By T.J. Buffenbarger
KNOXVILLE, Iowa (August 8, 2017) — Kyle Larson came to Knoxville Raceway knowing he likely could not be able to compete in Saturday night’s 5-Hour ENERGY Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s General Stores finale no matter what his result was on the preliminary night. Larson made the most of his opportunity to race winning BRANDT Professional Agriculture Qualifying Night. Larson took the lead from Austin McCarl and held off a late surge by Donny Schatz in traffic for the victory.
Larson’s third win at Knoxville brought up the question of if he will race the Saturday finale?
“I definitely have to have the conversation with him, that’s for sure,” Larson said in victory lane. “I want to so bad. I’ve never been this good in a sprint car in my career. To win a prelim night here with Paul Silva feels amazing. Our car was really good the whole feature. I thought I was a little looser on the bottom and moved up I felt like at the right time and found some speed up there. Super happy to win, nervous about the phone call, but hopefully he’s listening and knows how much I appreciate everything he already allows me to do racing sprint cars. If we could race Saturday night that would be a dream come true.”
Austin McCarl jumped into the lead, but by the end of lap one Larson took the lead off turn four. Behind them Donny Schatz was already up to fourth position on lap two. One lap later the caution appeared for Parker Price-Miller slowing on the backstretch with a broken front wing. Price-Miller took his car to the work area and have his crew make repairs to rejoin the field.
Larson pulled away as Hodnett tried to nose under McCarl for second, but could not make the pass. Eighth starting Kerry Madsen was also on the charge moving up to fifth by lap four.
Larson started to receive pressure from McCarl over the next three laps until McCarl jumped the cushion in turns one and two. Shortly after that McCarl had a plug wire come lose and started to lose ground. This allowed Schatz, Kerry Madsen, and Greg Hodnett to close in. Schatz drove by McCarl for second on lap 14 off turn four. From there Schatz drove hard through lapped traffic, once splitting slower cars three wide through the middle to catch Larson.
Behind the lead duo Hodnett and Madsen dropped McCarl back to fifth.
Late in the race Brad Sweet moved up through the field and drove up to fourth.
Up front Schatz closed quickly on Larson with five laps to go. Larson maintained his advantage over the final laps for the victory. Schatz claimed the runner up spot with Hodnett rounding out the podium.
“We tried something there to see if we could make it a little better and might have got a little bit worse,” said Schatz. “We got ourselves in a good spot in the heat race and qualified okay. Kyle was really good there. When the race track changed he got up on it and we were really too free.”
As for Larson he has some work to do to see if he can compete on Saturday.
“Right now I’m not allowed to race. In the contract with Chip I have to have a day off before I’m on track in cup. That’s why you see me race a lot of Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays because we travel Thursday and we’re on the track Friday. Obviously Saturday we are at Michigan practicing and we race the next day, so it would be a little bit of a conflict there. I definitely going to talk to Chip (Ganassi) and I hope that he understands how big this event is to me and that we are in a good spot in the Cup Series in points and with wins and bonus points and maybe allow me to come race here. I have my fingers are crossed, but I think I know what his answer will be, but hopefully I’m wrong.”
57th Annual 5-Hour ENERGY Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s General Stores
BRANDT Professional Agriculture Qualifying Night
Knoxville Raceway
Knoxville, Iowa
Wednesday August 9, 2017
Qualifying: 1. 2M – Kerry Madsen, 14.886; 2. 49 – Brad Sweet, 14.986; 3. 24W – Lucas Wolfe, 15.026; 4. 15 – Donny Schatz, 15.042; 5. 20 – A.J. Moeller, 15.070; 6. 2 – Shane Stewart, 15.073; 7. 82 – Dusty Zomer, 15.110; 8. 4 – Paul McMahan, 15.160; 9. 12 – Lynton Jeffrey, 15.163; 10. 27 – Greg Hodnett, 15.227; 11. 2KS – Austin McCarl, 15.252; 12. 49X – Tim Shaffer, 15.286; 13. 69 – Chase Johnson, 15.298; 14. 22 – Rager Phillips, 15.307; 15. 57 – Kyle Larson, 15.309; 16. 93 – Sheldon Haudenschild, 15.317; 17. 56N – Davey Heskin, 15.329; 18. 21AU – Jordyn Brazier, 15.380; 19. 51 – Joey Saldana, 15.381; 20. 14B – Christopher Bell, 15.384; 21. 87 – Aaron Reutzel, 15.385; 22. 09 – Matt Juhl, 15.389; 23. 2MM – Matt Moro, 15.403; 24. 1M – Danny Lasoski, 15.408; 25. 99 – Brady Bacon, 15.410; 26. 70 – Clint Garner, 15.413; 27. 5H – Cory Eliason, 15.429; 28. 67X – Parker Price-Miller, 15.461; 29. 26 – Tayler Malsam, 15.471; 30. 4X – Dakota Hendrickson, 15.474; 31. 71 – Kevin Thomas Jr. , 15.481; 32. 17 – Jac Haudenschild, 15.497; 33. 9X – Jake Bubak, 15.512; 34. 1B – Dustin Selvage, 15.521; 35. 17B – Bill Balog, 15.532; 36. 8H – Jason Kendrick, 15.616; 37. 17W – Harli White, 15.625; 38. 84 – Scott Bogucki, 15.671; 39. 3G – Carson Macedo, 15.674; 40. 95 – Matt Covington, 15.754; 41. 3P – Sawyer Phillips, 15.801; 42. 1P – Curtis Evans, 15.878; 43. 83C – Adam Creuea, 16.230; 44. 12W – Josh Walter, 16.504; 45. 39 – Spencer Bayston, DQ; 46. 85 – Chase Wanner, DQ; 47. 1S – Logan Schuchart, NT; 48. 10 – Tyler Bear, NT.
