KNOXVILLE, Iowa — Kyle Larson grabbed his 13th Knoxville Raceway victory Thursday on Toyota Qualifying Night No. 2 of the 64th NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals Presented by Casey’s.
The Elk Grove, California driver earned $12,000 for the win and locked himself into the fifth row of Saturday’s championship finale, where he will seek his third straight triumph.
Carson Macedo was the high point driver for the night and will join Wednesday’s winner, Ryan Timms, who becomes the youngest polesitter in event history.
Derek Hagar led the non-stop 25-lap main event early over Spencer Bayston, Giovanni Scelzi, Larson and Bill Balog.
Logan Schuchart entered the top five on lap two. Bayston wrestled the lead form Hagar on lap three, while Larson found his way by Scelzi for the third spot.
Larson continued his charge by passing Hagar for second on lap five, and Scelzi followed him into third a circuit later. Schuchart was up to fourth by lap seven. Bayston entered lapped traffic on lap eight.
Larson reeled in Bayston, and shot a slide job on him on lap 13 to take the lead for good. Schuchart came on late, grabbing third from Scelzi on lap 16 and second from Bayston with a slider in three with six to go.
Finishing second earned him a second row starting spot for Saturday. Bayston finished third, ahead of Scelzi and Macedo.
“Honestly, I’m out of breath,” said Larson beside Paul Silva’s No. 57. “That was a fast pace for 25 laps there. The track was really slick, but against (the cushion) it was really gripped up. It just made it like really technical, and the car was dancing around a lot. I was using both feet and steering a lot. I got stuck behind (Cam Martin) for awhile, and I figured they were closing on me. I got by him with a few to go, and I felt I could rest a little easier after that. I wish we would have done better a little earlier in the night. It will be good enough to lock into the feature for sure.”
“This will be our best starting position yet,” said Schuchart of his prospects on Saturday. “I didn’t think I felt real good. I know we were catching Kyle at the end, but I don’t know if we’re as good as we need to be. We didn’t qualify that well, but we did what we needed to do in the heat race and this A main. We’re on the podium, and we’re very happy and proud of this Shark Racing Team.”
“We lacked speed early and ran into some issues,” said Bayston, who locked himself into the last available spot in Saturday’s championship (16th). “We didn’t give up. We had a bit of an issue with fueling in hot laps. We ended up with a time…I didn’t think I did a good job of qualifying.
“We rebounded a little bit in the heat race and started up front. We set a good pace, but started to waver a little bit. I knew I was probably going to get somebody visiting me at some point. It turned out the 57 got by me quick. I just got back to what I was doing and ran the top and the car felt really, really good.”
Brad Sweet set quick time over the 49-car field, while Gage Pulkrabek, Phillips, Josh Schneiderman, Christopher Thram and Brady Bacon were heat winners. Brian Brown was third quick, but flipped hard in turn two in his heat after trying for several laps to pass J.J. Hickle for the final transfer. He walked away.
Matt Vandervere turned over in practice, but returned for his heat race. Jacob Hughes won the C main and Sweet claimed the B.
