From Bill Wright
KNOXVILLE, Iowa (June 12, 2020) – Kyle Larson is on a roll and the NOS Energy Drink World of Outlaws were his latest victim Friday night at the Brownells Big Guns Bash at the Knoxville Raceway. Larson, from Elk Grove, California, won three events in a row with the All Star Circuit of Champions in the last week, and added another here in Knoxville Friday. The win aboard the Kyle Larson Racing #57 was also the fourth in his career at the famous half-mile oval.
David Gravel led Donny Schatz by a narrow margin early in the 25-lap feature event. Larson settled into third, ahead of Ian Madsen and Sammy Swindell, who had not competed in a sprint car since November. Schatz, who had looked strong by winning his heat, and went from eighth to second in the Dash, took the point on the second circuit.
Larson had a run on Gravel and took the second spot on the sixth lap, before Austin McCarl brought out a caution after stopping in turn two. Schatz elected for the low line on the restart, and Larson stormed to the lead in turn one, only to have it negated, when Rico Abreu got upside down in turn one. Rico walked away.
When the green flag fell again, it was Gravel who had a run and took the second spot. A good battle ensued, and Larson reclaimed the spot on the next lap. Larson was gaining momentum and shot by Schatz to lead lap ten.
The leader was in lapped traffic on the thirteenth circuit and worked through masterfully from there. Gravel avoided disaster in third after getting sideways and above the turn one cushion on lap 16. At the same time, Carson Macedo entered the top five after starting eleventh. With five laps to go, he snared fourth from Madsen.
Larson went on to victory ahead of Schatz, Gravel, Macedo and Sheldon Haudenschild, who gained fifth with two to go. Madsen, Swindell, Shane Stewart, Tim Kaeding and Kerry Madsen rounded out the top ten. Gravel and Ian Madsen set quick time over their respective groups. Gravel, Schatz, Abreu and Stewart won heats. Ryan Giles claimed the Non-qualifier heat, Shane Golobic won the C main, and Gio Scelzi took the B. Joe Simbro was a flip victim in the C, but walked away.
Logan Schuchart suffered a tough night that saw him undergo an engine change without getting a time trial in, have trouble in the Non-qualifier heat, and fall short of transferring to the C, before taking a provisional for the main event.
“It’s a pleasure to drive for (crew chief) Paul Silva, and everyone who helps out on this team,” said Larson in Victory Lane. “It makes it a lot of fun to come to Knoxville, one of my favorite tracks. We were terrible at the Knoxville Nationals last year. We were pretty bad here a month ago. To turn around and have a solid night felt good. Before the first caution, I could enter above the holes in (turn) one and diamond and exit low off of two. I felt I could maintain with (Schatz). Once I got to second, Donny was still following the top and I was able to just make that line work and get the run on him in three and pass him. It felt really good in traffic. I got tight. I pulled my wing back, and about the same time, my nose wing fell down. Thankfully, I only had to go one lap with that. I was driving as hard as I could every lap.”
“(Larson) was definitely better than us,” said the second place Schatz. “He kind of surprised me on that restart when he took off so good. I knew his car would drive forward really good. We had that red, and got back in command there. He just found a different line in one and two. He went outside of it and came back down across the racetrack. I didn’t think it would stay that long, so I didn’t try it. You can’t be making a mistake, but if you are, now’s the time to do it. It was a real solid night. It’s been a challenge to get the car balanced, and these guys have done a good job. This week’s thrown us a huge curveball (with the absence of crew chief Steve Swenson). We’ve been smiling a lot more lately at the end of the night, and that’s a good thing.”
“We had a new car tonight,” said Gravel. “We’re working out a couple of bugs. We just got a little stood up in the A main. I’m happy with that. I’d rather start up front and have a chance to win that race. Tomorrow we’ll come back and keep working on that thing. We wanted to win tonight, but we’ll get her better for tomorrow and see what happens.”
Saturday night marks the finale of the NOS Energy Drink World of Outlaws Brownell’s Big Guns Bash! For more information, visit www.KnoxvilleRaceway.com or check Knoxville Raceway’s Facebook and Twitter.
