KNOXVILLE NATIONALS: NIGHT #2 KYLE LARSON WINS WITH SOME LATE NIGHT MAGIC

All photos by: Paul Arch Photos

by Bill Wright

KNOXVILLE, Iowa (August 8, 2024) – Kyle Larson passed Rico Abreu with two laps to go to capture Toyota Qualifying Night #2 of the 63rd NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals Presented by Casey’s. 

The Elk Grove, California driver earned $12,000 for his eleventh win at Knoxville Raceway, and he put himself on the pole of Saturday’s championship event paying $190,000 to win. 

Daryn Pittman will join him on the front row, as they led the top sixteen drivers in points locking themselves into the finale.

Bill Balog led at the outset of the 25-lap main event, followed by Abreu, Carson Macedo, Brady Bacon and Larson. On lap four, Larson gained fourth from Bacon. Up front, Balog was hitting traffic by lap seven.

Abreu reeled in Balog in traffic and slid in front of him in turn four to take the point on lap 12. A lap later, Macedo followed him into second.  With ten to go, Larson gained third from Balog, while Tyler Courtney moved into the top five.

Larson continued his charge on the cushion and got around Macedo for second with seven laps to go. He slowly reeled in Abreu. On lap 24, Abreu stumbled a bit in turn two behind a lapper, and Larson used the low side to take the lead for good.

Larson’s win aboard Paul Silva’s #57 came ahead of Abreu, Macedo, Courtney and Balog. Pittman, Brad Sweet, Bacon, Zeb Wise and Brian Brown rounded out the top ten. Pittman set quickest time over the 54-car field and won his heat. Hunter Schuerenberg, Tasker Phillips, Macedo and Ayrton Gennetten also won heats. Sye Lynch won the C main and Dusty Zomer claimed the B.

“Rico was doing a good job as the leader,” said Larson in Victory Lane. “Carson got rolling there for a minute, and I didn’t think I was going to get by him. I didn’t really know exactly what to do. Rico got to a lapper. He couldn’t follow him and had to go top or middle. That car hit the berm in front of me. That gave me a bunch of clean air and probably messed him up. We were in the right place at the right time, but you always have to execute every lap. The car felt great during the feature. The car felt better and better as that slime got thrown off the bottom.”

“Got to do a little better job managing traffic,” said Abreu. “I felt like I left the bottom open there. The top was just really far around. My right front would get up a little bit where I had to give some up in the center. The team did an awesome job. To finish on the podium with these guys is a good effort for my team.”

“The race was in stages for me,” said Macedo. “I felt like early, I got a back a little too far. I started catching them again when I got to traffic. I felt like I could maneuver well in traffic. I got to Rico, and he kind of got messed up. I thought I could squeeze by him, and paced myself behind him waiting for an opportunity. I saw the 57 beside me and went down in three and missed it. I knew I was in trouble. All in all, hat’s off to my team.”

Join us Friday, August 9, for the FVP “Hard Knox Night” at the 63rd NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals Presented by Casey’s. For tickets and more information on the Knoxville Raceway, visit us online at www.KnoxvilleRaceway.com or on Facebook.

63rd NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals Presented by Casey’s Toyota Qualifying Night #2 Results

