No Surprise: Thursday’s Knoxville Prelim Belongs To Larson

KNOXVILLE, Iowa – Even when Kyle Larson starts off a crown-jewel sprint car program behind the proverbial 8-ball, he tends to find a way to overcome and dominate the competition when it matters.

That refrain was true Thursday night at Knoxville Raceway, as Larson drove to his second straight Toyota Qualifying Night victory at the Sprint Car Capital of the World.

In a caution-free 25-lap preliminary feature, Larson wheeled the Silva Motorsports No. 57 from fifth to first to capture the $12,000 victory, marking his 13th career 410ci sprint car win at Knoxville and fourth overall Knoxville Nationals prelim night triumph.

A three-wide dive into turn one on the initial start got Larson into a battle for third, then he made the move for second on lap five before setting his sights on early leader Spencer Bayston for the top spot.

By the halfway point – literally – Larson was on Bayston’s bumper for the point and fired a deep slider that sealed the deal. He took the lead on lap 13 and drove away to the checkered flag from there.

Larson worked slower traffic to perfection over the closing laps and his xx-second victory locked the Elk Grove, Calif., native into his 10th career Knoxville Nationals championship feature and fifth in a row.

“Honestly, I’m out of breath,” Larson said. “That was a really fast-paced 25 laps. The track was really slick, but then against [the cushion] was super gripped up. It just made it really technical. The car was dancing around a lot. I was using both feet quite a bit and steering pretty heavily there, but it was fun.

“I was trying to watch at least the scoreboard there to see who was in second, and I saw Spencer was still in second,” noted the 33-year-old. “I got stuck behind the 4 (Cameron Martin). He was running a good pace in front of me for a while, and I just figured they were probably closing on me. Thankfully I got by him with a few to go, and I felt like I could rest a little bit easier after that.”

Larson’s Thursday-night score marked his 10th win in his last 22 sprint car starts at Knoxville, nearly a 50-percent success rate, and he’s finished inside the top two in all but six of those appearances.

That said, Larson will have some work to do if he wants to win a third straight Knoxville Nationals crown, as a sub-par heat race – combined with a 15th-place qualifying effort – slots him ninth on the grid for Saturday’s $195,000-to-win grand finale.

In his three Knoxville Nationals wins, Larson has started in the top three each time, including twice from the pole position. He’s not hitting the panic button, however.

“I wish we would’ve done a little better earlier in the night,” Larson admitted. “It’ll be enough to lock in the [Saturday] feature for sure, but … eighth to 10th in points … isn’t great.

“We can still win from there, hopefully, on Saturday.”

A late push by Shark Racing’s Logan Schuchart allowed him to complete a sixth-to-second run, after he passed Bayston with seven laps remaining.

The Hanover, Pa., native hopes this can be the year he finally rolls the Drydene No. 1s into victory lane at the end of the biggest sprint car race in the world.

“It’s nice when you’re finishing up front,” said Schuchart, who will start third Saturday night. “This will be our best starting position yet [for the Nationals finale]. I know we were catching Kyle at the end, but I’m one hundred percent sure he was in conservative mode, leading the race and trying not to do anything he shouldn’t do.

“We’re on the podium. It puts us in a good spot for Saturday.”

Bayston hung onto third at the finish and secured the 16th and final direct lock-in spot to the championship A-main by one point.

Gio Scelzi and Carson Macedo finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in Thursday’s feature.

Five-time World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series champion Brad Sweet set the fastest time in qualifying, won the Last Chance Showdown, and charged from 21st to eighth in the nightcap to earn KSE Hard Charger Honors.

Sweet lines up third for the Saturday finale, behind a front row consisting of 18-year-old Wednesday prelim winner Ryan Timms and Macedo, who was Thursday’s high-point man and second overall.

Timms becomes the youngest polesitter in the 64-year history of the Knoxville Nationals.

Action at Knoxville Raceway continues Friday with FVP Hard Knox Qualifying Night at the Marion County Fairgrounds, where the 74 entries not yet locked into their Saturday starting positions will re-race to earn one of four guaranteed berths into the ‘Granddaddy Of Them All’.

