After a rookie-of-the-year effort in his Knoxville Nationals debut, Gio Scelzi is hoping his second stanza at Knoxville Raceway yields even better results.
KNOXVILLE, Iowa — After a stellar rookie-of-the-year effort last summer in his NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals debut, Gio Scelzi is hoping his second stanza at Knoxville Raceway yields even better results.
Scelzi made the Saturday A-main during the 2018 Nationals and finished 14th, best among all of the first-time competitors at the black-dirt half-mile,
This year, Scelzi arguably has as much wind in his sails as any 410 sprint car driver coming into the Marion County Fairgrounds, except for perhaps defending Nationals winner Brad Sweet.
Scelzi smoked the field to pick up an All Star Circuit of Champions victory at Knoxville on July 27, finished third during the July 27 Knoxville program in 360ci action, and followed that up with a 21st-to-11th run in Saturday‘s 360 Knoxville Nationals finale before contending for the win Sunday in the Capitani Classic.
Scelzi‘s run in the Indy Race Parts-backed No. 71 at the ‘Cappy‘ was particularly thrilling. He maneuvered his way from sixth to third in one move on the third lap of Sunday‘s 25-lap main event, after Brock Zearfoss and Brad Sweet made contact down the backstretch and bottlenecked the field.
From there, Scelzi chased down David Gravel and Brian Brown and engaged in a thrilling three-way war for the top spot and $7,500 prize. Scelzi got up as high as second twice, passing Gravel at lap 16 and then driving around Brown briefly on lap 21, but he couldn‘t hold the position either time.
Scelzi cited one particular moment after the race, where he jumped the cushion in turns one and two and tagged the wall with two laps left, breaking his momentum and allowing Brown to get back by.
That was the instant where Scelzi‘s third-place finish in the Capitani Classic was sealed, as he was never able to get back to Brown to make a last-ditch charge on the final lap.
Still, however, a podium was a positive for the California teenager, who now resides in Indianapolis.
“I made mistakes throughout the race,” said Scelzi. “The bottom was so narrow; I kept hitting the infield and squirting myself out. When I‘d get it right, though, we were fast. We had a race car that I felt like we could have won with … we just made a mistake and I pushed it a little bit too hard.
“It‘s cool to do well on Bell Helmets (Capitani Classic) night,” Scelzi added. “They‘re a big supporter of what I do and it‘s neat to see them sponsor this race and how big it has become.”
With a win and three podiums in his last four sprint car starts at Knoxville, Scelzi and crew chief Bernie Stuebgen appear to be hitting their stride at precisely the right time — going into Nationals week.
“These kinds of things are exactly what you want to do leading up the Knoxville Nationals,” Scelzi said. “We were good and I felt like we could have won both classes two weeks ago.
“It was a brand new car when we rolled it out,” he noted of the No. 71 that Stuebgen debuted at the end of July. “I didn’t feel comfortable the first half of that first night and we tried to get it better. We had speed; I just wasn’t comfortable at that point.
“We‘ve got it dialed in now though, and I think it‘s showing. Hopefully we can keep the momentum up.”
Scelzi will take part in BRANDT Professional Agriculture Qualifying Night on Wednesday at Knoxville.
Among his competition will be 360 Nationals winner James McFadden, multi-time All Star Circuit of Champions titlist Dale Blaney, Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series star Kyle Larson and 10-time Knoxville Nationals winner Donny Schatz, who last won the $150,000 prize two years ago.