WoO: Larson Earns Two Third-Place Finishes in 58th Annual Knoxville Nationals
Kyle Larson, wrapped up his fourth career 410 Knoxville Nationals this past Saturday night at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway. Competing in the Silva Motorsports BRANDT/Chevrolet Accessories/Finley Farms/Priority Aviation No. 57, Larson earned a third-place finish in Wednesday’s 58th Annual 5-Hour Energy BRANDT Professional Agriculture preliminary night action to lock himself into Saturday’s finale where he rounded out the podium.
Larson drew the 75 pill, which was the highest pill to be drawn, making him the last car out to make a lap in time trials. Despite the late draw, he earned the 10th-quickest lap time in qualifying to start seventh in Heat 2. After falling back to last in his heat race, Larson started picking off positions lap by lap eventually finishing in the runner-up spot, transferring into the feature event. The pilot of the Silva Motorsports No. 57 started sixth and had moved up to fifth by lap 8 when the first caution was displayed and then got up to fourth two laps later. He advanced up to third by lap 15, where he remained the rest of the race to round out the podium. Coming out of Wednesday night’s competition, Larson stood atop the overall points, locking him into Saturday night’s finale.
Once preliminary action on Wednesday and Thursday’s was completed and points were tallied, the Elk Grove, Calif., native sat third in overall points and started Saturday’s 58th Annual Knoxville Nationals feature event from the inside of row two. He dropped back as far as fifth on the opening lap, but made his way back to third by lap 10. Just before the caution at the halfway point, Larson had moved into second. Once back to green flag racing, Larson started making moves on leader Brad Sweet and completed the pass on lap 28. Unfortunately, that didn’t last long as Sweet regained the top spot on lap 30. Larson slipped back one more spot on lap 41, but hung on to finish third.
“We had a fast car all week in Iowa,” said NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series (NMECS) star, Kyle Larson. “It was such a relief to finish third and be the high points guy on Wednesday to lock in for Saturday’s feature event. If I hadn’t done that, there was a chance that I would have just come back Saturday as a spectator and that would have been horrible. We had a great BRANDT/Chevrolet Accessories/Finley Farms/Priority Aviation No. 57 for Saturday’s feature but unfortunately couldn’t pull off the big win. If it couldn’t have been me or Shane [Stewart], I am extremely happy it was Brad [Sweet]! I am already looking forward to next year’s Nationals.”
TRACK: Knoxville Raceway
STARTING POSITION: 6th
TRACK: Knoxville Raceway
STARTING POSITION: 3rd
DATE: August 8, 2018
FEATURE FINISH: 3rd
DATE: August 11, 2018
FEATURE FINISH: 3rd
Season Statistics
STARTS: 27
WINS: 10
TOP FIVES: 21
TOP 10s: 22
Next Race
Kyle Larson will be back in action this weekend pulling double duty at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. He will be competing in Friday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series Food City 300 and the NMECS Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race on Saturday.
View KLRT WoO 2018 schedule
[Note: Kyle Larson appearances may not be included in schedule]