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More Racing
CHIAPPELLI: Ultimate Knoxville Nationals
SPEED's Jim Chiappelli assembles his fantasy lineup of Knoxville National starters.
Steve Kinser, shown here in victory lane in 1992, has qualified for the Knoxville Nationals an amazing 34 consecutive years. (Photo: Courtesy of Kinser Family Collection)
For more than half a century of summers, the pinnacle of short-track open-wheel racing on dirt has been discovered beyond the cornfields, farms and water towers of middle-America in the tiny Iowa town of Knoxville.
Interstate traffic spills onto four-lane highways, funneling race haulers onto Route 14, which leads to the destination--a half-mile black gumbo track in the epicenter of the Marion County Fairgrounds.
Outside of this arena of speed, vendors sell fried pork sandwiches, varieties of pie and 50/50 tickets to raise money for community groups while grass-roots racing fans donned in their favorite driver’s T-shirt endure sweltering heat amid the aroma of livestock in the show barns.
Part county fair, part family reunion, the Knoxville Nationals is sprint car racing’s signature event.
Motivated by passion, fueled by the will to win, roughly 325 men and one woman (Erin Crocker Evernham) have earned the right to be part of the prestigious A-Main field—not an easy accomplishment.
Of those drivers, a small percentage had the honor of pulling into victory lane at least once to collect the accolades befitting of a champion.
Based on their performances, I have sifted through the numbers and scoured the history books to present the Ultimate Knoxville Nationals lineup, taking into consideration the number of starts, wins, laps led and average finish on sprint car racing’s grandest stage.
The 24-person grid includes two sets of siblings and one father-son combination. Thirteen are members of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame, while several others in the field are destined for enshrinement.
There are no provisional starters, but with respect to Roy Robbins, who won the inaugural race in 1961, the first alternate is Nebraska’s Ken Gritz, who won the Knoxville Nationals in 1969 in his only A-Main start.
Before we summon the push trucks to fire the engines for this fantasy race, let’s meet the starting lineup for the inaugural Ultimate Knoxville Nationals.
Row Twelve:
24th: JAC HAUDENSCHILD
-1998 Knoxville Nationals polesitter and runner-up is shotgun on the field based on his three top-five and 10 top-ten finishes. Although he has yet to lead a lap in the main event, the Ohio driver has an average finish of 10.8 in 17 starts.
23rd: JOEY SALDANA
-The second-generation driver has led more laps (70) than any non-winner at the Nationals. Half of his 14 starts ended with top-ten finishes, including a four-year span from 2006-‘09 in which Saldana finished second on three occasions. However, his failure to complete several races drops the average finish to 12.6 for the Indiana native.
Row Eleven:
22nd: BOBBY DAVIS JR.
-1989 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series champion boasts a pair of runner-up finishes (1987 & ’88) among his five top-fives and nine top-tens in 14 appearances with an average finish of 9.7.
21st: CRAIG DOLLANSKY
-World of Outlaws veteran has posted 12 top-ten and six top-five finishes in the 16 times in which he qualified for the A-feature. The Minnesota driver has wound-up in the top ten the past eight years in a row.
Row Ten:
20th: JERRY WELD
-Oldest child of famed sprint car owner/builder Taylor “Pappy” Weld, Jerry finished in the top ten at the Nationals in seven of his eight appearances between 1961 and 1968, with a top showing of second in ‘63. Jerry Weld is the highest-ranked driver who never led the Knoxville Nationals, but three top-five runs gives Weld an average finish of 8.5.
19th: BOB WILLIAMS
-An associate of the famed Weld family in Kansas City, the driver known as “Tiger” never landed outside of the top ten in seven Nationals A-Mains. Williams compiled 15 laps led and turned-in a top performance of second at Knoxville in 1967 to go with third-place finishes in 1962 and ’69, giving “Tiger” an impressive 4.9 average finish.
Interstate traffic spills onto four-lane highways, funneling race haulers onto Route 14, which leads to the destination--a half-mile black gumbo track in the epicenter of the Marion County Fairgrounds.
Outside of this arena of speed, vendors sell fried pork sandwiches, varieties of pie and 50/50 tickets to raise money for community groups while grass-roots racing fans donned in their favorite driver’s T-shirt endure sweltering heat amid the aroma of livestock in the show barns.
Part county fair, part family reunion, the Knoxville Nationals is sprint car racing’s signature event.
Motivated by passion, fueled by the will to win, roughly 325 men and one woman (Erin Crocker Evernham) have earned the right to be part of the prestigious A-Main field—not an easy accomplishment.
Of those drivers, a small percentage had the honor of pulling into victory lane at least once to collect the accolades befitting of a champion.
Based on their performances, I have sifted through the numbers and scoured the history books to present the Ultimate Knoxville Nationals lineup, taking into consideration the number of starts, wins, laps led and average finish on sprint car racing’s grandest stage.
The 24-person grid includes two sets of siblings and one father-son combination. Thirteen are members of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame, while several others in the field are destined for enshrinement.
There are no provisional starters, but with respect to Roy Robbins, who won the inaugural race in 1961, the first alternate is Nebraska’s Ken Gritz, who won the Knoxville Nationals in 1969 in his only A-Main start.
Before we summon the push trucks to fire the engines for this fantasy race, let’s meet the starting lineup for the inaugural Ultimate Knoxville Nationals.
Row Twelve:
24th: JAC HAUDENSCHILD
-1998 Knoxville Nationals polesitter and runner-up is shotgun on the field based on his three top-five and 10 top-ten finishes. Although he has yet to lead a lap in the main event, the Ohio driver has an average finish of 10.8 in 17 starts.
23rd: JOEY SALDANA
-The second-generation driver has led more laps (70) than any non-winner at the Nationals. Half of his 14 starts ended with top-ten finishes, including a four-year span from 2006-‘09 in which Saldana finished second on three occasions. However, his failure to complete several races drops the average finish to 12.6 for the Indiana native.
Row Eleven:
22nd: BOBBY DAVIS JR.
-1989 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series champion boasts a pair of runner-up finishes (1987 & ’88) among his five top-fives and nine top-tens in 14 appearances with an average finish of 9.7.
21st: CRAIG DOLLANSKY
-World of Outlaws veteran has posted 12 top-ten and six top-five finishes in the 16 times in which he qualified for the A-feature. The Minnesota driver has wound-up in the top ten the past eight years in a row.
Row Ten:
20th: JERRY WELD
-Oldest child of famed sprint car owner/builder Taylor “Pappy” Weld, Jerry finished in the top ten at the Nationals in seven of his eight appearances between 1961 and 1968, with a top showing of second in ‘63. Jerry Weld is the highest-ranked driver who never led the Knoxville Nationals, but three top-five runs gives Weld an average finish of 8.5.
19th: BOB WILLIAMS
-An associate of the famed Weld family in Kansas City, the driver known as “Tiger” never landed outside of the top ten in seven Nationals A-Mains. Williams compiled 15 laps led and turned-in a top performance of second at Knoxville in 1967 to go with third-place finishes in 1962 and ’69, giving “Tiger” an impressive 4.9 average finish.
DTM Zandvoort
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