A Night To Remember –
David Gravel - August 2013 Knoxville Nationals Preliminary Night
By: Joe Burrage
The Knoxville Nationals is
the race all sprint car drivers and teams dream about winning
but in order to have a chance at starting in the Saturday Night
Knoxville Nationals A-Main all drivers have to qualify and all
drivers have to run their preliminary night and it can make or
break your Knoxville Nationals and back in 2013 David Gravel had
a night to remember with an unbelievable result.
Wednesday the opening night of
the 2013 Knoxville Nationals, David Gravel was helping the team
unload in the hot and humid pit area and all he could think
about was the upcoming race in the Bill Rose No.6 sprinter. The
team was down to their last three engines and the one in the car
was there best big track motor they had and the spare motor was
down on horsepower in case anything happened.
Gravel pushed off for his
qualifying lap and he timed in 11th quick overall
after everything was all said and done.
“Getting a good qualifying lap
at the Knoxville Nationals is very important, it can make or
break or break your week,” said Gravel. “Timing in 11th
quick overall is not to bad and my Crew Chief at the time Tyler
Swank and my car chief was Leonard Lee and they both told me
it’s done lets focus on the Heat Race and move on, but they said
it with a confidence tone that they both knew were in good shape
so I just stayed focused and kept an eye on the track until it
was time for our upcoming Heat Race.”
Next was the Heat Race and
more points were on the line and Gravel was fast from the
start. Gravel got the start he was looking for and was able to
capitalize on all of his passes and that allowed him to move
into second place in the first couple of laps. From there he
set his sights on the leader who was in catchable distance.
Gravel continued to push his black No.6 car as the race
continued the car started to slow down and by the end of the
race Gravel was credited with a third place finish and a
transfer to the A-Main.
“Early in the race we were
really good and once I got to second place I tried to run down
the leader,” said Gravel. “I was running around the cushion and
kept pushing the car and then I heard something strange with the
motor and I started to lose power, and you never want to lose
power at Knoxville because it’s a motor and power track. When
we hurt the motor on the back stretch I was just hoping to get
the car home in a transfer spot and we finished in third place.”
After the Heat Race was
completed Gravel returned to his pit where Tyler Swank and the
rest of the crew were waiting for him. The crew had to change
engines but the motor they wanted to use had a different motor
plate and it wouldn’t fit in the car so the crew had to push the
car to the trailer that was parked outside the track. The only
motor they had left was their short track motor that was not
supposed to be used on big half mile tracks like Knoxville
Raceway.
“When we hurt that motor and
had to go back to our trailer outside the track I knew we were
going to be pushing it for time,” said Gravel. “We were one of
the only teams at the time running Kistler Mopar Motors Engines
because that’s all we could afford at the time and when we had
to put our short track motor in and that power plant was down
nearly 60 Horsepower and it had no business being out there but
that was all we had so we had to run it or our Knoxville
Nationals was over. We were able to get the motor replaced in
time and luckily we made the A-Main because we returned to the
track just in time. Looking back at it I was 21 years old and I
was so nervous because we were starting on the outside of the
second row and I didn’t want to miss this opportunity to try win
a race at the Knoxville Raceway during the Nationals but Leonard
Lee did one hell of a job in keeping me calm and focused.”
Gravel pushed off for the
Wednesday Night Knoxville Nationals Preliminary feature and when
green lights turned on the black No.6 was on the move using the
bottom of the racing surface. Gravel quickly moved into second
place right behind the race leader Greg Hodnett. Gravel
continued to run the bottom and Hodnett moved down to the bottom
to protect but Gravel powered around him and immediately started
to pull away from everyone.
“I remember getting a great
start and the car really took off on the start and I stayed on
the bottom going into turns one and two and that allowed me to
move into second place,” said Gravel. “I saw Hodnett running
the cushion and I showed him my nose and once he saw me he
instantly changed his line. There was an early yellow flag and
two laps later we powered right around him to take the lead and
that told me we had a good car, and after that I just continued
to run my race and stay clear of the lapped cars and I just kept
ripping the top of the track.”
