By T.J. Buffenbarger
KNOXVILLE, IA (August 8, 2025) — It is doubtful that many had Cameron Martin on their list of drivers they favored to lock into the Saturday final of the 64th Knoxville Nationals. After a strong showing at the 360 Nationals the week before, Martin put together a solid performance on Thursday night that locked the 20-year-old Ankeny, Iowa resident, into the biggest feature in all of sprint car racing.
For Martin and his family, who race at Knoxville on a regular basis, this was a dream come true.
“This is the best feeling in the entire world,” said Martin in the pit area after the Thursday program. “Not just making the Nationals but making the 360 nationals for my first time last weekend and this in my rookie year, I’ve never felt this awesome in my entire 20 years of life. I don’t even know what to say.”
Martin drew attention at the beginning of Thursday’s program laying down the second fastest lap in qualifying, doing so after feeling his first lap was not up to par with what he expected.
“My first lap I messed up a little bit and it it turned out not to be a terrible time. I knew my second lap I had to hit it perfect,” said Martin. “When I pulled in, I knew it was about as perfect as I could get. When I saw that I was second on the board I got the hardest part of the night down right there. Especially since there were 10 really good cars that went out in front of me. Going out 10th and end up being second quick was amazing.”
After being one of the nine other drivers in the top-10 in qualifying that did not transfer through his heat, the pressure was on to transfer through the B-Main to keep his hopes of fulfilling the dream of making the Knoxville Nationals finale alive.
“I was talking to my crew chief Skyler. I honestly felt really confident going out in the B, because I was starting on the front row in clean air,” said Martin. “Through the heat race and qualifying, I knew I had one of the fastest cars here tonight. So, I went out in the B, got a really good start, and made 12 clean laps. That was a huge relief going into the A-Main.”
Martin originally just hoped to complete the laps in the feature and put in a solid run, but then the realization sunk in that he still had a chance to make the feature on Saturday and avoid the B-Main event.
“I survived the first three laps and I didn’t pass a single car. Then I got passed by a few guys, and thought I want to make the A Main and not have to run the B main on Saturday. I stepped it up, ran way past my comfort zone, and ran 25 really hard, fast laps and ended up 16th which got us 15th in overall points and locked into Saturday.”
When Martin pulled into the pit area, it was not clear if he had made the show or not until a anonymous onlooker confirmed the news that Martin had made the Knoxville Nationals finale.
“I was talking to my dad that it would be close. I just heard it from behind me and cheers erupted from my whole pit area. We all wanted this so bad and probably wanted it more than anyone else in this pit area. It was a huge celebration there for a couple minutes, a lot of cheering, hugs. a few tears were shed. We were all pumped and I think we will be for a few weeks to come.”
Martin is a kid that grew up around Knoxville Raceway and felt that being successful at the 360 Sprint Car level could be possible, but making a 410 Knoxville Nationals A-Main in his first attempt was a storybook ending.
“That was a dream come true for me. I never thought I would make a 360 Knoxville Nationals A-Main. Especially in only my fourth attempt. To come here tonight, my rookie debut in the 410 Knoxville Nationals, to go second quick, second in the B, make it through the feature and start in the A-Main Saturday night. It’s something I never thought would happen to me. I’m just a normal 20-year-old kid from Ankeny, I’m a college student. This isn’t my necessarily full-time thing. I just love racing, and it’s starting to pay off all this hard work.”
Being locked into Saturday’s program allows Martin to relax and watch his older brother Chris, who is also competing at the Nationals, compete on Friday to see if they can put two of the family entries into the main event on Saturday.
“Chris was a few points out of transferring on to Saturday, so he’ll be here tomorrow. I’ll come down to help him, stop by in the morning, get this car ready to go. Saturday I might sleep in a little bit and just kind of kind of take her easy.”
Other notes
• There were a lot of questions surrounding Brad Sweet and the Kasey Kahne Racing team leading into this year’s Knoxville Nationals. Nationals week would be the first time Sweet was back in car after his crash at Eldora Speedway during Kings Royal weekend combined with KKR switched crew members between the entry owner Kasey Kahne was driving and Sweet’s #49 entry.
Sweet answered those questions with a strong performance on Thursday that landed him the outside front row starting position for Saturday’s Knoxville Nationals final.
Being one of the top-10 drivers from qualifying that did not transfer through the heat race, Sweet was undaunted relying on his experience at Knoxville that his heat race performance would not end his Knoxville Nationals effort for a quality starting position in the final.
“With quick time it gives you some points to work with and you don’t have to take unnecessary risk in the heat race,” said Sweet after Thursday’s program. “It feels like you have got to make it through the heat, but you don’t have to. Once the track gets wide enough, you can actually race. I knew to be patient. I think all my years of experience here kind of paid off tonight, and we never really panicked or anything like that.”
