Column: Kyle Larson’s Now Seventh Driver With Three Or More Knoxville Nationals Crowns

Column By: ALEX NIETEN / WORLD OF OUTLAWS – KNOXVILLE, IA – Kyle Larson continues to cement his place as one of the best to ever wheel a Sprint Car.

And he does so by defying all logic.

He doesn’t get to race a Sprint Car 80 times a year. Typically, his count ends up somewhere between 20 and 30. But it doesn’t seem to matter when he shows up to race against the best Sprint Car drivers in the country.

Larson’s latest conquest came on Saturday night at Knoxville Raceway. A prelim win on Thursday helped the Elk Grove, CA native secure the pole for the 63rd running of the NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s. He rolled into Championship Saturday as the clear favorite, and he delivered.

“Yung Money” led all 50 laps around the historic half mile for the second consecutive year. He fended off challenges from multiple drivers – Daryn Pittman, Carson Macedo, and Giovanni Scelzi – to top his third Knoxville Nationals in the last four years aboard the Silva Motorsports No. 57 and bank $190,000.

“It doesn’t get any bigger than the Knoxville Nationals,” Larson said. “It feels great to lead back-to-back 50 lappers from start to finish because the best Sprint Car drivers in the world are lined up behind me. They don’t make it easy. It was a tricky race there. I know at times it maybe doesn’t look like it, but those lappers were just fast enough around the bottom. I felt like I was just slowing myself down. I was able to get clear of a couple of them and able to get rolling back near the bottom and the middle actually came in, so I felt like I strung together some good laps there at the end.”

Larson’s third win in “The Granddaddy of ‘Em All” puts him in a list alongside legendary names as those who’ve topped at least three – Steve Kinser (12), Donny Schatz (11), Doug Wolfgang (five), Kenny Weld (four), Danny Lasoski (four), and Mark Kinser (three). He also became the eighth different competitor to tame back-to-back Knoxville Nationals.

The triumph on the sport’s biggest stage also adds to what’s been a remarkable run from Larson and the Silva Motorsports crew that will go down in the history books. It began last Friday when Larson charged from 21st to victory at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars. He backed that up the following night with a drive from 12th to his third Ironman 55 dumbbell. Then on Monday at Southern Iowa Speedway he stormed form 13th to Victory Lane. The Knoxville Nationals Thursday prelim saw him pick up the trophy from starting sixth. And now he adds the sport’s biggest race to the roll.

Five straight Sprint Car wins for Larson in the No. 57. For a team that performed below their standards earlier in the year, the celebration was even more rewarding.

“Hats off to Paul, Trevor, and Doug,” Larson said. “Everybody knows we’ve been really bad this year until the last couple weeks. They’ve been working extremely hard. It’s been a very disappointing year to our standards. For them to never give up and myself to never give up either is tough to do. Like I said, they work so hard. All of this goes to them for continuing to push and push and try to get better and better. All of these teams are racing 90 times a year. We’re only getting to race 25 to 30, so we have to work extra hard. It makes these wins feel extra great.”

A few different competitors offered up challenges to Larson throughout the 50 laps.

First it was second-starting Daryn Pittman taking a swing right off the bat. Larson opted for the bottom on the first lap, so Pittman moved the Kreitz Racing No. 69K to the top. The Owasso, OK native nearly pulled alongside Larson out of Turn 4, but he couldn’t keep the momentum up to make the move.

Larson then pulled ahead of Pittman, and the next to take a shot at the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion was Carson Macedo. He slipped by Pittman for second on Lap 16 and quickly began to close the gap. The Jason Johnson Racing No. 41 whittled what was over a two-second lead down under half a second in traffic right before the yellow flag for the fuel stop halted the action.

After the restart, another name looked to challenge Larson, and it was Giovanni Scelzi. “Hot Sauce” wheeled around Macedo for second on Lap 28. The distance between the No. 57 and the KCP Racing No. 18 dwindled as Scelzi worked the bottom smoothly.

But ultimately Larson proved to have too much speed as he drove off and constructed a big lead through traffic. By the time the checkered flag waved it had grown to nearly four seconds.

Three wins at the sport’s biggest race over four years. If the One and Only in 2020 during the pandemic had been the traditional event, he’d be up to four in five years since he also won then. Steve Kinser had his stretch of dominance. Donny Schatz had a turn. And Larson wants to put together a similar chapter in the history books. He’s off to a strong start.

“Any time you win a crown jewel it’s up there,” Larson said of the race’s significance. “To win back-to-back Knoxville Nationals, that puts it right up there as well. Donny Schatz had dominated this place for so long. I feel like we’re on our own little streak of dominance like he was. With 2020 not really counting, I feel like we could have four of these things.”