The Granddaddy of Them All has reached the moment of truth, as the 61st Knoxville Nationals culminates in the 50-lap grand finale tonight on the legendary half-mile at Marion County Fairgrounds.

Perhaps no Knoxville Nationals in recent memory has been more difficult to foretell than this week’s grandest spectacle in all of Sprint Car racing. Last year, the Knoxville Nationals was just another fitting crown jewel win on Kyle Larson’s prolific 2021 ledger. In 2019, David Gravel swept the week at Knoxville for his first Nationals title.

In 2018, Brad Sweet coupled his first World of Outlaws championship with his first Knoxville Nationals win. In the years before that, Donny Schatz collected 10 of the 12 Knoxville Nationals contested.

This year, with nobody in Sprint Car racing exactly taking the sport by storm, the event’s past three champions see tonight’s Knoxville Nationals as wide open.

“I’ll say, I don’t feel like there’s a clear favorite,” Sweet said. “There’s a lot of good guys in front of me. I watched Wednesday and saw Donny was really good. Kyle had some speed. He starts sixth. David Gravel’s up there. We start ninth. Carson Macedo starts fifth. I mean, at the end of the 50 laps, you’ll see the cream rise to the top. Obviously there’s some darkhorses toward the front, and nothing surprises you here at Knoxville. It’s going to be a great race.”

Knoxville regular Austin McCarl of Altoona, Iowa, is an unlikely polesitter, but he’s had speed all week and did something no other heavy-hitter could do on Thursday’s prelim: qualify fifth, go eighth to fourth in his heat and eighth to fourth in the 25-lap feature.

Reigning All-Star Circuit of Champions champion Tyler Courtney, Schatz, Gravel, 2021 National Open winner Macedo, Larson, this year’s King’s Royal champion Brent Marks, 2013 World of Outlaws champion Daryn Pittman, Sweet and Knoxville regular JJ Hickle comprise the top-10 starters.

“Anybody can be the guy,” Gravel said. “But we gave ourselves a chance to be in position to be the guy. You know the track conditions are going to be different on Saturday, I guarantee that. It’s going to be a lot hotter, a lot of laps. … We’ll see what happens, man, and get ready for those hot lap sessions on Saturday and give it her all.”

Larson added: “It’s going to be a good race.”

If there has been one driver to make an impression in Sprint Car racing this year, it’s Marks, who’s 13 wins this year are second nationally. Atop those wins are dominant victories at Eldora Speedway’s Historical Big One and King’s Royal last month.

Marks also won the Pennsylvania Speedweek title in historic fashion — by 253 points with five wins in nine races. His five World of Outlaws wins this year are tied for third most in the series he’s ran in the third of amount of races as its platinum drivers.

The June 10 series victory at Knoxville reveals that Marks, while still not totally comfortable at the black dirt half-mile, can get around the Marion County Fair oval.

“It would mean a lot to win this race, but we just have to put ourselves in position,” Marks said.” I feel like if we can get this car better and not so tight at the end of the race — and I can maneuver — I’ll be able to work my way up through there for a little bit. I really have to study and figure out what’s going on because this is kind of an ongoing issue for me here. I just have to figure it out. We’ll go to work and try to get the car better.

“I feel like we have a good shot at running our way up through there, but we’ll see. The track is very difficult. It’s ever-changing. Guys have really good points of the race and really the bad points of the race. I don’t know. It’s just hard.”

If there’s anyone to hold their ground no matter the condition, it’s Knoxville’s force of the 21st century in Schatz. Last year’s runner-up emerged Wednesday as his prelim’s high point man and says he has the “ability to control the (FPS 410) motor a helluva lot more than I used to,” which has showed in the recent going.

“We’ve been a lot more consistent lately, which consistency breeds top-three and podiums, and then breed wins,” Schatz said. “We got ourselves to victory lane a couple weeks ago (at New York’s Weedsport Speedway) and have had good runs lately, even on tracks like Pevely, which isn’t one of our greatest places but we had respectable finishes both nights. Ran the Capitani Classic on Sunday and felt really good.

“I think everyone in the past has speculated on who’s here and there. Times are changing. The dynamic of racing is changing too. I don’t think we can look at it the same way we used to.”

Jacob Allen, Parker Price-Miller, Justin Sanders, Buddy Kofoid, Iowa farmer Tasker Phillips and Aaron Reutzel round out the first 16 starters. Rico Abreu, Kerry Madsen, Sheldon Haudenschild and Brian Brown make up the 21st through 24th starters, while positions 17th through 20th will be determined by tonight’s alphabet soup.

LARSON’S NEXT TARGET

Now that Kyle Larson’s greatest objective as a Sprint Car racer is sealed and secured — him winning his first Knoxville Nationals title last year — it’s now onto the next pursuit.

The reigning Knoxville Nationals champion isn’t stopping at just that very moniker. Browsing the Avenue of Champions during his 2021 championship pole unveiling on Thursday, the next motive was clear.

“Now, I hope to add more years next to my name like Donny (Schatz) does,” Larson, 30, said of  now trying to track down, or at least come close, to the resume of the 10-time Knoxville Nationals champion.