As the race continued Gravel
kept a torrid pace as he was passing lapped cars and hitting his
marks lap after lap. Meanwhile Brad Sweet had taken over second
place and was slowly catching up to Gravel during the last five
laps of the feature. Gravel had built up a sizeable lead but
traffic was starting to slow him down and Sweet clearly was
starting to catch him.
“We were leading and things
were looking good and all of the sudden I could hear our motor
start to sputter and I was like oh shit were starting to run out
of fuel and a yellow flag could end this for us,” said Gravel.
“I knew we had built up a lead but I never saw Brad (Sweet) but
I knew he had to be near us once our motor started run low of
fuel. I did everything I could to hold on and the motor
actually shut off and came back on coming off of turn four and
we limped to finish line. I was so excited but I also was
nervous about making weight because we literally had no fuel
left in the car when we weighed in, but we made weight and it
felt so good to win during the Nationals and I believe it was my
first Knoxville Nationals A-Main that I was locked into and it
was a roller coaster ride that night to go from the highest of
highs to lowest of the lows and things happen so fast in this
sport that you have to be ready for anything.”
The work was not done for
David Gravel and the team they prepared the car the next couple
of days for the biggest sprint car race in the world they were
starting in the seventh position. Gravel moved up to the sixth
position before he pulled in due to motor problems.
“We had a solid starting
position and when we started racing we were very competitive and
were mixing it up for the top five and then we blew another
motor,” said Gravel. “I felt bad because we all worked so hard
to get where we were and now it’s over, and it only got worse
from there I found out I was diagnosed with Mono and I missed
five weeks racing because I was so sick. I missed the entire
West Coast Swing with the World of Outlaws and I was awarded
show up points but it was the final year of our DDR Motorsports
Team and once I was healthy enough to race it was very important
to me to put up good results to show that I can run out here
with the best of the best and I knew we were capable of winning
races, and I did land a ride and I am very grateful for all the
opportunities that have happened so far in my career. A lot of
great people have helped me and given me a chance to race at the
highest level in sprint car racing.”
David Gravel is currently
racing for Jason Johnson Racing on the World of Outlaws Tour.
Gravel and the JJR No.41 Team picked up their fourth World of
Outlaws win at the Harford Speedway located in Hartford,
Michigan and are currently sitting in the third place in the
World of Outlaws Point Standings.
This interview happened before
the Knoxville Nationals and hopefully I can sit down with David
again and talk about his exciting win at the 59th
Annual Knoxville Nationals in more detail. Congratulations to
David Gravel, Jason Johnson Racing, all of the sponsors
including Axalta for coming on board for the Knoxville
Nationals.
David Gravel would like to
thank all his fans and supporters Jason Johnson Racing,
Weikert’s Livestock, Jonestown KOA, Dissolvalloy Downhole
Revolution, Mesilla Valley Transportation, Saich Family, High
Performance Lubricants, The Boyd Family, J.R.C. Transportation
Inc., MSD, Edelbrock, JE Pistons, VP Racing, Kistler Racing
Engines, Super Flow, Comp Cams, Hoosier, Jansen Transportation,
Cody Monaco Racing, T-Fab Custom Metal, Mark Burch Motorsports,
Pro Powder Coating, Waco Metal, Durst, Team Jack Foundation,
Tiger Towing, Maxim Racing Chassis, All Pro Cylinder Heads,
All-Pro Auto Reconditioning, Auto Meter, Bell Helmets, BMRS,
BuckwalterTrucking LLC., C & R Racing, Chalk Stix Torsion Bars,
Crow Enterprizes, Engler Machine and Tool, Factory Kahne Shocks,
KaidenKares, Weld Racing, KSE, FK Rod Ends, Willwood, Greber
Racing Component’s, Schoenfeld Racing, Indy Performance
Component’s, MPI, Winters Rear Ends,
www.racediecast.com,