Larson had notched yet another sprint car victory — the most important of his career — aboard Paul Silva‘s No. 57. A table was set up behind the grandstands for the winner to have a toast with the fans prior to going into the post-race press conference — Larson launched the new tradition.
“I was very surprised that it laid rubber as hard as it did,” Schatz explained about his late-race attempt at passing Larson. “I knew there was plenty there going into three. It was up top or in the middle, ‘cause I‘d used it a couple times. So, I kinda felt like I had nothing to lose; I‘m not much for running second. But I figured we‘d try it and see what happened. I thought I was gonna be able to complete the pass a couple laps prior, so I run ‘er in there, kinda cleared him, I just couldn‘t come out the other end — him being patient, waiting on the bottom, getting his tires caught up and going got him to finish first.”
“The rubber really just, like Donny said, it really laid down and it laid down quick,” Brad Sweet agreed. “There were a few laps where the entry of turn one just off the cushion you could feel it, and it seemed like about three laps later it was about wide open around the bottom.
So, that was something different we don‘t usually see at the Knoxville Nationals. Kyle slowed his pace up and there was rubber outside, but there was enough rubber on the bottom that he was able to keep it going there. I thought it was pretty interesting there coming to the checkered; I thought Donny was gonna get around him. He kept him honest, I think.”
“We were a little off the first 25 (laps) and made some good adjustments,” Sweet said, reviewing his race, “and then I thought we were in pretty good contention the second 25. It felt like we were not too far off Donny there, and then then when Kyle slowed up, I thought he was running out of fuel or something, or wasn‘t sure what was going on. So, I never thought we were out of it, just didn‘t quite get it done tonight.”
“It laid rubber a little bit sooner than I thought it would,” Larson explained. “I felt it into three pretty early on and then just started inching my way down and got all the way to the bottom once I caught Shane (Stewart). And I just kind of rode around from there hoping that they weren‘t gonna get much closer to me, which they did, and I just had to make sure that I didn‘t miss the rubber and get out in the slick and allow them to get by.”
“I had to not lift too much and get tight in the rubber,” Larson continued. “I ran a slow pace, but I didn‘t want to get too close to Shane (Stewart) and get trapped in his dirty air and start making mistakes. So, we were able to get it done.”