Time Trials (Qualifying Order), 2 laps: 1. 69K, Daryn Pittman, Owasso, OK (8), 15.594; 2. 7BC, Tyler Courtney, Indianapolis, IN (14), 15.926; 3. 57, Kyle Larson, Elk Grove, CA (1), 15.954; 4. 21, Brian Brown, Grain Valley, MO (39), 15.966; 5. 33W, Cap Henry, Bellevue, OH (5), 15.996; 6. 3J, Dusty Zomer, Sioux Falls, SD (4), 16.017; 7. 8, Cory Eliason, Visalia, CA (3), 16.024; 8. 21H, Brady Bacon, Broken Arrow, OK (6), 16.067; 9. 41, Carson Macedo, Lemoore, CA (30), 16.072; 10. 1K, Kelby Watt, Adel, IA (2), 16.085; 11. 83SR, James McFadden, Alice Springs, NT, A (10), 16.092; 12. 24R, Rico Abreu, St. Helena, CA (28), 16.098; 13. 35, Zach Hampton, Plainfield, IN (11), 16.103; 14. 42, Sye Lynch, Apollo, PA (16), 16.108; 15. 17B, Bill Balog, Hartland, WI (35), 16.114; 16. 49, Brad Sweet, Grass Valley, CA (22), 16.145; 17. 88, Austin McCarl, Altoona, IA (23), 16.150; 18. 1C, Brenham Crouch, Lubbock, TX (12), 16.167; 19. 1S, Logan Schuchart, Hanover, PA (50), 16.221; 20. 74, Xavier Doney, Odessa, MO (7), 16.223; 21. 5X, Justin Henderson, Tea, SD (34), 16.228; 22. 5, Spencer Bayston, Lebanon, IN (29), 16.254; 23. 40, Clint Garner, Sioux Falls, SD (15), 16.264; 24. 49J, Josh Schneiderman, West Burlington, IA (9), 16.270; 25. 27A, Emerson Axsom, Franklin, IN (47), 16.273; 26. 24D, Danny Sams III, North Port, FL (17), 16.298; 27. 88T, Tanner Thorson, Minden, NV (21), 16.354; 28. 26, Zeb Wise, Angola, IN (46), 16.384; 29. 55C, Chris Windom, Canton, IL (25), 16.386; 30. 36, Jason Martin, Liberal`, KS (13), 16.407; 31. 6, Robbie Price, Cobble Hill, BC, Can (20), 16.419; 32. 19S, Hunter Schuerenberg, Sikeston, MO (54), 16.448; 33. 2M, Ryan Giles, Grimes, IA (18), 16.450; 34. 58, Kaleb Johnson, Sioux Falls, SD (44), 16.489; 35. 13JT, Mark Dobmeier, Grand Forks, ND (49), 16.492; 36. 7S, Landon Crawley, Benton, AR (38), 16.498; 37. 5T, Ryan Timms, Oklahoma City, OK (37), 16.499; 38. 1D, Tasker Phillips, Pleasantville, IA (31), 16.530; 39. 25, Daison Pursley, Locust Grove, OK (27), 16.574; 40. 3G, Ayrton Gennetten, Gravois Mills, MO (33), 16.601; 41. 22X, JJ Hickle, Quilcene, WA (43), 16.617; 42. 24, Terry McCarl, Altoona, IA (24), 16.639; 43. 27B, Jake Bubak, Arvada, CO (51), 16.642; 44. 3, Tim Kaeding, San Jose, CA (42), 16.665; 45. 91, Kyle Reinhardt, Neptune City, NJ (41), 16.716; 46. 18R, Ryan Roberts, Aurora, NE (36), 16.799; 47. 3N, Jake Neuman, New Berlin, IL (32), 16.802; 48. 65, Jordan Goldesberry, Springfield, IL (53), 16.819; 49. 27W, Weston Olson, Warren, MN (26), 16.951; 50. 53, Jessie Attard, Landilo, NSW, Aust. (48), 16.992 / 51. 95, Tyler Drueke, Eagle, NE (19), 16.998; 52. 14T, Brooke Tatnell, Sans Souci, NSW, Aust. (52), 17.035; 53. 28, Joe Perry, Billings, MT (40), 18.757; 54. 9H, Landon Hansen, Newton, IA (45), NT.

