Kyle Larson won the $50,000 Capitani Classic at Knoxville Raceway Saturday (Paul Arch Photo) (Video Highlights from DirtVision.com)
by Bill Wright
KNOXVILLE, Iowa (August 15, 2020) – 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.”
The next action at Knoxville Raceway takes place Friday night, August 28 on Busch Light Night featuring $1 Busch Light! Saturday, August 29 is Iowa Corn Growers Association District 5 and District 9 Night also featuring $1 Busch Light. All three sprint car classes (410, 360 and Pro) will be in action both nights! For more information on the Knoxville Raceway, visit www.KnoxvilleRaceway.com and follow on Facebook and Twitter.
Brownells Capitani Classic presented by Great Southern Bank Results
Qualifier One (started), 12 Laps, NT: 1. 49, Brad Sweet, Grass Valley, CA (2); 2. 17, Sheldon Haudenschild, Wooster, OH (4); 3. 9, James McFadden, Warrnambool, VIC, Aust. (3); 4. 17w, Shane Golobic, Fremont, CA (6) / 5. 48, Danny Dietrich, Gettysburg, PA (7); 6. 49x, Tim Shaffer, Aliquippa, PA (11); 7. 17x, Josh Baughman, Odessa, TX (8); 8. 33m, Mason Daniel, Springville, CA (10) / 9. 5c, Colby Copeland, Roseville, CA (9); 10. 42, Sye Lynch, Apollo, PA (14); 11. 27, Tucker Klaasmeyer, Paola, KS (12); 12. 44, Chris Martin, Ankeny, IA (13); 13. 21, Brian Brown, Grass Valley, CA (1); 14. 15, Donny Schatz, Fargo, ND (5); 15. 56, Joe Simbro, Swan, IA (15)
Qualifier Two (started), 12 Laps, 3:19.2: 1. 24, Rico Abreu, St. Helena, CA (1); 2. 12N, Joey Saldana, Brownsburg, IN (4); 3. 26, Cory Eliason, Visalia, CA (2); 4. 4, Terry McCarl, Altoona, IA (5) / 5. 7s, Jason Sides, Memphis, TN (6); 6. 7BC, Tyler Courtney, Indianapolis, IN (8); 7. 09, Matt Juhl, Tea, SD (3); 8. 3, Ayrton Gennetten, Gravois Mills, MO (10) / 9. 49J, Josh Schneiderman, West Burlington, IA (9); 10. 83J, Lynton Jeffrey, Prairie City, IA (11); 11. 56N, Davey Heskin, St. Michael, MN (12); 12. 9w, Ryan Giles, Grimes, IA (13); 13. 3P, Sawyer Phillips, Pleasantville, IA (7); 14. 6, Bill Rose, Plainfield, IN (14)
Qualifier Three (started), 12 Laps, NT: 1. 2, Carson Macedo, Lemoore, CA (1); 2. 1a, Jacob Allen, Hanover, PA (2); 3. 19, Shane Stewart, Bixby, OK (3); 4. 17A, Austin McCarl, Altoona, IA (7) / 5. 2m, Kerry Madsen, St. Mary’s, NSW, Aust. (9); 6. 13, Paul McMahan, Nashville, TN (6); 7. 39, Sammy Swindell, Germantown, TN (5); 8. 44s, Trey Starks, Puyallup, WA (10) / 9. 2KS, Brooke Tatnell, Sans Souci, NSW, Aust. (4); 10. 5, Ian Madsen, St. Mary’s, NSW, Aust. (8); 11. 7TAZ, Tasker Phillips, Pleasantville, IA (12); 12. 70, Cale Thomas, Fairland, IN (13); 13. 41s, Dominic Scelzi, Fresno, CA (11); 14. 14K, Tori Knutson, Monticello, MN (14)
Qualifier Four (started), 12 Laps, 3:17.6: 1. 71, Spencer Bayston, Lebanon, IN (1); 2. 83, Daryn Pittman, Owasso, OK (2); 3. 18, Gio Scelzi, Fresno, CA (3); 4. 3z, Brock Zearfoss, Jonestown, PA (4) / 5. 14, Parker Price-Miller, Kokomo, IN (7); 6. 15H, Sam Hafertepe Jr., Sunnyvale, TX (5); 7. 7, Tim Kaeding, San Jose, CA (6); 8. 11K, Kraig Kinser, Bloomington, IN (9) / 9. 2c, Wayne Johnson, Tuttle, OK (10); 10. 99, Skylar Gee, Leduc, ALB, Can. (11); 11. 88, Kyle Offill, Tracy, CA (12); 12. 39M, Anthony Macri, Dillsburg, PA (8); 13. 2K, Kevin Ingle, Huron, SD (14); 14. 35, Zach Hampton, Indianapolis, IN (13)
C main, 14 Laps, NT: 1. Donny Schatz (17); 2. Lynton Jeffrey (6); 3. Ian Madsen (7); 4. Tasker Phillips (11) / 5. Brooke Tatnell (3); 6. Josh Schneiderman (2); 7. Tucker Klaasmeyer (9); 8. Sye Lynch (5); 9. Kyle Offill (12); 10. Tori Knutson (19); 11. Davey Heskin (10); 12. Wayne Johnson (4); 13. Colby Copeland (1); 14. Sawyer Phillips (16); 15. Chris Martin (13); 16. Skylar Gee (8); 17. Cale Thomas (14); 18. Anthony Macri (15); 19. Joe Simbro (20); 20. Kevin Ingle (21); 21. Bill Rose (18) DNS – Zach Hampton, Dominic Scelzi, Ryan Giles
Dash (started), 6 Laps, 1:42.5: 1. Kyle Larson (2); 2. Aaron Reutzel (1); 3. Logan Schuchart (4); 4. Brad Sweet (6); 5. David Gravel (3); 6. Carson Macedo (7); 7. Rico Abreu (8); 8. Spencer Bayston (5)
B main (started), 15 Laps, NT: 1. Brian Brown (1); 2. Danny Dietrich (3); 3. Matt Juhl (2); 4. Donny Schatz (18) / 5. Kerry Madsen (5); 6. Tyler Courtney (8); 7. Tim Kaeding (13); 8. Jason Sides (4); 9. Paul McMahan (9); 10. Parker Price-Miller (6); 11. Sam Hafertepe Jr. (10); 12. Kraig Kinser (17); 13. Ayrton Gennetten (15); 14. Tim Shaffer (7); 15. Ian Madsen (20); 16. Trey Starks (16); 17. Mason Daniel (14); 18. Tasker Phillips (21); 19. Lynton Jeffrey (19); 20. Josh Baughman (11); 21. Sammy Swindell (12)
A main, 30 Laps, NT: 1. Kyle Larson (1); 2. David Gravel (5); 3. Logan Schuchart (3); 4. Carson Macedo (6); 5. Spencer Bayston (8); 6. Brad Sweet (4); 7. Sheldon Haudenschild (9); 8. Austin McCarl (19); 9. Rico Abreu (7); 10. Daryn Pittman (12); 11. Cory Eliason (14); 12. Donny Schatz (24); 13. Gio Scelzi (16); 14. Joey Saldana (10); 15. Danny Dietrich (22); 16. Brian Brown (21); 17. Matt Juhl (23); 18. Shane Stewart (15); 19. Brock Zearfoss (20); 20. Jacob Allen (11); 21. James McFadden (13); 22. Shane Golobic (17); 23. Terry McCarl (18); 24. Aaron Reutzel (2). Lap Leader: Larson 1-30. Hard-charger: Schatz.