McCarl wins 19th Annual 360 Knoxville Nationals
8/8/2009 - By Stacy Ervin
Terry McCarl had a storybook kind of night. He won the main event in the 410 division and a little while later, he became the first driver in history to win the 360 Knoxville Nationals three times.
The Iowa native won the 19th Annual Arnold Motor Supply 360 Knoxville Nationals presented by Vermeer. The win came in the ASCS sanctioned event at the Knoxville Raceway on Saturday, August 8, and was worth $10,000.
McCarl led all 25 laps of the A-Main, jumping out to the lead from his outside front-row starting spot when the race went green.
The first caution period came on lap four when Dustin Daggett spun and Matt Covington got into him. Danny Wood and Chuck Swenson also stopped at that time.
McCarl came into lapped traffic at the ninth circuit and that allowed polesitter Billy Alley to make a charge. But fourth starter Wayne Johnson made his own charge on Alley in lapped traffic by lap 13. Those two ran each other hard until Johnson skimmed the turn one fence and lost ground a couple laps later.
The red flag came out on lap 20 when Shane Stewart got too high, hit the fence in turn four and tipped over. He had been running fifth at the time. Cale Conley and Davey Heskin, who had been 11th and 12th at the time, were sent to the pit area for driving past the accident scene. Also at this time, Sam Hafertepe Jr. was diagnosed with a flat left-rear tire while running fourth.
On the restart, McCarl got right back to his lead while Johnson and Alley nearly got together in the fight for second. It looked like another yellow would come out when Hafertepe finally lost his flat tire, but he made it safely to the pit area.
From there, McCarl was gone and Johnson and Alley continued their battle for second. At the checkered, it was Johnson who took second and Alley settled for third.
Matt Covington led all 15 laps to win the B-Main. Jonathan Cornell led all 12 laps to win the C-Main. Paul McMahan led all 10 laps to win the D-Main. Alan Zoutte led all eight laps to win the E-Main.