JAMES McFADDEN
Australian James McFadden showed speed right from the start when he took over the seat of Kasey Kahne‘s No. 9 sprint car. But, when the lockdowns occurred in 2020, McFadden was stranded in Australia.
James has made the Nationals starting lineup twice. In 2016 he put the car in the field, but mechanical failure ended his feature before it started. In 2019, McFadden ran second on his qualifier night, transferred through the Saturday B-Main to start 13th, and brought the KKR mount home in eighth. He finished eighth in the finale of the two-day Outlaws show at Knoxville in June.
PAUL McMAHAN
Paul McMahan has started the Knoxville Nationals finale 20 times throughout his career, and has missed the show only once since 2006. Although he‘s cut back on his driving career, he‘s been competing in the CJB Motorsports No. 5 with the All Stars and knocked off a win with the series at Portsmouth Raceway in June. Paul has cracked the top-10 in the Nationals seven times and his best finish to date is a fourth-place in 2013.
DOMINIC SCELZI
In recent years, Dominic Scelzi has been overshadowed by the performances of his younger brother, Gio. But, in 2021, it‘s the elder Scelzi making headlines. He‘s made the Nationals starting field in both of the last two runnings. In 2018 he secured a starting spot by winning the final running of the SPEED SPORT World Challenge and moved forward from 25th to 16th. Then, in 2019, he earned a spot in the field with a fourth-place finish in the Hard Knox night feature.
In May, Dom aced the NARC King of the West 410 and Sprint Car Challenge Tour 360 divisions on both nights of the Peter Murphy Classic, claiming all four features. On June 12, he took the checkers in Placerville‘s 30th Dave Bradway Jr. event. In the ASCS-sanctioned three-day Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup, Scelzi ran second on night one, won preliminary night two, then took the win in the finale. So, Scelzi‘s confidence level is at an all-time high.
GIOVANNI SCELZI
Gio Scelzi has made the Nationals in the last two runnings, finishing 14th in 2018 and earning a top-10 finish in 2019. Scelzi claimed a Knoxville Raceway weekly show win on June 5. He earned quick-time in his group, turning the fastest lap of both qualifying lineups, at the Outlaws Knoxville finale on June 12 before running fourth in the A-Main.
TIM SHAFFER
“The Steel City Outlaw” took the Aaron Call and Janet Holbrook-owned No. 83 to victory lane in the 50th Nationals in 2010. The four-time All Stars champion has earned 16 career Nationals finale starts and has cracked the top-10 a total of six times.
He ran 12th in 2018, but posted a 21st-place finish in the 2019 running. Tim struggled in the 2020 One and Only, ending the night in the C-Main on both qualifying nights and the B-Main in the finale. But we‘re still betting on the newly-inducted Hall of Famer to put it in the show.
POSSIBILITIES
JACOB ALLEN
Jacob Allen has only started one Nationals A-Main, but he has qualified well at Knoxville, which is crucial in the Nationals format.
Jacob timed third on his qualifying night in 2018 and went on to earn a 13th-place finish on Saturday. He timed seventh on his prelim night in 2019, missed the heat transfer but transferred from the B into his prelim feature. However, a 19th-place finish in his prelim feature placed him 10th in the Saturday night B-Main and he was unable to transfer to the big show. Allen set quick time on both nights of the 2020 One and Only and finished 13th on night one, 19th on night two, and 20th in the Capitani Classic finale.
SPENCER BAYSTON
Spencer Bayston has been in a few rides this year, before eventually replacing Ian Madsen in the Sam McGhee Motorsports No. 11. He grabbed a quick-time at a stacked Knoxville show on May 29 and ran seventh in the feature. This might be the year he makes his first Knoxville Nationals.
DANNY DIETRICH
It‘s somewhat surprising that Danny Dietrich has only made the Knoxville Nationals A-Main once. Dietrich earned a starting spot in 2015 by running second to Bryan Clauson in the Friday night program, then posted a 15th-place finish.
However, he crashed out of the B-Main in 2016, finished ninth in the B-Main in 2017, had a rough 2018 Nationals, then an even rougher 2019 Nationals. In the 2020 One and Only, he chased Brian Brown to the line in the B-Main on Saturday before earning a 15th-place finish in the A-Main finale.
MARK DOBMEIER
Mark Dobmeier has been a highly-underrated sprint car racer throughout much of his career…except in the Midwest, where they know his talent. He‘s only made the Nationals A-Main four times, with his last start coming in 2017, however, he‘s finished in the top-10 twice (sixth in 2011 and eighth in 2014). He finished fourth in his qualifying night feature in 2019, and missed transferring to the Saturday night A-Main by two positions.
Mark suffered a serious back injury in 2020 that has kept him out of the cockpit for over a year. If this was a lesser racer, not having raced for that long leading up to the Nationals would have likely kept him out of this preview. But, in Dobmeier‘s return to racing, on July 8, he ran a NOSA event at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, North Dakota and won right out of the box.
JUSTIN HENDERSON
Justin Henderson is having a great year in the Mike Sandvig No. 7. He‘s won twice at Huset‘s and grabbed a quick time and a feature win at Knoxville in July, and he‘s currently in the runner-up spot in points at both tracks.
Henderson has made the show four times — he landed on the podium in 2013 and brought home a top-five in 2014. He hasn‘t made the show since 2014 but, with the year he‘s having, he could very well put it in the A-Main.
Click below to keep reading