The Headline(s)
10-time World of Outlaws champion Donny Schatz used a late-race pass to win his 11th Knoxville Nationals and redeem an otherwise lackluster Saturday feature.
How it Happened
2022 Knoxville Nationals
Where: Knoxville Raceway – Knoxville, Iowa (streamed on DirtVision)
Winner’s Purse: $175,000
Using persistent drive on the low side of the track, Donny Schatz ate up a 1.5-second lead built by David Gravel after a lap 40 restart, making the pass for the race lead with five laps to go and driving off to score his 11th win in sprint car racing’s most prestigious race, putting him one behind the all-time record set by Steve Kinser.
. @dirtvision WINNER: For the 11th Time in his INCREDIBLE Career, @DonnySchatz is your 2022 Knoxville Nationals WINNER!!! @knoxvilleraces #NOSvilleNationals pic.twitter.com/zm16x0HR68
— World of Outlaws (@WorldofOutlaws) August 14, 2022
Schatz’s victory put a silver lining on what proved an underwhelming on-track conclusion to the Knoxville Nationals. Saturday’s (Aug. 13) feature was marred by six yellow and two red flags over the course of 50 laps, including a violent crash on the opening lap of the race that sent driver Parker Price-Miller to the hospital for observation.
PPM was observed by fans at the track able to extricate himself from his racecar and was communicating with rescue personnel, but no further information on his condition was available at the time of this writing outside of a concerning tweet by fellow driver Robert Ballou.
Please keep my little buddy @parker_pm9 in your prayers been a tough week or so and he isn’t out of the woods yet 🙏
— Robert Ballou (@robertballou81) August 14, 2022
Polesitter Austin McCarl led the opening lap but was under immediate pressure from Tyler Courtney, who took the lead on lap 2 and would hold the point all the way to the race’s scheduled break at lap 26. After teams were allowed to change tires and make adjustments, Courtney would quickly lose the race lead to David Gravel on the ensuing restart.
Three yellow flags between laps 38 and 40 saw Gravel continually make hay on the restarts, but once the race went green after lap 40 Donny Schatz immediately began eating into the race lead, making the race-winning pass on the backstretch with five laps to go.
Defending Knoxville Nationals champion Kyle Larson ran in the top 10 early in the A-main after flying into Iowa from NASCAR Cup Series duties in Richmond, Va. before cutting down a…
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