KNOXVILLE, Iowa — The 60th annual NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals has the makings to be one of the most memorable feature events in the history of the race that was first run in 1961.
The field is locked and loaded and features the best drivers in the land along with a few upstarts. The event will pay $150,000 to the winner, plus $1,000 per lap to lead the race, meaning the winner could take home as much as $200,000 for the 50-lap run.
All eyes will be on NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Larson, who has won pretty much everything he has raced the past two seasons, but is still looking for his first Nationals triumph.
Larson starts third in Paul Silva’s familiar No. 57.
“I’d love to add my name to the winners list,” he said. “You walk down the midway here and you see all the banners hanging on pillars. I want to see my face on there some day.”
Meanwhile, from the pole starts 20-year-old Gio Scelzi. The youngest polesitter in the history of the Nationals drives the KPC Racing No. 18. He won last week’s 360 Knoxville Nationals and has a lot of laps at the half-mile track this season. It will be his third main event start.
Outside the front row is two-time World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series champion Brad Sweet. The driver of the Kasey Kahne Racing with Mike Curb No. 49 has won 15 features this season and is one of three former Nationals winners locked into the field. Sweet won the Nationals in 2018.
Brent Marks has been one of the hottest drivers in the country this season after going back to racing for his own team in May. Making his third Nationals start, Marks rolls off from the fourth position.
Row three will be the focus of many of the more than 25,000 fans who will fill Knoxville Raceway Saturday night with 10-time Nationals winner Donny Schatz starting fifth in the Tony Stewart Racing No. 15 and the most-recent Knoxville Nationals winner, David Gravel, starting outside the row in the Tod Quiring’s Big Game Motorsports entry.
It will be the 23rd main event start for Schatz and the ninth for Gravel.
Longtime NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne starts seventh in the Roth Motorsports No. 83, making his second Nationals start, but first since 2002. Logan Schuchart, who finished second in 2019, starts eighth in the Shark Racing No. 1s.
A pair of Knoxville Raceway track champions share row five. Brian Brown, who finished second in the Nationals three times, starts ninth in the Brian Brown Racing No. 21 with Australian Ian Madsen 10th in the Rudzik Excavating No. 49x. It’s Brown’s 11th Nationals feature and the seventh for Madsen.
Starting 11th in his first weekend in Glenn Styres’ No. 0, Australian veteran Brooke Tatnell starts 11th. He shares row six with Clauson-Marshall Racing driver Tyler Courtney, who makes his Nationals debut. Courtney won last month’s 38th Kings Royal at Eldora Speedway.
Justin Peck, Danny Dietrich and Anthony Macri will all make their first Nationals starts.
James McFadden, Justin Henderson, Rico Abreu, Shane Stewart and Brock Zearfoss are the remainder of the 20 drivers locked into the main event.
The final four spots, positions 17-20, will be filled through tonight’s B main. The top four starters in the B main are Josh Baughman, Carson Macedo, Sye Lynch and Spencer Bayston.
Others relegated to the B main include Kraig Kinser, Kerry Madsen, Sheldon Haudenschild and Cory Eliason.