Giovanni Scelzi Wins Night One at Knoxville

Jacob Allen, Giovanni Scelzi and Justin Peck in Victory Lane after competing at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa. (Photo: Trent Gower | World Racing Group)

KNOXVILLE, Iowa — After coming off the Ironman 55 weekend, the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars headed down to Knoxville Raceway for “the granddaddy of them all”, the Knoxville Nationals.

Night One started off with a 25-lap A-Main complete with 24 cars and Jacob Allen and Justin Peck leading the field to green. Upon takeoff, Allen shot out to the lead with Peck going high into Turn 1. Throughout the corner, he stayed high and swooped down low as they exited, gaining some ground on Allen. Allen, however, had the better momentum and stayed ahead of Peck.

Nine laps later, Giovanni Scelzi went to the bottom going into Turn 1 with his sights set on fourth, which Brent Marks held. In an effort to get around Marks, Scelzi stayed low throughout the corner and went to slide up in front of him, and did so successfully, racing down the backstretch.

Just as this occurred, a caution came out before Scelzi could be scored fourth, so he was set back to start fifth again on the restart.

Peck went high as soon as the green flag waved, and Chase Randall, who was running third, took to the bottom. Randall was able to steal second away from Peck coming out of Turn 2 by pulling a slide-job on him. Now, Randall was on the top and Peck was on the bottom. This resulted in a draft forming between the two cars as they raced down the backstretch and Peck shot up and slammed into the side of Randall, causing Randall to get a little bit squirrely and Peck to reclaim second.

Behind them, Marks saw what happened and decided to try and capitalize on it. Randall was still running the top, so Marks went down to the bottom to try and slide-job him as well. But Randall had the quicker car and was able to put some more ground between himself and Marks, before Marks hopped the berm on the bottom of the track, bouncing and losing a small portion of his speed. This allowed Scelzi to swoop in and get right on his bumper.

Scelzi went to the bottom of Marks as they came down the front chute, and he hugged that bottom lane as they turned. Scelzi was able to propel in front of Marks for fourth as they rounded out the corner.

A spot behind, Scott Bogucki, Corey Day and Aaron Reutzel all battled it out for sixth. Bogucki and Reutzel were running the top line in sixth and seventh, respectively. Day, however, ran the bottom and got by Reutzel for seventh with no problems. Then, he had his sights set on Bogucki in sixth and planned to get him on the bottom as well. This plan did not come to fruition though, because he slid down in front of Day to cut him off.

Chase Randall competing at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa. (Photo: Trent Gower | World Racing Group)

The end of Lap 13 saw Scelzi make a critical move on Randall. Again, the bottom seemed the place to be at Knoxville on Wednesday night because that is where Scelzi headed to pass Randall going into Turns 3 and 4. He stayed to the bottom upon exiting and shot out ahead of Randall to claim third by the time they hit Turn 1.

Three laps later, the battle began for second. Scelzi, still on the bottom, had finally found his way to the inside of Peck. Those two duked it out for a couple of laps before Scelzi was able to stick his nose out ahead of Peck to claim the runner-up spot, and then use that distance to draft himself forward.

With three laps remaining, Scelzi had caught up to leader Allen. Allen was running the middle lane and, obviously, Scelzi stuck to the bottom. But instead of just having a smooth-sailing pass in-store for him, Scelzi now had to deal with lapped traffic. As they came off of Turn 4, a lapped car was directly in front of the leaders, smoking. As the came across the line, the flagman signaled for Matt Juhl to go to the bottom to let Allen and Scelzi pass and that was the out that Scelzi needed. Scelzi smoked Allen on the bottom by getting ahead of him and sliding in front of him, slipping into first.

Scelzi held the lead for the duration of the race, winning Preliminary Night #1 at Knoxville Raceway, his first since 2019.

“Man, what an incredible job to my guys,” said Scelzi about the night. “Normally those yellows are my kryptonite, but the bottom got easier and easier to run as the crumbs got thrown up in the middle. Man, thank you fans for coming out. This is the busiest I’ve ever seen it [here] on a Wednesday night.”

Scelzi then joked and said that if the money he won tonight got deposited right then and there, he would buy everyone in the stands a round at Dingus, the local bar and restaurant.