Larson lights up Knoxville

Kyle Larson was an irresistible force, dominating all 50 laps of the 2024 Knoxville Nationals Sprintcar classic.

A preliminary win on Thursday put Larson on pole for the 63rd running of the Knoxville Nationals and he dominated from there.

Despite some challenges from the likes of Daryn Pittman, Carson Macedo and Giovanni Scelzi, the NASCAR Cup Series star ended up cruising to back-to-back Knoxville triumphs and a third overall.

Australia’s James McFadden was another High Limit racer on show in the World of Outlaws race and ended up coming 17th.

“It doesn’t get any bigger than the Knoxville Nationals,” Larson said. 

“It feels great to lead back-to-back 50 lappers from start to finish because the best Sprint Car drivers in the world are lined up behind me. 

“They don’t make it easy. It was a tricky race there. 

“I know at times it maybe doesn’t look like it, but those lappers were just fast enough around the bottom. 

“I felt like I was just slowing myself down. 

“I was able to get clear of a couple of them and able to get rolling back near the bottom and the middle actually came in, so I felt like I strung together some good laps there at the end.”

Despite Pittman initially getting a better leap off the line, Larson hit the lead by making good use of the inside line.

But by the time they arrived at Turn 4, Pittman made a move up high and the pair almost made contact before the #69K backed out.

Behind them Macedo settled into third ahead of Rico Abreu as the first caution arrived on Lap 6 due to a slow Logan Schuchart.

However, his team was able to pull off an impressive gear change to get the #1 back on track for the restart and it ended up crossing the line 14th.

When racing resumed Macri completed his impressive climb up to fourth with a slide job on Abreu, who was soon displaced out of the top five by Scelzi.

By Lap 16 Larson was already the best part of 3s up the road and Macedo snatched second from Pittman.

Scelzi only needed two more laps to also pounce on Pittman.

The order remained unchanged until the mid-race caution where the leading contenders opted to stay on their used rubber.

At the drop of the green flag Larson was once again untroubled as Scelzi put the foot down, battling Macedo for second.

The pair raced side by side for multiple laps before the #18 prevailed on the low line.

Corey Day also had good post-restart pace and swooped around the outside of Macedo to jump to third.

With Larson in complete control when he took the white flag, all eyes were on Scelzi and Day as they battled for second.

In the end Scelzi ended up ahead of Day and Macedo.

Knoxville Nationals glory capped off an extraordinary week for Larson, who went from 21st to first at I-55, then victories in the Ironman 55 Dumbbell and Iowa races prior to the Knoxville prelim success.

Now after winning America’s biggest sprintcar race, Larson is currently 16th in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond.

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