Kyle Larson Keeps Win Streak Alive At Knoxville; Takes Night Two

Kyle Larson competing at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, IA (Photo: Trent Gower | World Racing Group)

KNOXVILLE, Iowa — Continuing on with the Knoxville Nationals, the World of Outlaws sprint cars held Preliminary Night #2 on Thursday night.

Bill Balog and Rico Abreu were on the front row for the 25-lap feature. As they led the 24-car field to the green flag, Balog, jumped out to an early lead with Abreu and Carson Macedo following close behind.

Off of Turn 4, Tyler Courtney and Brian Brown battled it out for sixth. Courtney was on the bottom and Brown was riding the high line, and as they came down the front stretch they were side-by-side. As they hit the next corner, Courtney had slid up in front of Brown for that sixth-place position, but upon exiting Brown gave Courtney a run for his money and kept up with him down the length of the backstretch. As they rounded out the next corner, Brown slide-jobbed Courtney to reclaim his spot.

Two laps later, Kyle Larson was looking to crack the top five. Brady Bacon was the culprit who held that coveted spot, and Larson knew that he had to get around him. As they went into Turn 1, Larson went high and was able to sail around Bacon before hitting Turn 3.  At the same time this was happening, Bacon and Courtney were still fighting.

Lap 11 saw Balog catch up to lap traffic. As he came down the front straight, he tried to split two lap cars to get ahead of them both to put some space between him and Abreu, but he only got by one. Balog ended up getting by the second one, but it was too late; Abreu was right on his heels. As they came off of Turn 2, Abreu went to the bottom and was able to pull a slider on him going into the third turn, becoming the new leader.

Balog, now in second, was losing momentum a little bit as Abreu sailed away. Macedo, who had been running third this whole time, saw this and decided it was time to capitalize. As they hit Turn 3 again, Macedo went way up high and was able to use the faster groove to his advantage and take second away from Balog as they came off of 4.

Macedo caught up to Abreu on Lap 17, and stayed right by his side down the front chute, letting Abreu know he was there. Macedo ended up fading away a little bit, but now Abreu knew it was not going to be too much of a smooth sail.

A lap later, Macedo got a little bit squirrely coming off of Turn 4 on the bottom. This allowed Larson to cruise right on by him on the high side, getting the runner-up spot. Now in second, Larson had his eyes on Abreu.

Daryn Pittman competing at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, IA (Photo: Trent Gower | World Racing Group)

With two laps remaining, Larson caught up to Abreu on the bottom. As they came off of Turn 2, they were side-by-side down the backstretch, until a lap car slid right up in front of Abreu.  This gave Larson the clearance he needed to become the new leader. Abreu, now free of the car, gave it all he had in an attempt to get his spot back.

They swapped lanes and Abreu gave it his all, but Larson struck again and won from sixth, making it his third win in a row.

“Rico was doing a good job as the leader,” said Larson about the race. “[He] was doing a good job through traffic and Carson [Macedo] got rolling there for a minute, so thankfully I was able to get by him. I didn’t really know exactly what to do but that lapper messed up and gave me some clean air, so it was the right place at the right time.  Feels really good and the car felt great during the feature.”

With both preliminary nights in the books, the top 16 drivers have been locked in for Saturday night’s championship race. The top 16 are as follows:

Kyle Larson – Daryn Pittman

Tyler Courtney – Carson Macedo

Giovanni Scelzi – Rico Abreu

Brian Brown – Anthony Macri

Brady Bacon – Scott Bogucki

Corey Day – Brent Marks

Bill Balog – Sheldon Haudenschild

Chase Randall – Jacob Allen

Friday night will be Hard Knox to determine the rest of the field.