KNOXVILLE, Iowa (August 3, 2024) – KNOXVILLE, Iowa (August 3, 2024) – Tyler Courtney has visted Knoxville Raceway’s victory lane on two prior occasions, but Saturday night he did it for the first time in a winged sprint car during the finale of the 34th Xtream powered by Mediacom 360 Knoxville Nationals presented by Great Southern Bank.
“I won two non-wing races and just hadn’t quite ever got a winged win here,” said Courtney in victory lane. “I know it’s a 360 feature but being the 360 nationals, I think that means a little bit more and yeah, just a pretty special one to have for my first wing win here.”
Courtney, from Indianapolis, Indiana, was able to take advantage of Emerson Axsom being held up in slower traffic to take the lead on lap 12. Courtney was able to maintain a 1.531 second advantage at the finish for the victory worth $20,000 for winning and $10,000 in lap money.
After the win Courtney was quick to credit his crew with a busy schedule leading into the 10 days in Iowa.
“Jake (Argo) and the boys, they’ve had a lot of work cut out from last couple weeks. We ran two cars last weekend, went home, finished our 410 car and got this one freshened up ready to go again,” said Courtey of his team’s hard work. “We came here this weekend really with not a lot of expectations but come here to get laps and confidence; just get in the mood for our biggest week of the year.”
Emerson Axsom and Courtney started on the front row for the 30-lap main event. Courtney led off turn two on the opening lap while Axsom and Austin McCarl raced for the second position. On lap two Axsom was able to slide past Coutney to take the lead and pull away from the rest of the field.
One lap later the red flag appeared when Chase Randall got over the cushion and flipped in turn three. Randall exited the car under his own power.
Axsom was able to pull away during the restart, but his advantage disintegrated through slower traffic and allowed Courtney and McCarl to close. On lap 12 Courtney was able to dive under Axsom to challenge for the lead, but Axsom was able to hold the position.
On lap 13 Axsom was held up by Carson McCarl, and that gave Courtney the opening he needed to take the lead. Axsom struggled to lap Carson McCarl, and that gave Courtney the opportunity to pull away through slower traffic.
With eight laps to go Courtney had three lapped cars between himself and Axsom with a 3.075 second lead. Axsom eventually got free of slower traffic and started to close in as Courtney was held up by slower cars, but it was too late into the race as Courtney took the checkered flag over Axsom, Austin McCarl, Brian Brown, and Cory Eliason.
Afterwards Axsom was disappointed to let the opportunity slip by leading the main event.
“The 27 car (McCarl) was racing me as a lapped car. I didn’t really have an issue with anyone else,” said Axsom. “Honestly, it’s just more disappointing for my guys. I felt like they gave me a racecar capable of winning and I made a mistake and let Tyler by and then I just literally raced the same guy for about 10 laps. I finally got by him, and I felt like I found a better line into three than Tyler. I felt like I tracked him down, but I’m sure he was riding saving his tire. I’m happy with our speed, but I hate it for my guys. I felt like we had a car capable of winning and we just didn’t do that.”
