KNOXVILLE, Iowa — To understand the prestige and passion involved with the Knoxville Nationals, one need only walk around the tiny town.
It’s everywhere. From the campers in yards across the small village that grows from just more than 7,000 to more than 20,000 during the Nationals that began here in 1961, to the special events built around the Nationals. The community support is a big reason for the success, and why fans come from around the world to see the event run at Knoxville Raceway, located at the Marion County Fairgrounds.
It’s important to the town; it’s important to the fans; and it is important to the racers.
North Dakota driver Donny Schatz has won the Knoxville Nationals 10 times. His journey at the Sprint Car Capital of the world began as a young boy.
Saturday night’s 60th running of the NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals will be Schatz’s 23rd feature start at the Nationals. He’s won it, and he’s lost it.
“The festivities here make you feel it anywhere you walk in this town this week. You can feel it in the air,” said Schatz, who turned 44 on Tuesday. “All the fun people are having. As a racer, you can walk by turns one and two on the street and see the fairgrounds and the history it, I came here as a kid. My dad brought me here when I was five years old. It is one of these placed in the Midwest that just has such a heritage and such an aura.
“Everything about it is exciting,” he continued. “There are other events that pay a lot of money and they are as exciting, but this place, this race, has the most prestige, the most money and the most amount of people. There is something about it for me that makes it the best of the best and it’s not just because I won it. If I would have never won it, I would say the same thing.”
David Gravel won the Nationals the last time it was run prior to the pandemic in 2019, and he won Wednesday night’s preliminary night feature.
“It is such a unique place. It is in a town and the whole place shuts down. I don’t know if there is any other landscape like that,” the Connecticut native said. “Dingus (a local bar) is cool. Three and four (legendary fairgrounds party spot) is cool. This is the hardest race to win. If you look at the Kings Royal history, a lot of different people have won the Kings Royal, but the list of Knoxville Nationals winners is a lot smaller.
“It always paid the most money and now the Kings Royal stepped it up, but I feel like at the end of the day, every driver would say the Knoxville Nationals is the most prestigious,” added the 29-year-old Gravel. “When you first came here, you always just wanted to make the show and that relief and excitement of putting it in the show for the first time was an amazing feeling. All the people, the grandstands on the backstretch and all the fireworks. Everything is just so cool about this place. It is my No. 1 and always will be.”
Californian Gio Scelzi is 19 years old and looking for his first Knoxville Nationals victory, driving for the Iowa-based KCP Racing operation.
“It is unreal for me to be here and to be really young and to be competitive with the best racers in the world at the best race track in the world,” Scelzi said. “Living here in Iowa and driving for a home team, it means a little bit more, all my guys are from Iowa and it has become a home track for me also.
“There is no race track in the world with an environment like Knoxville. Guys from different racing environments, they come see it and it is hard to explain. You have to see it four yourself. This is the No. 1 race for any sprint car driver to win.”
Saturday’s 50-lap main event will pay $150,000 to win, with an additional $1,000 paid for every lap led, presenting the potential for the winner to take home $200,000.