Kendra Jacobs

I think my Twitter addiction is proving itself in my attempt to write this blog. I want to tell you everything that’s going on out here in Knoxville, but my brain is trying to do it in 140 characters or less, which is impossible.

Or is it?

The 2012 #KnoxvilleNationals Night 1. Swindell wins. Stewart fast. Heskin feel good story. Engines blown. Dingus packed. Turn 3.

Did you get all of that? I didn’t think so…because there’s no way you could fully grasp everything that happened in one day out here unless you were here. If you’re a sprint car fan…a real sprint car fan…then you have to make the trip to the Knoxville Nationals. After one year, I promise you’ll be hooked.

To expand on my above tweet…Sammy Swindell took the first preliminary night win. If you’re looking at the results for the race, you’d think that was the big story. But you’d be mistaken. What’s everyone talking about today? Shane Stewart’s incredible charge from 24^th to fourth in the A-Main. Not to mention the incredible slide job he did on the final lap of the B-Main to even make it to the A.

Davey Heskin’s run in the feature event was phenomenal. At one time this Knoxville regular had a straightaway lead on the competition. When cautions took that away from him, he battled Swindell with slide jobs for the win. Swindell didn’t run away with it. Heskin was right there.

The other big stories of the night were engine failures. There’s no secret that these race teams want to get all they can out of their cars for this race week, which sometimes leads to tricking up engines, etc. to get a little more. I’m not accusing anyone of doing that, but we did seem to have a substantial amount of blown engines last night. Notably, Donny Schatz’s early in the feature and the defending champion Tim Shaffer’s late in the same race. This is Shaffer’s second blown engine of the week as he lost one Monday at Oskaloosa too. While Schatz remained in the top 10 in the points, Shaffer is mired way back. It’s going to be a big hole for him to climb out of to defend last year’s win.

The biggest disappointment of the night was the low car count. Only 44 cars started the heat races. In a race that typically draws a minimum of 50 cars for each of the qualifying nights, this was astoundingly low.

The crowd seemed smaller than normal, too. And not just in the grandstands. All day around the track, there just doesn’t seem to be the same excitement level, hype and goings-on as is usual. I don’t know if last year’s 50^th Anniversary just spoiled us, but this year’s “event” just doesn’t seem as eventful yet.

I’ll tell you where the crowd was large: Dingus Lounge. This play amazes me. Once a hallway-sized bar, it now includes an outdoor area about four times the original bar size. And last night, it was bumpin’. (My high-school aged cousin told me that’s the appropriate word.) Rumor has it this place clears at least $5,000 an hour during the Nationals. From the time the races ended until the bar closed was three hours or $15,000. I think I’m in the wrong business.

Where does everyone go after Dingus? You would think to bed, right? I mean, it’s 2 a.m. Nope…the party moves to Turn 3. This isn’t how the Nationals used to be. Everyone would gather under the grandstands. Now, everyone goes to where the haulers sit in Turn 3. I would guess there were between 1,000 and 1,500 race fans there last night. I’m not going to admit how late I stayed up drinking water with all of them, but I will say that the vast majority long outlasted me. And likely will tonight, too.

The personal highlight of the night to me was watching the night’s action with my Dad in the Sprint Car Hall of Fame. He dissected every lap for me. Showed me the preferred line on the track. Talked to me about the surface and how it was affecting the handling of some cars. I learned so much that I can take tonight with me, because he won’t be there to tell me what’s going on.

Yes, that’s right, my Dad’s racing tonight. Those are words I haven’t spoken in two years. I’m by far more nervous than him. Beyond the physical issues of racing again, the emotional toll it takes on these drivers is what bothers me the most. It’s a roller coaster. And like a lot of the drivers told me last night, “I love this place, but I can pretty quickly hate it.”

There’s so much more to talk about, but I’ve run out of time. Qualifying for Night 2 starts in about an hour and I’ve got to get in there. I don’t want to miss a second of it.