World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series
Brownells Big Guns Bash
Knxoville Raceway
Knoxville, IA
Friday June 12, 2020
Qualifying Flight-A
1. 41-David Gravel, 15.022
2. 15-Donny Schatz, 15.119
3. 83R-Lynton Jeffrey, 15.121
4. 39-Sammy Swindell, 15.158
5. 2-Carson Macedo, 15.226
6. 21-Brian Brown, 15.245
7. 57-Kyle Larson, 15.333
8. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild, 15.386
9. 2C-Wayne Johnson, 15.419
10. 7S-Jason Sides, 15.483
11. 1A-Jacob Allen, 15.537
12. 3-Jac Haudenschild, 15.552
13. 56N-Davey Heskin, 15.565
14. 7BC-Tyler Courtney, 15.568
15. 44S-Trey Starks, 15.607
16. 83-Daryn Pittman, 15.652
17. 17W-Shane Golobic, 15.661
18. 5-Brent Marks, 15.684
19. 7X-Justin Henderson, 15.727
20. 55-Hunter Schuerenburg, 15.904
21. 6-Bill Rose, 15.934
22. 44-Chris Martin, 16.001
23. 35-Zach Hampton, 16.037
24. 15M-Bobby Mincer, 16.06
25. 56-Joe Simbro, 16.375
26. 14K-Tori Knutson, 16.994
27. 1S-Logan Schuchart, NT
Qualifying Flight-B
1. 18-Ian Madsen, 15.572
2. 20-A.J. Moeller, 15.663
3. 24-Rico Abreu, 15.752
4. O9-Matt Juhl, 15.804
5. 5X-Gio Scelzi, 15.848
6. 14-Parker Price-Miller, 15.872
7. 39M-Anthony Macri, 15.873
8. 71-Shane Stewart, 15.913
9. 2M-Kerry Madsen, 15.914
10. 7-Tim Kaeding, 15.967
11. 4-Terry McCarl, 16.007
12. 17A-Austin McCarl, 16.009
13. 55M-McKenna Haase, 16.016
14. 13-Mark Dobmeier, 16.027
15. 49-Brad Sweet, 16.035
16. 2KS-Chad Boespflug, 16.145
17. 9-Kasey Kahne, 16.197
18. 7TAZ-Tasker Phillips, 16.226
19. 27-Tucker Klaasmeyer, 16.29
20. 33M-Mason Daniel, 16.294
21. 9W-Ryan Giles, 16.305
22. 11K-Kraig Kinser, 16.327
23. 49J-Josh Schneiderman, 16.369
24. R44-Jeff Swindell, 16.545
25. 50-Mike Ayers, 17.405
26. 3P-Sawyer Phillips, NT
Non-Qualifier (8 Laps)
1. 9W-Ryan Giles [2]
2. 6-Bill Rose [9]
3. 49J-Josh Schneiderman [6]
4. 44-Chris Martin [3]
5. 11K-Kraig Kinser [4]
6. R44-Jeff Swindell [8]
7. 15M-Bobby Mincer [7]
8. 35-Zach Hampton [5]
9. 56-Joe Simbro [9]
10. 1S-Logan Schuchart [13]
11. 50-Mike Ayers [10]
12. 14K-Tori Knutson [11]
DRYDENE Heat #1
Flight (A) (8 Laps)
Top 5 Transfer
1. 41-David Gravel [1]
2. 57-Kyle Larson [4]
3. 2-Carson Macedo [3]
4. 83R-Lynton Jeffrey [2]
5. 1A-Jacob Allen [6]
6. 2C-Wayne Johnson [5]
7. 56N-Davey Heskin [7]
8. 44S-Trey Starks [8]
9. 7X-Justin Henderson [10]
10. 17W-Shane Golobic [9]
11. 9W-Ryan Giles [11]
DRYDENE Heat #2
Flight (A) (8 Laps)
Top 5 Transfer
1. 15-Donny Schatz [1]
2. 39-Sammy Swindell [2]
3. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [4]
4. 21-Brian Brown [3]
5. 83-Daryn Pittman [8]
6. 7BC-Tyler Courtney [7]
7. 3-Jac Haudenschild [6]
8. 7S-Jason Sides [5]
9. 5-Brent Marks [9]
10. 55-Hunter Schuerenburg [10]
