From Kyle McFadden | FloRacing
Kyle Larson will start from the pole of the 62nd running of the NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's at Knoxville Raceway.
Larson, with 482 points, beat Wednesday's highest points earner, Donny Schatz (479 points), with his runner-up result in Thursday's 26-lap qualifier and edged fellow California native Rico Abreu (480 points) by two points to lead Saturday's 50-lap feature to green.
The key for the Elk Grove, Calif., superstar was his victory from seventh in the 10-lap heat race. He also qualified ninth of 54 cars despite going out 40th in the single-group time trial.
"Winning the Knoxville Nationals was cool ... really cool," Larson said. "All I've wanted to say is I've started on the pole of the Knoxville Nationals someday. Glad to get a really good prelim night in. We qualified OK going out late. Then winning the heat from the fourth row was awesome.
"Had a good car in the feature, just made a lot of mistakes most of that race. Coming away with a second after running that sloppy, I'm happy with it. Just need to clean a lot of things up behind the wheel and hopefully have a good shot for Saturday."
The former NASCAR Cup champion is the 2021 winner of the Knoxville Nationals and trying to become the eighth multi-time winner in the history's prestigious event (Donny Schatz, Danny Lasoski, Steve Kinser, Mark Kinser, Doug Wolfgang, Eddie Leavitt, and Kenny Weld are only multi-time winners of the Knoxville Nationals).
"I know it'll be really tough. I think Rico (Abreu) is on the front row with me," Larson said. "He's been the best car all year, especially here at Knoxville. There's a lot of tough competitors behind him as well. The No. 57 has been good. I just have to clean some things up on my part and hopefully we'll have a good shot."
FIRST EIGHT ROWS OF KNOXVILLE NATIONALS FINALE:
Row 1: Kyle Larson – Rico Abreu
Row 2: Donny Schatz – Logan Schuchart
Row 3: Carson Macedo – Hunter Schuerenberg
Row 4: Kerry Madsen – Buddy Kofoid
Row 5: Giovanni Scelzi – Corey Day
Row 6: Ian Madsen – Dusty Zomer
Row 7: Spencer Bayston – Chase Randall
Row 8: Anthony Macri – Brad Sweet
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Photo's: World Of Outlaws | Trent Gower