For Sweet, after all he has been through over the past several weeks, being in position to contend for a second Knoxville Nationals title in some ways is an added bonus.
“I feel like we’re playing on house money because I don’t think anyone expected us to be up front with the way we’ve been running lately,” said Sweet. “With the injury at Eldora, and just kind of unsure how I’d feel getting back in the car, the crew change up, just a lot of variables that you typically don’t want to have coming into the Knoxville Nationals. I think experience paid off tonight, and now we don’t really have anything to lose or gain. We just go out there, race 50 laps, try our best, and see where it ends up putting us.”
• For the second year in a row, Bill Balog put his car into Saturday’s A-Main at the Knoxville Nationals. One month ago Balog had to skip the Kings Royal finale on Saturday to assemble more equipment to continue on the remainder of the World of Outlaws tour.
After timing in 17th Balog finished fourth in his heat race before a strong sixth place finish in the feature event was good enough to lock him into the Saturday A-Main at Knoxville after seeing several top contenders struggle to make the field during Wednesday’s program.
“I mean, it’s amazing. It’s definitely didn’t expect it after watching last night and the anxiety of it all,” said Balog. “It’s a stressful, but we had a good night. We qualified where we needed to in the heat race, obviously, is huge here. We just did what we could. It’s amazing to race against those teams and be semi competitive. So, it’s huge for us.”
When asked about what he might do on Saturday for the final, Balog would have to ponder because he felt the car was handling well during Thursday’s program.
“It’s funny because I don’t know how to go any faster than that,” said Balog. “The car was pretty darn good. We have the motor, we have the race car, so I’m not sure how to go any faster than that. It’s kind of frustrating. We lost a couple spots and tried to try to battle back a little bit but caught a couple fast cars again. We’re in a little bit different league than those guys. I’m older, they’re younger, they have really good equipment and we got pretty good stuff too. I don’t know what we’re going to do/ Saturday. We’re going to be 13th, so maybe we could do something to get a little more speed out of it.”
In that moment though, Balog along with his team and supporters were content on enjoying the moment greeting a large group of well-wishers.
“We’ll probably stay up a little bit later tonight. The plan for right now is drink a few beers and try to enjoy it a little.”
• Saying Spencer Bayston’s season with the High Limit Sprint Car Series has been underwhelming to date would be a fair statement. Bayston and the Jason Meyers Racing team were able to put that behind them and perform well enough to earn the 16th and final point position to lock into Saturday’s A-Main at Knoxville.
Bayston felt JMR’s experience at Knoxville and emphasis they put on running well at the Nationals assisted in the team’s performance on Thursday including information from their second team driven by Corey Day.
“We spent a lot of our time that we’re able to here in Knoxville working for this week,” said Bayston. “Obviously, everyone focuses on this week, but we cut out of our scheduled time to go out of our way to come here to Knoxville to get laps. Corey (Day) was really, really good here last year, ran on the podium, and we knew our equipment was capable of putting up great finishes here. It feels a bit rewarding to at least lock ourselves in after all the time and effort we’ve spent here.”
The night was not without some trepidation as Bayston had to deal with issues at the end of the race that forced him to shut the car down on the race track.
“We had a bit of a fuel leak the last 10 laps or so. My left ankle was soaked in fuel, so I was happy to just make it home. I was a little worried about shutting it off. Sometimes they’ll pop and was happy when it shut off and it didn’t go up in flames. It was kind of a lucky deal I guess but it didn’t bother me while we were running. Obviously, I just felt it and knew I needed to get it shut off as quick as possible.”
• While many feel two time and defending Knoxville Nationals champion Kyle Larson could win from just about any starting position in the field, Larson did not seem happy with the outcome of his preliminary night despite the feature victory, earning the ninths starting position in Saturday’s finale.
“I felt like there were a lot of points out there on the table,” said Larson at the post race press conference. “I was hoping to get second or third in the heat the way we had a decent start and all that but just fell into fourth and wasn’t good. So, it makes the win kind of bittersweet, because winning is great, but starting from the inside fifth row is not the most prime position. But it’s 50 laps on Saturday and hopefully we can get another good start like we did tonight and just get rolling.”
• Another driver that emerged as a strong contender for Saturday’s finale after the Thursday preliminary night is World of Outlaws regular Logan Schuchart. Despite qualifying 15th, Schuchart was able to make things happen in his heat race that setup the rest of his night and earn the inside second row starting position in the A-Main.
“That heat race was key,” said Schuchart. “I was able to take off as soon as I got on the gas, I was on the car in front of me, right on their bumper going down the straightaway, and then the following lap Spencer and whoever was right there with him were fighting for the top and I was able to stick the bottom and get right to second. So that was key, taking off at the start and definitely our best starting position to date.”