied in this race and he came on strong. Stewart powered to the lead down the backstretch on the 48th circuit and left McCreadie and Richards behind.
But McCreadie wanted the win too and he put a big slider on Stewart in turn two on the 55th lap. T-Mac even threaded a very thin needle between two lapped cars in turn one to stay ahead of Stewart. During this time, McCreadie had also developed a bit of a push and continually had trouble on the cushion in turns two and four.
The 66th lap was a big turning point for this race when Stewart came upon McCreadie and two banged fenders hard in turn two before Stewart pulled away with the lead. A lap later, Stewart’s right-rear tire exploded and that brought out the yellow flag, handing the lead back to McCreadie.
The next yellow came out when Darren Miller suffered another heartbreak here on lap 70. Running third, he slowed with a broken drive shaft to bring out another yellow. Another yellow came out at lap 72 when Dan Schlieper spun in turn three. Yet another yellow came out at lap 74 when John Blankenship spun in turn two.
After that, McCreadie led the ensuing green-flag laps even as Moyer closed. But the yellow returned at lap 82 when Eddie Carrier Jr. hit the wall in turn two and slowed in turn four.
McCreadie continued to lead after that, even as the wheel-hop problems continued on the cushion in turn four. Moyer gave chase, but his car began to show smoke on lap 90. Richards finally got around him for second on lap 94.
Moyer set up a wild finish when he finally had to concede to his motor and slowed on the track. He made it nearly to the turn-four pit entrance but did not get far enough before he stopped. McCreadie had just taken the white flag, so the caution set up a green, white, checkered finish.
McCreadie took off with the lead on the green, but Richards passed him coming to the white flag and took the lead momentarily. McCreadie raced him down the backstretch, roared out of turn four and came out with the lead under the checkered flag.
The 20-lap B-Main was won by Brian Birkhofer, who went on to get seventh in the main. The drama in this race came at the 18th lap when Brian Harris and Brian Shirley got together in turn three. The two had been running in fifth and sixth, which were the final transfer spots, at the time. The 15-lap C-Main was won by Darin Duffy, who led all the laps.
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