Kyle Larson in August might be the scariest thing in the world of sprint car racing. The Paul Silva #57 was on absolute rails all week long in Knoxville even when it seemed like the now 3x Knoxville Nationals champion was beatable during the 50 lap Saturday night main event.
Larson led the field to the green flag with Daryn Pittman to his outside and the Kreitz #69K momentarily threatened for the lead on the opening circuit, with Larson squeezing Pittman towards the wall on the front straightway forcing the veteran driver to relinquish his initial challenge.
Pittman hung with the #57 during the opening 5 laps until the first caution flag flew on lap 6 for a slowing Logan Schuchart with an exploded gear. The Shark Racing team immediately went to work on the #1S and miraculously completed the gear change within the two-minute work area time limit and Schuchart was able to rejoin the field with 44 laps remaining.
Larson pulled a healthier lead on the ensuing restart while Anthony Macri, Capitani Classic winner Rico Abreu and Wednesday night Nationals Prelim winner Giovanni Scelzi battled for the remaining top 5 positions behind the Larson, Pittman and Carson Macedo trio. At the front, Larson began to stretch his legs and gapped Pittman by over 2 seconds by lap 12.
Behind the top 5 runners, youngster Corey Day in the Driven to Save Lives #14 began to carve his way towards the front moving into the 7th position by lap 13 and quickly closed in on the sharp end of the field. On lap 15, Larson hit lapped traffic with a 2.6 second lead over Pittman, which very shortly became Macedo as the Jason Johnson Racing #41 moved into the runner-up spot. Scelzi was up next to challenge Pittman and the Californian made the move on lap 18 as Macedo began to close on Larson in traffic.
On lap 20, Macedo took a massive chunk out of Larson’s lead as the pair dealt with the heavy lapped traffic and appeared poised to take the lead, but the #57 held strong until the halfway break on lap 25.
During the break, Larson and crew chief Paul Silva opted not to change rear tires while nearly the entire rest of the field did. The choice sparked differing opinions of the strategy and had fans on the edge of their seats to see whether or not the Hoosier rubber on the #57 would last the remaining 25 laps.
Spoiler alert; it did.
While Scelzi overtook Macedo for 2nd and Day soon followed suit, neither were able to mount a significant enough challenge to faze the indelible Larson as “Yung Money” took his third Knoxville Nationals title and second straight by 3.8 seconds ahead of Scelzi and Day. Macedo finished 4th while Macri prevented a California top 5 sweep by finishing in 5th. Brian Brown, Tyler Courtney, Scott Bogucki, Sheldon Haudenschild and Jacob Allen completed the top 10 runners.
The victory marked Larson’s fifth straight win in sprint car competition dating back to last Friday night at the Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 in Pevely, MO on opening night of the Ironman 55, meaning the Silva #57 is undefeated in the eighth month of the year so far.
Larson. In. August.
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