WoO: Larson leads flag-to-flag in winning Knoxville Nationals

NASCAR Cup driver Kyle Larson, perhaps the best American driver racing today, continues to cement his place as one of the best to ever wheel a Sprint Car.

And he does so by defying all logic. Larson won the Knoxville Nationals and the $190,000 prize money with it after flying from Richmond, Virginia earlier in the day when he qualified for the NASCAR Cup Cook Out 400 Cup race.

He doesn’t get to race a Sprint Car 80 times a year. Typically, his count ends up somewhere between 20 and 30. But it doesn’t seem to matter when he shows up to race against the best Sprint Car drivers in the country.

Larson’s latest conquest came on Saturday night at Knoxville Raceway. A prelim win on Thursday helped the Elk Grove, CA native secure the pole for the 63rd running of the NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s. He rolled into Championship Saturday as the clear favorite, and he delivered.

“Yung Money” led all 50 laps around the historic half mile for the second consecutive year. He fended off challenges from multiple drivers – Daryn Pittman, Carson Macedo, and Giovanni Scelzi – to top his third Knoxville Nationals in the last four years aboard the Silva Motorsports No. 57 and bank $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.”

Larson’s third win in “The Granddaddy of ‘Em All” puts him 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.

The triumph on the sport’s biggest stage also adds to what’s been a remarkable run from Larson and the Silva Motorsports crew that will go down in the history books. It began last Friday when Larson charged from 21st to victory at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars. He backed that up the following night with a drive from 12th to his third Ironman 55 dumbbell. Then on Monday at Southern Iowa Speedway he stormed form 13th to Victory Lane. The Knoxville Nationals Thursday prelim saw him pick up the trophy from starting sixth. And now he adds the sport’s biggest race to the roll.

Five straight Sprint Car wins for Larson in the No. 57. For a team that performed below their standards earlier in the year, the celebration was even more rewarding.

“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.”

How it Happened

Green flag, they run side by side into turn one. Larson wins the battle off turn two on the inside lane. They nearly rub wheels off turn four, Larson holds the lead.

Lap 6, caution as Logan Schuchart slows.

Green, Larson leads.

Lap 24, Larson works heavy lap traffic. Macedo is closing

Lap 26, the half-way break caution is out. Drivers will head to the infield for fuel, tires and adjustments. Most of the field is changing tires. Race leader Larson has elected not to change tires.

Green, Larson leads Macedo.

Lap 28, Giovanni Scelzi works inside of Macedo in the battle for 2nd. Scelzi wins the battle.

Lap 35, Larson leads as Scelzi has closed to within five car lengths.

Larson opens the gap.

10 to go, Larson leads Scelzi by 2 seconds.

Kyle Larson drives away and he wins the Knoxville Nationals!

Race Results – 50 Laps

$190,000 to win – Start position in [brackets]
1. 57-Kyle Larson[1]
2. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[5]
3. 14-Corey Day[11]
4. 41-Carson Macedo[4]
5. 39M-Anthony Macri[8]
6. 21-Brian Brown[7]
7. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[3]
8. 10-Scott Bogucki[10]
9. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[14]
10. 1A-Jacob Allen[16]
11. 69K-Daryn Pittman[2]
12. 2-David Gravel[19]
13. 15-Donny Schatz[21]
14. 1S-Logan Schuchart[22]
15. 21H-Brady Bacon[9]
16. 13-Justin Peck[18]
17. 83SR-James McFadden[20]
18. 17B-Bill Balog[13]
19. 49-Brad Sweet[17]
20. 27A-Emerson Axsom[24]
21. 19-Brent Marks[12]
22. 2KS-Chase Randall[15]
23. 24R-Rico Abreu[6]
24. 5X-Justin Henderson[23]