Mark Dobmeier – Strong Nationals Run Sets up WoO Showdown!
(Bill W) August 14, 2014 – Mark Dobmeier and the Lunstra/Dobmeier #13 team finished off a strong Southern Iowa Sprintweek with an eighth place finish at the Knoxville Nationals. The Grand Forks, North Dakota driver finished second in “Jesse Hockett Mr. Sprint Car” points over the course of Sprintweek. Friday night the World of Outlaws come to the River Cities Speedway, where Mark will vie for his second WoO victory of the year.
A week ago Monday, the team towed to the Front Row Challenge at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa. After his heat, Mark was penalized two spots for jumping a start that was not called back in the first place. “That was frustrating,” he says. “We drew a big pill, so we had to start dead last in the heat. With the moisture and the way the track was, it was going to be tough to pass. We were able to come from eighth to third. I was a little antsy on the start I guess, but you almost had to be in that situation. I think I went with the leader. To make a long story short, they penalized me two spots. It was a bit annoying, because we would have been high point guy, but that’s ASCS and the way they run their show.”
The penalty would see Mark start in row eight of the main event. “We had just enough points to make the A,” he says. “We showed we had a good car. We drove up to sixth, but it would have been nice to start where we were supposed to. I don’t know if we would have had anything for (Brian) Brown, but it would have been nice to find out.”
Rain postponed Mark’s qualifying night at the Knoxville Nationals from Wednesday to Friday. “Everyone knows the deal at Knoxville,” he says. “You need to qualify well, and then get out of your heat. We did everything we were supposed to. We were pretty ecstatic about 14th quick. We went out about halfway through, but the track was still decent.”
The heat would take the top four to the preliminary feature. “We were actually happy to qualify between 11th and 16th,” says Mark. “That puts you outside row three and you have a shot at a big run on the outside. We were actually able to get a couple cars and get one extra spot. We were extremely happy with that.”
The feature invert put Mark on the pole. He would lead the first lap. “We had a good car in the feature,” he says. “I just picked the wrong lane a few times. I started out on the bottom and we were running well. I went up top on the second lap, and we were so good up there. I thought I’d stay up there, and Kraig (Kinser) got underneath me.”
Shane Stewart would get by after a good battle, and Mark would settle for third ahead of Donny Schatz. “I ran the majority of the race on the top,” he says. “We got to some lapped cars, and I thought I’d get around them, but the yellow came out. That gave them the clean air they needed to stay out front.”
Mark’s point total saw him start inside row six of the Knoxville Nationals 50-lap finale on Saturday. He was able to surge into the top ten. “We had a good strong car,” he says. “We got up to eighth, and we had a good battle with Joey (Saldana) for a while. I thought I was going to get (Paul) McMahan, but our second half…it took us a while to get going again.”
Mark joined five other Knoxville regulars in the top eight. “Everyone is good at the Nationals…you have to be good and then have a little extra,” he says. “We were good, we just didn’t have enough to move forward from eighth.”
The team will take on the WoO at River Cities on Friday night. Saturday is up in the air, and they will return to Huset’s Speedway near Brandon, South Dakota on Sunday.
The Lunstra/Dobmeier team would like to thank Senske and Son Transfer, Big Trucks by Jimco, Sioux Falls Ford, Steffe’s Auctioneers, Dammer Trucking, ACME Tool, Strong Box and Tire Boss for all their help!
Mark at the 360 Nationals (Rob Kocak Photo)
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