Kyle Larson dominated the best in the business Saturday night at the Knoxville Raceway, taking home the Brownells Capitani Classic presented by Great Southern Bank. The Elk Grove, California native netted $50,000 for his win aboard the Paul Silva wrenched #57.
Larson earned the pole position for the 30-lap feature event by winning the Dash. He shot out to the lead immediately, ahead of Aaron Reutzel, Logan Schuchart, David Gravel and Carson Macedo. Schuchart passed Reutzel for the second spot, just as the Texan slowed with gear issues. He was done for the event.
Larson shot back out to the lead, with the best racing being a donnybrook between Sweet and Macedo for the fourth spot. They traded the position three times by lap seven. On lap 12, Larson was already into lapped traffic. Schuchart shot by Gravel for second on lap 14, while Macedo moved by Sweet to take fourth on lap 15.
With ten laps to go, Larson was putting the whip to the #57, and had opened up the 3.7 second lead. With five to go, that lead had built to over six seconds. Gravel took second back from Schuchart at that point, but Larson was out of sight.
James McFadden got into the turn four wall hard with two to go. He was uninjured and returned to action after a work area stop.
Though his big lead was erased, Larson was unphased the rest of the way, winning over Gravel, Schuchart, Macedo and Spencer Bayston. Sweet, Sheldon Haudenschild, Austin McCarl, Rico Abreu and Daryn Pittman rounded out the top ten. Donny Schatz put on the charge of the night, passing 42 cars. After winning the C main from 17th, he charged from 18th to fourth in the B, and from 24th to 12th in the feature. Sweet, Abreu, Macedo and Bayston won the four qualifiers. Brian Brown won the B after suffering mechanical issues in his qualifier.
“This means a lot,” said Larson in Victory Lane. “2020 has been a crazy year. We all wish it was Nationals. Hats off to the World of Outlaws and Knoxville Raceway and everyone who presented this race. In the main event, I could get down the straightaways really good. When I caught traffic, I wanted to be aggressive. I felt like we set a really good pace. I didn’t want to see that red flag late. I was thankful it was a single file restart. I didn’t really know what to do. I decided to protect into one. That’s always nerve-wracking, but my car’s so good. Paul did a heck of a job.”
“If he ran the top, I was going to send it in on him,” said Gravel of the late restart. “It just didn’t happen. It was a good race. We wouldn’t have had a shot if that red didn’t come out. He was gone. We didn’t get going early in the race. I had to battle Logan quite a bit to get by him. I think we probably had the second best car. Maybe if we started on the front row, we could have held with him a little longer. We just never had a chance.”
“I thought I was going to have a good shot at it rolling the bottom,” said Schuchart. “I just feel like the top was faster, and Kyle got it from the beginning. I just got beat by the better experienced drivers and teams tonight. We’ve gotten better and better since we’ve been coming to Knoxville. We really hit it right last year. I just moved my wing back a little too much and got tight on the cushion. We keep getting better and more comfortable.”
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
