Larson Goes Wire To Wire For Second Knoxville Nationals Title

Starting from the pole position and quickly opening up a big advantage over his competitors, Kyle Larson dominated in winning his second Knoxville Nationals championship in the 62nd running of the event Saturday night at the Knoxville Raceway. The only other driver to lead all fifty laps after the race was lengthened from thirty laps with the 50th Annual event in 2010, Donny Schatz would move from third to second on the opening lap, but not even the eleven-time winner could maintain Larson's blistering pace.

Rico Abreu, who had started second only to nearly fall to fourth early, charged past Schatz on lap fourteen to take second and the first caution of the race would wave one lap later when this year's Rookie of the Nationals Chase Randall slowed with a flat right rear tire. As a push truck went to retrieve Randall from turn two and take him back to the work area for a tire change, there was an anticipation in the air from the sellout crowd wondering if Rico could now keep pace with Larson. That mood quickly changed though when Abreu's right rear also went flat during the caution and he would join Randall at the back of the field for the restart.

Again Larson would pull away from Schatz, but many in the crowd were now watching the progress of David Gravel. After getting caught up in an incident early on his qualifying night, Gravel had finished second in the Friday night feature to start him from twenty-second on this grid and the 2019 Nationals champion was now in the top ten and was still on the move before the caution waved for the lap twenty-five fuel stop, or Sprint Car halftime.

Kyle Larson's #57 was fast from the start - Barry Johnson photo

After the five minute break the top three would be Larson, Schatz and Thursday's winner Carson Macedo while Gravel lined up seventh and Abreu had charged back to eleventh. Logan Schuchart would make the first big move though as he charged by both Macedo and Schatz to take second on lap twenty-seven and now Sprint Car's Million Dollar Man would try to keep pace with Larson.

He would keep the leader in sight, never getting close enough to challenge though and Schuchart's bid for his first Nationals victory could come to an end on lap forty in a puff of smoke. Gravel was now up to third and again the crowd was abuzz hoping that someone would at least be able to mount a challenge on the popular Larson. However, with just ten laps remaining and the unlikely obstacle of lapped traffic coming before the checkers, they knew that Kyle would be hard to beat. And when Gravel and Schatz started throwing sliders at each other, that would allow Larson to open up nearly a full straightaway advantage.

Gravel cleared Schatz for second on lap forty-two and it was obvious that the two fastest cars were now at the front of the field and the one in second was not gaining any ground on the one in front. And that is how this one would come to a close with Kyle Larson backing up his 2021 Nationals title with the crown here in 2023. Gravel would finish second while Schatz would make it an impressive podium in third. During the post race press conference Donny noted that it is tough to win this race from the pole position and now he looks for Larson to win the Indy 500 from the pole in 2024. 

Kyle Larson celebrates with his son Owen - Barry Johnson photo

Gio Scelzi made a great run from ninth to fourth including an amazing three lap segment when he slugged it out with Carson Macedo who finished fifth. Brad Sweet recovered nicely from a hard crash on Thursday night to come from sixteenth to sixth. Rico Abreu once again passed a lot of cars, despite having started from the front row as he rallied to seventh. Buddy Kofoid finished where he started in eighth, Kerry Madsen was ninth and Sheldon Haudenschild advanced from twentieth to tenth.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds welcomed the capacity crowd and then introduced Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis during the opening ceremonies and the the racing got off to a scary start when fourth-starting Cody Ihlen hopped a wheel coming to the green and went through a nasty series of end over end flips down the front stretch as the E-Main took the green. The young driver from southwest Minnesota was reported to be conscious and talking with the rescue personnel before being taken to the local hospital.

Matt Covington was also taken in for observation after his front stretch crash in the D-Main. James McFadden was leading the B-Main on lap ten when he had a tire blow sending him into the turn one guardrail before riding out a couple of "endos" and Tasker Phillips also got upside down in the B-Main.

That puts a wrap on the 2023 Knoxville Nationals and once again the entire Knoxville Raceway crew treated our team here at Positively Racing just like we were one of the top outlets in the sport. I want to thank my photographer and good friend Barry Johnson, his wife Stephanie and daughter Aidan for once again allowing me to take over their spare bedroom for seven nights and this week would not be the same without my Nationals "family" the Nachbors; Jeff, Keith, Sam, Sean and Ethan who keep me well fed, well informed and greatly entertained for four straight nights in our beloved Section I. Can't wait to see you all again in 362 days (it's a leap year after all)!

We will take a week now to decompress and while the Sprint Invaders will be at the Peoria Speedway next Saturday night August 19th, I will be back on the mic with Bill W and the Invaders on Sunday night, August 20th, at the Adams County Illinois Speedway in Quincy.

Hope to see you there and, as always, thank you for reading the Back Stretch!