64th NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Naitonals Presented by Casey’s Toyota Qualifying Night No. 2
Time Trials (Qualifying Order), 2 laps: 1. 49-Brad Sweet, Grass Valley, CA, 00:15.002[3]; 2. 4C-Cameron Martin, Ankeny, IA, 00:15.285[10]; 3. 21-Brian Brown, Grain Valley, MO, 00:15.300[21]; 4. 41-Carson Macedo, Lemoore, CA, 00:15.315[18]; 5. 3L-Daryn Pittman, Owasso, OK, 00:15.341[28]; 6. 55V-Kerry Madsen, St. Mary’s, NSW, Aust., 00:15.363[42]; 7. 19-Brent Marks, Myerstown, PA, 00:15.383[16]; 8. 6B-Brandon Wimmer, Fairmount, IN, 00:15.421[1]; 9. 27B-Jake Bubak, Arvada, CO, 00:15.436[39]; 10. 3P-Sawyer Phillips, Pleasantville, IA, 00:15.454[5]; 11. 39-Lynton Jeffrey, Sydney, NSW, Aust., 00:15.479[23]; 12. 71P-Parker Price Miller, Kokomo, IN, 00:15.480[34]; 13. 1S-Logan Schuchart, Hanover, PA, 00:15.491[33]; 14. 5-Brenham Crouch, Lubbock, TX, 00:15.508[14]; 15. 57-Kyle Larson, Elk Grove, CA, 00:15.524[45]; 16. 2C-Cole Macedo, Lemoore, CA, 00:15.545[7]; 17. 17B-Bill Balog, Hartland, WI, 00:15.565[27]; 18. 19H-Kevin Thomas Jr, Cullman, AL, 00:15.606[12]; 19. 23D-Chase Dietz, York, PA, 00:15.618[2]; 20. 99-Skylar Gee, Leduc, ALB, Can., 00:15.635[17]; 21. 7BC-Giovanni Scelzi, Fresno, CA, 00:15.657[36]; 22. 85J-Logan Julien, Oconomowoc, WI, 00:15.664[4]; 23. 14-Spencer Bayston, Lebanon, IN, 00:15.671[13]; 24. 45C-Derek Hagar, Marion, AR, 00:15.693[19]; 25. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss, Jonestown, PA, 00:15.699[44]; 26. 83-Michael Kofoid, Penngrove, CA, 00:15.704[43]; 27. 28M-Conner Morrell, Bradenton, FL, 00:15.749[29]; 28. 1-Sammy Swindell, Germantown, TN, 00:15.759[31]; 29. 40-Clint Garner, Sioux Falls, SD, 00:15.767[11]; 30. 23W-Scott Winters, Butterfield, MN, 00:15.770[25]; 31. G5-Gage Pulkrabek, East Grand Forks, MN, 00:15.782[48]; 32. 23L-Jimmy Light, Pittsboro, IN, 00:15.795[15]; 33. 2M-JJ Hickle, Quilcene, WA, 00:15.811[20]; 34. 11-Roger Crockett, Broken Arrow, OK, 00:15.865[24]; 35. 21H-Brady Bacon, Broken Arrow, OK, 00:15.868[38]; 36. 53-Jack Dover, Springfield, NE, 00:15.874[40]; 37. 1TAZ-Tasker Phillips, Pleasantville, IA, 00:15.887[49]; 38. 49J-Josh Schneiderman, West Burlington, IA, 00:15.932[41]; 39. 24T-Christopher Thram, Sanborn, MN, 00:15.954[30]; 40. 33W-Cap Henry, Republic, OH, 00:15.991[47]; 41. 16G-Austyn Gossel, Fort Collins, CO, 00:15.996[46]; 42. 8-Jacob Hughes, Hartford, SD, 00:16.008[22]; 43. 4-Matt Wasmund, Jackson, MN, 00:16.015[8]; 44. 95-Tyler Drueke, Eagle, NE, 00:16.019[6]; 45. 83H-Justin Henderson, Tea, SD, 00:16.211[35]; 46. 88T-Tanner Thorson, Minden, NV, 00:16.250[32]; 47. 24-Terry McCarl, Altoona, IA, 00:16.277[37]; 48. 15J-Jack Potter, Lee’s Summit, MO, 00:16.301[26]; 49. 10W-Matt Vandervere, Burlington, WI, NT[9]
