Although, from afar, Kyle Larson made it look easy. But his second-straight flag-to-flag victory in the Knoxville Nationals was anything but easy.
“The two previous Nationals I won were pretty similar,” Larson said after the race.
“This year I didn’t really know where to run. I almost got passed early on and I had to play around with different lines. I felt the bottom of one and two were pretty good, but you could move up and it seemed fine. It was just a long way around.”
After arriving at the track the pole sitter for the 50-lap A-main had a decent start to the race, but soon he was challenged. In the first five laps outside pole starter, Daryn Pittman had run up to the back bumper of Larson and was trying to get a pass going on the outside. Larson glued his car to the middle of the track and drove off.
An early caution ended the threat. For the rest of the first half of the race Larson wouldn’t be challenged.
There was a driver that was moving his way up through the field though. Carson Macedo, who started fourth, had started to gain on Larson, but the break broke up his momentum.
During the mid-race break Larson didn’t change tires while many of the front runners did.
“Our tires looked really good at the break,” Larson said.
“There was no real reason to put on new tires at the break. They weren’t damaged and didn’t show wear. I feel like at times we have had some inconsistent tires. We felt good the first 25 and didn’t want to have the risk of a weird thing happen in the second 25 to have anything weird happen in the second half. That gave me the confidence to fire off in the second half like I did in the first half of the race.”
It appeared, at first, that it was going to be a mistake. As the second half of the race started Larson was soon facing a new challenge. Giovanni Scelzi was using the bottom line to perfection and was starting to gain on Larson quite a bit in the start of the second half of the race.
“I felt extremely good about halfway through the first segment. I felt like the bottom of three and four was my sweet spot,” Scelzi said.
“I could also get a good jump off of turn two.”
Lap after lap Scelzi was able to get near Larson’s back bumper off three and four, but Larson kept the advantage up down the front stretch and through the turns. Still, Scelzi was there and that was making Larson have to rethink his line a little bit.
Especially as the leaders caught up to the back of the pack, Larson had to start searching for an easy way around traffic that would both help him keep his speed, and the lead.
“Lapped traffic for sure was the most stressful part of the day. In the first part of the race I didn’t want to give up the lead,” Larson said.
“I felt like I was stalling out because the bottom was pretty quick. I had to move up in my line to get around guys. I felt guys getting close to me which really started to lead me to search for different lines around the track.”
The thing about Larson’s car was it seemed to be able to work everywhere. Even as he moved up to move around the slower cars he was able to keep the speed.
Scelzi had speed in different lines too, but the bottom seemed to be where his car seemed to work the best.
As more and more lapped traffic continued to clog up the track, Scelzi had to make a choice. Either stay on the bottom where he knew he was faster than Larson in three and four, or try to zoom past lapped traffic in order to chase down the race leader.
“It hurt me a bit not being able to move around from the bottom in traffic,” Scelzi said.
“I was weary to run to the top, because I saw how big the cushion was and I saw how slick it was in the middle of the turns. I just got hung up behind lapped traffic a little too long to make anything happen.”
Over the last 10 laps of the race Larson, and his old tires, were able to drive anywhere it seemed he wanted. The gap over Scelzi was able to grow and Larson was able to do something that hasn’t happened in over 35 years.
The last time a driver led all of the laps in back-to-back years at the Knoxville Nationals was back in 1987 and 1988 when Steve Kinser won the race without surrendering a lead. Now Larson has been able to do the same thing.
“It is special,” Larson said about being able to win three of the last four Knoxville Nationals. “I wish we could claim 2020 and be four out of five. I was a fan watching Donny (Schatz who dominated much of the Nationals before Larson). I’d watch him and couldn’t believe how easily he won the toughest sprint car race in the world.
“We have just seemed to be able to hit on something. We race really well here. Our car just seems to get better and better each year. When you get up front and get comfortable leading laps you know what to look for. Having the experience you know to move around. I’ve learned how to move around in traffic.”
Even if he did it on old tires, Larson was able to find comfort levels in both his tires and the lane he took around the track.
“Every time I hit Knoxville I feel comfortable,” Larson said.
“Our tires looked good, and in the end we didn’t have any reason to change them.”
In third place in the A-Main was Corey Day. Macedo fell to fourth in the race. Anthony Marci was able to finish fifth.
Saturday night started off with the E-main race. Sawyer Phillips won that race. Tanner Thorson, Joel Myers, Cole Mincer, Sammy Swindell, Jimmy Light and Tasker Phillips all transferred into the D-main.
Don Droud Jr. won the D-main. Ryan Timmis finished second. Landon Crawley, Sam Hafertepe Jr., Riley Goodno and Mark Dobmeier all transferred into the C-main.
The C-Main was dominated by Brenham Crouch who won. Danny Dietrich, Aryton Gennetten and Chris Windom all qualified for the B-main.
In the B-main Brad Sweet was able to win. Justin Peck finished second. In third was David Gravel and James McFadden placed fourth to qualify into the field of 24 for the A-main.
In the A-main event Corey Day (who finished 3rd) and Logan Schuchart (who made his way into the A-main from Friday night) both moved up eight positions in the 50-lap race. Schuchart finished 14th.
