By T.J. Buffenbarger
(August 6, 2025) — After a wild night of racing during the Thursday preliminary program for the 2025 Knoxville Nationals at Knoxville Raceway, there were plenty of things to choose from for takeaways from the evening.
• Kyle Larson did exactly what I thought he would on Thursday carving up the field in route to the feature victory during his preliminary night. The one thing Larson did not accomplish was qualifying well enough to secure a starting position near the front of Saturday’s A-Main.
Larson drew a late number for qualifying that sent him out 45th in the order. Times began to fall off shortly before Larson took time and ended up 15th overall in qualifying. Larson also left points on the table moving up from sixth for fourth in the heat race. While this did put him in Saturday’s A-Main, it did contribute to a point total that placed him 9th for Saturday’s A-Main.
While Larson seemed concerned about leaving points on the table and starting that far back, having 50 laps to work with along with the ability we have all seen over the past several years Larson in my mind is still the favorite to win on Saturday.
If you are someone that is looking at how Larson could end up not winning on Saturday, there are some signs of drivers ready to challenge one of the best race car drivers of our generation.
Logan Schuchart was gaining on Larson in traffic, though Schuchart attributed that in the press conference to Larson just pacing through slower traffic.
Carson Macedo, who finished second to Larson last year at the Nationals, was starting to close in on him during the first half of the feature last year. While this could have been from the same type of pacing that Larson did in the feature on Thursday, August 7, 2025
Could Ryan Timms, who has earned the pole position for the Knoxville Nationals at just 18 years of age, be the one to end Larson’s Knoxville winning streak at two. Timms was impressive at Eldora and has been even more so all season at Knoxville.
All these possibilities listed above are interesting to think about, but the reality is that Larson is in the Saturday feature that takes place on his favorite racetrack and an event I feel he will never grow tired of trying to win. Until someone steps up and defeats him, Larson could start 24th and I would still consider him the favorite to win going in.
• The Knoxville Nationals are the most unforgiving event in all of sprint car racing, and that has been on display all week showing that to make and/or be in contention to win on Saturday one must qualify and race well to earn a starting position.
Thursday’s preliminary program saw several contenders quest for a Knoxville Nationals title become more difficult. With only one of the top 10 qualifiers transferring through the heat races to the feature event, there were plenty of contenders that had their Nationals fortunes relying on one of four transfer positions in the B-Main.
Brian Brown appeared to be in prime position to contend for a Knoxville Nationals title on Thursday after setting the third fastest time after going out 22nd for qualifying. Brown Nationals victory hopes became significantly more difficult after tangling with J.J. Hickle for the final transfer spot in the heat race, sending Brown hard into the turn two wall and ending up being arguably the biggest crash of the week so far.
The incident sparked emotion from fans that booed Hickle during an interview after the heat race and Marion County sheriffs to be present as Brown and Hickle were pitted next to each other.
While people were looking to immediately assign blame, Hickle being aggressive defending his position and Brown making an equally aggressive move to the outside in turn two after multiple laps of contact racing for the position were all to blame for the incident. In the end Brown’s chances at a Nationals title are now extremely difficult to non-existent after the incident.
Buddy Kofoid went out 43rd for qualifying and managed the 26th fastest time. Missing the transfer by one in his heat race and following that up with a seventh place finish in the B-Main caused Kofoid, who has won multiple big money paying events leading into the Knoxville Natioanls in sprint car racing this season, to go from contender to hoping to secure a position in the feature through Friday’s Hard Knox program.
Kerry Madsen is another driver that has shown tremendous speed all year at Knoxville, but on Thursday missed the transfer in the B-Main by one position and is now 31st in points and also having to navigate the tricky Hard Knox program on Friday.
• It is fair to say that the 2025 season has not gone as planned for Spencer Bayston with Jason Meyers Racing. Taking over the full-time program for JMR with the High Limit Sprint Car Series from Corey Day, expectations were high for Bayston to keep things rolling successfully for that team.
Bayston is currently 11th in points with a single top five finish with the series. Despite the struggles, Bayston looks like the driver we have grown accustomed to seeing since he switched from the USAC scene to winged sprint car racing.
I’m a believer that teams don’t flip the switch at Knoxville and just start running well. Typically, the Knoxville Nationals magnifies a team’s struggles. With JMR putting so much emphasis on Knoxville it made for a perfect opportunity for Bayston to perform in a manner that could end up helping his remaining 2025 season.
While we’re not 100% sure what will happen with the Bayston/Meyers combination in the future, for one night in Knoxville we were able to see a performance that many felt would occur more frequently than it has this season.
The fun part as a media member is to see a driver who has been struggling light up when discussing the performance that could possibly pull them out of the doldrums. I saw some of that in Bayston on Thursday, and it will be interesting to see how the season finishes out for him.