It was another Ollie’s All Stars main event. Another weekly show at Knoxville. And, just another sprint car race for Kyle Larson and the No. 57 team.
That’s just been what the past three months have looked like for Larson, as the former NASCAR star has gone on a run for the ages.
Larson’s win at Knoxville is his seventh straight race win with the tour – a new series record – as he continues through the weekend heading to Huset’s on Sunday.
“It’s really cool,” Larson said. “I did read that earlier today and it added pressure on to tonight. I’m just glad we had a solid night and set ourselves up well from the start again. Qualifying well is important in every format you run, so with a big field of cars if you can qualify on the pole, you’re going to set yourself up well.”
Gio Scelzi started the race off well, both on the ensuing restart and the third stretch of the race following two early cautions, to get out to a big lead on Larson, but the 57 charged like usual.
Larson got by Scelzi coming out of turn four, speeding ahead of the No. 18 and almost immediately opening things up to a wide margin in the lead.
When he was going through lapped cars, though, Larson lost a contact lens.
“Well, I lost a contact, so I couldn’t see quite as good as I needed to,” Larson said. “But my car was just good and I had some lines working for me. Losing the contact made it difficult.”
Larson had the field beat, but Rico Abreu tried his hardest to make up the ground.
Abreu started all the way back in 13th, but bee-lined to the front as he worked his way through the field.
“I think I could just keep my car stable when we were behind other cars,” Abreu said. “Some guys really get up and out of the track, so. I could really rotate on the bottom nice and just had that solid stuckness down there.”
Abreu caught Brian Brown as Brown was looking inside of Scelzi for second place.
Thanks to a daring series of turns, Abreu was able to pass both of the cars in front of him to get up to second.
Abreu blew away the field behind him and might’ve had something for Larson if the two started closer to each other.
“I don’t know, it’s hard to say,” Abreu said. “Larson has won a lot of races this year. He beats a lot of guys on those first few laps of the race. He has an aggressive race pace there. I just need to get up on his level to beat him.”
The Ollie’s All Star Circuit of Champions returns to the track for one final race this weekend at Huset’s Speedway in South Dakota on Sunday. It’s the first time a national tour has raced there in a few years as its under new ownership, so there are lots of folks buzzing about this one.
We’ll see if the 57 can make it eight in a row.
ASCoC Knoxville Results
1. Kyle Larson
2. Rico Abreu
3. Gio Scelzi
4. Brian Brown
5. Shane Stewart
6. Kerry Madsen
7. Cory Eliason
8. Davey Heskin
9. Ian Madsen
10. Josh Schneiderman
11. Lynton Jeffrey
12. Aaron Reutzel
13. Hunter Schuerenberg
14. Dominic Scelzi
15. Justin Henderson
16. Matt Juhl
17. Austin McCarl
18. Brooke Tatnell
19. Shane Golobic
20. Paul McMahan
21. Josh Baughman
22. Kasey Kahne
23. Sam Haftertepe Jr.
24. Trey Starks
25. Zeb Wise
26. A.J. Moeller