LAS VEGAS — After a 145-day off-season, Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing came out of the gates in a big way when the season opener took to Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Thursday’s SugarBee Blackjack Bash.
Kicking off NASCAR weekend in “Sin City,” it ended up quite fitting that the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion (Kyle Larson), a NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Rookie of the Year contender (Corey Day), and a new sprint car team (Giovanni Scelzi) for Spire Motorsports filled up the night one podium.
Starting from the outside pole of the 25-lap A-Main, Scelzi quickly established himself at the point in what would turn out to be a non-stop green-to-checkered sprint to the finish. He built as large as a three-second advantage while Brent Marks and Tanner Thorson matched slide job after slide job after slide job in a marvelous battle for second.
With Scelzi deep in traffic and Thorson and Marks throwing haymakers at each other, the door quietly opened for Larson and Day to pounce around mid-race. It was on Lap 11 that Larson made a two-for-one move to pass both Marks and Day as he swooped into second-from-fourth. From there, it was all about tracking down Scelzi.
Clearing him with a turn one slide job on Lap 18, Larson assumed the lead and brought Day with him only one lap later. This set the stage for a thrilling finish as the protege followed the master through lapped traffic and baited him into the third-closest finish in Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing history.
With Larson dedicated to the bottom and Day pounding the outside, a photo finish awaited at the checkered flag with a mere 0.096 seconds separating the two as Larson’s Silva Motorsports No. 57 got the best of Day’s Jason Meyers Racing No. 14.
The win marked Larson’s 10th career High Limit win – ranking fourth all-time behind Rico Abreu (25), Brad Sweet (14), and Corey Day (11).
It was also his first win at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway dirt track and his second season-opening score with High Limit.
Making a successful season debut in the Jason Meyers Racing No. 14, Day was more than thrilled to be back behind the wheel of a sprint car – winning or losing.
Rounding out the podium and assuming the de facto championship lead was Scelzi who led the opening 17 laps.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 1. 57-Kyle Larson[5]; 2. 14-Corey Day[6]; 3. 77-Giovanni Scelzi[2]; 4. 19-Brent Marks[1]; 5. 88-Tanner Thorson[4]; 6. 10-Ryan Timms[3]; 7. 24-Rico Abreu[7]; 8. 55-Kerry Madsen[8]; 9. 21-James McFadden[12]; 10. 87-Aaron Reutzel[14]; 11. 2X-Justin Sanders[9]; 12. 9-Daison Pursley[15]; 13. 26-Justin Peck[16]; 14. 88W-Austin McCarl[18]; 15. 42-Sye Lynch[10]; 16. 13-Tanner Holmes[11]; 17. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[21]; 18. 17GP-Hank Davis[17]; 19. 9R-Chase Randall[22]; 20. 24D-Danny Sams III[20]; 21. 73-Hunter Schuerenberg[13]; 22. 5-Brenham Crouch[23]; 23. 3-Kaleb Montgomery[19]; 24. 83T-Tanner Carrick[24]
