Déjà vu.
Kyle Larson went back-to-back in the Knoxville Nationals, leading all 50 laps for the second year in a row, to score his third win in the biggest Sprint Car race of the year over the past four seasons. He was flanked on the podium by two of the brightest young stars in the industry in Gio Scelzi and Corey Day.
This time, this win nets Larson and car owner, crew chief Paul Silva $190,000.
“It doesn’t get any bigger than the Knoxville Nationals,” Larson said. “It feels great to lead back-to-back 50 lappers from start to finish because the best Sprint Car drivers in the world are lined up behind me. They don’t make it easy. It was a tricky race there. I know at times it maybe doesn’t look like it, but those lappers were just fast enough around the bottom. I felt like I was just slowing myself down. I was able to get clear of a couple of them and able to get rolling back near the bottom and the middle actually came in, so I felt like I strung together some good laps there at the end.”
His third win in The Granddaddy of Them All puts Larson in a list alongside legendary names as those who’ve topped at least three – Steve Kinser (12), Donny Schatz (11), Doug Wolfgang (five), Kenny Weld (four), Danny Lasoski (four), and Mark Kinser (three). He also became the eighth different competitor to tame back-to-back Knoxville Nationals.
Prior to this past week, where he swept both races at Pevely in the Ironman 55 weekend and then the Osky Challenge on Monday, his prelim and the Nationals, their Sprint Car program was not performing up to their usual standards.
“Hats off to Paul, Trevor, and Doug,” Larson said. “Everybody knows we’ve been really bad this year until the last couple weeks. They’ve been working extremely hard. It’s been a very disappointing year to our standards. For them to never give up and myself to never give up either is tough to do. Like I said, they work so hard. All of this goes to them for continuing to push and push and try to get better and better. All of these teams are racing 90 times a year. We’re only getting to race 25 to 30, so we have to work extra hard. It makes these wins feel extra great.”
By virtue of scoring the most points over the Wednesday and Thursday preliminary nights that encapsulated qualifying, heat races and the features, Larson started on the pole and was virtually unchallenged.
Carson Macedo made a late charge in the first half before the break but could never find a way around.
At the break, Silva opted to keep Larson on the same rear tires, while others bolted on fresh rubber and it made no difference as Larson navigated traffic and fended off marginal runs from Scelzi and Day over the final 25.
“I know I look upset, but I can’t be more proud of my guys,” Scelzi said. “Adam (Clark), to come from a beer delivery truck to a crew chief on a Sprint Car. I really wish Tim Mallicoat was here to see us run second. I want to win this race more than anything in my life. Man, thank you to Danny Lasoski, my mom and my dad, everyone on this race team. Damn, I want to win this race so bad. You’ve got to lose them before you can win them.”
Day backed up his reputation as a prodigy by scoring a podium as an 18-year-old.
“I feel like we had a really good car there,” Day said. “A caution on that last run would’ve helped, I think. Just hats off to my guys. To run third and be beat by Kyle and Gio is awesome. You always want to win, but I’ve just got to give it up to them. We weren’t too great on Wednesday night in the Feature there, and then we got our car a lot better there.”
Knoxville Nationals
- Kyle Larson
- Giovanni Scelzi
- Corey Day
- Carson Macedo
- Anthony Macri
- Brian Brown
- Tyler Courtney
- Scott Bogucki
- Sheldon Haudenschild
- Jacob Allen
- Daryn Pittman
- David Gravel
- Donny Schatz
- Logan Schuchart
- Brady Bacon
- Justin Peck
- James McFadden
- Bill Balog
- Brad Sweet
- Emerson Axsom
- Brent Marks
- Chase Randall
- Rico Abreu
- Justin Henderson