11. 6-Bill Rose [11]
DRYDENE Heat #3
Flight (B) (8 Laps)
Top 5 Transfer
1. 24-Rico Abreu [2]
2. 18-Ian Madsen [1]
3. 2M-Kerry Madsen [5]
4. 39M-Anthony Macri [4]
5. 49-Brad Sweet [8]
6. 5X-Gio Scelzi [3]
7. 4-Terry McCarl [6]
8. 9-Kasey Kahne [9]
9. 55M-McKenna Haase [7]
10. 49J-Josh Schneiderman [11]
11. 27-Tucker Klaasmeyer [10]
DRYDENE Heat #4
Flight (B) (8 Laps)
Top 5 Transfer
1. 71-Shane Stewart [4]
2. 20-A.J. Moeller [1]
3. O9-Matt Juhl [2]
4. 14-Parker Price-Miller [3]
5. 7-Tim Kaeding [5]
6. 17A-Austin McCarl [6]
7. 13-Mark Dobmeier [7]
8. 7TAZ-Tasker Phillips [9]
9. 44-Chris Martin [11]
10. 33M-Mason Daniel [10]
11. 2KS-Chad Boespflug [8]
DIRTVision Fast Pass Dash (6 Laps)
1. 41-David Gravel [1]
2. 15-Donny Schatz [8]
3. 24-Rico Abreu [2]
4. 18-Ian Madsen [6]
5. 71-Shane Stewart [3]
6. 57-Kyle Larson [7]
7. 39-Sammy Swindell [5]
8. 20-A.J. Moeller [4]
C-Main (10 Laps)
Top 2 Transfer
1. 17W-Shane Golobic [1]
2. 55-Hunter Schuerenburg [3]
3. 9W-Ryan Giles [5]
4. 49J-Josh Schneiderman [2]
5. 11K-Kraig Kinser [9]
6. 33M-Mason Daniel [4]
7. R44-Jeff Swindell [10]
8. 15M-Bobby Mincer [11]
9. 2KS-Chad Boespflug [8]
10. 27-Tucker Klaasmeyer [6]
11. 14K-Tori Knutson [15]
12. 50-Mike Ayers [14]
13. 1S-Logan Schuchart [13]
14. 56-Joe Simbro [12]
15. 6-Bill Rose [7]
16. 35-Zach Hampton [16]
17. 3P-Sawyer Phillips [17]
Last Chance Showdown (12 Laps)
Top 4 Transfer
1. 5X-Gio Scelzi [2]
2. 7BC-Tyler Courtney [3]
3. 17A-Austin McCarl [4]
4. 2C-Wayne Johnson [1]
5. 4-Terry McCarl [6]
6. 56N-Davey Heskin [5]
7. 5-Brent Marks [15]
8. 3-Jac Haudenschild [7]
9. 9-Kasey Kahne [10]
10. 7X-Justin Henderson [13]
11. 17W-Shane Golobic [17]
12. 7S-Jason Sides [11]
13. 7TAZ-Tasker Phillips [12]
14. 55-Hunter Schuerenburg [18]
15. 44S-Trey Starks [9]
16. 55M-McKenna Haase [14]
17. 44-Chris Martin [16]
18. 13-Mark Dobmeier [8]
NOS Energy Drink Feature (25 Laps)
1. 57-Kyle Larson [6]
2. 15-Donny Schatz [2]
3. 41-David Gravel [1]
4. 2-Carson Macedo [9]
5. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [11]
6. 18-Ian Madsen [4]
7. 39-Sammy Swindell [7]
8. 71-Shane Stewart [5]
9. 7-Tim Kaeding [20]
10. 2M-Kerry Madsen [10]
11. O9-Matt Juhl [12]
12. 49-Brad Sweet [18]
13. 1S-Logan Schuchart [25]
14. 5X-Gio Scelzi [21]
15. 21-Brian Brown [15]
16. 17A-Austin McCarl [23]
17. 83-Daryn Pittman [19]
18. 39M-Anthony Macri [14]
19. 14-Parker Price-Miller [16]
20. 83R-Lynton Jeffrey [13]
21. 11K-Kraig Kinser [26]
22. 7BC-Tyler Courtney [22]
23. 1A-Jacob Allen [17]
24. 20-A.J. Moeller [8]
25. 2C-Wayne Johnson [24]
26. 24-Rico Abreu [3]
Lap Leaders: David Gravel 1, Donny Schatz 2-9, Kyle Larson 10-25
KSE Hard Charger Award: 1S-Logan Schuchart[+12]