Kyle Larson led from start to finish Saturday night at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway to win his second consecutive Knoxville Nationals and his third in four years.
Larson started from pole position and led all 50 laps of the race. In the 50 lap race he managed to hold off Daryn Pittman, Carson Macedo and Giovanni Scelzi.
“It doesn’t get any bigger than the Knoxville Nationals,” Larson said in a press release“It feels great to lead 50-lappers from start to finish back to back with the best Sprint Car drivers in the world behind me.
“They don’t make it easy. It was a tough race there. I know it doesn’t look like it sometimes, but those backmarkers were just fast enough at the bottom. I felt like I was just slowing myself down. I was able to avoid a couple of them and was able to roll back at the bottom and the middle even came in, so I felt like I put together a couple of good laps at the end there.”
The team struggled early in the year, but when its fortunes turned around, it did so in full force. The Knoxville Nationals prelims and wins were the latest in five consecutive sprint car victories.
The Nationals showed a much easier path to victory last week than Ironman 55 when Larson overcame a 12th starting position to lead 12 of the 55 laps in the Feature. Earlier this weekend, he started 21st in a qualifying race and drove to victory. at Federated Auto Parts Raceway on I-55 in Pevely, Missouri.
On Monday, Larson raced from 13th place to victory at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, Iowa.
Larson’s first challenge at the Nationals came from Pittman, who pressured Larson from his second starting position.
Macedo passed Pittman on lap 16 to close to within half a second of Larson before a scheduled fuel caution flag was issued.
After the break, Scelzi took the initiative, but Larson did not want to relinquish the lead.
“Hats off to [the team]”, Larson said. “Everybody knows we’ve been really bad this year until the last couple of weeks. They’ve worked extremely hard. It’s been a very disappointing year by our standards. For them to never give up and me to never give up is hard to do. Like I said, they work so hard.
“It’s all thanks to them, because they keep pushing and pushing and trying to get better and better. All these teams race 90 times a year. We only race 25 to 30, so we have to work extra hard. It makes these wins feel extra great.”
Scelzi held off Corey Day to secure second place.
“I know I look sad, but I couldn’t be more proud of my boys,” Scelzi said. “Adam (Clark), from a beer delivery truck to a crew chief on a Sprint Car. I really wish Tim Mallicoat could have been here to see us get second. I want to win this race more than anything in my life. Man, thank you to Danny Lasoski, my mom and my dad, everybody on this race team. Damn, I want to win this race so bad. You gotta lose them before you can win them.”
Day completed the podium.
Results
NOS Energy Drink Feature (50 laps): 1. 57-Kyle Larson[1]; 2. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[5]; 3. 14-Corey Day[11]; 4. 41-Carson Macedo[4]; 5. 39M-Anthony Macri[8]; 6. 21-Brian Brown[7]; 7. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[3]; 8. 10-Scott Bogucki[10]; 9. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[14]; 10. 1A-Jacob Allen[16]; 11. 69K-Daryn Pittman[2]; 12. 2-David Grind[19]; 13. 15-Donny Schatz[21]; 14. 1S-Logan Schuchart[22]; 15. 21H-Brady Bacon[9]; 16. 13-Justin Peck[18]; 17. 83SR-James McFadden[20]; 18. 17B-Bill Balog[13]; 19. 49-Brad Zoet[17]; 20. 27A-Emerson Axsom[24]; 21. 19-Brent brands[12]; 22. 2KS-Chase Randall[15]; 23. 24R-Rico Abreu[6]; 24. 5X-Justin Henderson[23]
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