Barring a rain delay at the Marion County Fairgrounds next Saturday night, Kyle Larson is not going to be able to compete for a fourth victory in the prestigious Knoxville Nationals but he’s going to give himself a chance.
In the process, the goal is to win as much money as possible.
Larson, driving his familiar No. 57 for Paul Silva, has entered the Grandaddy of Them All at Knoxville Raceway and will attempt to qualify on the Thursday night prelim. However, there is a direct conflict with the NASCAR Cup Series on Saturday at Richmond Raceway so unless it rains in Knoxville, he will not be able to compete even after he locks the Silva No. 57 into the field.
He is also set to race the $21,000-to-win Front Row Challenge at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa on Monday night. Winning his prelim night on Thursday could net them an additional $12,000 and simply locking into the Saturday night feature would net them $15,000 even if Larson doesn’t start.
So is Larson hoping for rain on Championship Saturday in Knoxville?
“I would say no, but like okay, sure, but really it’s an opportunity to race and we’re already here in Iowa,” Larson told Motorsport.com on Saturday at Iowa Speedway before NASCAR practice and qualifying.
“It pays really good to win the prelim, like $12,000 and Osky pays $21,000 or something and locking into the Nationals feature pays $15,000 so that’s a lot of money. If it works out that we can race the feature, because it rained somewhere, that’s great, but the odds of that aren’t great.”
The Knoxville Nationals pay $200,000 to win and the overall event purse is $1,187,605. The rules allow for a driver swap because the car itself locks in and not the driver.
If Larson can’t start the race next Saturday, if he locks in, Silva would have crew member Trevor Canales start-and-park and simply collect the $15,000 for qualifying into the feature.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com
