Kyle Larson in the Paul Silva No. 57, even in a statistical down season to date, has proven to be inevitable in the Knoxville Nationals.
He is hesitant to embrace it, but Larson is becoming as inevitable at the Marion County Fairgrounds as the Welds, Kinser and Schatz were. This is a race that has historically run in eras and this very much feels like the Kyle Larson Era of the Granddaddy of them All.
With his third victory in four years, Larson has surpassed Mark Kinser on the all-time wins list and has tied Danny Lasoski and Kenny Weld for fourth and is also two wins behind Doug Wolfgang … all at 32-years-old.
In a different universe where COVID doesn’t happen maybe Larson wins the 2020 Knoxville Nationals instead of the replacement One and Only event he won instead.
It gets old to some, no doubt, but this is also the Larson era of North American motorsports. In a campaign in which Larson made his Indianapolis 500 debut and came back to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to add its NASCAR crown jewel to his resume, phrases like the best in the world get tossed around regularly.
100th Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi said his fellow Californian is in the same rarified air as Max Verstappen.
After defeating them both on Saturday night, both Gio Scelzi and Corey Day referred to Larson as their GOAT.
“He is so good in every discipline and I think Kyle is probably the greatest driver ever to live and I don’t think that’s silly to say,” Scelzi said during the post-race press conference, which elicited a huge cheer from fans in attendance.
Scelzi joined them in serenading a guy that just beat him.
“I don’t think it’s silly saying that,” he added. “We all know it.”
Day echoed that sentiment.
“I’m proud to sit here third next to Kyle and Gio,” Day said. “And like Gio said, I don’t think there is anyone better in a race car on this planet than Kyle Larson.”
Now, to be fair to the facts, Larson got a lot of help with this one. His No. 57 Sprint Car has not qualified well at all this year. It’s the one chink in his armor. So, it was a tremendous break that Larson drew the No. 1 qualifying spot for his time trials run on Thursday and posted the third fastest time when the track was hammer down fastest.
It catapulted him to the prelim night victory and the pole for Saturday, allowing him to lead all 50 laps uncontested for the second year in a row. He doesn’t dismiss that element of the 63rd Knoxville Nationals.
“It’s never easy but when you can go out early, it surely helps your weekend out,” Larson said. “But we still had to execute laps, have a good heat race with the invert, and it’s not like I drew the (1) and it became a lock.
“I still had to qualify well, had to come from the fourth row in my heat, so it’s not easy at all.”
He just makes it look easy sometimes and when that reality gets celebrated, it absolutely has to annoy his detractors endlessly.
For his part, Larson is simply proud.
“It feels, and I say this all time, but it feels really good,” Larson said. “It feels really good when you’re flanked by two dudes like that tonight giving you compliments. These are two guys tonight that are much younger than me.
“Corey is like, a lot younger than me (at 18) and he’s probably grown up watching me and that makes me feel old. But to hear young guys talk about me like that, it’s special but also the elder veterans, my heroes and Hall of Famers from multiple disciplines, it feels really good.
“I try not to let it get to my head too much and I don’t think about it too much because I’m only 32 and I feel like I’m trying to accomplish so much more. So whenever I’m done racing, whenever that is, I’ll appreciate those compliments more.”
In the meanwhile, in review, let’s refresh the resume:
Two-time Chili Bowl Midget Nationals winners
2015 Rolex 24 winner
Kings Royal winner
27-race Cup Series winner
Three-time All-Star Race winner
Prairie Dirt Classic winner
Coca-Cola 600 winner
Southern 500 winner
Brickyard 400 winner
2021 Cup Series champion
2024 Indianapolis 500 rookie of the year
Three-time Knoxville Nationals winner
What else is there to say?
The Next Ones
While both Scelzi and Day were quick to praise Larson, it’s also not hard to see their potential as well.
Day is already following in the footsteps of Larson, is inked to a Hendrick Motorsports development deal, and will have every chance to win in both disciplines like ‘Yung Money’ before him. They may be teammates someday or Day could succeed Larson in the No. 5 when the time is right.
It’s very clear, clear as day you could say, to see what Hendrick and Chevrolet believes it has in the 18-year-old.
Then there’s the 21-year-old Scelzi, who flirted with NASCAR via Toyota several years ago, but chose to go all-in on this Sprint Car program with KCP Racing with the conviction that he can win World of Outlaws championships and the biggest race of the year.
Right now, this is the Larson era, but Day and Scelzi will have every opportunity to define their respective places in the greater motorsports hierarchy as well.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.