Larson, who starts sixth in tonight’s 50-lapper, plans to tiptoe behind the third-starting Schatz in the early laps of tonight’s feature and take a mental note of how hard he ought to push his Paul Silva-prepared machine before the late rounds come into view.

Last year, Larson outlasted Schatz in a tense, bottom-feeding finish.

“It’s a long race. It’s good to have a guy like Donny in front of you to kind of pace off of, I think,” Larson said. “He’s got obviously a lot of experience winning this race and kind of knows how to manage it, so would love to get by him early but if I can just maintain pace with him, you never know what could happen in traffic.”

The way @KyleLarsonRacin took care of business Monday @oskychallenges, he looked very much like his decisive self from this time a year ago https://t.co/SDUgH3YzIt

— FloRacing (@FloRacing) August 10, 2022

For Larson, adding his name to the Avenue of Champions on Thursday meant more than what meets the eye.

His father, Mike Larson, 66, has made it a life goal to live at least another 20 years because his 30-year-old son has to wait another two decades to become eligible for the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame — where eligibility begins at 50-years-old.

“My goal is to live at least 86 years old. That’s how old I’ll be when Kyle is eligible (for the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame),” Mike Larson said. “You have to be 50 years old to get in. There’s no early entries for anybody. So, in the meantime, that pole can kind of serve as a, you know, permanent (place in history) like the Hall of Fame is. It’s something you can say ‘let’s go check the pole out.’ That’s his pole, and to be with all those winners is special.

“He can’t run for a (World of Outlaws) championship, so this is his ultimate (Sprint Car goal): to win the Knoxville Nationals. He can’t be a champion because he doesn’t have time for it.”

It will remain to be seen if Larson will ever run a full season with the World of Outlaws, but in the foreseeable future he can, at the very least, compete in the sport’s Super Bowl.

FROM ONLOOKER TO PARTAKER

Two weeks ago, Justin Sanders planned to stream the Knoxville Nationals from the confines of his California home. Now, the 29-year-old is set to go off 13th in the big dance aboard Kevin Swindell’s No. 39 SpeedLab machine.

One text, some self convincing and a sterling prelim night Wednesday opened the door for Sanders, the nation’s second winningest Sprint Car driver last year, to suddenly partake in Knoxville’s championship Saturday.

“Kevin Swindell texted me two weeks ago … and I’ll be honest with you, my heart dropped,” Sanders said of Swindell posing the idea of running both the 360 and 410 Sprint Car Nationals. “Like, man, I want to do it, but I don’t think I’m good enough. I don’t think I’m good enough to come out here and do it. I was thinking in my head, I don’t want to embarrass him.

“Then I started thinking, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity and I have to come do it. That’s how it happened. Now we’re here … still speechless."

The Swindell camp is stoked. @Justin17Sanders, the Knoxville rook in his first weekend w @SwindellSpdLab, scores 196 points with his P3 time.

Dude knows how to wheel. Won 21 times in the Sprint back in Cali last year. pic.twitter.com/yyRivqBz9r

— Kyle McFadden (@ByKyleMcFadden) August 11, 2022

The thing is, growing up in California, there’s nothing like Knoxville for Sanders to relate with, much less half-miles in general. California’s bullrings raise the tenacious and relentless type, while Knoxville’s sweeping and flat corners require a different kind of precision.

“It’s all about how you angle your car into the corner and how you use your feet,” Sanders said. “It’s all about that. I finally started I’d say 10 laps into that feature getting my elbows in and not even turning my wheel, but almost leaning my head toward the corner. It’s so technical, especially to hit the bottom.

“I never would have dreamed I’d lock into the Knoxville Nationals. I never even thought I’d come out here and run this race,” Sanders said. “I would have been good enough to come here and compete, because it’s always in the back of your mind — a guy from California racing short-tracks, this is like third or fourth time I’m on a half-mile. So, it’s like, I don’t know. I’m speechless. Kevin, he took a chance on a kid who’s hardly been on a half-mile.”

Sanders last year accumulated 21 overall wins between 360 and 410 Sprint Cars, one triumph behind Dominic Scelzi for most overall wins in the sport nationally, so the Knoxville rookie knows his way forward.

On Saturday, Sanders is just along for the ride — however long that’ll be.

"I think I should just start and park,” Sanders started, “and go to Dingus (Lounge) and say I won."

BROADCAST INFORMATION, START TIMES

Championship Saturday for the Knoxville Nationals will air on DIRTVision. Annual subscribers have the event included in their subscription, while monthly subscribers and non subscribers will need to purchase the Nationals as an add-on.

Saturday's single day PPV pass is $49.99. The annual platinum pass, which includes every World of Outlaws Sprint Car and Late Model race, in addition to numerous weekly track schedules, is $299.99.

Track action begins at 7:45 p.m. ET with E-main and D-main hot laps with the next scheduled race and hot laps for that race alternating thereafter. Each main will take the top four finishers to the back of the next feature until the field is whittled down to the 24 main event starters.

CHAMPIONSHIP SATURDAY MAIN EVENT LINEUPS

CHAMPIONSHIP SATURDAY
MAIN EVENT LINEUPS!#NOSvilleNationals pic.twitter.com/L5DQwREefp

— Knoxville Raceway (@knoxvilleraces) August 13, 2022