Heat one (started), 10 Laps, 2:52.5: 1. Daryn Pittman (8); 2. Landon Crawley (1); 3. Brad Sweet (5); 4. Danny Sams III (3) / 5. James McFadden (6); 6. Justin Henderson (4); 7. Dusty Zomer (7); 8. JJ Hickle (9) / 9. Robbie Price (2); 10. Ryan Roberts (10)

Heat two (started), 10 Laps, NT: 1. Hunter Schuerenberg (2); 2. Ryan Timms (1); 3. Rico Abreu (6); 4. Tyler Courtney (8) / 5. Spencer Bayston (4); 6. Tanner Thorson (3); 7. Cory Eliason (7); 8. Austin McCarl (5) / 9. Jake Neuman (10); 10. Terry McCarl (9);

Heat three (started), 10 Laps, NT: 1. Tasker Phillips (1); 2. Zeb Wise (2); 3. Kyle Larson (7); 4. Brady Bacon (6) / 5. Brenham Crouch (4); 6. Jake Bubak (8); 7. Zach Hampton (5); 8. Jordan Goldesberry (9) / 9. Clint Garner (3) DNS – 10. Ryan Giles

Heat four (started), 10 Laps, NT: 1. Carson Macedo (6); 2. Daison Pursley (1); 3. Kaleb Johnson (2); 4. Brian Brown (7) / 5. Logan Schuchart (5); 6. Chris Windom (3); 7. Josh Schneiderman (4); 8. Weston Olson (9) / 9. Tim Kaeding (8) DNS – 10. Sye Lynch

Heat five (started), 10 Laps, 2:53.8: 1. Ayrton Gennetten (1); 2. Mark Dobmeier (2); 3. Bill Balog (6); 4. Jason Martin (3) / 5. Emerson Axsom (4); 6. Cap Henry (8); 7. Kelby Watt (7); 8. Xavier Doney (5) / 9. Jessie Attard (10); 10. Kyle Reinhardt (9);

C main (started), 10 Laps, 2:55.9: 1. Sye Lynch (1); 2. Clint Garner (2); 3. Robbie Price (3); 4. Tim Kaeding (5) / 5. Terry McCarl (4); 6. Brooke Tatnell (10); 7. Tyler Drueke (9); 8. Jessie Attard (8); 9. Jake Neuman (7); 10. Joe Perry (11); 11. Kyle Reinhardt (6) DNS – 12. Ryan Giles 13. Ryan Roberts 14. Landon Hansen

B main (started), 12 Laps, 3:31.0: 1. Dusty Zomer (2); 2. Cap Henry (1); 3. James McFadden (5); 4. Cory Eliason (3) / 5. Zach Hampton (6); 6. Spencer Bayston (12); 7. Austin McCarl (7); 8. Logan Schuchart (9); 9. Kelby Watt (4); 10. Justin Henderson (11); 11. Chris Windom (16); 12. Emerson Axsom (14); 13. Brenham Crouch (8); 14. Jake Bubak (18); 15. Tanner Thorson (15); 16. Tim Kaeding (24); 17. Josh Schneiderman (13); 18. Xavier Doney (10); 19. JJ Hickle (17); 20. Sye Lynch (21); 21. Robbie Price (23); 22. Clint Garner (22); 23. Weston Olson (20); 24. Jordan Goldesberry (19)

A main, 25 Laps, 7:28.3: 1. Kyle Larson (6); 2. Rico Abreu (2); 3. Carson Macedo (3); 4. Tyler Courtney (7); 5. Bill Balog (1); 6. Daryn Pittman (8); 7. Brad Sweet (9); 8. Brady Bacon (4); 9. Zeb Wise (11); 10. Brian Brown (5); 11. Kaleb Johnson (14); 12. Hunter Schuerenberg (13); 13. James McFadden (23); 14. Cory Eliason (24); 15. Ryan Timms (17); 16. Tasker Phillips (18); 17. Danny Sams III (10); 18. Jason Martin (12); 19. Dusty Zomer (21); 20. Landon Crawley (16); 21. Ayrton Gennetten (20); 22. Mark Dobmeier (15); 23. Cap Henry (22); 24. Daison Pursley (19). Lap Leaders: Balog 1-11, Abreu 12-23, Larson 24-25. Hard-charger: McFadden.