Kyle Larson Wins Third Knoxville Nationals Title

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

KNOXVILLE, Iowa — On Saturday night, the “granddaddy of them all,” the Knoxville Nationals championship took place. The 50-lap, $190,000-to-win A-Main was set to go after all the preliminaries were finished and the remaining cars were set to complete the 24-car field.

Kyle Larson and Daryn Pittman were on the front row to lead the field to green. As they put their pedals to the metal, Pittman got ahead of Larson for the remainder of the front straightaway before Larson went down low and got back out front. Pittman remained up high with Carson Macedo right on his heels.

On Lap 4, Anthony Macri and Tyler Courtney battled it out for the fifth place spot. Courtney was on the bottom and Macri was up high, and as they came off of Turn 4 Macri was able to slide down in front of Courtney to crack the top five.

Logan Schuchart slowed on the frontstretch on Lap 6, drawing a caution. On the restart, everyone from fourth on back was just in a total traffic jam. Macedo was doing alright in third, but Rico Abreu in fourth was feeling the pressure.

Before long, Macri, got alongside Abreu and raced side-by-side with him down the back chute before overtaking fourth coming out of Turn 3. Abreu, now in fifth, had to deal with the wrath of Giovanni Scelzi who was just edging for another win at Knoxville. On the same corner a lap later, Macri slide jobbed Abreu for fifth, officially making his way into the top five as well.

Turns 3 and 4 seemed to be the place where positions were swapped on Saturday night, because a lap later Macri lost fourth to Scelzi. Scelzi ran the bottom as Macri took the top and Macri messed up ever the slightest bit up there, giving Scelzi the out he needed to sail right by him for fourth.

On Lap 16 Macri caught up to Scelzi once again, but the big battle remained up front. Macedo had caught up to Pittman and was going to try to pass him. He went to the bottom down the backstretch and came up in front of Pittman, stealing away the runner-up spot.

Corey Day competing at the Knoxville Nationals in Knoxville, IA (Photo: Trent Gower | World Racing Group)

Two laps after that, Scelzi had caught up to Pittman in third and knew that he could take him. Keeping to the bottom, he passed him in a slide job coming off of the infamous Turn 4 to move up yet another spot in the top five.

Right before the half-way work zone time so the cars would be able to finish the race, Abreu and Macri were going at it, but then the flag was thrown. During that time, it was determined that leader Larson would not get a tire change and use the same tires that he had started with. On the restart, he shot out to the lead again, but this time Macedo had some company in the form of “Hot Sauce.” Coming off of Turn 4, again, Scelzi worked the bottom to pass him with his sights now locked in on the NASCAR champion.

Turn 4 helped another driver and screwed another on Lap 39. Corey Day had made his way up from 11th and was pursuing Macedo for third. As they entered the corner Day went up high instead of hugging the bottom, resulting in a complete zoom around Macedo and getting sliding himself into third.

With two laps remaining, Day was all over Scelzi for second but just could not seem to make anything work properly. Larson managed to stay ahead of the charging secondaries to win his third Knoxville Nationals.

“It doesn’t get any bigger than the Knoxville Nationals, so it feels great to lead back-to-back,” said Larson about the race. “The best sprint car drivers in the world are lined up behind me and they don’t make it easy. It was a tricky race and those lappers were pretty quick around the bottom so I felt as though I was slowing myself down. We have to work extra hard and this feels great.”