34th Xtream powered by Mediacom 360 Knoxville Nationals presented by Great Southern Bank
Knoxville Raceway
Knoxville, Iowa
Thursday, August 1, 2024
E-Main (8 Laps)
1. 7-Tyler Lee[1]
2. 13V-Seth Brahmer[6]
3. 3R-Russell Potter[2]
4. 27W-Weston Olson[4]
5. 45X-Kyler Johnson[7]
6. 17B-Ryan Bickett[5]
7. 14-Aidan Zoutte[8]
8. 8X-Micah Slendy[10]
9. 22W-Aaron Werner[12]
10. 938-Bradley Fezard[11]
11. G5-Gage Pulkrabek[15]
12. 38-Logan Alexander[9]
13. T4-Tyler Graves[13]
14. 4C-Tuesday Calderwood[14]
15. 83-Kurt Mueller[3]
D-Main (10 Laps)
1. 44-Chris Martin[3]
2. 7B-Ben Brown[1]
3. 14T-Brooke Tatnell[4]
4. 71-Brady Baker[5]
5. 2JR-Kelly Miller[2]
6. 18-Ryan Roberts[10]
7. 55X-Chase Brown[12]
8. 23M-Lance Moss[7]
9. 17B-Ryan Bickett[18]
10. 1Z-Justin Zimmerman[6]
11. 3R-Russell Potter[15]
12. 45X-Kyler Johnson[17]
13. 29-Emilio Hoover[8]
14. 27W-Weston Olson[16]
15. 15D-Andrew Deal[9]
16. 13V-Seth Brahmer[14]
17. 7-Tyler Lee[13]
18. G5-Gage Pulkrabek[23]
19. 38-Logan Alexander[24]
20. 22W-Aaron Werner[21]
21. 8X-Micah Slendy[20]
22. 14-Aidan Zoutte[19]
23. 938-Bradley Fezard[22]
24. 33-Alan Zoutte[11]
C-Main (12 Laps)
1. 18T-Tanner Holmes[1]
2. 88T-Tanner Thorson[2]
3. 4J-Chase Johnson[10]
4. 41-Colton Hardy[3]
5. 8H-Jacob Hughes[4]
6. 44-Chris Martin[15]
7. 36-Jason Martin[5]
8. 14T-Brooke Tatnell[17]
9. 98P-Miles Paulus[6]
10. 22-Ryan Leavitt[11]
11. 71-Brady Baker[18]
12. 53-Joe Beaver[12]
13. 87X-Shone Evans[13]
14. 2JR-Kelly Miller[19]
15. 1Z-Justin Zimmerman[24]
16. 7B-Ben Brown[16]
17. 17B-Ryan Bickett[23]
18. 55X-Chase Brown[21]
19. 18-Ryan Roberts[20]
20. 11M-Brendan Mullen[9]
21. 9M-Liam Martin[7]
22. 23M-Lance Moss[22]
23. 15-Ryan Turner[8]
24. 5A-Alex Vande Voort[14]
DNS: 4Z-Dusty Zomer
B-Main (18 Laps)
1. 2KS-Chase Randall[2]
2. 9-Kasey Kahne[1]
3. 2M-Ryan Giles[4]
4. 27-Carson McCarl[11]
5. 23-Seth Bergman[6]
6. 22X-Riley Goodno[3]
7. 23W-Garet Williamson[14]
8. 3P-Sawyer Phillips[7]
9. 2C-Hank Davis[8]
10. 77X-Alex Hill[5]
11. 40-Clint Garner[17]
12. 49X-Tim Shaffer[16]
13. 64-Hunter Schuerenberg[9]
14. 09-Matt Juhl[10]
15. 18T-Tanner Holmes[19]
16. 4J-Chase Johnson[21]
17. 8H-Jacob Hughes[23]
18. 44-Chris Martin[24]
19. 4-Cameron Martin[13]
20. 88T-Tanner Thorson[20]
21. 70-Calvin Landis[18]
22. 4G-Cole Garner[12]
23. 55B-Brandon Anderson[15]
24. 41-Colton Hardy[22]
A-Main (30 Laps)
1. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[2]
2. 27A-Emerson Axsom[1]
3. 88-Austin McCarl[4]
4. 21-Brian Brown[9]
5. 8-Cory Eliason[3]
6. 1TZ-Tasker Phillips[6]
7. 4W-Jamie Ball[5]
8. 21T-Cole Macedo[12]
9. 6-Kaleb Johnson[8]
10. 01-Terry McCarl[10]
11. 95-Matt Covington[16]
12. 55-Kerry Madsen[19]
13. 27H-Justin Peck[15]
14. 87-Aaron Reutzel[17]
15. 27-Carson McCarl[24]
16. 9-Kasey Kahne[22]
17. 2M-Ryan Giles[23]
18. 35-Skylar Prochaska[20]
19. 24-Kade Higday[11]
20. 26-Zeb Wise[18]
21. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[13]
22. 17-Tyler Groenendyk[7]
23. 2KS-Chase Randall[21]
DNS: 27B-Jake Bubak