Tyler Erb emerges in victory lane after Night 1 at Knoxville

At the sight of his first ever national series win, Tyler Erb returned to victory lane at Knoxville Raceway on Thursday night.

On Night 1 of the Knoxville Late Model Nationals, and a month after the conclusion of his year-long suspension from the World of Outlaws, Erb stood in victory lane next to a guy who just won the World 100 and another that has won just about everything else.

“Three years ago, I won my first National race here,” Erb said in victory lane. “To win tonight again is awesome. Racing is so up and down. (Davenport and Larson) are at the top of their game.”

Kyle Larson had been charging through the field from eighth, but couldn’t quite find the golden ticket through restarts nearing the end of the race.

Jonathan Davenport was able to slam the door on Larson, too, but was never able to make a pass on the ‘Cole Terbo’ No. 91 car that Erb was sporting.

“What a lot of people don’t see from the outside, is this day and age, if your car is bad, you’re bad,” Erb said. “We’ve been working to make our car better. They are two of the best drivers right now in their craft, and it feels good to beat them.”

At the end of the night, Erb ended as the effective high points man, since Larson is leaving in the morning to compete in the NASCAR Playoff race at Bristol.

However, only a driver’s best night of points counts towards Saturday’s lineup.

Tim McCreadie was the only driver on the night that came from sixth in his heat race to win, having almost perfect points going into the feature.

Friday night’s action at Knoxville kicks off with hot laps at 6:45 p.m. CT, and will replicate the order of events that we saw on Thursday.

Thursday Points
Only a driver’s best points night counts towards Saturday’s Lineup