Every lap of Knoxville Nationals week streams live on DIRTvision, the exclusive home of the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series.

RESULTS: 64th Knoxville Nationals; Toyota Qualifying Night; Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway; Aug. 7, 2025

Qualifying (best of two laps): 1. 49-Brad Sweet, 15.002 2. 4C-Cameron Martin, 15.285; 3. 21-Brian Brown, 15.300; 4. 41-Carson Macedo, 15.315; 5. 3L-Daryn Pittman, 15.341; 6. 55V-Kerry Madsen, 15.363; 7. 19-Brent Marks, 15.383; 8. 6B-Brandon Wimmer, 15.421; 9. 27B-Jake Bubak, 15.436; 10. 3P-Sawyer Phillips, 15.454; 11. 39-Lynton Jeffrey, 15.479; 12. 71P-Parker Price Miller, 15.480; 13. 1S-Logan Schuchart, 15.491; 14. 5-Brenham Crouch, 15.508; 15. 57-Kyle Larson, 15.524; 16. 2C-Cole Macedo, 15.545; 17. 17B-Bill Balog, 15.565; 18. 19H-Kevin Thomas Jr, 15.606; 19. 23D-Chase Dietz, 15.618; 20. 99-Skylar Gee, 15.635; 21. 7BC-Gio Scelzi, 15.657; 22. 85J-Logan Julien, 15.664; 23. 14-Spencer Bayston, 15.671; 24. 45C-Derek Hagar, 15.693; 25. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss, 15.699; 26. 83-Michael Kofoid, 15.704; 27. 28M-Conner Morrell, 15.749; 28. 1-Sammy Swindell, 15.759; 29. 40-Clint Garner, 15.767; 30. 23W-Scott Winters, 15.770; 31. G5-Gage Pulkrabek, 15.782; 32. 23L-Jimmy Light, 15.795; 33. 2M-J.J. Hickle, 15.811; 34. 11-Roger Crockett, 15.865; 35. 21H-Brady Bacon, 15.868; 36. 53-Jack Dover, 15.874; 37. 1TZ-Tasker Phillips, 15.887; 38. 49J-Josh Schneiderman, 15.932; 39. 24T-Christopher Thram, 15.954; 40. 33W-Cap Henry, 15.991; 41. 16G-Austyn Gossel, 15.996; 42. 8-Jacob Hughes, 16.008; 43. 4-Matt Wasmund, 16.015; 44. 95-Tyler Drueke, 16.019; 45. 83H-Justin Henderson, 16.211; 46. 88T-Tanner Thorson, 16.250; 47. 24-Terry McCarl, 16.277; 48. 15J-Jack Potter, 16.301; 49. 10W-Matt VanderVere, 16.301.

Heat #1 (10 laps, top four transfer): 1. G5-Gage Pulkrabek [2]; 2. 53-Jack Dover [1]; 3. 7BC-Gio Scelzi [4]; 4. 39-Lynton Jeffrey [6] / 5. 83-Michael Kofoid [3]; 6. 49-Brad Sweet [8]; 7. 55V-Kerry Madsen [7]; 8. 2C-Cole Macedo [5]; 9. 16G-Austyn Gossel [9]; 10. 88T-Tanner Thorson (DNS).

Heat #2 (10 laps, top four transfer): 1. 1TZ-Tasker Phillips [1]; 2. 23L-Jimmy Light [2]; 3. 28M-Conner Morrell [3]; 4. 17B-Bill Balog [5] / 5. 85J-Logan Julien [4]; 6. 71P-Parker Price Miller [6]; 7. 19-Brent Marks [7]; 8. 4C-Cameron Martin [8]; 9. 24-Terry McCarl [10]; 10. 8-Jacob Hughes [9].

Heat #3 (10 laps, top four transfer): 1. 49J-Josh Schneiderman [1]; 2. 1S-Logan Schuchart [6]; 3. 14-Spencer Bayston [4]; 4. 1-Sammy Swindell [3] / 5. 2M-J.J. Hickle [2]; 6. 19H-Kevin Thomas Jr. [5]; 7. 6B-Brandon Wimmer [7]; 8. 15J-Jack Potter [10]; 9. 4-Matt Wasmund [9]; 10. 21-Brian Brown [8].

