A Look Back at the Late Model Knoxville Nationals
By Kevin Kovac
Concord, NC — WHAT A FINISH: A former World of Outlaws Late Model Series champion and the tour’s youngest star combined to produce a thrilling ending to Saturday night’s fifth annual Lucas Oil Late Model Knoxville Nationals presented by SuperClean.
A bold last-lap charge around the outside of Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway’s third and fourth turns proved decisive for 2006 WoO LMS titlist Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., who turned back a dramatic bid by 20-year-old Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., to capture the unsanctioned 100-lap event.
McCreadie, 34, pocketed $40,000 for the biggest win of his dirt Late Model career while denying Richards what would have been his first signature, crown-jewel triumph.
“To be honest,” an overjoyed McCreadie said following the memorable A-Main, “I’d be lying if I didn’t think that one wasn’t the best race of my life.”
Indeed, McCreadie had to run his familiar Sweeteners Plus Rocket car for all it was worth to stave off Richards. After three-time WoO LMS champion Billy Moyer of Batesville, Ark., brought out a caution flag on lap 99 to set up a green-white-checkered finish, McCreadie, who had seized control of the lead after NASCAR Sprint Cup star Tony Stewart relinquished the top spot due to a flat right-rear tire on lap 67, watched Richards slide underneath him to assume command with the white flag flying.
McCreadie let it all hang out rounding turns three and four for the final time, tossing his No. 39 around the extreme outside of the famed half-mile oval. He carried enough momentum – and Richards scrubbed off just enough speed on the inside of turn four – to reach the finish line first.
“We can sit up here and call it skill,” McCreadie said of his on-the-edge pass for the win. “I just stabbed and sticked and it just happened to work out this time.”
Richards, who scored his first-ever victory at Knoxville in a 25-lap semi-feature on Thursday night, could only think about what might have been after settling for a heartbreaking second-place finish worth $20,000.
“When I passed (McCreadie) for the lead I caught some of that oil (from Moyer’s mechanical) that was run in on the bottom of turn four and my car just latched to the ground,” said Richards, who drove his father Mark’s Seubert Calf Ranches Rocket. “I was trying to do the same thing the last lap, but I guess I just missed it. I felt my car start skating a little bit and I knew I was done.
“There’s so many things you should’ve, could’ve done. I just chose the wrong one I guess.”
During the post-race press conference, McCreadie spoke highly of dirt Late Model racing in general and WoO LMS regulars Richards and Shannon Babb of Moweaqua, Ill., who finished a close third, in particular.
A question about Stewart got T-Mac talking about the competitiveness of dirt Late Model racing and the drivers in it. He noted that Stewart developed his bid-ending flat tire on lap 67 after the NASCAR invader slid into McCreadie’s door while battling for the lead – a miscue that McCreadie said could have resulted from Stewart’s limited time behind the wheel of a dirt Late Model.
“A lot of people think (Stewart) might be the best there ever is,” said McCreadie. “This division is the best there is in racing right now. You can’t just jump in these things and be perfect.”
As for Richards and Babb, McCreadie gestured toward them and said, “These two guys are class acts. I wouldn’t pick two other guys I’d want to be sitting up here with.”
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