VENTURA, Calif. — Kyle Larson’s victory in the 82nd running of the Turkey Night Grand Prix was his third USAC national midget victory in three starts over the last two weeks in California.
Larson earned $10,000 and the prized Aggie Trophy built by Ventura Raceway promoter Jim Naylor.
“All the Turkey Night trophies I have from Ventura are probably some of the coolest trophies I have in my collection,” Larson stated. “They get better and better every year and it’s probably the main reason why I come and do this race – just to come and win these awesome trophies. I need to get a little better at qualifying because I want to win some of those (trophies) too.”
Larson’s 27th career USAC National Midget win moved him past USAC Hall of Famers Tony Stewart and Gary Bettenhausen for sole possession of 15th on the series’ all-time win list.
• Corey Day, the recently crowned NARC Sprint Car champion, posted the best finish of any Turkey Night first-timer in this year’s field.
In his debut Turkey Night performance, he ran a strong second to earn Don Basile Rookie of the Race honors in his Wille Kahne/Sander Engineering – Four CCCC’s Construction – Durst/Bullet/Worth Mopar.
The runner-up result for Day was the best finish by a Turkey Night Rookie since Cannon McIntosh in 2019.
“I grew up coming to this race as a kid where we made it a vacation and came down here to hang out at the beach and watch some racing,” Day reminisced. “It’s so cool to run it for the first time and then to run second and be Rookie of the Race. At the beginning, the middle slicked off really fast, then everybody kind of didn’t know where to be. I knew there was rubber under what they watered, so I was just kind of waiting on it and it came in fast. I was able to find it first, so that was good, but Kyle, he’s got way too many laps to not to know when it’s going to come in. When he moved down, that was kind of it.”
• Carson Macedo certainly experienced the most unique finish of the night. After crossing the finish line in third, he slipped above the turn four cushion, tagged the outside wall and flipped.
Nonetheless, Macedo still finished on the podium in his Dyson Motorsport/Complete Parts & Equipment – Tarlton & Son – Empire/King/Speedway Toyota for his best Turkey Night performance since his Rookie start in 2016 in which he also scored a third.
“That was a little embarrassing there,” Macedo admitted. “I didn’t have much right rear tire left and I got outside the rubber and gassed it up a little bit just to have fun I guess, and it never stopped sliding. I ended up plowing the cushion and turned it over.
“It was fun, though. I just wish it was a little bit different with it taking rubber and all. It wasn’t that ideal. Before that, the race was epic, and I was having a ton of fun and it was fun battling with a lot of good drivers.”
• Calamity came on lap two of Saturday’s main event as Taylor Reimer spun, which collected Michael Faccinto on the turn two infield berm.
Meanwhile, up top, Mitchel Moles and Brody Fuson launched into orbit during a simultaneous somersault for both drivers, which ended with both drivers and cars upside down, thus ending their evenings prematurely.
• Emerson Axsom started 23rd and finished sixth to earn his best career Turkey Night result, which came on the heels of a 24th to eighth run in the same race a year ago.
Ken Clapp of the West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame was on hand to present Axsom with a $500 bonus for his efforts.