McMahan Looking For A Win At Knoxville Raceway
Tony Stewart Racing’s (TSR) Paul McMahan is quite familiar with the Playstation2 game that features his No. 20 TSR/Bass Pro Shops/Eagle on the front cover. But as the team rolls into Iowa this week for the 47th Annual SuperClean Knoxville Nationals, McMahan knows that the four-day event will be anything but a game.
When it comes to his World of Outlaws (WoO) Sprint Series racing career, only one item remains unchecked on McMahan’s career wish-list – winning at the legendary Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway. McMahan is looking to put his name in the record books as the winner of this week’s prestigious event, adding to previous career milestones that have come in the form of victories at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pa., in 2000, and Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, in 2007.
In the WoO’s first appearance at Knoxville this year (April 28), McMahan was credited with a 22nd-place finish. He was involved in a late-race accident that ended the No. 20 TSR/Bass Pro Shops/Eagle team’s night prematurely. Instead, Donny Schatz won that A-main race on the half-mile oval. In the series’ second appearance at Knoxville this year (June 16), McMahan took the checkered flag in 12th place.
In 51 starts this season, McMahan has earned two victories, six fast time awards, 11 top-five finishes and 28 top-10s in WoO competition. He is ranked seventh in the WoO championship standings with 6,666 points. He trails series leader Schatz by 662 points and is only 193 points out of the top-five.
McMahan will compete in preliminary action at the legendary Knoxville Raceway on Thursday. Racing is scheduled to begin at 7:15 p. m. CDT. McMahan earned a ninth-place finish on Aug. 10, 2006, in Knoxville preliminary qualifying action.
On Friday, McMahan will participate in the Factory Value Parts World Challenge international invitational event. He qualified for the invitational by competing in 410 winged sprint car competition in Australia over the winter. The lineup for the World Challenge A-main is determined by points accrued by eligible drivers in their respective preliminary events for the Knoxville Nationals.
Saturday’s Knoxville Nationals finale will have drivers battling for an A-main purse of $472,500. The total purse for Saturday’s finale is $909,275. McMahan finished 11th in the 2006 Knoxville Nationals A-main.
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