Heat Race #1 (10 Laps): 1. 71 – Kevin Thomas Jr. 2. 2M – Kerry Madsen, 3. 2KS – Austin McCarl, 4. 2 – Shane Stewart, 5. 93 – Sheldon Haudenschild, 6. 8H – Jason Kendrick, 7. 3P – Sawyer Phllips, 8. 70 – Clint Garner. DQ: 87 – Aaron Reutzel. DNS: 85 – Chase Wanner. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #2 (10 Laps): 1. 17 – Jac Haudenschild, 2. 49 – Brad Sweet, 3. 17 – Harli White, 4. 09 – Matt Juhl, 5. 56N – Davey Heskin, 6. 82 – Dusty Zomer, 7. 49X – Tim Shaffer, 8. 1P – Curtis Evans. DNS: Logan Schuchart. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #3 (10 Laps): 1. 2MM – Matt Moro, 2. 67X – Parker Price-Miller, 3. 9X – Jake Bubak, 4. 4 – Paul McMahan, 5. 24W – Lucas Wolfe, 6. 68 – Chase Johnson, 7. 21AU – Jordyn Brazier, 8. 84 – Scott Bogucki. DNS: 83C – Adam Cruea, 10 – Tyler Bear. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #4 (10 Laps): 1. 15 – Donny Schatz, 2. 1B – Dustin Selvage, 3. 1M – Danny Lasoski, 4. 3G – Carson Macedo, 5. 51 – Joey Saldana, 6. 12 – Lynton Jeffrey, 7. 22 – Rager Phllips, 8. 12W – Josh Walter, 9. 26 – Tayler Malsam. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #5 (10 Laps): 1. 17B – Bill Balog, 2. 57 – Kyle Larson, 3. 27 – Greg Hodnett, 4. 14B – Christopher Bell, 5. 95 – Matt Covington, 6. 99 – Brady Bacon, 7. 4X – Dakota Hendrickson, 8. 20 – A.J. Moeller. DNS: 39 – Spencer Bayston. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
C-Main: Cancelled due to cars that had scratched from the event.
B-Main (12 laps): 1. 24W – Lucas Wolfe, 2. 82 – Dusty Zomer, 3. 68 – Chase Johnson, 4. 49X – Tim Shaffer, 5. 93 – Sheldon Haudenschild, 6. 21AU – Lynton Jeffrey, 8. 5H – Cory Eliason, 9. 70 – Clint Garner, 10. 22 – Rager Phillips, 11. 56N – Davey Heskin, 12. 51 – Joey Saldana, 13. 99 – Brady Bacon, 14. 3P – Sawyer Phillips, 15. 95 – Matt Covington, 16. 8H – Jason Kendrick, 17. 26 – Tayler Malsam, 18. 12W – Josh Walter, 19. 20 – A.J. Moeller, 20. 1P – Curtis Evans, 21. 83C – Adam Cruea, 22. 85 – Chase Wanner, 23. 4X – Dakota Hendrickson, 24. 84 – Scott Bogucki. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
A-Main (25 Laps): 1. 57 – Kyle Larson, 2. 15 – Donny Schatz, 3. 27 – Greg Hodnett, 4. 49 – Brad Sweet, 5. 2KS – Austin McCarl, 6. 2M – Kerry Madsen, 7. 2 – Shane Stewart, 8. 4 – Paul McMahan, 9. 14B – Christopher Bell, 10. 17B – Bill Balog, 11. 09 – Matt Juhl, 12. 49X – Tim Shaffer, 13. 1M – Danny Lasoski, 14. 71 – Kevin Thomas Jr, 15. 3G – Carson Macedo, 16. 67X – Parker Price-Miller, 17. 82 – Dusty Zomer, 18. 68 – Chase Johnson, 19. 1B – Dustin Selvage, 20. 17 – Jac Haudenschild, 21. 2Mm – Matt Moro, 22. 17W – Harli White, 23. 9X – Jake Bubak, 24. 24 – Lucas Wolfe.