LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Oklahoma hotshoe Shane Stewart and West Coast car owners Mike Doyle and Paul Silva have been a magical combination since joining forces in July.
With the team already racking up a $10,000 victory in Knoxville’s 360 Nationals and an NSCS Speedweek title in the Pacific Northwest, Stewart kicked off the 20th annual O’Reilly Short Track Nationals by decimating the field in  Thursday night’s 25-lap O’Reilly American Sprint Cars on Tour National series preliminary feature at I-30 Speedway.
With his 15th triumph of the year and 13th aboard the Shaver-powered Doyle’s Harley Davidson No. 1hd Maxim, Stewart locked himself into Saturday night’s $20,000-to-win Short Track Nationals feature along with second and third-place runners Jason Sides and Zach Chappell.
“I’m thankful that I crossed paths with Paul Silva. Getting together with these guys really has turned my career around,” Stewart said.
Stewart was stout from the outset, working his way up from eighth to fourth in his heat and charging from sixth to take the lead from Joe Beaver on the ninth round of the fourth 12-lap qualifying race, earning the pole for the feature.
And when Stewart beat fellow front-row starter Sides, the 2001 STN champion, into the first turn at the drop of the green flag, it was essentially over.
Stewart survived three yellow flags along the way and worked through some lapped traffic before ultimately taking the checkered flag with a straightaway advantage over Sides.
Sides fought off Chappell in the early stages before taking command of the runner-up position.  
Meanwhile, Chappell and Sam Hafertepe, Jr., engaged in a spirited duel for the third and final lock-in position over the final rounds, with the 2001 ASCS National champion finally securing the position.
Travis Rilat charged from 16th and stole fourth from Hafertepe on the final lap. Hafertepe rounded out the top five.
The first qualifying race was marred by a last-lap accident involving Josh Howard. After a hard landing, safety personnel worked for more than an hour to extricate the youngest of the three Howard brothers from his machine.  After being transported to a local hospital, it was determined that the Byhalia, Miss., racer suffered a fractured C5 vertebrae.  
The summary:
First Heat (10 laps): Jason Johnson, Chris Morgan, Travis Rilat, Matt Covington, Marshall Skinner, Tommy Bryant, Dustin Morgan.
Second Heat (10 laps): Jason Sides, Sam Hafertepe, Jr., Wayne Johnson, Shane Stewart, Shawn Sander, Dain Naida, Josh Howard, Steven Tiner, Johnny Miller.
Third Heat (10 laps): Jerrod Hull, Terry Gray, Tim Montgomery, Zach Chappell, Jay Russell, Joe Beaver, Danny Martin, Jr., Larry Howery, Bob Schaeffer.
 Fourth Heat (10 laps): Jesse Hockett, Tony Bruce, Jr., Garry Lee Maier, Gary Taylor, Coleman Gulick, Tyler Thompson, Jake Peters, Tyler Walker, Bryce Vowan.
Fifth Heat (10 laps): Brad Bowden, Chris Williams, Claud Estes, Mike Brecht, Doc Sloan, Robert Bell, John Jacob, Curtis Evans.
Sixth Heat (10 laps): Jan Howard, Dale Blaney, Tyler Brown, Chris Sweeney, Ryan Bickett, Lewis Jenkins, Jr., Jimmy Hurley.
First Qualifier (12 laps): Maier, Chappell, Morgan, Walker, W. Johnson, J. Johnson, Bowden, Bryant Sloan, Josh Howard, R. Bell, Covington.  
Second Qualifier (12 laps): Skinner, Bruce, Brecht, Hull, Rilat, Jenkins, Blaney, Martin, Bickett, Evans, Hurley, Brooks.  
Third Qualifier (12 laps): Sander, Hafertepe, Sides, Russell, Naida, Williams, Gray, Brown, Miller, G. Bell, Jacob, Thompson, Tiner.
Fourth Qualifier (12 laps): Stewart, Beaver, Gulick, Jan Howard, Estes, Hockett Sweeney, Montgomery, Morgan, Schaeffer, Howery, Peters.
Feature (25 laps): Stewart, Sides, Chappell, Rilat, Hafertepe, Bruce, Hull, W. Johnson, J. Johnson, Blaney, Skinner, Beaver, Bowden, Hockett, Maier, Morgan, Brecht, Sander, Estes, Jan Howard.