First Heat (started), 10 Laps, 3:14.0: 1. G5-Gage Pulkrabek[2]; 2. 53-Jack Dover[1]; 3. 7BC-Giovanni Scelzi[4]; 4. 39-Lynton Jeffrey[6] / 5. 83-Michael Kofoid[3]; 6. 49-Brad Sweet[8]; 7. 55V-Kerry Madsen[7]; 8. 2C-Cole Macedo[5] / 9. 16G-Austyn Gossel[9]; 10. DNS – 88T-Tanner Thorson
Second Heat (started), 10 Laps, 2:58.3: 1. 1TAZ-Tasker Phillips[1]; 2. 23L-Jimmy Light[2]; 3. 28M-Conner Morrell[3]; 4. 17B-Bill Balog[5] / 5. 85J-Logan Julien[4]; 6. 71P-Parker Price Miller[6]; 7. 19-Brent Marks[7]; 8. 4C-Cameron Martin[8] / 9. 24-Terry McCarl[10]; 10. 8-Jacob Hughes[9]
Third Heat (started), 10 Laps, NT: 1. 49J-Josh Schneiderman[1]; 2. 1S-Logan Schuchart[6]; 3. 14-Spencer Bayston[4]; 4. 1-Sammy Swindell[3] / 5. 2M-JJ Hickle[2]; 6. 19H-Kevin Thomas Jr[5]; 7. 6B-Brandon Wimmer[7]; 8. 15J-Jack Potter[10] / 9. 4-Matt Wasmund[9]; 10. 21-Brian Brown[8]
Fourth Heat (started), 10 Laps, 3:03.2: 1. 24T-Christopher Thram[1]; 2. 41-Carson Macedo[8]; 3. 11-Roger Crockett[2]; 4. 45C-Derek Hagar[4] / 5. 27B-Jake Bubak[7]; 6. 23D-Chase Dietz[5]; 7. 5-Brenham Crouch[6]; 8. 40-Clint Garner[3] / 9. 10W-Matt VanderVere[9]; 10. DNS – 95-Tyler Drueke
Fifth Heat (started), 10 Laps, 2:55.4: 1. 21H-Brady Bacon[2]; 2. 33W-Cap Henry[1]; 3. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[4]; 4. 57-Kyle Larson[6] / 5. 23W-Scott Winters[3]; 6. 3L-Daryn Pittman[8]; 7. 99-Skylar Gee[5]; 8. 83H-Justin Henderson[9] / 9. 3P-Sawyer Phillips[7]
C Main (started), 10 Laps, NT: 1. 8-Jacob Hughes[3]; 2. 16G-Austyn Gossel[2]; 3. 3P-Sawyer Phillips[1]; 4. 10W-Matt VanderVere[6]; 5. 4-Matt Wasmund[4]; 6. 24-Terry McCarl[5]; 7. DNS – 21-Brian Brown; 8. 95-Tyler Drueke; 9. 88T-Tanner Thorson
B Main (started), 12 Laps, 3:38.1: 1. 49-Brad Sweet[1]; 2. 4C-Cameron Martin[2]; 3. 71P-Parker Price Miller[8]; 4. 19-Brent Marks[5] / 5. 55V-Kerry Madsen[4]; 6. 2C-Cole Macedo[10]; 7. 83-Michael Kofoid[15]; 8. 3L-Daryn Pittman[3]; 9. 27B-Jake Bubak[7]; 10. 6B-Brandon Wimmer[6]; 11. 5-Brenham Crouch[9]; 12. 2M-JJ Hickle[18]; 13. 99-Skylar Gee[13]; 14. 83H-Justin Henderson[19]; 15. 23D-Chase Dietz[12]; 16. 40-Clint Garner[16]; 17. 8-Jacob Hughes[21]; 18. 23W-Scott Winters[17]; 19. 85J-Logan Julien[14]; 20. 16G-Austyn Gossel[22]; 21. 10W-Matt VanderVere[23]; 22. 15J-Jack Potter[20]; 23. 19H-Kevin Thomas Jr[11]; DNS – 24. 3P-Sawyer Phillips
Feature (started), 25 Laps, 7:40.5: 1. 57-Kyle Larson[5]; 2. 1S-Logan Schuchart[6]; 3. 14-Spencer Bayston[2]; 4. 7BC-Giovanni Scelzi[3]; 5. 41-Carson Macedo[8]; 6. 17B-Bill Balog[4]; 7. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[9]; 8. 49-Brad Sweet[21]; 9. 45C-Derek Hagar[1]; 10. 1TZ-Tasker Phillips[17]; 11. 21H-Brady Bacon[15]; 12. 71P-Parker Price Miller[23]; 13. 33W-Cap Henry[20]; 14. 19-Brent Marks[24]; 15. 39-Lynton Jeffrey[7]; 16. 4C-Cameron Martin[22]; 17. 1-Sammy Swindell[11]; 18. 53-Jack Dover[16]; 19. 49J-Josh Schneiderman[18]; 20. 24T-Christopher Thram[19]; 21. 28M-Conner Morrell[10]; 22. 23L-Jimmy Light[13]; 23. 11-Roger Crockett[14]; 24. G5-Gage Pulkrabek[12].
