KNOXVILLE, IA (August 11, 2024) – Kyle Larson continued his recent dominance of the NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s by winning the A-Main event during Saturday’s finale for the second year in a row and third time in the past four running’s.
Larson, from Elk Grove, California, led all 50-laps of the feature and has now led the past 100 feature laps during the Saturday finale, leading a California sweep of the podium with Giovanni Scelzi and Corey Day and four of the top five with Carson Macedo finishing fourth.
For Larson, the impact of winning three out of the last four Knoxville Nationals and the One and Only in 2020 is not lost on him from growing up around the sport.
” It’s special. And, you know, I wish we could claim 2020 as a Knoxville Nationals and be four out of five,” said Larson. “I don’t know it’s pretty amazing. I was obviously a fan watching Donny and a competitor a little bit when he was on his his run there. You’re watching it like you can’t believe that he’s winning the toughest Sprint Car race in the world easily every year, Nine out of 10. We’ve seemed to have hit on something here and we race really well. I feel like our car gets better and better every year we come here.”
Larson took the lead on the initial start with Pittman on his back bumper. Pittman looked on the outside of Larson off turn four on the opening lap with the duo nearly making contact, which dropped Pittman behind Larson by 0.630 seconds.
The first caution flag of the event came up when Logan Schuchart slowed with a gear issue on the front stretch. Schuchart’s team remarkably was able to make repairs in the work area and join the tail of the field for the restart.
Larson was able to pull away from Pittman during the restart while Anthony Macri took over fourth position from Rico Abreu on lap seven. One lap later Macri found himself under fire from Giovanni Scelzi losing the fourth position on lap nine.
On lap 14 Macedo started to pressure Pittman for second position, taking the spot on lap 16. Scelzi then started to work on Pittman to take away third position as Macedo set out to catch Larson.
The 18th circuit saw Macedo close after Larson jumped the cushion coming off the fourth corner. Scelzi drove around Pittman for third the same lap and quickly closed on the lead duo. Macedo was on Larson’s back bumper on lap 22 as Larson was mired in slower traffic. Feeling the pressure, Larson started to pick up the pace through traffic and opened up his lead again at the halfway break.
During the break Larson’s crew chief Paul Silva opted not to change tires while most teams decided to put on new ones. Larson was not surprised by car owner/crew chief Paul Silva’s decision.
“No, because I think he’s done that in the past,” said Larson of the decision. “Our tires looked really good, I guess, at the break. Paul’s really smart. There’s no real reason to put on new tires if they’re not damaged. We didn’t have any blisters. It didn’t show much wear. So we decided to keep them on. I feel like this year we’ve maybe had at times, and maybe I’m probably just using this as an excuse, because we’ve sucked most of the year, but I feel like we’ve had some inconsistent tires that have thrown us off and made us struggle worse than we think we are.”
Larson continued to lead while Macedo lost the second position to Sclezi on lap 28 while Day charged up to fourth around Macri.
Scelzi started to roll the bottom of the track and was catching Larson at a rapid pace until 10 laps to go when Larson extended his lead. Day was able to get by Macedo for third off turn two and started to catch Scelzi.
From that point on Larson had no serious challenges to collect his third Knoxville Nationals title. Scelzi, Day, Macedo, and Macri rounded out the top five.
Day collected hard charger honors advancing eight positions in the main event while Emerson Axsom won the event rookie of the year honors.
63rd NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s
Knoxville Raceway
Knoxville, Iowa
Saturday, August 11, 2024
A-Main (50 Laps):
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]
63rd NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s
Knoxville Raceway
Knoxville, Iowa
Saturday, August 11, 2024
A-Main (50 Laps):
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]