Gio Scelzi took the green flag at Knoxville for the first weekly show of the season and immediately jumped out to a big lead.
Through two laps, he had a full straightaway over Aaron Reutzel, who was running in second early on, and it looked like Scelzi might stink up the show.
He never looked it back for 19 laps and it may have have cost him.
Coming out of turn two on the white flag lap, Scelzi got held up by a lapped car allowing Sheldon Haudenschild to sneak by and take the win in the series opener.
. @knoxvilleraces REPLAY: From 14th to the win for @WorldofOutlaws regular @Haudenschild_17! A last-lap pass gives him the Opening Night victory at Knoxville! pic.twitter.com/jvfZ0twjLV
— DIRTVision by Drydene (@dirtvision) April 18, 2021
“I knew I was getting good runs, but getting a good run and clearing a guy (for a pass) is a little different deal,” Haudenschild said. “He kind of lifted for the lapped car and I was able to kind of sneak it in there.”
Haudenschild charged through the pack early. He came from 14th and emerged in the fourth position within five laps of the green flag flying.
The World of Outlaws regular put himself in the position to make that pass and on the final lap, he did just that.
“It rubbered up really early – a lot earlier than I thought it was going to,” Scelzi said. “I just got conservative and that’s kind of what you get for not pushing all the way through a race.”
The win was Haudenschild’s first victory at the famed half-mile in Iowa.
He had never gotten a feature win at the track prior to Saturday night.
“Just getting a win at Knoxville is big for me,” Haudenschild said. “That’s why we came here and drove 10 hours. To get a win was big and just to get the feeling of winning at Knoxville I think is just a good step in the right direction.”
Rounding out the podium on the night was Austin McCarl.
The Tarleton Racing driver and former Knoxville Regular ran in his own equipment, and turned disaster into a run to the top.
Coming to the checkered flag in his heat race, McCarl got into the wall after going for the victory.
He had to change the entire rear end on his car – getting help from crews around him – before the feature started. Then he broke a fuel line and had to be sent to the rear of the field.
“It was a crazy night to say the least,” McCarl said. “The heat race debacle was a little unnecessary, I thought, but it is what it is. We went to the back and ran third. I got lucky to kind of find a line that nobody else was running and just hung on. I don’t know.”
The Knoxville Cup will continue next week for the second-straight Saturday featuring all three classes of cars. As always the action can be streamed live on DirtVision.com.
Pella Motors/Kraig Ford Season Opener Results
Knoxville Raceway
1. Sheldon Haudenschild
2. Gio Scelzi
3. Austin McCarl
4. Sam Hafertepe Jr.
5. Davey Heskin
6. Brooke Tatnell
7. Spencer Bayston
8. Terry McCarl
9. Lynton Jeffrey
10. Sawyer Phillips
11. Ayrton Gennetten
12. Carson Macedo
13. Carson McCarl
14. Brian Brown
15. Justin Henderson
16. Parker Price-Miller
17. Matt Juhl
18. Tasker Phillips
19. Scotty Thiel
20. Riley Goodno
21. Tucker Klaasmeyer
22. Jordan Goldsberry
23. Aaron Reutzel
24. Josh Schneiderman