Heat #4 (10 laps, top four transfer): 1. 24T-Christopher Thram [1]; 2. 41-Carson Macedo [8]; 3. 11-Roger Crockett [2]; 4. 45C-Derek Hagar [4] / 5. 27B-Jake Bubak [7]; 6. 23D-Chase Dietz [5]; 7. 5-Brenham Crouch [6]; 8. 40-Clint Garner [3]; 9. 10W-Matt VanderVere [9]; 10. 95-Tyler Drueke (DNS).

Heat #5 (10 laps, top four transfer): 1. 21H-Brady Bacon [2]; 2. 33W-Cap Henry [1]; 3. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [4]; 4. 57-Kyle Larson [6] / 5. 23W-Scott Winters [3]; 6. 3L-Daryn Pittman [8]; 7. 99-Skylar Gee [5]; 8. 83H-Justin Henderson [9]; 9. 3P-Sawyer Phillips [7].

C-Main (10 laps, top four transfer): 1. 8-Jacob Hughes [3]; 2. 16G-Austyn Gossel [2]; 3. 3P-Sawyer Phillips [1]; 4. 10W-Matt VanderVere [6] / 5. 4-Matt Wasmund [4]; 6. 24-Terry McCarl [5]; 7. 21-Brian Brown (DNS); 8. 95-Tyler Drueke (DNS); 9. 88T-Tanner Thorson (DNS).

Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown (12 laps, top four transfer): 1. 49-Brad Sweet [1]; 2. 4C-Cameron Martin [2]; 3. 71P-Parker Price Miller [8]; 4. 19-Brent Marks [5] / 5. 55V-Kerry Madsen [4]; 6. 2C-Cole Macedo [10]; 7. 83-Michael Kofoid [15]; 8. 3L-Daryn Pittman [3]; 9. 27B-Jake Bubak [7]; 10. 6B-Brandon Wimmer [6]; 11. 5-Brenham Crouch [9]; 12. 2M-J.J. Hickle [18]; 13. 99-Skylar Gee [13]; 14. 83H-Justin Henderson [19]; 15. 23D-Chase Dietz [12]; 16. 40-Clint Garner [16]; 17. 8-Jacob Hughes [21]; 18. 23W-Scott Winters [17]; 19. 85J-Logan Julien [14]; 20. 16G-Austyn Gossel [22]; 21. 10W-Matt VanderVere [23]; 22. 15J-Jack Potter [20]; 23. 19H-Kevin Thomas Jr. [11]; 24. 3P-Sawyer Phillips (DNS).

Toyota A-Feature (25 laps): 1. 57-Kyle Larson [5]; 2. 1S-Logan Schuchart [6]; 3. 14-Spencer Bayston [2]; 4. 7BC-Gio Scelzi [3]; 5. 41-Carson Macedo [8]; 6. 17B-Bill Balog [4]; 7. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [9]; 8. 49-Brad Sweet [21]; 9. 45C-Derek Hagar [1]; 10. 1TZ-Tasker Phillips [17]; 11. 21H-Brady Bacon [15]; 12. 71P-Parker Price Miller [23]; 13. 33W-Cap Henry [20]; 14. 19-Brent Marks [24]; 15. 39-Lynton Jeffrey [7]; 16. 4C-Cameron Martin [22]; 17. 1-Sammy Swindell [11]; 18. 53-Jack Dover [16]; 19. 49J-Josh Schneiderman [18]; 20. 24T-Christopher Thram [19]; 21. 28M-Conner Morrell [10]; 22. 23L-Jimmy Light [13]; 23. 11-Roger Crockett [14]; 24. G5-Gage Pulkrabek [12].

Lap Leader(s): Derek Hagar 1-2, Spencer Bayston 3-12, Kyle Larson 13-25.

KSE Hard Charger: 49-Brad Sweet (+13)