Larson sticks the landing at Knoxville
NASCAR driver lands in time to dominate 65th Nationals
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KNOXVILLE -- Kyle Larson's Saturday began with him simply hoping he could watch the finale of the 65th NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's.
It ended in Victory Lane.
On Thursday, Larson drove to victory at Toyota Qualifying Night, putting the Silva Motorsports No. 57 on the pole for the championship feature. But he had no expectation of being able to return with Hendrick Motorsports duties requiring him at Richmond Raceway for the NASCAR Cup Series race Saturday night. The plan was for crew member Trevor Canales to jump in and start and park the car.
Mother Nature had other plans.
Steady rain delayed Saturday's championship program to the point Larson's Cup crew chief, Cliff Daniels, told him during the race they were mapping out a plan to get him to Knoxville once Richmond wrapped up. "Yung Money" placed sixth in the NASCAR race and hopped on a jet bound for Iowa. That flight wound up being the most tracked in the world as fans eagerly watched if Larson would make it on time to compete. The rain pushed things back just enough as DIRTVision cameras showed Larson landing during the C-main with a police escort waiting.
Larson showed up to Knoxville Raceway and put a beatdown on the world's best Sprint Car competition. The Elk Grove, Calif. native started first and stayed there for the entire 50-lap finale.
Sheldon Haudenschild and Kasey Kahne attempted to challenge him during different stages, but they couldn't find enough speed. Larson took the checkered flag and completed one of the most memorable days not just in the history of Sprint Car racing, but all of Motorsports.
"It's extremely surreal," Larson said. "Just to talk about the day and the range of emotions. Even going back to the last couple days, I had no emotion. I knew I wouldn't be able to race, but there was still that glimmer of hope with the rain in the forecast
"When I got in the Cup car, it only showed like a 10% chance of rain at 6 p.m. or something. I was like, 'Alright, that's a bummer.' I was kind of sad for a minute and then just got focused on the Cup race. We were struggling but making improvements, and then all of a sudden Cliff came on the radio and said there was a rain delay here, and they hadn't started Hot Laps yet. Then I got a kickstart of emotion there. It's just wild how I'm here tonight."
The Richmond-Knoxville double ended in a fourth Knoxville Nationals victory for Larson, this one worth $200,000. Larson is up to 16 overall wins at Knoxville. It also gave him 40 career checkered flags with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars, becoming the 22nd different driver to reach the mark.
Sheldon Haudenschild nearly captured his first Knoxville Nationals title, coming home second in his seventh-straight top 10.
Kasey Kahne put together a stout 50 laps in his own Kasey Kahne Racing No. 4 to round out the podium. James McFadden and Logan Schuchart completed the top five.