The Knoxville Nationals are upon us and the final look at the competition gave us Kerry Madsen in victory lane again.
For the second straight night on the FloRacing All Star Circuit of Champions tour, Madsen was able to drive home a victory for the No. 14 Tony Stewart Racing car.
“We didn’t really know where the predominant lines were going to be,” Madsen said in Victory Lane. “It was pretty tricky, and you could gain a spot, and lose a spot. I decided to calm down and just hit the bottom, and we were able to get back by a couple cars.”
The pairing of the Aussie and TSR has gone remarkably as well as anyone could have hoped when Madsen jumped in.
In fact, the nameplate on the top win of the No. 14 still says “Smoke,” which is more or less a signal that Madsen’s ride wasn’t planned for very long in the car.
He performed well enough to stay there, and of course got superstitious after grabbing a big win at Jackson.
“From there we just stayed down there,” Madsen said. “We probably weren’t the best we’ve been tonight, but it doesn’t matter when you get the victory.”
That’s a scary thought for competitors that hope to bring home the Knoxville Nationals title.
Madsen had to beat a polesitter in Spencer Bayston as well as Gio Scelzi, who had just won the 360 race moments before the ASCoC event took the green.
Scelzi was confident in winning too, as the youngest driver to ever start a Knoxville Nationals A-Main might be.
He told his crew to leave the 360 car in victory lane so he could park the 410 next to it.
.@GioScelzi's crew asked him about his 360 car sitting in victory lane, he said "Leave it there, I'll park this one next to it."
He starts fourth in tonight's #ASCoC feature at @knoxvilleraces pic.twitter.com/mqtqQvrk0u
— Always Race Day (@AlwaysRaceDay) August 1, 2021
“My car was really good,” Scelzi said. “I had to wait for it to come to me. When I got to the lead…everything was happening so fast, I’m not sure how I got to the lead. Kerry got back underneath me. I didn’t feel really great on the bottom or the top. I just didn’t really know where to go. Kerry drove a better race with a better car and better driver. Spencer was good too.”
The next event at Knoxville Raceway officially kicks off the 10 days of Knoxville. The 360 Nationals are basically here.
