race of the lead was on . On trip No . 44 around Knoxville , the slide jobs came , as Schatz delivered an onslaught of haymaker moves with Johnson returning in kind .
With under five laps to go , the scream of the crowd roared louder than the cars as Johnson ran the right rear of his No . 41 on the ragged edge with traffic about to come into play . With three laps to go , off the fourth turn , Johnson nearly tagged the wall . The bobble was just what Donny needed as the No . 15 was ferocious around the bottom of the Knoxville Raceway .
To the white flag , the stage was set as Johnson entered the final two turns . Powering the bottom side , it was all or nothing as Donny gave it one last run , but it was not to be as Jason Johnson worked to the checkered flag a mere . 168 seconds over the nine-time champion . The win is also Johnson ’ s third at the Knoxville Raceway in 410cid competition .
Donny ’ s runner-up finish is the 12th time in as many years that Schatz has been on the podium at the Knoxville Nationals . “ We did everything we could ,” he said . “ Jason [ Johnson ] did a great job . I didn ’ t think you could run that hard a pace for 50 laps , but he did , and once he got out there , I tried everything to catch him and just couldn ’ t do it ,” commented Schatz from the second podium step .
Rookie of the Year honors went to Matt Juhl in the Octane Ink No . 09 . Juhl advanced from the C-Feature to finish 16th in the ‘ B ’. The Jesse Hockett Mr . Sprint Car Award presented by Cox Fabrication was awarded to Jamie Veal , who is the first Australian to earn the title since