WoO: Kyle Larson wins 2023 Knoxville Nationals

Kyle Larson led wire-to-wire in the 2023 Knoxville Nationals to score his second victory in the prestigious race in the “sprint car capital of the world.”

Starting from the pole position, Larson led all 50 laps in the 62nd edition of the Knoxville Nationals.

The Elk Grove, California native joined Donny Schatz (2015) as the only two drivers to lead wire to wire since the “Granddaddy of Them All” went to 50 laps in distance. Larson earned $185,000 for his win.

Larson, who earned the pole on his Thursday qualifying night, shot out to a big lead over Schatz, Rico Abreu, Carson Macedo and Kerry Madsen. Larson built a 3.7 second lead by the fifth lap, and was already in traffic on lap seven.

The 31-year-old driver consistently pulled away on restart after restart in the No. 57 Silva Motorsports entry.

Larson won this event in 2021 and is now the eighth driver to win multiple Knoxville Nationals.

He is also only the second competitor to lead every lap since the feature was raised to 50 laps.

Give it to Yung Money!@KyleLarsonRacin leads all 50 laps at @knoxvilleraces to become a two-time #NOSvilleNationals champion! pic.twitter.com/eNqL3bVxiS

— World of Outlaws (@WorldofOutlaws) August 13, 2023

Top-3 Quotes

To win another Knoxville Nationals feels amazing,” said Larson in Victory Lane. “When you have guys like Donny, Rico and Gravel coming from the back breathing down your neck, it’s definitely nerve-wracking. I feel like I ran about as good a race as I could. I kept my eyes open for crumbs in the middle. It started latching a little rubber there with 15 or 17 to go. It was helping me on entry. It all just worked out. This is my favorite week of the year. I look forward to this event all year long. It’s all I think about all week. I’m glad we could get this black and blue car to victory lane for (Paul Silva). He’s the greatest at what he does.”

“I want to be a two-time winner of the Knoxville Nationals so bad,” said Gravel. “Last year I gave one away, tonight I just needed a couple more laps. We just had a really good car. The track has been really consistent. They till the top, and it’s really fast around the top. I was able to get going early, and then I had a couple of bad laps about ten laps in. I lost a couple spots, then I got to the top and knew that’s where I needed to be the rest of the race. I finally got by Gio, and was able to slide Carson, then I got a run on Donny. If I could have cleared them earlier and got going, we would have been good.”

“We were kind of hanging there before (the break),” said Schatz. “We could get to the bottom pretty good, and I thought we’d have a chance on one of the restarts on the top and kept pace with him. I was running it for all it was worth, but it wasn’t enough. The racetrack was definitely different than the other night. We just didn’t have enough changes with it. All we did was change tires on the red, and try to make a few adjustments to get better. We just got worse. I couldn’t hold the left rear up the rest of the race. I was kind of hanging on. We raced as hard as we could.”

Knoxville Nationals Results