Kyle Larson’s night started with a NASCAR Cup run in Richmond, Virginia, but thanks to a three-hour rain delay and a fast jet, he made it to Knoxville Raceway early Sunday morning to claim the $200,000 top prize in the 65th NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals Presented by Casey’s. The Elk Grove, California native led all 50 laps to garner his fourth Nationals win in six years. Including his prelim win, the SprintCarUnlimited.com $2,000 for winning the pole, and the Beaver Drill & Tool/MPV Express/Mike & Kathy Hulbert Jesse Hockett “Mr. Sprint Car” Award worth $10,000, his total earnings for the week topped $212,000. It was his sixteenth career win at the “Sprint Car Capital of the World.”
Larson missed A main hot laps, but arrived from Richmond before the 22-lap B main started. He shot out from the pole position in the 50-lapper ahead of Sheldon Haudenschild, Kasey Kahne, James McFaden and Buddy Kofoid. Kahne shot by Haudenschild for the runner-up spot on lap two.
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Larson led the ten-lap Dash to the checkers to win his fourth Nationals with car owner Paul Silva, ahead of Haudenschild, Kahne, Schuchart and McFadden. Schuchart peaked with a lap 43 pass of Kahne for second. Kahne returned the favor with three to go. Larson was back in traffic with two to go and pulled away for the win.
Haudenschild claimed second, ahead of Kahne, McFadden and Schuchart. Gravel, Kofoid, Price-Miller, Brent Marks and Dietz completed the top ten. Darin Naida won the D main, Ryan Timms took the C main, and Tyler Courtney claimed the 22-lap B.
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“It’s extremely surreal,” said Larson in Victory Lane. “It was a range of emotions. Going back the last couple days, I had no emotions. I knew I wasn’t going to race, but there was still that glimmer of hope with the rain and the forecast. When I got in the Cup car, it only showed a 10% chance of rain at 6 or something. I was sad for a minute. Cliff came on the radio and said there was a rain delay here and they hadn’t started hot laps yet. I got a kickstart of emotion, and it’s wild how I’m here tonight standing here talking to you. Huge thank you to Hendrick Motorsports. I couldn’t do this without them. I felt really good there early. I was actually a bit nervous. I felt too free and loose. I was nervous when I got in traffic, but it seemed I could just carve through there. I felt like judging myself on the lappers, it would be hard for anyone to close on me and then make a move. (Paul Silva) doesn’t do much talking at all. He’s just such a strong mind. He’s so smart. For someone who’s never been behind the wheel of a racecar, to be as good as he is as a crew chief is unreal. He can read the car better than I can feel it. I think having that combination helps me just run the sprint car the way it needs to be. I hope all the people (complaining) about us running our preliminary night understand why. This was the best case scenario.”